Hamilton leads title race after Hungary winposted in F124 | 07 | 2016
LEWIS HAMILTON DOMINATED the Hungarian Grand Prix to win the race for the fifth time, beating his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg into second. The victory, Hamilton’s 48th of his career, moves him into the lead in the World Championship for the first time this season.
Hamilton, who at one time was 43 points behind Rosberg, now heads to Germany this weekend having won five of the last six grands prix, and leading his title rival by six points.
Starting second on the grid, the three-times world champ launched himself into the lead at the first corner, and was never headed in the race.
Controlling the race, and constantly looking after his tyres and Mercedes engine, Hamilton cruised to a 1.9sec victory. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo just held off Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari for the final podium spot.
Fifth place went to Ricciardos’ Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen, who fended off intense pressure by the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen. So close was their scrap that at one stage the Finn clipped the Dutchman's car.
Hamilton’s style of controlling the race raised questions within the Mercedes team, with his race engineer warning him just before the midway point that unless he picked up the pace Rosberg would pit first at the second round of stops to fend off the threat being posed by Ricciardo.
"I'm driving to the best of my ability," Hamilton, who then managed a surge to put 2.8s between himself and Rosberg, replied.
That ensured the Englishman was pitted one lap before Rosberg, and with another set of softs fitted after 41 laps continued to control the race from the front.
Hamilton though did have time to give the Haas of Esteban Gutierrez a middle-finger salute after the Mexican held up the Mercedes driver. The stewards agreed, handing Mercedes a five-second time penalty for ignoring blue flags.
The top 10 was rounded off by McLaren's Fernando Alonso, who took a season-best seventh, Carlos Sainz Jr’s Toro Rosso, Williams's Valtteri Bottas and Nico Hulkenberg for Force India.
But one of the main talking points was, again, the FIA’s strange implementation of radio rules. Having radioed in to his McLaren team that his brake pedal was “going to the floor”, the team — and Button — were subsequently punished by the stewards with a drive-through penalty for unauthorised radio communication.
At the time Button, who had pitted after receiving instructions from his team regarding the brake hydraulic pressure software problem, was running last. In the end he was forced to retire with an oil leak.
F1 — Hungarian Grand Prix (Hungaroring), Result:
1. Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes-Mercedes 70 laps
2. Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes-Mercedes +1.9s
3. Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-TAG Heuer +27.5s
4. Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari-Ferrari +28.2s
5. Max Verstappen NED Red Bull-TAG Heuer +48.6s
6. Kimi Raikkonen FIN Ferrari-Ferrari +49.0s
7. Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda +1 lap
8. Carlos Sainz ESP Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
9. Valtteri Bottas FIN Williams-Mercedes +1 lap
10. Nico Hulkenberg GER Force India-Mercedes +1 lap
11. Sergio Perez MEX Force India-Mercedes +1 lap
12. Jolyon Palmer GBR Renault-Renault +1 lap
13. Esteban Gutierrez MEX Haas-Ferrari +1 lap
14. Romain Grosjean FRA Haas-Ferrari +1 lap
15. Kevin Magnussen DEN Renault-Renault +1 laps
16. Daniil Kvyat RUS Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
17. Felipe Nasr BRZ Sauber-Ferrari +1 lap
18. Felipe Massa BRZ Williams-Mercedes +2 laps
19. Pascal Wehrlein GER MRT-Mercedes +2 laps
20. Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber-Ferrari +2 laps
21. Rio Haryanto INA MRT-Mercedes +2 laps
Not Classified
22. Jenson Button GBR McLaren-Honda 60 laps completed
Fastest lap
Kimi Raikkonen FIN Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 23.086s
Related: Lewis Williamson misses WEC debut podium by 0.071s
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Jim McGill