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Lewis Hamilton dominated the Hungarian Grand Prix, but there was a huge amount going on in his wake – before the race and during it.
Before the start: Rain stops in good time before the start, but the track remains wet as the cars head to the grid.
Verstappen locks up at the Turn 12 left-hander on his reconnaissance lap and skates into the wall. He manages to limp to the grid with no front wing and damaged suspension, with Red Bull completing an incredible repair effort in time for the race.
Everyone sets off on intermediate tyres bar Magnussen, who is on wets. But both Magnussen and Grosjean come in for slicks at the end of the formation lap.
Start: Hamilton blasts away in a clear lead, as Bottas edges forward slightly before the lights then tumbles down to sixth at the actual start.
Leclerc storms down the inside and nearly takes Stroll for second, but Verstappen is coming around the outside of both and emerges in third.
Order: 1 Hamilton; 2 Stroll; 3 Verstappen; 4 Vettel; 5 Leclerc; 6 Bottas; 7 Perez; 8 Sainz, 9 Ricciardo; 10 Latifi
Edd Straw: “Looks like Perez had a load of wheelspin off the line there. He ended up down in seventh. He reports the dry line is ‘definitely there, especially in sector 2’.”
Lap 1: Hamilton leads by 3.3s over Stroll, who is under immediate pressure from Verstappen.
Scott Mitchell: “How about that from Verstappen! Swift payback with a ‘lovely’ start, which he cheered on the run up to Turn 4 then got quickly told to focus on the job at hand. Big first few seconds, though.”
Lap 1: Kvyat, who had asked on the radio if he could change to slicks before the start, now does so.
Lap 3: Leclerc and Bottas come in from fourth and sixth to take slicks.
Lap 4: Hamilton and Stroll pit from first and second to take slicks, followed by most of those still on inters. Verstappen, Ricciardo and Ocon stay out and move into first, second and third.
Lap 4: Vettel is stuck as other cars come in and his pitstop takes 9.2s. He falls to 14th but is soon back up to eighth as the remaining intermediate runners come in.
Lap 5: Verstappen, Ricciardo and Ocon all come in, moving Hamilton back into the lead. Verstappen comes out second.
Lap 5: Magnussen and Grosjean are up to third and fourth thanks to their pre-start pitstops! Stroll, Leclerc and Bottas chase them.
Edd Straw: “This is a great chance for Haas to bank a double points finish. The Ferrari engine’s qualifying weakness means it is usually struggling for track position.”
Lap 5 gaps: 1 Hamilton; 2 Verstappen +7.9s; 3 Magnussen +10.1s; 4 Grosjean +14.5s; 5 Stroll + 15.3s; 6 Leclerc +17.3s; 7 Bottas +18.3s; 8 Vettel +20.5s; 9 Albon +22.4s; 10 Perez +25.8s
Lap 5: Latifi and Sainz make contact in the pitlane, with Latifi picking up a puncture.
Lap 7: Stroll dives past Grosjean at Turn 1 to take fourth.
Lap 8: Raikkonen, who is running 15th, is given a 5s penalty for an out-of-position start.
Lap 8: Bottas is fighting hard with Leclerc – the only frontrunner on softs not mediums – to try to take sixth but is unsuccessful.
Lap 9: Leclerc declares the soft tyre “rubbish” on Ferrari team radio.
Lap 10: Bottas makes it cleanly past Leclerc into Turn 1 to take sixth.
Lap 10: Hamilton, who is setting a string of fastest laps, is now 9.5s clear of Verstappen in second and 20s ahead of Magnussen and Stroll’s battle for third.
Lap 11: Bottas cruises past Grosjean to move into fifth.
Edd Straw: “Stroll reports ‘it’s impossible’, presumably in reference to getting past Magnussen. He really needs to clear the Haas otherwise Bottas will be challenging him very soon. Stroll’s also reporting that he’s overheating his rear tyres.”
Lap 11: Vettel locks up and runs off track briefly, which allows Albon up to eighth.
Lap 15: Seventh-placed Leclerc now has Albon, Vettel, Perez, Ricciardo and Sainz forming a queue behind him. Albon takes a few speculative looks.
Scott Mitchell: “Leclerc is struggling on softs and doing the top six (including the Haas drivers) a decent service at the moment. Have to say, Magnussen’s pace compares really nicely to the tail end of the top 10! He’s much quicker.”
Lap 16: Stroll still cannot pass Magnussen for third, and now Bottas is right behind them.
Lap 16: Gasly brings a smoking AlphaTauri into the pits and retires. He’d been running 15th.
Lap 17: Stroll finally passes Magnussen for third, with Bottas rapidly following him.
Lap 18: Hamilton does a new fastest lap of 1m21.363s and now leads Verstappen by 11.6s.
Lap 18: Albon grabs seventh from Leclerc into Turn 1. Vettel tries to get past his team-mate too but can’t.
Lap 19: Vettel gets alongside Leclerc on the exit of Turn 1 and completes a move for eighth down the outside into Turn 2.
Lap 20: Leclerc asks Ferrari if it’s sure more rain is coming, as he wants to pit and be rid of his softs otherwise. He’s now defending hard from Perez, holding him off by staying around the outside at Turn 2. Ricciardo and Sainz are right with them.
Lap 21: Leclerc pits and goes to hards. He rejoins 15th.
Order: 1 Hamilton; 2 Verstappen; 3 Stroll; 4 Bottas; 5 Magnussen; 6 Grosjean; 7 Albon; 8 Vettel; 9 Perez; 10 Ricciardo; 11 Sainz; 12 Raikkonen; 13 Ocon; 14 Norris; 15 Leclerc; 16 Kvyat; 17 Russell; 18 Giovinazzi; 19 Latifi
Lap 25: Hamilton does another new fastest lap and now leads by 13s.
Edd Straw: “Hamilton reports that the front left feels like it has suffered a lot of wear. Mercedes will want to leave him out in case the rain comes in earnest – and it has the time to play with to do that.”
Lap 26: Red Bull is under investigation for drying Albon’s grid slot “using the engine cooling air of their leaf blowers when using these to cool the car engine”. Teams were explicitly told not to do that pre-race. It will be discussed post-race.
Lap 26: Leclerc has not yet progressed from 15th, where he is stuck behind Norris – who dropped back with a poor start and then pitlane congestion. Hamilton laps the Ferrari.
Scott Mitchell: “Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc, two young superstars of Formula 1, driving for McLaren and Ferrari and going wheel-to-wheel…over 14th. F1 2020 is weird.”
Lap 27: Stroll is complaining about tyre wear over the radio, but is still managing to hold a one-second cushion over fourth-placed Bottas.
Lap 28: Albon and Vettel have caught sixth-placed Grosjean.
Lap 29: Albon makes it past Grosjean to take sixth with a big dive at Turn 1. Vettel is next in line to challenge Grosjean but pits and switches to hard tyres instead. He rejoins 12th, between Raikkonen and Ocon.
Scott Mitchell: “Albon’s cut it fine with a couple of overtakes but is showing lovely aggression. This is more like it. These runs are what make Red Bull believe in him. And prove the car and driver can both do it when working well.”
Lap 30: Hamilton is now over 15s clear of Verstappen and continuing to set fastest laps, while Verstappen says his “left front is getting really bad”.
Lap 32: Vettel sets a new fastest lap and quickly passes Raikkonen for 11th.
Lap 32: Grosjean is overtaken for sixth by Perez, and makes his first pitstop soon after.
Lap 32: Leclerc finally makes it past Norris into what is now 13th as Ocon pits. A lap before that, Leclerc had got wildly sideways at Turn 2 while wheel to wheel with the McLaren. He makes the successful move at the same place a lap later, around the outside.
Lap 34: Bottas, who hasn’t been able to get especially close to Stroll for third, pits. He takes on more mediums without losing fourth place and immediately starts setting new fastest sector times.
Edd Straw: “Sensible strategy from Mercedes to bring Bottas in. There’s a big space for him to emerge into and he should be able to undercut Stroll for third place.”
Lap 35: After many laps of more rain being predicted over team radios, spots of drizzle begin to appear but are shortlived.
Lap 35: Stroll pits from third and emerges a full 6s behind Bottas as the Mercedes sets a new fastest lap. Albon pits and rejoins behind Vettel.
Lap 36: Both Magnussen and Perez pit. Magnussen rejoins behind Vettel and only just ahead of Albon.
Lap 36: Second-placed Verstappen pits. He takes on hards and has no trouble holding second – but is only 8s ahead of Bottas, who sets another new fastest lap.
Lap 37: Hamilton pits from the race lead. He rejoins on more mediums, with a lead of nearly 20s over Verstappen and Bottas rapidly closing on the Red Bull with a string of fastest laps.
Lap 38: Ricciardo and Sainz haven’t made their next pitstops yet so have risen to fifth and sixth. Next up, Vettel is now 5s clear of Albon, with Magnussen under pressure from Perez and Leclerc behind.
Lap 39: Perez passes Magnussen for ninth. Groshean is down in 13th after his pitstop.
Lap 42: Sainz pits from sixth, dropping to 11th behind Leclerc.
Lap 44: Ricciardo comes in from fifth and rejoins ninth behind Magnussen.
Lap 46: Ricciardo grabs eighth from Magnussen.
Lap 50: Bottas gets to within 2s of Verstappen but then pits for hard tyres. He stays third and has 20 laps to hunt down a 21s gap to Verstappen now.
Lap 52: Bottas is now 2s per lap faster than Verstappen and 17s behind. Stroll pits without losing fourth, rejoining ahead of Vettel, Albon, Perez and Ricciardo.
Lap 58: Hamilton laps fifth-placed Vettel. The other Ferrari of Leclerc is still clinging onto 10th under pressure from Sainz.
Lap 61: Sainz manages to overtake Leclerc for 10th. Leclerc tells Ferrari he’s “struggling so much” with his tyres after his relatively early stop.
Lap 61: Bottas’s rate of progress has slowed and he’s only catching Verstappen by a few tenths per lap. The gap is 9.5s with nine laps to go.
Lap 63: Bottas’s pace improves and he starts taking 2s per lap out of Verstappen again.
Lap 64: Mercedes prepares for but then calls off a pitstop for Hamilton. They’ve been debating whether to go for softs or hards over the radio ahead of what is effectively a ‘free’ pitstop so Hamilton can chase fastest lap.
Lap 66: Hamilton pits and gets softs. He rejoins still leading Verstappen, who now has Bottas 2.9s behind him.
Lap 67: For the second time in the race, Vettel loses a place to Albon by running wide. The Red Bull takes fifth.
Lap 68: Hamilton snatches fastest lap with a 1m17.497s.
Lap 70: Bottas catches Verstappen but has no chance to pass. Hamilton bangs in another fastest lap on the final lap.
