LEW’S BIG GAMBLE

Hamilton’s Bottas gesture could wreck title dream

LEWIS HAMILTON proved to be the perfect team-mate – but being a man of his word could prove very costly come the end of the season.

In an absorbing Hungarian Grand Prix, where team loyalties and driver relationships were tested to the limit, Hamilton stuck to a gentleman’s agreement which saw him cede third place to Valtteri Bottas on the last lap.

The act will have done wonders for Mercedes team harmony – but Bottas now trails Hamilton by just 19 points.

More significantly, championship leader Sebastian Vettel heads into the summer break 14 points ahead of Hamilton after victory in Budapest.

If that proves to be too big a gap to close in the last nine races, then Hamilton may live to regret not being more ruthless.

After changing tyres, Hamilton spent 15 laps stuck behind a much slower Bottas, who was third, trailing Ferrari pair Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.

Deal

Radio issues meant that Hamilton was unable to communicate with his team. When that problem was finally fixed a distraught Hamilton pleaded with them to order Bottas to let him through.

A deal was hatched to allow Hamilton to sweep by his team-mate and attempt to overhaul Raikkonen and then race leader Vettel. If the Brit failed to do that, he would let Bottas go back into third.

Hamilton came close to passing the first Ferrari – but would have enjoyed a much better chance if he’d been able to speak with his team a lot sooner.

So, as the chequered flag came down, Hamilton backed off to allow Bottas to close a seven-second gap before powering past his team-mate to retake third.

While Bottas still has a chance of winning the title, it seems Mercedes are not prepared to favour one of their drivers over the other.

There are no such complexities to deal with at Ferrari – across his career Vettel has proved he makes way for no one.

After leading from the start, a suspension worry meant the German was ordered to stay off the curbs.

Raikkonen was clearly the quicker of the Ferrari pair but his repeated pleas to be allowed past his team-mate fell on deaf ears – even as Hamilton hunted him down.

The Ferrari duo held station to the finish, ® from JAMES MURRAY in Budapest as Raikkonen was left in no doubt over who rules the roost at the Italian team.

But that friction was nothing compared to the fun and games at Red Bull.

It had all looked so promising early on as Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo raced past Hamilton at the start.

But as Verstappen took on Ricciardo he slammed into the side of his team-mate.

The force of the impact punctured Ricciardo’s left-rear tyre and tore through into the Red Bull’s radiator.

The Australian span before grinding to a halt and the safety car was needed to allow his car to be retrieved and the track to be cleaned.

The stewards took a dim view of Verstappen’s rush of blood, handing him a 10-second penalty.

But the Dutchman recovered to finish fifth, impressive under the circumstances.

Spaniard Fernando Alonso steered his usually pedestrian McLaren to a season-high finish of sixth and, remarkably, the fastest lap of the race.

And while the ‘Driver of the Day’ award went to Raikkonen, the good guy of the day award undoubtedly belonged to Brit Hamilton.