Hungarian win puts Hamilton in the lead
Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton has been caught on camera flipping the bird to a rival driver while overtaking during the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The incident came as Hamilton passed Haas F1 team driver Esteban Gutierrez, and was caught on camera by one of the car’s onboard cameras. Hamilton would go on to win the race and in doing so take the lead in the F1 drivers’ championship from Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.
Gutierrez was unhappy with Hamilton’s middle finger act and after the race commented, ‘‘Being a world champion doesn’t give you the right to be disrespectful to your competitors, my friend Lewis Hamilton.’’
Hamilton laughed off the incident saying, ‘‘I may have accidentally wanted to do that,’’ he joked. ‘‘It was more like ‘WTF’ [what the f...].’’
Lewis Hamilton thought overhauling Nico Rosberg’s colossal championship lead would be akin to a long, arduous climb to the top of a mountain.
In truth it has not appeared much harder than a gentle jog along the banks of the Danube, exactly the sort Hamilton took this morning to let his position in command of this season sink in.
At the lowest depths of his despair six races ago, Hamilton thought his chances of a historic fourth title were not far from dead in the water.
After he and Rosberg crashed in Spain, the reigning champion was 43 points adrift, clinging onto hope. Just 10 weeks later, following his fifth win at the Hungaroring – the first of many records which in the coming years should fall his way – Hamilton sits at the summit of Formula One again. It is his title to lose.
This race was among the most straightforward of the five he has won in 2016, seizing the lead at the start – his one Achilles’ heel this term – and rarely looking back.
About the most trouble Rosberg caused him yesterday was in a tetchy press conference exchange about the validity of the German’s pole lap, ruled legal despite an investigation by the stewards for how much he slowed under yellow flags.
The skirmish, one to be reignited at the drivers’s briefing in Hockenheim on Friday, did not take the shine off a perfect day for Hamilton as he went ahead for the first time all year, six points clear of his Mercedes team-mate.
The three-time champion reflected on how he had recovered from the nadir of Barcelona.
‘‘I think Spain was definitely a turning point,’’ Hamilton said.
‘‘It didn’t feel like it at the time, but it was rock bottom basically. The only way was up. I just managed to get my head together and get on with it, even though I have fewer engines and my mechanics had been changed. [There were] all these different things which didn’t seem to be working. I just had to deal with it. Since then we’ve pulled together.’’
If Hamilton could put one over on Rosberg in the German Grand Prix next Sunday, the last in a frenetic run of races before the summer break, his position would feel even more secure.
‘‘I’d love to come out of the next race with a result like this so when I do go to Spa or Monza, and have a penalty and start from the pit lane or last place, that is a minimum damage,’’ he said.
Rosberg responded with his usual mantra – taking one race at a time, not thinking about the bigger picture, the normal shtick – but it rang a little hollow. He needs an immediate response to force Hamilton out of his comfort zone.
Unfortunately for the German, this one was over almost immediately.
Hamilton got away well, while Daniel Ricciardo – eventual third place – drove for the outside, sandwiching Rosberg in the middle. He had no choice but to back out. Hamilton swept into the lead, Ricciardo into second.
On the run to turn two Rosberg was decisive, far more so than we often see from him in wheel-towheel combat. Ricciardo had no answer as the German scythed his way past. Then it settled down into a fairly processional affair.
Starting 14th, Kimi Raikkonen slowly made progress before getting locked in a tussle with Max Verstappen which would last most of the race. When harrying the youngster at the finish, Raikkonen lost part of his front wing and turned the air blue over team radio. Verstappen defended aggressively but it was just about fair. The 18-year-old certainly has no fear.
Back at the front and Hamilton was managing the situation, perhaps even trying to force Rosberg into Ricciardo’s clutches. All concerned denied it, but when Hamilton finally needed to up the speed after Ricciardo’s second stop, he suddenly found a second a lap. Red Bull had no answer. If there was a plan from Hamilton it did not quite work.