Hungary – Race: Hamilton tips the balance in his favour!

With his four victories in the last five Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton had come closest to Nico Rosberg in the Drivers’ Championship standings, just before the start of this eleventh round of the season. But the scenario of the Hungarian weekend was so far favorable to the German driver, who had just been confirmed at Mercedes for the next two seasons. For the first time this season, Nico Rosberg was ahead of his teammate on the front row.

Yesterday in Budapest, Rosberg indeed secured a controversial pole position, ultimately retained thanks to the leniency of the stewards. He thus led Hamilton and the two Red Bulls of Ricciardo and Verstappen on the second row on the grid. Just behind, Vettel embodied the difficulties of Scuderia Ferrari, starting only in fifth position. Worse, Kimi Räikkönen, trapped in Q2, started from a rather modest 14th position.

While the qualifications were held in difficult weather conditions, the Hungarian sky was much more pleasant at the start of the race: the sun and heat had returned: 27 degrees in the air… and 51 degrees on the track!

Nico Rosberg led the pack at around 2 p.m. for the start of the formation lap. Only Marcus Ericsson started from the pits, after his big crash the day before.

After a trouble-free installation lap, it was time to start this Hungarian Grand Prix /f1/actualite/21184-officiel-nico-rosberg-chez-mercedes-jusquen-2018.html !

Rosberg dethroned from the lead right from the start!

And Nico Rosberg was the loser at the start! Under pressure from the two Red Bulls, the Mercedes cars resisted as best they could through the first few corners. Fourth at the exit of the first corner, Rosberg overtook Ricciardo and Verstappen from the outside in the second. But Rosberg had indeed conceded the lead to Hamilton!

REPLAY: RIC briefly takes the lead at Turn 1 before the Mercedes reclaimed the upper hand #HungarianGP 🇭🇺 pic.twitter.com/yeAM9R1CP6

— Formula 1 (@F1) 24 juillet /f1/actualite/21184-officiel-nico-rosberg-chez-mercedes-jusquen-2018.html

Behind the top four, Vettel maintained his fifth position. Alonso had passed his compatriot Carlos Sainz to gain sixth place.

More bad luck for his teammate Jenson Button, who was the victim of a hydraulic problem. The experienced Briton then fell to the very back of the pack. Adding insult to injury, he was also penalized by the FIA for unauthorized radio communication.

Hydraulic pressure problems for BUT as he drops to P22

BUT📻: “Race from hell, this is going to be…”#HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/Nlnw6Lny2T

— Formula 1 (@F1) 24 juillet /f1/actualite/21184-officiel-nico-rosberg-chez-mercedes-jusquen-2018.html

Benefiting from Button’s misfortunes, Romain Grosjean then moved into the points in 10th position, but with Kimi Räikkönen as the main threat.

A threat on track that Max Verstappen didn’t really feel, as he was complaining on his radio about driving “like a grandmother” behind his teammate Ricciardo.

RED BULL 📻: “You’re still within DRS of RIC”

VES 📻: “I’m driving like a grandma”#HungarianGP 🇭🇺 pic.twitter.com/ykDqKnPY6K

— Formula 1 (@F1) 24 juillet /f1/actualite/21184-officiel-nico-rosberg-chez-mercedes-jusquen-2018.html

Hamilton loses ground at the start of the second stint, Verstappen slowed down by Räikkönen!

Installed in the lead, Hamilton remained aggressive by successively improving the fastest lap. At the end of the 13th lap, Hamilton set the best time at 1:25.504. He was notably more than two and a half seconds ahead of his teammate.

On the 15th lap, Sebastian Vettel initiated the first wave of pit stops. Scuderia Ferrari attempted to perform the undercut on Ricciardo and Verstappen. It was a successful strategy for Vettel, who caught up with Ricciardo, blocked at the pit exit behind Bottas, who hadn’t stopped yet! The four-time world champion then overtook Verstappen, who had come back out behind Räikkönen, still on his soft tires from the start. The winner of the Spanish Grand Prix was losing precious seconds to Ricciardo and Vettel, as Räikkönen was on a two-stop strategy.

As the leader, Hamilton had changed his tires at the end of the 16th lap, followed one lap later by Rosberg. But the German was gradually catching up to the Briton. By the 22nd lap, Rosberg was within a second gap, allowing him to activate his DRS!

Same, Daniel Ricciardo was gaining ground and closing in to around five seconds behind Nico Rosberg! In fact, the four Red Bull and Ferrari drivers were gradually catching up to the Mercedes drivers in this second stint, conducted on soft tires. In response to this, even Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer instructed his champion to pick up the pace…

📡 Mercedes: “Just need to pick the pace up a bit”

📡 HAM: “Yeah I’m working on it”#HungarianGP #F1 🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/AjjNib37vq

— Formula 1 (@F1) 24 juillet /f1/actualite/21184-officiel-nico-rosberg-chez-mercedes-jusquen-2018.html

In any case, true or not, Hamilton always kept control. Here in the 20th lap of the race, he took advantage of the opportunity to surpass the record for laps led on this circuit set by Michael Schumacher, with 296 laps.

But the Mercedes team was indeed put under pressure by the gamble from the Red Bull team. Daniel Ricciardo dove in for his second stop as early as the 34th lap, challenging the reigning world champion team.

Hamilton takes the lead again!

Certainly spurred by his engineer’s motivations, Hamilton then pulled away, pushing Rosberg beyond the 2.5-second gap!

After a great series of laps, Hamilton came to a stop for the second time of the day on the 41st lap, just like Sebastian Vettel. Both drivers set off again on soft tires for what seemed to be the final stint of this race.

Nico Rosberg imitated his two competitors on the next lap. He came back out in second position, more than two and a half seconds behind his teammate. Daniel Ricciardo kept the advantage of third place, while Kimi Räikkönen, with his offset strategy, held fourth position, ahead of Sebastian Vettel.

UPDATE: Lap 47 @LewisHamilton (2 stops, S) P1 @nico_rosberg (2 stops, S) +2.0s @danielricciardo (2 stops, S) +5.5s #F1 #HungarianGP — MERCEDES AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) 24 juillet /f1/actualite/21184-officiel-nico-rosberg-chez-mercedes-jusquen-2018.html

Behind the Mercedes-Ferrari-Red Bull trio, Fernando Alonso continued to lead a solid race. With this 7th place, the McLaren team is returning to a level more in line with its prestige. Sainz, Bottas, and Hülkenberg occupied the last places in the top ten, although threatened by Gutierrez.

On the 51st lap, the last of the big guns made a pit stop in the person of Kimi Räikkönen. “Iceman” rejoined in 6th position, with fresh super-soft tires and a six-second gap to close on Verstappen.

Gutierrez’s pepper adds a little more flavor to the Hamilton-Rosberg duel for the end of the race

As Lewis Hamilton had built a relatively solid lead so far, almost everything fell apart on the 53rd lap. Backmarker Esteban Gutierrez slowed down for a few corners during Lewis Hamilton’s drive, causing him to lose more than a second and a half. Nico Rosberg effortlessly closed the gap to half a second!

The Haas driver was obviously penalized with a five-second penalty added to his final ranking.

LAP 54/70: HAM runs into traffic trouble and ROS closes to within 0.6 of his teammate…#HungarianGP 🇭🇺 pic.twitter.com/SfKWnqQbyq

— Formula 1 (@F1) 24 juillet /f1/actualite/21184-officiel-nico-rosberg-chez-mercedes-jusquen-2018.html

At the same time, another battle was taking shape, more aggressive. Back in contact, Räikkönen was shut out by Verstappen before the second corner, after a dangerous change of line.

The two cars continued on their respective paths despite everything, with worn tires for Ricciardo and reduced aerodynamic efficiency for Räikkönen.

The end of the race was in sight, but victory was not yet fully secured for Hamilton, who fell victim to a small mistake on the 62nd lap.

LAP 64/70: HAM runs wide with ROS up close in his mirrors

Gap in standings: 1 point

Gap on the track: 1 second pic.twitter.com/RJd80ORxrp

— Formula 1 (@F1) 24 juillet

This text is not translatable.

Similar situation for Daniel Ricciardo, 20 seconds behind Hamilton, who saw Sebastian Vettel returning in his rearview mirrors. But even in a tight race, the positions did not change.

After a few small scares, the driver struck with the number 44 entered the final lap in the lead.

Victory for Lewis Hamilton in the Hungarian Grand Prix /f1/actualite/21184-officiel-nico-rosberg-chez-mercedes-jusquen-2018.html !

LEWIS HAMILTON WINS THE #HUNGARIANGP!!!! HE’S DONE IT AGAIN!!!! YES YES YES YES YES!!!! #F1 pic.twitter.com/B0JgByFvrC

— MERCEDES AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) 24 juillet /f1/actualite/21184-officiel-nico-rosberg-chez-mercedes-jusquen-2018.html

48th success of Mercedes driver’s career, now three short of Alain Prost’s 51. With this 5th local triumph, Lewis Hamilton is now the absolute record holder for victories on the Hungarian circuit.

Here is the complete ranking of this Grand Prix:

In the drivers’ championship standings, the information is therefore significant: with 192 points, Lewis Hamilton takes the lead for the first time this season!

However, Nico Rosberg (186 points) can console himself with this statistic: it has now been 12 years since the winning driver in Hungary has won the championship at the end of the season. (The last driver to win both the Hungarian Grand Prix and the drivers’ championship at the end of the season was Michael Schumacher in 2004).

Behind, the gap continues to widen with the rest of the pack. Third in the standings with 115 points, Daniel Ricciardo is now 77 points behind, which is just over three victories, a chasm, an abyss!

However, the cards will be reshuffled next week at Hockenheim during the German Grand Prix, the last race before the summer break.