Lewis Hamilton wins the Hungarian GP and gains the championship lead from Rosberg

At the Hungarian GP at the Hungaroring today, Lewis Hamilton claimed his fifth win of the 2016 season, ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo that saw Hamilton taking the championship lead for the first time this season.

Lewis Hamilton took the lead on the run down to Turn 1 and then set up a tense race-long battle which he ultimately won. Behind Hamilton, Nico Rosberg fell to third behind Daniel Ricciardo at Turn 1 but was back in second by the exit of Turn 2 before heaping the pressure on Hamilton though the three stints of the race.

In the middle of the race, Hamilton looked vulnerable and Mercedes even threatened to put Rosberg on a better strategy if the British driver backed his teammate into Ricciardo. Hamilton then responded via team radio with “I’m driving to the best of my ability,” who then managed a surge to put 2.8s between himself and Rosberg.

On Lap 53, Hamilton was held up by the Haas of Esteban Gutierrez (earning the Mexican a middle-finger salute from the Briton when he finally passed and a five-second time penalty for ignoring blue flags) which allowed Rosberg closed the gap to 0.6 seconds.

But a late lock up at Turn 12 saw Rosberg close to within 0.6s with seven laps remaining, but again Hamilton’s car was wide enough to defend his position and had the pace to build up a buffer of over a second on the following lap.

On lap 56, Raikkonen made contact with Verstappen as he attempted to pass into Turn 2 but only saw Verstappen close the door and a piece of his front wing disappear into the scenery. Three laps from the end Raikkonen had another attempt at Turn 1 but bailed out at the last minute as Verstappen positioned his car in the middle of the track.

Raikkonen felt he had been hard done by and he made his anger clear over the Ferrari team radio — but the stewards saw no need to investigate either incident.

But it was Lewis Hamilton who won the fifth Hungarian GP of his career, his fifth win of the 2016 season and the championship lead ahead of Nico Rosberg in second place who was 1.977 seconds behind him and ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in third place who was 27.539 seconds behind Hamilton.

Sebastian Vettel ended the race in fourth place ahead of Max Verstappen who finished the race in a solid fifth place. With the result that the Red Bull team have achieved with their drivers this weekend, this now means that the Red Bull team has now closed the gap to Ferrari to just a single point in the constructors’ championship.

If the race had been held on track that was easier to overtake, Raikkonen’s alternative strategy —soft, super-soft, super-soft v super-soft, soft, soft — may have seen him challenge for a podium from 14th on the grid, but the Ferrari strategists did not factor in the wide Red Bull of Verstappen. A series of robust defences by Verstappen saw him keep the Ferrari at bay despite having 12-lap older tyres and the slower soft compound compared to Raikkonen’s super-softs.

Kimi Raikkonen ended the race in sixth place ahead of Fernando Alonso in seventh place, even though Alonso and Romain Grosjean both received a warning flag for exceeding track limits three times at either Turn 4 or 11, but managed to avoid the drive-through penalty that would have come with a fourth violation.

Alonso finished ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr in eighth place, Valtteri Bottas in ninth place and Nico Hulkenberg who rounded off the top ten finishers.

Sergio Perez ended the race in eleventh place ahead of Jolyon Palmer in twelfth place, who missed out on an opportunity to score the first points of his F1 career when he spun at Turn 4 on lap 49 while running in tenth place. He lost the rear despite running alone on track and was lucky not to collect a rival as he returned to the track at the corner exit.
Palmer finished ahead of Esteban Gutierrez in thirteenth place, Romain Grosjean in fourteenth place and Kevin Magnussen in fifteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Daniil Kvyat ended the race in sixteenth place ahead of Felipe Nasr in seventeenth place and Felipe Massa in eighteenth place, who struggled throughout the race as a result of a side effect from his qualifying accident that meant his steering was off centre as he drove to the grid.

Massa finished ahead of Pascal Wehrlein in nineteenth place, Marcus Ericsson in twentieth place and Rio Haryanto in twenty-first place.

Jenson Button was the only retiree of the race; putting an end to a miserable race for him 10 laps early. The first problem on Button’s car occurred on lap five when he reported his brake pedal was extending to the floor, seeing him drop from eighth to last in one lap.

The McLaren-Honda team identified a hydraulic issue on his car and told Button not to change gear (a radio call that resulted in a drive-through penalty for breaching team radio restrictions). He eventually managed to get back up to speed and was running in nineteenth place when a belch of smoke from his Honda power unit signalled the end of his race.

The classification for the Hungarian GP is as follows:-

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1.40:30.115s
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1.977s
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 27.539s
4. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 28.213s
5. Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 48.569s
6. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 49.044s
7. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1 lap
8. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1 lap
9. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1 lap
10. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1 lap
11. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1 lap
12. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1 lap
13. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, 1 lap
14. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 1 lap
15. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1 lap
16. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1 lap
17. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1lap
18. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 2 laps
19. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 2 laps
20. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 2 laps
21. Rio Haryanto, MRT Racing, 2 laps
22. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, Not Classified

Lewis Hamilton now leads the Driver's Championship with 192 points, Nico Rosberg is in second place with 186 points, Daniel Ricciardo is in third place with 115 points, Kimi Raikkonen is in fourth place with 114 points, Sebastian Vettel is in fifth place with 110 points, Max Verstappen is in sixth place with 100 points, Valtteri Bottas is in seventh place with 56 points, Sergio Perez is in eighth place with 47 points, Felipe Massa is in ninth place with 38 points and Carlos Sainz Jr is in tenth place with 30 points.

Mercedes still lead the Constructors Championship with 378 points, Ferrari is in second place with 224 points, Red Bull is in third place with 223 points, Williams is in fourth place with 94 points, Force India is in fifth place with 74 points, Toro Rosso is in sixth place with 45 points, McLaren is in seventh place with 38 points, Haas is in eighth place with 28 points, Renault is in ninth place with 6 points and Manor are tenth with 1 point.

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa