Lewis Hamilton admits the pit-stop mistake by Ferrari which saw Sebastian Vettel come out behind Valtteri Bottas likely saved his victory at the Hungarian GP.
The Briton had a trouble-free run from the start to the chequered flag in Budapest though was under threat from his main title rival for the middle part of the race.
Having opted to start on the Soft compound tyre, Vettel was keeping a gap of around 10 seconds between himself and the Mercedes for after he pitted but switched to the faster Ultrasoft.
However, traffic in the laps prior to his stop and then a slightly long change on the front-left tyre cost him valuable seconds which allowed the Finn to get ahead and hold up the German until the final five laps.
“If he had come out ahead of Valtteri, it would have been very, very hard,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.
“He would have probably caught me with five laps to go. Would I have been able to keep him behind? I would have struggled.”
As it is, the 33-year-old now has a 24-point championship lead heading into the summer break, the biggest gap between himself and Vettel all season.
"I really could only have dreamed that we would be in the position that we are in right now," he admitted. "Considering all factors and based on our pure performance, where we stand compared to the Ferraris.
"Really happy, going into the break, particularly with back-to-back wins. I think that boost will last a long time for our team and it’s encouraging for everyone so I’m excited for the break."
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It was the return last year at Spa that signalled a major shift towards Hamilton in the championship fight with three straight wins in Belgium, Italy and Singapore, and the Mercedes man knows what he needs to do.
"The second half of the season is always intense but it is usually when it gets a bit better on our side," he claimed.
"We need to apply more pressure in the second half. This is where we need to turn up the heat. So we will go away and prepare and make sure we come back stronger."
