Hamilton heads the title race for the first time this season, with his win in Hungary on Sunday establishing a six-point lead over Rosberg.
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In the closing ten laps, however, Vettel closed up on Ricciardo and threatened to pass him, but the Red Bull Racing auto was able to fend off the Ferrari’s advances just long enough to reach the chequered flag ahead.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo finished a well-deserved yet distant third (+27.539s), fending off competition from the very aggressive Sebastian Vettel (+28.213s). Though Rosberg didn’t stay in DRS range for long at any point, he stayed within three seconds of the leader all race long, a competitive but quiet one-two for Formula 1’s dominant team.
“I had one of the Red Bulls on the inside of me so I was pressured quite a lot into Turn One”.
“There was never a moment when I felt that I was going to lose it”, he said.
He has suggested taking two at the same race, to create a pool of parts.
Hamilton has five victories this season for 192 points, with Rosberg at 186. Because it’s so hot here, you don’t need a five or 10-second gap.
Nevertheless, the incident has sparked some paddock debate, with Hamilton questioning whether a 0.1s loss of time is enough to demonstrate that a driver is “ready to stop” if necessary, as written in the regulations, a query he took to Whiting on Saturday evening. The Finn clipped the back of Verstappen’s auto and damaging his own front wing in an attempt to overtake the 18-year-old and admitted post-race he felt he had been illegally blocked.
Fernando Alonso came seven, a lap down in a McLaren. Despite the hype surrounding Schumacher’s comeback in F1 that year, he managed to finish the season at seventh place in the Driver’s Championship, which was two positions higher than his partner. Up to now, it’s been a good battle with Lewis and, as I’ve always said, I’m not counting the points.
Button was also the first casualty of the new rules by FIA, motorsport’s governing body, forcing drivers to enter the pit lane for repairs – or withdraw from the race – if they are warned over the radio of any malfunctions.
“I really would love to come out of the next race with another result like this so that when I do go to Spa or Monza, whichever one it is that I have to take my penalty.that it’s minimum damage”, he said. Following that row Hamilton went on a phenomenal run, which ultimately ended in winning the title at the final race.
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“I’m happy the pace was slow because I was trying to put the pressure on him and trying to get some mistakes going from him”.
