Hamilton in holiday mood after victory

BUDAPEST: Lewis Hamilton was living a dream yesterday after winning the Hungarian Grand Prix from pole position to take a 24point lead into Formula One’s August break.

The fourtime world champion’s fifth win of the season for Mercedes left him on 213 points to 189 for Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who finished second, and relishing the prospect of a stressfree family holiday.

‘‘I really could only have dreamed that we would be in the position that we are in right now,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m really happy, going into the break, particularly with backtoback wins.

‘‘I think that boost will last a long time for our team and it’s encouraging for everyone so I’m excited for the break,’’ the Briton said.

Vettel took the chequered flag 17.1sec behind, after surviving a late collision with Hamilton’s teammate, Valtteri Bottas, who also banged bodywork with Red Bull’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo.

Ferrari, mourning the death of former chairman Sergio Marchionne, had Kimi Raikkonen finish third to complete a podium of champions on a dry and sweltering afternoon at the Hungaroring outside Budapest.

The victory was Hamilton’s

record sixth in Hungary and 67th of his career.

In a race effectively decided by Sunday’s wet qualifying, when Mercedes locked out the front row of the grid against expectation, Hamilton was never challenged.

‘‘We came here knowing Ferrari would be really quick this weekend so to come out with these points, we’ll definitely take it as a bonus,’’ Hamilton (33) said.

Tyre strategies were also crucial at a relatively slow and

twisty circuit where overtaking is always difficult, with track temperatures hovering around 50degC.

Vettel started on the softs and went for a longer first stint than Mercedes, worried by Ferrari’s quick getaways, which opted for ultrasofts that were quicker at the start but faded more rapidly.

Lining up in fourth place on the grid, Vettel grabbed third from Raikkonen immediately but could not find a way past Bottas who slotted in behind Hamilton as a defence against

the red threat.

‘‘We were out of position. I think we could have gone with Lewis today with the race pace,’’ Vettel said.

‘‘P2 is not really what we wanted this weekend but I think it was the maximum today.’’

Raikkonen, without water during the race after Ferrari forgot to connect the bottle, made two stops and agreed third — his fifth successive podium finish — was the best he could have hoped for in the circumstances. — Reuters