Lewis Hamilton felt his third Formula 1 career victory at the Monaco Grand Prix presented him with “the bigge🔥st challenge” he has ever faced.

The five-time world champion fended off Red Bull driver Max Verstappen throughout despite being on less durable tyres compared to his rivals♒ to claim his fourth win of the 2019 season and strengthen his championship lead.

Mercedes said Hamilton had “saved” the team from defeat by completing a mammoth 67-stint on Medium tyres, despite Pirelli’s recommendation that th🎶e tyre would only last 50 laps around Monaco.

“I think it was꧃ the hardest 🍬race I’ve had,” Hamilton said.

“With the tyr💝es, 🌼with the strategy, with the circumstances with Max behind, yeah it was the biggest challenge I think I’ve had. But I’m really, really grateful that I was able to pull it off.

“A few years ago I was leading this race by 20 seconds, the Safety Car came out andꦯ I pitted, came out third, and your heart just sinks, so I was like: ‘I’m not coming in, whatever the case - I’m just going to drive around with no tyres until they blow up.’

“With sheer will I just kep🦄t pushing. I really, really tried my best to stay focused and not crack under pressure, becauꦦse Max was doing a great job behind on a much better tyre.

“Ultimately it has been such a🦋 hard week emotionꦛally for us as a team and me personally, I just really, really wanted to do the job,” he added.

“I really wanted to deliver on the word of Niki,𓆉 and imagining hi🍃m taking the hat off in support. When I was driving I was like, ‘what would Niki do?’ so I just kept going.”

Hamilton said he had to pull off one of his “most strategic👍 drives ever” to ensure he could withstand race-long pressure to keep Verstappen at bay.

“I was able toꦿ get out of the last corner and pull a bit of a gap,” he ex🌳plained.

“I was super slow through Turn 1 but Turn 3 my right-side tyres were OK and once you got do🌱wnforce on they would work bu💙t then once I got to Turn 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, I had nothing.

“Moving the brake balance rearwards, engine b♕raking, open🐠ing up diffs, trying to get this car turned. I could see him barrelling a lot of speed in.

“Obviously the harder tyre ♋was a lot more resilient. I could see it opened up on his car and I was like, ‘OK, hopefully it’s going to run out of tyres at some stage, as I am, but it didnไ’t’.

“I kept thinking Turn 6 is probably where he’s going to try to dive up the inside, because I was just waitꦚing to get the car turned. So I was just trying to cover that whole are♌a, tip-toeing and positioning myself so I could get a good exit.

“It was rea⛦lly strategyဣ-wise one of the most strategic drives that I think I have ever had to do in terms of finding that balance around the track to try and keep that gap.

“I’m sure we touched multiple times and I definitely touched the barrier a lot of time throughout the laps but luckily kept the꧅ car in one piece.”