Mercedes has won nine of the first 10 races this season and 41 of the last 48. “I appreciate it for the result”.
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“It’s not my decision to decide if it was correct or not, but I’ve seen people penalised for much less”, Raikkonen said afterwards.
Hamilton was rarely troubled from there, overcoming a lack of power mid-race and holding off a late charge from Rosberg, surpassing Michael Schumacher’s previous best tally of four wins in Budapest.
For Rosberg, he is now in prime position to wrestle the championship momentum back from Hamilton after seeing his title lead slashed from 43 points to just one in the space of five races.
Hamilton outpaced pole-sitter Rosberg at the start and then controlled the 70 laps with a mixture of speed and flawless judgement in sweltering heat at the Hungaroring circuit.
Ricciardo pitted for a second time at the end of lap 33, and suddenly Hamilton turned in his fastest laps of the race.
Rosberg playfully slapped his colleague on the back after hearing Hamilton’s comments, sarcastically saying “thank you for making that statement. It was just really unfortunate I had to lose my lap”. Ricciardo dominated the inter-team battle and is now third in the drivers’ standings to further underline Red Bull’s routine improvements as 2016 has gone on. The Finn had started 14th but a long first stint saw him challenging the Dutchman. “It’s not like I am driving slowly”. Daniel RicciardoAUS Red Bull-TAG 1m 20.280s 4.
Meanwhile, Rosberg kept the pressure on Hamilton throughout, with his team-mate given the hurry-up mid-way, as Ricciardo made an early second stop in attempt to get the undercut. Jolyon Palmer was the chief loser of the track position lottery and finished the session 17th quickest, having lapped inside the top 10 in final practice. “Maybe he was a little exhausted and then he woke up”. It was a shame, on his in-lap he was half a second up as well.
Mercedes noticed the shrinking lead and told Hamilton to “push”, or they would have Rosberg change tires ahead of him.
Ten races remain in a record 21-race season.
Hamilton encountered the McLaren as the incident happened so had to back right off, costing him pole. Rosberg does look bludgeoned by Hamilton’s comeback and on recent form has no answer to him but he will not be retiring to his corner. The Australian had to be content with beating Sebastian Vettel to third place, while team-mate Max Verstappen came fifth. He made the second on lap 50 and, with pleasing symmetry, closed behind Verstappen. This time however, Massa ran onto the white lines and he aquaplaned into the barriers.
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Button started eighth but soon developed hydraulic problems. “Interesting”, he said. “I think someone needs to read up on what’s safe and what isn’t”.
