Mercedes got the strategy right as Lewis Hamilton passed Max Verstappen to take victory in a thrilling Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Briton produced a brilliant charge on the medium tyre in the final 20 laps, to catch and pass the Red Bull into Turn 1 with just three laps to go.
For Verstappen, P2 and the fastest lap was his consolation as he just couldn’t live with the pace of Hamilton on his old hard compound rubber.
A long, long way behind, the two Ferrari’s enjoyed a strategic battle of their own with the decision to run long and switch to the soft tyre allowing Sebastian Vettel to catch and pass his teammate for the final place on the podium.
Story of the race
At the start, Verstappen just managed to hold off the two Mercedes’ on the run to Turn 1, with Hamilton squeezing past teammate Valtteri Bottas through Turn 3 into second.
That left the Finn vulnerable to Leclerc on the run to Turn 4 with slight contact between the pair damaging the front wing of the Mercedes, as the Monegasque went through.
Losing time, Bottas would also lose out to Vettel before eventually pitting for repairs and dropping to the back of the field.
Verstappen and Hamilton traded fastest laps at the front early on, with the gap hovering around two seconds.
Instead, it was Daniel Ricciardo who provided some early overtakes as he made his way through the field having started last due to an engine change.
Bottas likewise starts his recovery from the early stop, but both would become bottled up behind Kevin Magnussen in the Haas.
As the tyres began to degrade, Hamilton would have the better pace as he closed back in on the Red Bull, but it would be Max who stopped first for the hard tyre.
The Briton would wait seven laps longer before making his stop and proceeded to put on a blistering charge, as he took four seconds out of Verstappen in just two laps.
Once on his tail, Hamilton could only try a wild move at Turn 4, as Verstappen cleverly used the DRS of slower cars to stay ahead down the straight.
Ferrari meanwhile sat a lonely third and fourth with Leclerc ahead of Vettel.
Realising they were in a battle of their own for third, the German opted for ‘Plan C’ and ran until Lap 40 before switching to the soft tyre until the end.
Bottas’ charge was also regaining steam after the prolonged period behind Ricciardo, but that has given the midfield leaders a chance to undercut the Mercedes.
That prompted the team to pit him for a second time and try to gain some positions in the final third of the race.
Then came the key move as Hamilton stopped for medium tyres to launch another attack on Verstappen.
Initially, the chase appeared unlikely but in clear air, the Mercedes had enough pace to catch the Red Bull, the question is would there be enough laps and grip in his tyres?
The answer was yes as Max’s tyres faded, Lewis pumped in the times to catch before quickly passing the Dutchman into Turn 1.
Unable to respond, Verstappen stopped himself for soft tyres and would set the fastest lap en route to second.
Vettel too left it late to pass Leclerc at Turn 1 for third, but it was a bad day for Ferrari as they finished more than a minute behind Hamilton.
In the midfield, Carlos Sainz got the jump on teammate Lando Norris at the start and would hold off a late charge from Pierre Gasly to claim a brilliant fifth for McLaren.
Kimi Raikkonen produced another solid race to seventh for Alfa Romeo, just ahead of the recovering Bottas in what was another big disappointment for the Finn.
A bad pit-stop put pay to Lando Norris’ race with the Briton slipping to ninth and Alex Albon rounding out the points scorers in the Toro Rosso.
Full results from Sunday’s race at the Hungaroring can be seen below:
