Hamilton claims dominant eighth Hungarian GP F1 win
Lewis Hamilton sealed a comprehensive victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix to claim the lead of the Formula 1 world cha🉐mpi🦩onship for the first time this year.
The six-times world champion led from star🐷t-to-finish during a wet-dry encounter to claim his eighth win at the Hungaroring, equalling Michael Schumacher’s recordღ for eight victories at the same circuit.
Hamilton had surged into a three-second lead by the end of the opening lap thanks to a perfect start, and controlled the race from there on in with a masterclass drive to land a dominant ജ86th career grand prix winᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ.
ꦛSuch was the authority o🌌f Hamilton’s performance, Mercedes took the opportunity to utilise a free pit stop and switch the Briton onto Soft tyres for a late charge to claim the fastest lap bonus point.
As a result, Hamilton now༺ leads the championship by five points from teammate Valtteri Bottas, who was forced into a r꧑ecovery drive after botching his start.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen recovered from a crash on his way to th🐽e grꩲid to claim a brilliant second place.
The Dutchman sustained dama🐟ge to his front wing and suspe𝔍nsion when he slid off the damp track at Turn 12, but his Red Bull mechanics miraculously fixed the problem in less than 20 minutes to ensure he could take the start.
Verstappen made a lighting quick start to move up the order from seventh on the grid in the opening lap, and fended off the late-charging ꦡBottas to take second.
Bottas was in question of jumping the start, but crucially avoided triggering the sensors in hiꩵs grid drop and subsequently avoided any penalty.
The Finn dropped as low as sevenﷺth but recovered through the order on a three-stop strategy to take the final spot on the podium, just 0.750s behind Verstappen.
Lance Stroll converted a second-row start into a brilliant fourth place for Ra🅠cing Point in what turned out to be a r𝓀ather lonely race for the Canadian.
Alex Albonౠ passed Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari late on to claim fifth as the last driver to finish on the lead lap, though he could face a penalty with his Red Bull crew under investigation for allegedly artificially drying his grid box using leaf blowers.
Behind Vettel’s💃 Ferrari, Sergio Perez finished seventh after losing ground at the start, while Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo claimed eighth.
Kevin Magnussen recorded Haas’ first points ꦜof the season with a brilliant drive to ninth, holding off Carlos Sainz, who scored the final point on offer for McLaren in P10.
Ferrari only got one of its cars inside the top-10 as Charles Leclerc finished 11th, ahead of Daniil 𒀰Kvyat﷽ and Lando Norris, who continued his last-lap heroics to pass Renault’s Esteban Ocon on the final tour for P13.
Romain Grosjean had run wi🌠thin the top five early on after Haas gambled to switch onto slicks as the ra😼ce got underway, but he ultimately fell away to 15th at the chequered flag.
It wa🌳s another difficult race for Alfa Romeo as Kimi Raikkonen headed teammate Antonio Giovin🐬azzi in 16th, with only the Williams pair behind.
Wil🌸liams’ race-pace struggles continued despite another impressive qualifying display from Georg꧋e Russell, who faded from his 12th-place starting position to 18th at the flag.
Teammate Nicholas Latifi endured a tough race as he fell to th🅘e back after picking up an earlyꦑ puncture, before later suffering a high-speed spin at Turn 6, on his way to 19th and last.
Pierre Gasly’s nightmare weekend of reliability ended in plumes of smoke as he retired just 16 laps into the race with what looked to be ꩵanother Honda engine failure.
After a week break, F1 returns to action with the British Grand Prix on August 2, the first of two races at S🍌ilverstone to kick-start the next triple-header of e🌳vents.
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for ltxcn.top around the world. Often reporting on th♓e action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people wh🐲o matter in the sport.
