Hamilton wins, Verstappen second despite pre-race crash

Lewis Hamilton dominated a wet/dry Hungarian Grand Prix and deposed Valtteri Bottas from the Formula 1 world championship lead as the other Mercedes was unable to deprive Max Verstappen’s Red Bull of second.

Pre-race rain had caused immediate drama for Red Bull when Verstappen slid into the barriers at Turn 12 on his reconaissance lap, breaking his car’s front wing off and causing suspension damage.

Red Bull did a remarkable job to repair Verstappen’s car in time for the start, and he rewarded his crew by surging from seventh to third through the opening corners behind Hamilton and Lance Stroll, while Bottas tumbled to sixth with a poor getaway after initially jumping forward on the grid.

Though most started on intermediates, the track dried almost immediately. Haas brought Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean in for slicks at the end of the formation lap and that gamble paid off spectacularly as they rose to third and fourth once the rest of the field came in – behind only Hamilton and Verstappen, with Stroll emerging behind the Haases after going to slicks a lap before Verstappen.

Hamilton was in absolute command of the race from there, while the Haas duo hung on gamely before beginning a steady slide down the order.

By half-distance Hamilton was 15 seconds clear of Verstappen, with Stroll back up to third and holding the recovering Bottas at bay.

Bottas comfortably jumped the Racing Point with an undercut at the next pitstops before surging onto Verstappen’s tail.

But rather than attempting a move on track at that point, Bottas came in again for fresh hard tyres with 20 laps left in the hope of either luring Verstappen into stopping too and being undercut or letting him hunt down the Red Bull with fresher tyres on track.

The strategy failed, though. Bottas managed to catch Verstappen by the final two laps but could not get through. He was also unable to hang onto the point for fastest lap – snatched away by the victorious Hamilton after he made a late pitstop for softs without losing his lead.

Stroll had an ultimately lonely run to fourth, while Alex Albon came through to fifth with a brilliant drive from 13th on the grid.

He grabbed his final place when Sebastian Vettel ran wide late on. The Ferrari hung on for a lapped sixth ahead of slow-starter Sergio Perez’s Racing Point and the Renault of Daniel Ricciardo.

The other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc briefly ran fourth at the start but taking softs when everyone else went for mediums or hards once off intermediates backfired badly for the Monegasque. He was soon holding up a train of cars as his tyres faded and was then committed to earlier-than-ideal second and third stops.

Leclerc finally finished outside the points in 11th, overtaken in the closing stages by Carlos Sainz Jr – who salvaged a point for McLaren as a poor first lap and pitlane congestion left team-mate Lando Norris only 13th.

Magnussen managed to reward Haas with ninth place, but team-mate Grosjean fell right back to 15th.

Race Results