Sebastian Vettel (GER/Ferrari) 28.213, 5.
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World championship leader Nico Rosberg made the most of continued troubles for his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton by topping the times in today’s final practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Instead, Hamilton and Rosberg were able to lap as fast as and often faster than the Red Bull despite tyres that were 20 laps older. He beat Rosberg by 1.977 seconds.
“For the whole 23 years of racing, for the double yellow flags it has meant be prepared to stop”, said Hamilton, who has now won five of the last six races.
Ricciardo’s second row result came with former champions Red Bull hoping to challenge Mercedes for the win.
Hamilton made a flawless start to pull alongside Rosberg while Ricciardo surged forward on the outside in the run-up to turn one.
Hamilton registered his fifth win this season.
Red Bull duo Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen had shown glimpses of threatening the Silver Arrows, and the Australian briefly led after a gutsy move at turn one, but Hamilton ultimately won off the line, quickly getting ahead of Ricciardo in a thrilling, yet clean four-car tussle. Everything is safe. “I lifted off 30 metres before my braking point, I was just rolling there 20km/h slower until I got to the apex”.
If, as team principal Maurizio Arrivabene said per Motorsport.com’s Jonathan Noble, this was a must-win race for the Prancing Horse, fourth and sixth for Vettel and Raikkonen respectively has ended Ferrari’s 2016 championship chances. “I lost out a little bit and into Turn 1 with Daniel on the outside and Lewis on the inside, I just ran out of space and had to bailout”.
“There was never a moment when I felt that I was going to lose it”, he said.
Rosberg was forced to settle for second, two seconds behind, leaving him with a six-point deficit heading to his home grand prix in Germany next weekend.
“It’s very close. Up till now it was a good battle with Lewis. The sport’s got a long way to go before it’s good again”.
“Unless they [the FIA] are going to change the rule as to how big a penalty they will give you for being on the track, then I don’t see the point in coming into the pits”.
The Brit slid up into P1 into the first corner while Rosberg had to fight Daniel Ricciardo for second.
Hamilton responded by increasing his pace by a second on the next lap. However, they’ve only converted one of those starts into a one-two finish, and have come together in crashes multiple times this season. “When you have a power unit that is so complex, a driver can’t figure everything himself and, when your brake pedal goes to the floor, I think of that as a safety concern”, he said.
Hamilton controlled the race throughout, apart from a brief phase after the first pitstop where he appeared to not be able to unlock as much pace on the Soft tyres as his teammate.
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Jenson Button was the only retirement, parking his McLaren 10 laps from the end, although his race was ruined early on when he had a sensor problem. The 2009 world champion became the latest to criticise the draconian radio regulations, and his mood will not have been enhanced by an oil leak ending his miserable afternoon seven laps from the end.
