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:
