Lewis Hamilton's car wouldn't stop as flames roared out of Mercedes – 'Oh for f**k sake'

Given his record of victories it has often been said that Lewis Hamilton is on fire – but at one previous Hungarian Grand Prix that figure of speech became a little too literal for everyone's liking.

The Brit came into the 11th race of the 2014 season in good spirits having enjoyed a strong year up to that point. He already had five wins to his name, and he would go on to earn six more and secure his second world championship success.

But that was not going to happen without at least some drama, and that's what he got when it came to qualifying in Budapest. He went into the session hoping to beat team-mate Nico Rosberg who was hot on his tail at the top of the standings.

But his chances literally went up in smoke during the first few minutes of qualifying. As he went about his first warm up lap, he felt a problem with his engine and decided to abort and come back into the garage.

As he entered the pit lane, it quickly became clear that the issue was a major one. He spotted flames coming out of the back of his Mercedes and bluntly said over team radio: "Oh for f**k sake, I've got fire guys."

His car was still rolling as his race engineer responded: "Okay Lewis, so park up where you can find a marshal." After Hamilton confirmed he was in the pit lane, the engineer added: "Roger, so there's marshals there, pull up there. Stop stop stop, marshal with fire extinguisher right behind you."

Hamilton's car was on fire in the pit lane during qualifying in 2014 (Sky Sports F1)

But despite trying to put his foot on the brakes, his Mercedes simply kept on rolling straight past the marshals who were poised and ready to tackle the flames. "The car won't stop!" shouted Hamilton who couldn't mask a little giggle after.

"Okay, go to P Zero, marshals behind you," his race engineer continued. Eventually, Hamilton was able to make his Mercedes stop so marshals could put out the fire and he could clamber out of the car unharmed.

The fuel leak which caused the fire was repaired, but parc ferme rules meant he dropped to the back of the grid. Still, he managed to come back through the field to third place, and went on to get the better of Rosberg in the title fight anyway.