Ham on top
> F1 world champion Hamilton wins Hungarian GP from pole position for Mercedes
Germany from 14th place on the grid a weekend earlier. After 12 races, Hamilton has 213 points to Vettel’s 189. Tyre strategies were also crucial at a relatively slow and twisty circuit where overtaking is always difficult, with track temperatures hovering around 50°C. Vettel started on the softs and went for a longer first stint than Mercedes, worried by Ferrari’s quick getaways, who 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. P2 is not really what we wanted this weekend but I think it was the maximum today,” said Vettel. 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.
“We caught up with Bottas after the first stop but there was no chance to overtake. So our option was to stop again and try again. At least we got one place back but far from ideal,” said the Finn.
“I think we had pretty good speed today. But what can you do? Sometimes it’s like that, but you take the points and go on to the next one.”
Ricciardo, starting 12th, finished fourth but his Dutch teammate Max Verstappen retired early on with a Renault engine failure that infuriated both driver and team boss Christian Horner.
“We pay multi-millions of pounds for these engines and for first class, or state-of-the-art, product and you can see it’s quite clearly some way below that,” said Horner.
Bottas ended up fifth, and was called to see stewards about the collisions, with French driver Pierre Gasly sixth for Toro Rosso.
Kevin Magnussen was a lapped seventh for Haas, lifting the US-owned team to fifth and ahead of Force India, with double world champion Fernando Alonso eighth for McLaren on his 37th birthday.
Carlos Sainz took two points for Renault in ninth and Romain Grosjean made sure of another for Haas. – AFP