Hamilton’s chances go up in flames at Budapest

Budapest: Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of regaining ground in this year's drivers’ world championship went up in smoke on Saturday when his Mercedes car burst into flames in the opening minutes of qualifying.Team boss Niki Lauda lamented Hamilton’s run of ‘unfair’ bad luck which greatly hinders his chances in Sunday’s race.

The fire, at the rear of his car, ruled him out of contention for pole position without clocking a time. It was his fourth car problem of the season compared to just one to have affected his teammate.

“It looks like a fuel leak, but we have go to get it back and see. The fuel pressure went down and there was a fire, so... “ said Lauda.

Hamilton said: “I don’t know what I can do tomorrow it’s a track you can’t really overtake on. “I’ll leave here more than 20 points behind Nico, but there’s still races to go. I will try my best. I had bailed out on that lap and wanted to try on my second, for a time. Something happened something failed in the brakes and then the engine died. I thought I could roll the pit lane entry, but then I saw in my mirrors that I was on fire so I tried to roll to the garage,” he said.