Hungarian GP: Hamilton claims commanding win in wet/dry race

Lewis Hamilton cruised to a dominant victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Drama before the start saw Max Verstappen crash on the way to the grid in the damp conditions, giving his team a frantic rush to repair his front left suspension.

Red Bull though were able to get his car ready and he would soon repay their hard work. 

At the front, Hamilton would hold the lead into Turn 1 as Bottas makes a poor start dropping to sixth. Energised by his error, Verstappen would gain four places to third ahead of the two Ferraris as Perez also struggles off the line.

Drivers soon switch to slicks with Haas the big gainers after pitting to change on the formation lap.

Verstappen also passes Stroll in the pit-stop phase to claim second with the pair streaking away as Magnussen holds up Stroll and Bottas behind.

Leclerc suffers from Ferrari putting him on soft tyres at the first pit-stop, losing several places before stopping again for hards and falling down the field.

An approaching shower keeps teams guessing but with no substantial rain falling, drivers safely pit for a second time with Hamilton almost 20 seconds clear of Verstappen at the front.

Bottas is able to jump Stroll for third in the Mercedes and uses a tyre advantage to quickly close on the Red Bull for second.

Unable to make a move, however, the Finn pits for a third time and immediately starts lapping two seconds a lap faster than the Dutchman to close the 20-second gap.

Behind the top four, Vettel faced a challenge from a recovering Albon in the second Red Bull, Perez was under pressure from Daniel Ricciardo, who was able to make his first set of slicks last longer than those around him.

Magnussen dropped to ninth after running third when the rest of the pack switched to slicks, but it was still a strong performance from the Haas driver.

The battle for the final point saw future teammates Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc go wheel-to-wheel, but the earlier stop for the Monegasque gave the current McLaren driver the edge to move ahead at Turn 1 with 10 laps to go.

At the front, however, Hamilton was serene as he lapped the entire field upto Vettel in fifth in a totally dominant display en route to his eighth win in Budapest, tieing Michael Schumacher’s record for most wins and one circuit and moving him just five behind the German in the total wins list.

Bottas reeled in Verstappen for second but just ran out of laps as the Red Bull hung on with the Finn in third.

Stroll came home fourth for Racing Point, as Albon pounced on a mistake from Vettel for sixth.

Perez held off Ricciardo for seventh as Magnussen and Sainz completed the top 10.

Leclerc just missed out on the points in 11th after a frustrating race, likewise, Lando Norris endured his worst race of the season so far in 13th.

After the high of P12 in qualifying, a poor start again dropped George Russell down the order as he finished 18th.

Williams teammate Nicholas Latifi had an eventful race after colliding with Sainz exiting the pits and spinning as he finished as the final finisher, three laps down.

Pierre Gasly was the only retirement in the AlphaTauri as an engine failure ended a weekend of trouble with Honda for the Frenchman.

Now comes a two-week break before the action resumes with a doubleheader at Silverstone on August 2 and 9.