Hamilton leads Vettel home for the Hungarian victory

The Mercedes looked like a difficult car to drive during the entire training session on Friday and Saturday, with Hamilton and Bottas turning to the baffle of Turn 6 in FP3. But on Sunday, the four-time champion seemed to have the W09 exactly where he wanted, controlling the race to extend his lead over Sebastian Vettel in the 24-point rider standings.

He seemed ready to be a one-two Mercedes with six laps to go. But Vettel used DRS to pbad Valtteri Bottas in Turn 1. When the Finn tried to fight in Turn 2, he locked himself up and cut off Vettel. The German pursues pulling Raikkonen with him, Bottas falling to fourth place with a damaged wing

Three laps later, Bottas hits Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull while the Australian tries to pbad the turn 1 to mark a disastrous end. of the race for the Finn, who ended up in fifth place – a position that he retained even with the 10-second penalty he received after the race for his role in the ################################################### 39; incident. Ricciardo, meanwhile, was delighted to finish fourth, after starting the race in P12.

Pierre Gasly made a superb Grand Prix to finish sixth in Toro Rosso, comfortably leading Kevin Magnussen in the Haas, while Fernando Alonso gave McLaren something to smile, returning to home P8. Carlos Sainz's Renault and Romain Grosjean's Haas complete the top 10.

How the race unfolded …

Having finished qualifying in the pouring rain, the Pole Hamilton s is found on the grid Sunday under a blazing sky. The Mercedes did not seem to appreciate the high temperatures in Hungary during practice, and many predicted that if the two Ferrari starting in P3 and P4 could get ahead of the silver cars, it would be done . The opportunity never came up, however, with the four pilots making almost identical escapades to initially maintain the position. Sainz in the Renault had a dazzling start from fifth place on the grid and tried to challenge Raikkonen – who saw Vettel sweep around the outside of him at Turn 2 – for P4. But when Max Verstappen snuck out inside Sainz at Turn 1, the Dutchman snatched P5, while the Spaniard lost momentum because of the move, dropping him. behind the Red Bull, then down on P8. from ninth to seventh, while Ricciardo, taken to the back of the midfield, was roughly hit by Marcus Ericsson's Sauber. The impact seems largely superficial, with Ricciardo moving to P16 but surviving to start what would be an exciting afternoon for the Australian.

As Ricciardo began to pluck across the field, making his way up to Tower 27, Hamilton led Bottas and Vettel. In the sixth round, Verstappen pulled Red Bull sister to the side of the track, his power unit seemed to fail. Bottas was the first Mercedes to launch in the 16th lap, releasing Vettel, who started on the soft tires, while Mercedes had opted for ultrasoft before switching to the softs.

Hamilton completed 10 laps after his teammate, and Vettel leading the race and almost exactly a pit stop in front of Bottas on the track, it seemed that Ferrari was working perfectly on Mercedes. The idea was to launch Vettel after a long run on the softs, to bring it into P2 on a new set of ultrasoft and let him take Hamilton on his new faster rubber. That was the theory, whatever that was.

However, between the 36th and 39th turn, everything went wrong for Vettel. The German was found scolded in traffic, particularly hurt by the Sainz Renault. While Bottas made quick laps behind him, Vettel finally stopped on lap 39, but a slow change on the left front kept him stationary for 4.2 seconds. As he was leaving the pits, Bottas was just ahead and now able to act as a rear gunner for Hamilton leader eight seconds off the road. Advantage Mercedes

Even with the cooler rubber of Vettel, he could not make his way past Bottas, and seemed to have a hard time overheating while he was constantly missing the wake of the Mercedes in the main straight line. Bottas's pace allowed Raikkonen to get closer to his teammate, and he briefly looked as if Ferrari could imitate the Mercedes driver's reversal to Hungary 12 months ago to see if Raikkonen could take revenge on his compatriot Finn

Vettel finally overtook Bottas on lap 1 on lap 65 on 70. Bottas turned in for corner 2 but locked himself up, clipping awkwardly on the flank of Vettel's Ferrari . But Vettel and Raikkonen moved away from Bottas, whose failed movement had dropped him into the clutches of the fourth Ricciardo.

While the former opponents of Formula Renault were throwing one against the other in the main straight Two laps to the finish, Ricciardo tried to move to the Outside, while Bottas, lacking support with his injured front wing, locked the Red Bull back and sent him back on the second lap, with damage to his right flank.

Ricciardo once again survived, crossing the line in fourth place, while Bottas finished fifth after following Mercedes' instructions to let the Red Bull pbad. Vettel had to be content to follow Hamilton's rival in second place, left to consider how different it might have been had he made three laps earlier – or if his stop had not been as slow.

While Ricciardo won Driver of the Day, another man who could claim this award was Pierre Gasly. Having started P6 in the Toro Rosso with faster drivers behind him, many would have forgiven the Frenchman he had abandoned in the race. But he managed brilliantly his first relay on the ultrasoft, making them last until turn 33, and his second sixth place of the season was his well-deserved reward.

McLaren also deserved praise. Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne both left their tires soft before switching to mediums. Given the importance of the track position in Hungary, they saw it in P8 and P9 once the pit stops were accounted for. If Vandoorne had not had to retire from ninth place after a gearbox failure, it would have been a well deserved double, as the team seemed to find the form it had enjoyed earlier in the season .

Vandoorne and Verstappen aside, the only other DNF was Charles Leclerc, of which Sauber suffered damage after being contacted initially when he was found filling a Force India sandwich [19659017]. Victory Grand Prix, which places the circuit of Hungaroring with the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve of Montreal as the best hunting ground of the British pilots on the calendar of F1. However, Ferrari will have been relieved to stem the damage to Mercedes, a day when Silver Arrows seemed to have been able to have their second one-two in as many races.