Stewards at the Hungarian Grand Prix sent the wrong message about yellow warning flags abuse by failing to penalise Nico Rosberg, his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton said after winning Sunday’s race.
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Hamilton s win increased his points total to 192, six more than Rosberg as Ricciardo moved up to third.
Hamilton then controlled the 70 laps with a mixture of speed and flawless judgment in sweltering heat at the Hungaroring circuit. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) +1.977secs 3.
Ricciardo was a further 27 seconds behind, less than a second ahead of Vettel.
Lewis Hamilton has won four of the last five Formula 1 races and he is a four-time champion at this track. He too could not get by the Red Bull, and finished a scant 0.4 seconds behind.
The win was Hamilton’s fifth in Hungary, making Hamilton the most successful driver at the Hungaroring in its 31-race history with one more victory than Michael Schumacher. “I’m disappointed because I couldn’t get past him”. “I got a good start, one of the Red Bulls was on the inside of me, so I was pressured quite a lot into Turn 1”.
Although Rosberg closed in over the following laps, Hamilton appeared very much in control, but his pace allowed Ricciardo to reduce his seven-second gap to just over five.
Rosberg was briefly third after the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo got off the line in swift fashion, but the German heads to his home race next weekend having won only once in six races.
Ricciardo, victor here in 2014, is aiming to repeat that feat on a track that offers Red Bull one of their best opportunities of the season to add a second victory to Verstappen’s Spanish Grand Prix triumph. “It was just really unfortunate I had to lose my lap”.
However, the German insists he isn’t thinking about his points tally at this stage and is taking each race as it comes as he battles for what would be a maiden Drivers’ Championship.
“It’s very close. Up till now it was a good battle with Lewis”. It paved the way for Rosberg, courtesy of being one of the last drivers to complete their final run, to snatch top spot for Sunday’s grid away from his championship rival. I just tried to spend it as wisely as I knew.
“It was all down to the start in the end”, said Rosberg of yesterday’s race.
Meanwhile, Verstappen lost all his chances of challenging Mercedes as he was unable to pass Raikkonen – who pitted on lap 30 – losing over 10 seconds to teammate Ricciardo.
Mercedes noticed the shrinking lead and told Hamilton to “push”, or they would have Rosberg change tires ahead of him. “He pulled off to the right and then back to the left as I was going there!” said an angry Raikkonen. “Fantastic”, he said. “Race from hell this is going to be”.
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Hamilton spoke out 24 hours after Rosberg had survived a stewards’ inquiry into his pole-position lap on Saturday when he demonstrated he had lifted off and slowed sufficiently to satisfy them in a double waved yellows zone after Fernando Alonso had spun in his McLaren.
