But it has been nearly all Hamilton since he and Rosberg collided on the first lap of the Spanish Grand Prix in May.
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Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton jumps off his vehicle to celebrate after winning the Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix.
Behind the dominance of the Mercedes (although Rosberg did, briefly, have to fight Ricciardo for his second place) it was a game of two Red Bull v Ferrari battles, between Vettel and Ricciardo for third and fourth and between Verstappen and Raikkonen for fifth and sixth. The gap between him and Rosberg came in at under 2.0 seconds at the finish.
Ricciardo had to be content with holding off Sebastian Vettel for third.
Following a hard qualifying session, when Raikkonen was rather predictably eliminated from Q2 in hard conditions and Vettel was isolated in fifth, both drivers recovered well in the race.
However, Rosberg, who signed a new two-year deal with Mercedes worth £36m last week, has not given up hope of his maiden F1 title, despite Hamilton’s resurgence.
His victory completed a hat-trick of successes in consecutive races, was his outright record fifth in Hungary, his fifth of the season and the 48th of his career.
“Lewis had the inside line and I lost out into turn one”.
“I had one of the Red Bulls on the inside of me so I was pressured quite a lot into Turn One”. “Maybe after the next couple of days I’ll feel it, but I’m still in the mentality of chasing”.
“I’ve always said I’m not counting points”, Rosberg, who won the opening four races of the season, said.
Rosberg, who has also won five races this year, will have the chance to seize back the lead in his home German Grand Prix.
“It’s very close. Up till now it was a good battle with Lewis”.
Lewis Hamilton celebrates winning in Hungary to top the driver standings.
“I don’t know what he was annoyed about because he (Gutierrez) didn’t keep him back this long”, said the Italian. “I love the track”.
Lewis Hamilton has sailed into the championship lead by beating his teammate in an imperious display of dominance at Budapest’s Hungaroring.
“They need to clear that up because before it was two-tenths that you were meant to lose with one yellow flag and half a second with two yellow flags”. Hamilton answered that he was “driving as best as I can” but seemed to respond to the request and Ricciardo never really challenged again.
“You’re going to get massively quicker every lap”, Rosberg said. Hamilton controlled the race from there, hindered only at a few points due to traffic and running wide at a turn. On the other hand, his team mate Jenson Button had a awful day after he was asked by the team to retire from the race with seven laps to go, as his auto was suffering from some hydraulic problems.
The 2009 world champion also collected a drive-through penalty for a breach of radio rules before finally retiring late in the race.
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Button started eighth but soon developed hydraulic problems.
