Lewis Hamilton chuckles as Lando Norris digs out Bottas and Max Verstappen

Lewis Hamilton found the funny side as Lando Norris called out Valterri Bottas and Max Verstappen moments after qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The seven-time champion grinned as Norris made a dig at the ex-Mercedes driver two years on from a start-line incident in Budapest.

The Briton joked his race would be easier with Bottas not behind him after the Finn took out the McLaren ace at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix. 24 months ago, Bottas braked too late in wet conditions and slammed into the rear of the McLaren at turn one.

But Norris made it clear he hadn’t forgotten the shunt after qualifying P3 in a frantic qualifying session. He said: “I mean Bottas isn’t behind me at the minute so that’s a good start.

“But we’ll see, it’s going to be tough. Mercedes are very good starters, Lewis included so to get them off the line is going to be a challenge. I think they’re consistently one of the best starters on the grid.”

Hamilton, who was sat between Norris and Verstappen, could be seen smirking and covering his mouth with his hands after the comment. After the incident first happened, Bottas pulled Norris aside to apologise for the collision but the McLaren driver didn’t appear to accept it.

The former F2 runner-up was annoyed at the time and slammed Bottas moments after the shunt. He commented: “It’s not my fault, like, to be honest he [Bottas] just came over to me then and apologised – but apologies are nice, but it doesn’t change the result or anything, so it’s lap one of the race, no one has to do anything stupid but that’s what they did today. So just ruined it.”

But, the British youngster wasn’t finished there with reigning world champion Verstappen next in his sights. The Red Bull driver suffered a bad start at the British Grand Prix after getting wheelspin off the line.

The slow getaway allowed the McLaren to dive up the inside at Abbey to take the lead of his home race. Norris joked he would like to see a repeat on Sunday as he targets a back-to-back podium finish.

He added: “If Max can do what he did in Silverstone, it’ll be wonderful. It changes every weekend. I think I just need to focus on getting a good start myself, focus on my own job and we’ll see from there.”