Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton extended his points lead heading into the summer break after a comfortable win in 2018 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix.
The British driver made a good start to lead the pack from teammate Valtteri Bottas as Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel cleared Kimi Raikkonen for third with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen slotting in fifth after average qualifying.
It wasn’t a super start for his teammate Daniel Ricciardo from 13th though as he dropped to 16th after a tangle with Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson. The Swede was sandwiched into Turn 1 by McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne on his left.
Both Ericsson and Ricciardo managed to continue still despite their tyres coming together. Just behind them the other Sauber of Charles Leclerc was sandwiched by the Force India drivers which led to the Monegasque’s retirement due to the hit in the corner.
Meanwhile, Hamilton led the way still with Bottas, Vettel and Raikkonen behind as disaster struck for Red Bull’s Verstappen who had to retire due to a possible MGU-K failure – leading to a sweary radio call from the Dutchman.
His teammate Ricciardo made his way up to fifth after clearing most others as Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly led the best of the rest with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen behind him. His teammate Romain Grosjean lost places at the start but gained on VSC re-start.
At the front though, Hamilton had everything under control despite Vettel being on a different strategy to start on the soft compound. The British driver had a scare when Vettel was leading but the pit stop changed the course at ease.
After Vettel’s pit stop, Hamilton was already into the distance as the German’s slightly slower stop forced him to come out behind Bottas but ahead of Raikkonen. In the end, Hamilton ran away with it easily – winning by 17.123s margin.
Vettel though had it tough behind Bottas who opted for the one stop but the Finn was on a older soft compound to a much fresher ultrasoft for Vettel. Even Raikkonen caught the two despite a second stop for the Finn.
The two Ferraris chased on Bottas for second as the Italian manufacturer for a split second thought about swapping when they asked Vettel on his pace. However, the German then eventually made the move on Bottas.
He tried for the outside line in Turn 1 which was covered by Bottas and then went for a switchback. He got ahead of Bottas in Turn 2 but as he turned left ahead in the corner, his left rear made contact with Bottas’ right endplate.
The Finn lost control into the run-off allowing Raikkonen to sneak through as well. In the end Vettel could only manage second with Raikkonen third in a double podium, but with Hamilton winning, he heads into the summer break with a 24 points advantage over Vettel.
The race wasn’t over for Bottas though as Ricciardo soon caught him up in the fight for fourth. In a damaged car, Bottas and Ricciardo made contact in Turn 1 as the Finn understeered into the Australian on the outside when he turned in to take the corner.
It further damaged Bottas’ car and also Ricciardo’s as he went onto the run-off. The Australian though fought back to take the place in the same corner after few laps to finish fourth from 13th on the grid.
Bottas eventually was fifth. Ferrari’s double podium meant they closed up the gap in the constructors’ to 10 points at the end of summer break. It was a fine result for Gasly as the Frenchman finished fifth – his second best result of 2018.
Magnussen finished sixth despite a late try to catch Gasly. With his teammate Grosjean in 10th, the Haas managed to outscore Force India at ease and with Carlos Sainz in ninth, the team not only got ahead of Force India but edged closer to Renault.
Renault sits in fourth with 82 points while Haas in sixth with 66 and Force India seventh on 59. Birthday boy Fernando Alonso’s eighth also helped McLaren to get to 52 points to make it a close four-team fight for fourth.
At one stage McLaren looked good to score with both the cars as Stoffel Vandoorne was running in ninth as they were helped by Force India’s Esteban Ocon who ran deep in the race, holding up the faster cars.
But the Belgin’s misery continued as he suffered a gearbox problem, resulting in a retirement. This helped Grosjean to finish 10th after the Frenchman pipped Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg in the pits.
The Kiwi was 11th with Hulkenberg 12th after the German’s late stop was limited due to Ocon’s defence as the Frenchman was 13th from Sergio Perez. Ericsson’s race was compromised with the Lap 1 hit but he managed to clear both the Williams.
Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll rounded out the 17 finishers with Vandoorne and Verstappen the only retirements as the season now sees a three weeks break before the next round at Spa-Francorchamps.
