(Tamas Kovacs /MTI via AP).
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The German was a whopping 43 points clear of Hamilton after soaring to four victories in as many rounds at the beginning of the year, but in the six grands prix following their crash in Spain, Hamilton has turned the title race on its head by winning five times. “To win the grand prix and have a so-so weekend, I’m pretty happy with that”.
Ferrari had opted to perform an undercut pit strategy with Sebastian Vettel coming in first, followed by Raikkonen on the next lap.
Until Sunday, Hamilton had shared the record for Hungary GP wins with seven times champion Michael Schumacher.
Hamilton responded by increasing his pace by a second on the next lap. The Brit lad now stands on the top with a six-point advantage over Rosberg.
Ricciardo was a further 27 seconds behind, less than a second ahead of Vettel. He exchanged places with his teammate and reigning F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton after losing in the latest race.
Rosberg led by 43 points at one stage after winning the first four races of the season as Hamilton was hit by bad starts in the first two races in Australia and Bahrain and then failures of engine parts that left him down the grid in China and Russian Federation.
Starting from pole, Rosberg was jumped by his teammate and both Red Bull Racing drivers.
“Arguably if you go two km/h or four km/h slower or you brake a little earlier and you drop one and a half tenths I don’t think you are preparing to stop”.
“It’s very close. Up till now it was a good battle with Lewis”. Despite being constantly pursued by team mate Nico Rosberg, the Briton had enough of a margin to lead the race the moment the five red lights went out. I’m sure he didn’t want to back him up.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff thinks the momentum will continue to swing between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg until the final race of the 2016.
“I was just managing that gap of about two seconds”.
Hamilton pitted shortly after, leaving Rosberg to lead, but the German came in a lap later as Hamilton returned to the front.
When Hamilton was asked if he felt anxious Mercedes would switch his strategy he said: “In my mind it wasn’t going to be changing”.
A disappointed Rosberg said: “It was all down to the start in the end”.
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. Yet, Hamilton was not in everyone’s good books following the race.
That race ended in a double DNF for Mercedes as the team-mates clashed on the opening lap.
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Button started eighth but soon developed hydraulic problems. 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.
