Lewis Hamilton cruised to a dominant Hungarian Grand Prix victory to extend his Driver’s Championship lead going into Formula 1’s summer break, as Sebastian Vettel survived a late collision with Valtteri Bottas to finish in second place.

 

 

Hamilton came home to a comfortable 67^th career win after starting on pole, with title-rival Sebastian Vettel finishing second despite late contact from Bottas when the Mercedes driver attempted to fight back after being overtaken for second place with five laps remaining.

 

Bottas fell to fifth, also colliding also later on with Daniel Ricciardo, as the other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen completed the podium.

 

How the Hungarian GP unfolded

 

 

Pole sitter Hamilton and team-mate Bottas held a Mercedes one-two lead at the start, with Vettel moving passed Raikkonen by running around the grippier outside line of the Finn into turn two.

 

Hamilton built a solid six second gap over Bottas, who had Vettel close behind him, before Bottas pitted from second on lap 15 to react to Raikkonen’s stop a lap earlier.

 

That removed Hamilton’s extra cover as the Briton extended his first stint ten laps more but began to slowly get caught by Vettel who was running the yellow-branded softs compared to Hamilton’s ultrasofts.

 

A lockup by Vettel at turn 12 on the 23^rd lap, which saw the German run wide lost him a valuable second and gave Hamilton a little buffer.

 

Hamilton pitted from the lead with a six second gap and dropped back from Vettel at first, before using his fresher softer tyres to his advantage to cut Vettel’s gap within ten seconds before the German stopped with 31 laps remaining.

 

Traffic, along with Bottas putting in very quick laps and Ferrari’s slow pit-stop after a problem with Vettel’s front-left tyre put the Scuderia on the backfoot once again as Mercedes regained a one-two lead as Vettel came out in third place.

 

This meant Vettel came out behind Bottas and could not use his fresher ultrasofts to his advantage to hunt down race leader Hamilton for the win.

 

Vettel was stuck for 20 laps behind Bottas, which brought Raikkonen back into play – after the Finn made his second stop of the race for another set of softs to make it a triple threat for second.

 

Bottas was finally forced to defend his position with five laps remaining, keeping his place at turn one before Vettel closed in, and the German cut back and moved ahead on the rundown into turn two.

 

Bottas braked too late as he tried to maintain second place on the inside line and with a loss of downforce he ran over the kerb and into the back of Vettel’s Ferrari.

 

The Finn broke his front wing in the process but Vettel’s SF71H racer remained unscathed with no damage or puncture, keeping Raikkonen behind to finish 17.123 seconds behind winner Hamilton.

 

Mercedes decided to keep Bottas on track, but the Finn’s damage put him under pressure from Ricciardo’s fast-charging Red Bull, who got a good run on Bottas down the main straight with four laps remaining.

 

The Australian was passing the Mercedes around the outside when Bottas locked up again and crashed into the sidepod of the Red Bull RB14.

 

Ricciardo caught Bottas once more and passed the Finn at the exit of turn one with an undercut to complete a thrilling comeback.

 

The Australian charged through the field after starting 12^th and fell to 16^th on an untidy opening lap that included being hit by Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and passed by Force India’s Sergio Perez off-track.

 

His late jump to fourth gave the Milton-Keynes based squad some consolation after Max Verstappen retired early due to a sudden loss of power that saw team-boss Christian Horner blast engine supplier Renault halfway through the race.

 

Red Bull is swapping Renault for Honda power in 2019 and its sister Team Toro Rosso running the Japanese manufacturers power-trains finished in sixth place courtesy of Pierre Gasly.

 

The Frenchman passed Renault’s Carlos Sainz on the first lap after the Spaniard was divebombed by Verstappen into the first corner and drove a brilliant race and withstood a fast charging Haas VF-18 of Kevin Magnussen to finished seventh.

 

McLaren’s Fernando Alonso finished eighth on his 37^th birthday by extending his first stint and jumping ahead of several cars that were in-front of the Renault-powered MCL33 earlier on and then was held up by Force India’s Esteban Ocon when they pitted.

 

Sainz came home in ninth place to take two points for Renault whilst the other Haas VF-18 of Romain Grosjean completed the top ten.

 

The other Toro Rosso of Brendon Hartley finished in 11^th place and ahead of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg who was 12^th and the Force India pairing of Ocon and Perez who ended the race in 13^th and 14^th respectively.

 

The sole Sauber of Ericsson and the two Mercedes-powered FW41 Williams of Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll all finished two laps down.

 

The other McLaren on Stoffel Vandoorne was on course to make it a double-points finish for the Woking-based squad but retired from ninth due to gearbox problem three quarters into the race.

 

Sauber’s Charles Leclerc was the other retiree of the race after being sandwiched by the two Force India’s.

 

Formula 1 Rolex Magyar Nagydij 2018 Race Results Classification (70 laps)

POS	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	GAP
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	70	1h37m16.427s
2	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	70	17.123s
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Scuderia Ferrari	70	20.101s
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	70	46.419s
5	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	70	50.000s
6	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	70	1m13.273s
7	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team	69	1 Lap
8	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	69	1 Lap
9	Carlos Sainz	Renault Sport F1 Team	69	1 Lap
10	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	69	1 Lap
11	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	69	1 Lap
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault Sport F1 Team	69	1 Lap
13	Esteban Ocon	Sahara Force India F1 Team	69	1 Lap
14	Sergio Perez	Sahara Force India F1 Team	69	1 Lap
15	Marcus Ericsson	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	68	2 Laps
16	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Martini Racing	68	2 Laps
17	Lance Stroll	Williams Martini Racing	68	2 Laps
–	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	49	Not running
–	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	5	Power Unit
–	Charles Leclerc	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	0	Collision

 

2018 Formula 1 World Driver’s Championship Standings

1. Lewis Hamilton – 213 Points.
2. Sebastian Vettel – 189 Points.
3. Kimi Raikkonen – 146 Points.
4. Valtteri Bottas – 132 Points.
5. Daniel Ricciardo – 118 Points.
6. Max Verstappen – 105 Points.
7. Nico Hulkenberg – 52 Points.
8. Kevin Magnussen – 45 Points.
9. Fernando Alonso – 44 Points.
10. Sergio Perez – 30 Points.

 

2018 Formula 1 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 345 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 335 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing – 223 Points.
4. Renault Sport F1 Team – 82 Points.
5. Haas F1 Team – 66 Points.
6. Sahara Force India F1 Team – 59 Points.
7. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 52 Points.
8. Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda – 28 Points.
9. Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team – 18 Points.
10. Williams Martini Racing – 4 Points.

 

Round 13 of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the legendary Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in, Stavelot, Belgium from August 24-26 after the sport’s month-long summer break.