Lewis Hamilton’s championship battle with Nico Rosberg will go to the wire, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has predicted, despite the British driver taking charge of the title race for the first time this season following his win in Hungary.
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Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo briefly threatened the leaders at mid-distance but his challenge faded.
Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany steers his vehicle during the Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix, at the Hungaroring racetrack, in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, July 24, 2016.
Verstappen was being closely followed by the Ferrari – after Raikkonen undertook a late second stop for new rubber.
McLaren’s Fernando Alonso took seventh but it was a hard afternoon for the Spaniard’s team-mate. Whereas, his teammate, Jenson Button, had to retire following several issues with the vehicle and a drive-through penalty for an “illegal” radio communication.
“We have the next race coming up very quickly and it is my home race next weekend, the German Grand Prix, so bring it on”, he added.
The four-time world champion on Monday repeated the view of race victor Hamilton by saying that it was a bad example to other drivers. It didn’t work out unfortunately, just losing out in turn one, and now I move my focus to Hockenheim, because it’s my home race and I’m really looking forward to going there, racing there. Despite the hype surrounding Schumacher’s comeback in F1 that year, he managed to finish the season at seventh place in the Driver’s Championship, which was two positions higher than his partner.
After being forced to settle for second place on the grid, Rosberg having snatched pole as his team-mate backed off when McLaren’s Fernando Alonso spun, Hamilton had his revenge by the first corner.
“I’ve always said I’m not counting points”, Rosberg, who won the opening four races of the season, said.
By the time they emerged from Turn One, Hamilton held the lead.
Hamilton responded by increasing his pace by a second on the next lap. We did a good strategy, a good pit stop, and the pace was good.
Ricciardo was a further 27 seconds behind, less than a second ahead of Vettel. He immediately did so, causing some in the paddock to speculate whether Hamilton was deliberately attempting to back-up Rosberg into Ricciardo’s Red Bull. From that point on, the race was clearly over.
Hamilton outpaced Rosberg at the start and then controlled the 70 laps with a mixture of speed and flawless judgment in sweltering heat at the Hungaroring circuit. Kvyat was also put under investigation for speeding in the pitlane and received a 5-second penalty.
The win was the 48th of his career and fifth of the season.
How did Vettel pass Verstappen? The Finn had started 14th but a long first stint saw him challenging the Dutchman.
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And it was, as he spent most of the race at the back of the field, before he retired with only a handful of laps remaining. A similar Red Bull-Ferrari battle was seen for the fifth and sixth spots. Raikkonen, 36, was unhappy with 18-year-old Verstappen’s defensive driving, and at one stage lost part of his front wing as he attempted to overtake the Red Bull driver.
