With 192 points, Hamilton has now taken the Championship lead off teammate Nico Rosberg who finished second in today’s race and currently stands six points behind the Briton on 186 points.
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Heading into next week’s German Grand Prix, Hamilton leads Rosberg by 6 points while Ricciardo sits third some 71 points behind. Fernando Alonso finished a strong seventh while Carlos Sainz Jr. finished eighth. Their optimistic charge lasted just a lap, and by the next time the field entered turn 1, the top two were as they would finish: Hamilton leading Rosberg. 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. And so it proved.
The Mercedes executive director, Toto Wolff, believed Rosberg, who the team signed for a further two years last week, could still fight back against Hamilton, despite having been beaten to the title by the British driver for the past two seasons. After that I was pushing the limits in every stint, not really being able to save the tires fighting in front and behind me. “The risk is we’re putting the win in jeopardy”.
Rosberg, who has also won five races this year, will have the chance to seize back the lead in his home German Grand Prix next week.
Gutierrez was investigated for “ignoring multiple blue flags” and later handed a five-second penalty by race stewards, though he insists he wasn’t ignoring them: “I didn’t ignore them!” But in reality, his win was never under threat.
His victory completed a hat-trick of successes in consecutive races, was his outright record fifth in Hungary, his fifth of the season and the 48th of his career. Eventually, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen sealed the fifth place, with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen right on his tail. In the end the penalty did not affect the Mexican’s overall finishing position of thirteenth place, a result Gutierrez will be hoping to improve upon in Hockenheim this weekend.
McLaren’s Jenson Button was the only driver who did not finish the race, pulling out after 60 laps with smoke coming out of the auto.
He was told to continue which prompted a rather sarcastic reply from the 2009 world champion.
Most drivers opted for the two pitstop strategy running on softs and then supersofts with the sun shining brightly throughout the 70 laps, even though the qualifying sessions were more of a slush fest. The team identified a hydraulic issue on his auto and told Button not to change gear – a radio call that resulted in a drive-through penalty for breaching team radio restrictions.
Rosberg added: “It was all down to the start in the end”. If I do the same thing in the next race, do I get penalised?
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He said: “I knew what I was doing, it’s not like I’ve not been doing this for a long time”.
