F1 fans should 'question themselves' after booing Hamilton - Bottas

Mercedes secured its first 1-2 in qualifying since the Portuguese Grand Prix in Hungary, with Max Verstappen set to start from third on the grid.

When talking to Johnny Herbert after qualifying, Hamilton was greeted by a chorus of boos from the crowd.

Hamilton said afterwards that the booing “just fuels me” as he goes in search of a ninth victory at the Hungaroring.

In the post-qualifying press conference, despite not being asked specifically by the media about it, Bottas criticised the fans that booed Hamilton in Hungary.

“I don’t normally talk about these things, I don’t say what I think, but I heard a lot of booing at the end of qualifying and I don’t understand it,” Bottas said. “I would like those people to question themselves and their behaviour because I don’t think it’s fair.  

“We are here as athletes to give every single bit we have for the sport we love and Lewis did an amazing lap in the end and then you get booing... I think the people should question themselves, it’s not right, it’s not fair and we don’t want to see this kind of things.”

Like teammate Hamilton, Bottas will start the race on the medium tyres having progressed from Q3 on the harder rubber.

The Finn felt that he struggled to get back into the rhythm in Q3 having spent the duration of Q2 on a different tyre compound.

“To be honest, not 100 percent pleased with the lap, but pleased that as a team we got the front row, because we haven’t had that for a while, so that shows that the hard work is paying off,” Bottas added. “And Lewis did an amazing lap on his first run in Q3, that I just couldn’t quite match.  

“For me the issue was that I lost the rhythm a bit with the runs on Mediums in Q2, I didn’t feel that confident with the rear end of the car on those tyres, so it was not easy to get back on the Soft tyres and attack it fully, so, it was not so clean. Definitely not my best laps of the weekend, but still good enough to get the front row, so, that’s good.”