Hungarian win puts Hamilton in lead

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.