Pierre Gasly believes his stellar drive to sixth at the Hungarian Grand Prix will serve as a reminder of his abilities to the top teams in Formula 1.

The Toro Rosso driver may have only scored his third points finish of the season in Budapest, but it was his third top-six finish in addition to his fourth in Bahrain and sixth in Monaco.

More impressively, the Frenchman was able to finish on the lead lap, something few midfield runners have done this season, which was a testament to the performance of the 22-year-old.

“It was really tough in these conditions but an amazing result, especially after the last couple of races,” he reflected.

“We struggled big time so this is the best thing that could have happened to the team, to Toro Rosso, and it is a nice way to finish this first part of the season.

“I had Kevin [Magnussen] pushing pretty hard behind me and the Haas is really fast so I just tried to give it everything I had with the tyres, making them last. I pushed the limit as much as I could and they just lasted."

While the seats at Red Bull look set to be retained by Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, with a future promotion there a natural step for Gasly he admits all he can do is continue to prove his worth.

“You need to be patient, of course,” he told Sky Sports. “Everything goes really quickly in F1 and you guys like to speak straight away about big things and it is really nice to hear.

“But at the moment, I am still in my first season in F1, I am learning a lot this year and, I think as long as I keep performing, my time will come but I just need to keep focusing on myself and improve and we will see.”

Sebastian Vettel played down the role Valtteri Bottas had in causing their incident at Turn 2 late on during the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The two drivers were battling for second behind eventual race winner Lewis Hamilton, as a poor pit-stop had cost the Ferrari driver a valuable two seconds which saw him come out behind the Finn.

Having been unable to get past straight away on the Ultrasoft tyre, Vettel finally made his move with five laps to go, however, as he looked to out-drag the Mercedes on the short straight after Turn 1, the pair would make contact under braking as the German came across.

“I felt, all of a sudden, I got hit from behind,” he explained after the race.

“For him [Bottas] there wasn’t anywhere to go, I was ahead. I don’t blame him – I think he had no grip and when you’re so close it’s very difficult to stop the car and I think he locked up and we made contact.”

While most did consider Bottas the guiltier party in the incident, though the stewards saw no reason to investigate, an argument made by Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle was that Vettel has misjudged the location of the Mercedes as he looked to cut off the inside.

“I wanted to make sure I didn’t overshoot the braking, I hit the brakes and when I turned in I felt the contact from behind,” the 31-year-old said.

"My rears were in better shape and I got the inside track outside of Turn 1, I had DRS. I was quite comfortable into Turn 2 knowing I got him."

It would be Bottas that came off worse after the collision with a damaged front wing, but Sebastian, who went on to finish second, admits the repercussions could have been different.

“I was lucky I could catch the car [after the contact] and lucky I didn’t get a puncture,” he claimed.

“The team told me straight away that the tyres look fine. I had a feeling the car was fine and it was until the end.”

More broadly, it was still an unsatisfactory ending to a weekend that had looked so good before rain changed everything in qualifying and several small errors prevented Vettel from showing his pace from practice.

“Yeah, it was a tough race. Obviously, we were a little bit out of position for the speed that we had. I thought we could go with Lewis today in terms of race pace," the four-time champion said.

"We had a little bit of an issue with the pit stop, as you mentioned, and we came out behind Valtteri [Bottas]. Then I realised right away that I couldn’t get him, because his tyres were still fresh so I was sitting back and waiting and trying to line up everything for the last 10 laps.

“It worked because his tyres were getting worse and worse and I knew, obviously, how long those yellow tyres lasted from the first stint that I had and I was quite confident I could get him at the end.

“Obviously, P2 is not what we really wanted this weekend but I think it is the maximum we could get today.”

Lewis Hamilton admits the pit-stop mistake by Ferrari which saw Sebastian Vettel come out behind Valtteri Bottas likely saved his victory at the Hungarian GP.

The Briton had a trouble-free run from the start to the chequered flag in Budapest though was under threat from his main title rival for the middle part of the race.

Having opted to start on the Soft compound tyre, Vettel was keeping a gap of around 10 seconds between himself and the Mercedes for after he pitted but switched to the faster Ultrasoft.

However, traffic in the laps prior to his stop and then a slightly long change on the front-left tyre cost him valuable seconds which allowed the Finn to get ahead and hold up the German until the final five laps.

“If he had come out ahead of Valtteri, it would have been very, very hard,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.

“He would have probably caught me with five laps to go. Would I have been able to keep him behind? I would have struggled.”

As it is, the 33-year-old now has a 24-point championship lead heading into the summer break, the biggest gap between himself and Vettel all season.

"I really could only have dreamed that we would be in the position that we are in right now," he admitted. "Considering all factors and based on our pure performance, where we stand compared to the Ferraris.

"Really happy, going into the break, particularly with back-to-back 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."

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• Wolff upsets Bottas with 'wingman' comment, Mercedes boss clarifies

It was the return last year at Spa that signalled a major shift towards Hamilton in the championship fight with three straight wins in Belgium, Italy and Singapore, and the Mercedes man knows what he needs to do.

"The second half of the season is always intense but it is usually when it gets a bit better on our side," he claimed.

"We need to apply more pressure in the second half. This is where we need to turn up the heat. So we will go away and prepare and make sure we come back stronger."

Lewis Hamilton proved once again why he is the King of the Hungaroring as he claimed his sixth victory at the Hungarian GP on Sunday.

Starting from pole, the Mercedes driver maintained the lead at the start and wouldn't look back as a combination of excellent defensive work from teammate Valtteri Bottas and a few mistakes by Ferrari allowed the Briton to what was ultimately a comfortable win.

After falling back in the rain on Saturday, the Scuderia was expected to push their Brackley-based rivals hard throughout the 70 laps yet, while their car did appear the quicker, when it mattered most Sebastian Vettel was unable to unleash the pace shown in practice as his focus became simply overhauling Bottas for second place.

The German had opted to use an alternative tyre strategy, starting on the Soft compared to those around on Ultrasoft, which appeared smart, particularly when the German made a bold move around the outside of Kimi Raikkonen at Turn 2 on the opening lap to claim third.

Further down, Max Verstappen would make up for his disappointing qualifying by moving upto P5 from seventh by the first corner, passing Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly.

Teammate Daniel Ricciardo, matching Vettel by starting on Softs but starting 12th, would survive contact with Marcus Ericsson on the approach to Turn 1 but would drop down four places to 16th.

Charles Leclerc would also get involved in a tangle with the two Force India's with the Monegasque pulling into the pits to retire at the opening lap.

The race looked set with the top four and Verstappen drawing battle lines, but Red Bull's hopes of disrupting the top two teams were soon dashed as the Dutchman was forced to retire with an MGU-K problem, much to his frustration and requiring a short Virtual Safety Car to recover his RB14.

The picture at the front would be altered as Ferrari chose to pit Raikkonen early from fourth, switching to a two-stop strategy and looking to undercut Bottas in second.

A slow stop would scupper those hopes, but Mercedes would still immediately reply by pitting their Finn and that looked to have cleared the way for a straight fight between the two main championship contenders.

Almost all of the early action meanwhile was coming from Ricciardo as he made his way back through the field with a number of trademark overtakes on the midfield runners predominantly into Turn 1.

Despite notions that you can't overtake at the Hungaroring, the Australian was soon inside the top 10 and would finish his recovery by passing Gasly for P5.

Between Hamilton and Vettel, the story was how long could each driver go on their respective tyres, with each lap the Briton stayed out on his used Ultras adding just a little extra freshness to his Softs for the final stint in anticipation of a flying Vettel coming from behind.

That was because the Ferrari driver's pace was quick enough to pull out a pit-stop gap over Bottas in third.

The leader would eventually pit on Lap 24 with the key then being how close the Mercedes could stay to the Ferrari which was still lapping at around the same pace if not faster on used Softs.

Traffic would be crucial, however, with Vettel sat behind Carlos Sainz for a prolonged period while Hamilton had a cleaner run allowing him to close up.

Still, the margin between Sebastian and Valtteri was thought to be just enough until a slow pit-stop allowed the Finn to get ahead and back into second place.

On the fresh tyre, the 31-year-old would look to immediately attack, knowing it was his only chance to go on and challenge Lewis, but would run deep at Turn 1 at the first attempt and would drop back two seconds as he struggled with overheating.

Bottled up behind the second Mercedes, that would allow the current world champion to control his pace out front and continue to extend his lead over Bottas in second.

Ricciardo would eventually pit after an excellent 45-lap stint on the Softs, re-emerging fifth and seemingly in no-mans land, that was until the fireworks really began up front. 

A retirement due to a gearbox issue for Stoffel Vandoorne briefly paused the action with the second VSC period and it was then Vettel pushed entering the final 10 laps.

Bottas, who was trying to complete 55 laps on his set of tyres, began to struggle more yet still the Ferrari struggled to get close enough to even consider a move. 

Finally, with five laps to go, the Finn had oversteer coming out of Turn 1, having had to defend on the main straight, and that would allow Vettel to get better traction to switchback and drive past the Mercedes with the German looking to then hold the inside for Turn 2

Locking his brakes, Bottas would hit the Ferrari and damage his front wing, however, Sebastian emerged unscathed and would go on to take second with Raikkonen moving up to third, having caught his teammate after his second stop.

The wounded Mercedes would allow Ricciardo to close in very quickly and the Red Bull would try to sweep around the outside at Turn 1 only for Bottas' lack of front grip result in him sliding into the Australian.

With the damage only superficial, the 'Honey Badger' would soon re-catch the Finn and finally made a move stick on the exit of Turn 1 to claim P4 and drop Bottas to fifth.

None of this bothered Hamilton, however, as he crossed the line to claim his fifth win of the season and extend his championship lead to 24 points entering the summer break, the largest gap seen so far this season.

The two Ferraris would follow as Vettel led Raikkonen with Ricciardo and Bottas completing the top five.

Pierre Gasly finished on the lead lap in a quiet but impressive race to sixth for Toro Rosso ahead of the Haas of Kevin Magnussen.

McLaren used good strategy to get Fernando Alonso upto eighth on his birthday and would have had Vandoorne right behind had it not been for the late mechanical problem.

Carlos Sainz would be ninth for Renault with Romain Grosjean completing the top 10.

The full finishing order from an intriguing race in Budapest can be seen below:

Daniel Ricciardo was satisfied to have ended a frustrating run of races with a strong recovery through the field to finish fourth at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Australian had been the biggest victim of the wet qualifying on Saturday, managing only 12th and would fall back to 16th after contact with Marcus Ericsson on the opening lap at the Hungaroring.

One-by-one though, the 'Honey Badger' produced a number of his bold overtakes and would capitalise on Valtteri Bottas' late problems to finish fourth.

“Yeah, it was nice to finish on a high. I feel it has been a few races where I haven’t really been happy so it was nice to get a good one today,” Ricciardo said later.

It almost ended in disaster with two laps to go, however, as the Mercedes nearly wiped out the 29-year-old at Turn 1 as he went around the outside and Valtteri struggled to slow down his damaged car.

“I felt like I did all I could. I gave him enough room but I guess with the damage and he went in pretty hot,” the Red Bull man acknowledged.

“It was definitely over the top, but I wanted to get him back on track as opposed to waiting for a penalty.”

That he would, getting better traction on the exit of Turn 1 at the start of the final lap, although Bottas was later penalised 10 seconds as well for causing the collision.

With a four-week break to look forward to before the action resumes at Spa, Ricciardo has to wait a little longer to start his holidays and will also have some business to take care of ahead of Belgium.

"I will be testing Tuesday and I will escape on Wednesday. Head far away from race cars for a few weeks,” he claimed.

“I honestly still don’t know [about a new contract]. Probably over the break, when everyone is looking for something to talk about, probably then.”

Sebastian Vettel wasn't too concerned by Ferrari's performance during the rain-hit qualifying for the Hungarian GP despite only finishing fourth.

The German has led the way almost all weekend in the dry but when thunderstorms made their presence felt in Budapest on Saturday, the engine advantage that the Italian team holds was wiped out and the Mercedes had a better car in the wet, allowing Lewis Hamilton to take pole.

Vettel never really looked like a threat at the front, as proven by Kimi Raikkonen finishing as the faster Ferrari in third and the 31-year-old was honest in his assessment.

“I don’t think there was an awful lot missing, but we weren't quick enough," he admitted.

“I think it was difficult in the wet and difficult to squeeze everything out of the car. I think the laps that I had were fine, but just not quick enough.

"In the wet conditions we are not as confident as in the dry, so there's some work to do.

"Today was a tricky session and it could have been anything. I think we managed it well until the end, obviously, then we were missing a bit but that’s how it is."

On the contrary, Raikkonen was happy with his car in the rainy conditions and was disappointed not to be closer to pole.

"The nice thing is that the car was driveable and enjoyable in the wet today," the Finn said.

"I think I was a bit unlucky with the last run, we changed the tyres and there was a lot of grip but we got behind the Haas. There was a lot of spray and it was impossible to see and improve.

"There was definitely a chance in these conditions today that I could have put it on pole, but it didn't happen.

"Tomorrow is another day, and we'll keep trying."

Having just endured a frustrating end to the Hungarian Grand Prix, dropping from second to fifth in five laps, Valtteri Bottas was even less impressed by the comments of his Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.

The Austrian, speaking after the race, suggested he had been a "sensational wingman" to teammate Lewis Hamilton after holding off the Ferraris for much of Sunday's race at the Hungaroring while the Briton strolled off to take the victory.

Of course, that drew immediate suggestions by some that Bottas was helping his teammate rather than challenging him, the definition of a 'number two' role which Wolff had insisted wasn't the case after the use of team orders in Hockenheim.

“First of all, wingman hurts,” Bottas said in response to his team boss.

Wolff was quick to clarify, however, insisting he was only referring to the race in Budapest.

“In today’s race, starting P2, after lap one, Valtteri’s race was the perfect wingman race – and I don’t mean it in championship terms, because we have no number one, we have no number two, but it was just how he was racing.

“It was, from my standpoint, [his] best race so far with Mercedes in the last [two] years.”

Later Bottas then also amended his reaction, tweeting: "I have not called a meeting with the bosses for Toto saying I was the perfect wingman in this race. There is no need to.

"I was disappointed with my end result in the race and saw everything in a negative way for a moment. I know what he meant.

"He would have said the same about Lewis if he’d be in the same situation and had a similar race. We are on equal terms and I trust the team 100% on that. All good. We’ll keep pushing! It’ll come."

For the 28-year-old, however, there was still little reason to be happy about how his race panned out.

“I don’t see any positives in this race for me. I wanted a better result and we thought, in theory, we should have been able to do the one-stop," he told reporters.

"20 laps from the end, everything was feeling okay. We could control the pace and my position but then the rear tyres started to die."

Then, with five laps to go, Vettel, who had been behind the Finn for some 30 laps, made his move.

“With Seb, he had a good run into Turn 2 after a good little battle in Turn 1. I still had my nose inside into Turn 2, he was on the outside,” he explained.

“He turned in very early for me, and there was nowhere for me to go. So we touched, and I was the only one who got damage. Fair enough, I think a racing incident.”

With a damaged front wing though, Daniel Ricciardo would quickly close and attempt a pass at Turn 1 only to result in more contact for Bottas.

“With Daniel, it was a pretty similar thing, but I was more next to him, on the inside. I had just half my front wing so I was locking up as well,” the Finn admitted.

"I am sure that he saw that I was going quite quick into the corner but he still turned in and then we touched."

That would earn him a 10-second penalty from the stewards but would keep him in fifth place.

Daniel Ricciardo has played down any criticism towards Red Bull over their decision-making after he could only manage 12th on the grid for the Hungarian GP.

Normally, wet conditions would be considered the perfect opportunity for the Anglo-Austrian team to compete against Mercedes and Ferrari on a level playing field, instead, both the Australian and teammate Max Verstappen would struggle.

Ricciardo's problems began with a nervy Q1 as a decision to use Soft tyres when the track dried out compared to the rest on Ultras left him having to improve on every lap simply to make it through.

"The strategy, we took a risk in Q1 using the soft. I think in hindsight we should have gone on the ultra and just be safe. That was too close," he admitted.

"But we did have a Soft to use for Q1 in dry conditions, that was always the plan. It's not like it was against the plan but it was closer than we wanted it to be."

Scrambling through in P12, his luck would run out in Q2.

"In Q2, the rain came. So the first guy on track was getting the best track, and it just got worse and worse, so not only to be further in the pack but also you needed to get that first lap in," he explained.

"Stroll spun in front of me so I had to abort that lap, and then the following lap was too wet for the inter.

"The last sector was just trying to survive, so we had to put the extreme on but the track was nowhere near what it was in the beginning."

The end result is the 29-year-old having to fight back through the field for the second weekend in a row but on a circuit where overtaking is much more difficult.

"Tomorrow I have a fight on my hands, starting 12th, that's going to be interesting," he smiled.

"I'll sleep tonight, I'll come tomorrow fired up and pull off some clean moves. If not, then I'll use a few guys as my brakes!"

Max Verstappen and Red Bull probably didn't wish the happiest of summer's after another engine issue resulted in an early retirement for the Dutchman at the Hungarian GP.

The 20-year-old had done the hard work of fixing the damage from qualifying by passing both Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz into Turn 1 at the start and looked like he could play a role in the battle between the Mercedes' and Ferrari's.

No sooner had he settled in fifth, however, an MGU-K problem saw him pull over to the side of the track with a furious sweary rant over the radio following as Max expressed his frustration.

“It is just, at the moment, difficult to accept,” he said. “I was very angry on the radio, I think there was a lot of bleeping out there, which was a shame that they bleeped it away because it would have been better if they would have allowed it but that is how it is.”

This failure follows three engine-related retirements for teammate Daniel Ricciardo already although it is the first instance of one impacting Verstappen.

Commenting just a few minutes after the failure on Sky Sports, Red Bull boss Christian Horner also expressed his dismay.

“I am not going to get drawn into saying too much,” he said initially. “But we pay multi-millions of pounds for these engines, for a first-class product, a state-of-the-art product, and you can see it is quite clearly some way below that.

“So it is frustrating. That is what it is. I will let [Renault Sport managing director] Cyril [Abiteboul] come up with his excuses afterwards.”

What made the situation worse for Verstappen though, was the potential Red Bull had in the dry at the Hungaroring, as shown by Ricciardo's recovery from P16 to P4.

“I mean, I was like 25 seconds ahead [of Ricciardo] because of the starting position I was in,” Max continued.

“Again it is valuable points just thrown away so yeah, let's see what we have to do in Spa. Whether we have to take penalties or not, I don’t know, but at the moment, I also don’t really care.”

Lewis Hamilton produced yet another masterclass of wet-weather driving to claim pole position in a chaotic qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

As conditions changed throughout the session, the worst of the rain would be in Q3 as a downpour soaked the track midway through Q2, requiring all drivers to use the extreme wet tyres in the battle for pole.

And it was then that the Mercedes driver really showed his skill comfortably setting the fastest time during the first series of flying laps on the first set of tyres.

Though Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas would beat his initial best on a new set of wets, Hamilton would re-emerge and do enough to reclaim top spot with a 1m35.658s, a quarter of a second clear of his teammate in second.

Ferrari just had no response to the German manufacturer in the wet, although Raikkonen felt pole would have been "easy" had it not been for traffic as he finished third, ahead of Sebastian Vettel as the German's domination in the dry ended.

The Scuderia's problems were nothing compared to those at Red Bull, however, as the team most expected to flourish in the rain instead fell down the field.

In Q1, despite a thunderstorm over the circuit, the track itself would dry out enough for slicks after a downpour pre-qualifying, but Daniel Ricciardo would be the only driver to use the Soft tyre compared to the rest on Ultrasoft.

Each lap he set would leave him in the knockout zone as others improved before eventually, he would sneak through to Q2.

The Australian's luck would run out, however, as a crash for Lance Stroll meant he missed the best of the conditions in the opening minutes of the second segment and would be left in P12 despite attempts to improve on the full wet tyre.

Teammate Max Verstappen would be more comfortable in making Q3 but wouldn't have the pace many expected as he fell behind fellow Red Bull stable members Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly to seventh on the grid.

Brendon Hartley would only be a tenth behind in the second Toro Rosso in P8 as the two Haas cars completed the top 10 with Kevin Magnussen ahead of Romain Grosjean.

Fernando Alonso produced another radio moment to add to his collection as his McLaren team tried in vain to move him up from P11 as the conditions worsened in the second half of Q2 but that would still put the Spaniard ahead of Ricciardo.

Nico Hulkenberg was another driver caught out by the crash of Stroll in 13th with Marcus Ericsson 14th and the Canadian bringing up the Q2 order in 15th.

As the circuit improved in Q1 but more drops of rain fell, there was a time when it looked as though Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull could have started last as they were the last teams to switch to the slick tyres.

Instead, the weather held just long enough for them to safely make it through and leave Stoffel Vandoorne in 16th in the second McLaren.

The two rookies, Charles Leclerc and Sergey Sirotkin also struggled due to the limited amount of wet running there has been in 2018 with the Monegasque 17th and the Russian last.

Perhaps most surprising though was the two Force India's of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez in 18th and 19th as their difficult weekend on and off the track continues.

The full list of times from qualifying can be seen below: