Hungaroring results and standings

so we expected them to be at the front and with the pace they have they would possibly gone into the distance. I think we night have been able to hang on to them with the pace we had today, but pole was very important because it gave us crucial track position.”

“Valtteri was perhaps not driving as quickly as he could have,” Vettel noted of the first stint, where the Finn went just fast enough to keep him bottled up as Hamilton drew away. Then, crucially, Kimi Raikkonen stopped as early as the 24th of the 70 laps for soft tyres, with Bottas following suit a lap later. Hamilton, however, kept going until the 25th and felt that might have managed a few more. His stop dropped him to second, behind Vettel, and then they began a catand-mouse interlude where the gap ebbed and flowed depending on traffic.

But by the time Vettel pitted for his ultrasofts on the 39th lap, Hamilton had reduced a 13.1s gap to 9.5s. Ferrari knew that Vettel would have to battle to catch him up again and then attack, on his faster rubber, but they reckoned without a small delay with the Well Urn-ed: Lewis Hamilton celebrates another victory left front wheel which meant that when he rejoined, Vettel was also back behind Bottas.

For lap after lap the Finn rode shotgun for Hamilton, as Vettel tried initially to bide his time and save his tyres. A virtual safety car intervention on laps 51 and 52, to remove Stoffel Vandoorne’s broken McLaren, did not have much effect, but gradually Vettel ramped up the pressure as he saw the Mercedes’ overworked tyres beginning to surrender their grip. Meanwhile, Hamilton was able to open a lead as great as 24.2s with only five laps Leading Positions after race (70 Laps):

1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP

1hr 37mins 16.427secs, 2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Ferrari 01:37:33.550, 3 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 01:37:36.528, 4 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Red Bull 01:38:02.846, 5 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Mercedes GP 01:38:06.427, 6 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 01:38:29.700, 7 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas F1 at 1 Lap, 8 Fernando Alonso (Spa) McLaren at 1 Lap, 9 Carlos Sainz (Spa) Renault at 1 Lap, 10 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Haas F1 at 1 Lap, 11 Brendon Hartley (Nzl) Scuderia Toro Rosso at 1 Lap, 12 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Renault at 1 Lap, 13 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Force India at 1 Lap, 14 Sergio Perez (Mex) Force India at 1 Lap, 15 Marcus Ericsson (Swe) Sauber-Ferrari at 2 Laps, 16 Sergey Sirotkin (Rus) Williams at 2 Laps, 17 Lance Stroll (Can) Williams at 2 Laps

Not Classified: 18 Stoffel Vandoorne (Bel) McLaren 49 Laps completed, 19 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 5 Laps completed, 20 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Sauber-Ferrari 0 Laps Completed

Fastest Lap: Daniel Ricciardo 1min

to run. But by then Bottas’ tyres were 50 laps old and that 65th lap was when Vettel finally got the momentum to dive to the outside heading into Turn One.

As Bottas ran wide the Ferrari driver was able to duck back to the right and slip ahead thanks to better traction as they went down to Turn 2. Then, as Vettel turned in, having taken second place, Bottas went for a closing gap, locked up and hit the back of the Ferrari.

“I wasn’t sure the car was okay,” Vettel said. “All of a sudden I was hit from behind, but I don’t blame him. He had no grip and I think he locked up and had nowhere to go, I was lucky I could collect up the car, and that I didn’t get a puncture.” 20.012secs at Lap 46

World Championship Standings Drivers: 1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 213pts, 2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Ferrari 189, 3 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 146, 4 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Mercedes GP 132, 5 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Red Bull 118, 6 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 105, 7 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Renault 52, 8 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas F1 45, 9 Fernando Alonso (Spa) McLaren 44, 10 Sergio Perez (Mex) Force India 30, 11 Carlos Sainz (Spa) Renault 30, 12 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Force India 29, 13 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 26, 14 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Haas F1 21, 15 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Sauber-Ferrari 13, 16 Stoffel Vandoorne (Bel) McLaren 8, 17 Marcus Ericsson (Swe) Sauber-Ferrari 5, 18 Lance Stroll (Can) Williams 4, 19 Brendon Hartley (Nzl) Scuderia Toro Rosso 2, 20 Sergey Sirotkin (Rus) Williams 0

Manufacturers: 1 Mercedes GP 345pts, 2 Ferrari 335, 3 Red Bull 223, 4 Renault 82, 5 Haas F1 66, 6 Force India 59, 7 McLaren 52, 8 Scuderia Toro Rosso 28, 9 Sauber-Ferrari 18, 10 Williams 4

The stewards, who included former F1 racer and Le Mans winner Derek Warwick, deemed it a racing incident.

Vettel got the hammer down and started lapping a second better than he had been able to while chasing Bottas, but the Finn’s excellent tactical work had rendered the chase academic and Hamilton headed to his 67 th victory still 17.1s to the good.

Raikkonen had been catching Bottas and Vettel hand over fist and had also slipped ahead of the second Mercedes, which had sustained front wing damage.

“Valtteri is the best wingman and he did a great stint on those tyres, but unfortunately was not able to keep second place today,” said Hamilton afterwards.