The seven-time world champion led a Mercedes front-row lock-out in qualifying at the Hungaroring, with his main t💝itle rival Max Verstappen forced to settle with third place.

Hamilton sat on provisional pole position following his first r♌un of Q3 and ran ahead of Red Bull pair Verstappen and Sergio Pe🍷rez as the trio prepared to begin their final flying laps of the session.

The Mercedes driver was seen slowing&nꦰbsp;at certain points around the circuit and appeared to back up the Red Bull duo. Perez ultimately was unable to complete a second run after crossing the line too late.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after qualifying, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner described Ha🐼milton’s actions as “a bit of gamesmanship” but insisted he had “no major issue” with Hamilton’s tactics.

“Lewis had꧟ a hell of a lap in the bank and he’s just backing things up as he doesn’t want to give our cars a clean run," Horner added. 

“But it’s his right to do tha💞t, he’s g♔ot the track position. We’ve not got a major issue [with it] - it’s all about tomorrow.”

Responding to accusations from fans on social media, Mercedes argued that Hamilton’s final Q3 outlap wa﷽s faster than his previous outlap in the final session and was “middle of the range overall through quali”.

Meanwhile, Hamilton hit back at Horner’s suggestion in the post-qua♒lifying FIA pre🦂ss conference.

“I mean it’s so silly man, everyone was going slow,” he explained. “I m𝔉ean, 🐽do you not watch everybody else? I don’t understand.

“Do you ܫthink I could have gone quicker and then been just closer to Valtteri? Everyone was🎃 doing a slow out-lap, so it was no different really to any other lap. Of course every time we go out we’re trying to prepare the tyres and keep them cooler because they get so hot through the lap.

“So I’m not playing any tac♍tics. I don’t need to play no tactics man, I know what I’m doing in the car and I’m fast en♐ough I don’t need to have tactics.

“So those that are ma🙈king the comments clearly don’t know anythingꦛ about the job that we’re doing here, which is probably why they’re not driving here.”

Verstappen also played down the incident, saying it made little differꦯence to his qualifying result: “Of course the tyres were a bit cold but I wouldn’t have gained four tenths if the tyres would have been a bit warmer.”