Lewis Hamilton says his decision to honour his position swap with Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas at the Hungarian Grand Prix came from his heart and not his head.
With 25 laps of the race remaining, Mercedes ordered Bottas to let Hamilton past for third so that he could attack the two Ferraris ahead for the lead. The move was made on the understanding that Hamilton would give the position back to Bottas on lap 57, but that deadline was then extended until the final lap in the hope that Hamilton could force an error from Kimi Raikkonen in second.
Ultimately, Hamilton let Bottas back past in the final corner and, on paper, gave up three potential points in his championship fight with race winner Sebastian Vettel. But Hamilton said he was not thinking about the championship and made the switch back because it was the right thing to do.
"I think [the decision came] more from the heart probably," he said. "The mind is more cut-throat and every point counts, it's do or die.
"My heart tells me the right thing to do was to let him by."
Hamilton said the swap was made more difficult by the size of the gap he had opened up to Bottas.
"I obviously had a lot more pace and pulled away significantly to have a seven second gap over him at that point. It was difficult in the end to slow down, it was actually a bit risky for me to have slowed down, particularly because I was around backmarkers, who were slowing down to let me by as well.
"Then I had to slow down and they were trying to overtake me so it was a little bit risky. Also I knew there was like a second gap between him and the Red Bull [of Max Verstappen]. I didn't want to do the right thing, lose a place and finish fifth, that would have really sucked. Fortunately I managed it well and managed to do what I felt was right."