Read Giles Richards’ report:
A great win then for Lewis Hamilton, who becomes the first driver to ever win at the Hungaroring five times. It was a bad day for Jenson Button, who was forced to retire while Kimi Raikkonen was back to some of his best. Thanks for your company, it’s been a pleasure. Have a great evening!
HAM: "Traffic was difficult today too but I'm so pleased for the team. They did an incredible job" #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/EwV42fVfw9
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 24, 2016
Hamilton speaks. “The track is great, the city is great and thank you to the fans. The start was everything in the race, I was pressured into turn one but the team did a fantastic job with the strategy.”
Hamilton, bizarrely, is asked about one of his sailing trips and he just laughs it off. Then he’s quizzed about boxing. Erm, yeah, boxing. “I’ll leave you to your ideas,” says Hamilton, abruptly ending the interviewer’s painful questions. Well, they were a bit silly.
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It was not a classic, but it was a very tactical race and, in fairness, Mercedes got it spot-on. Raikkonen had a great duel with Verstappen, and the Ferrari probably had the best race of the day. ‘Raikkonen for president’ reads one of the banners in the crowd. Rosberg will now head to his home GP in Germany, in search of rediscovering his early-season form. “It’s going to be awesome,” says Rosberg. Awesome! What an awful word. Anyway, he’s smiling again.
Meanwhile, Hamilton sprays champagne into the face of Rosberg, and just about everywhere else.
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So the drivers head for the podium! Hamilton bounces onto the podium, smiling. And Rosberg will have to make do with second, again.
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Hamilton now has a six-point lead in the driver’s championship, ahead of team-mate Rosberg. The two of them congratulate each other, probably for the cameras, before resuming focus on themselves.
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Niki Lauda speaks. “I don’t really know what happened but Lewis went quicker after we asked him to,” he says. For Ricciardo, there are high-fives all-round. He’s all smiles, and laughs. He’s a happy chappy!
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How big a moment might that be in the driver’s championship? Hamilton clambers out of the car, appears to dab and runs over to start the celebrations. His first win for Mercedes was in 2013 in Hungary and he’s done it again here. For Mercedes as a whole, it’s another great day and another one-two finish.
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Lewis Hamilton wins Hungarian Grand Prix!
And he takes the championship lead with it! Nico Rosberg concedes a lead which he has held since the opening day of the season. Daniel Ricciardo seals the final podium spot, ahead of the former Red Bull, Sebastien Vettel.
“As always guys, thank you so much for your hard work this weekend. I appreciate all the hard work, thank you,” says Hamilton at the end of the race.
In the battle of the day: Max Verstappen finishes fifth, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, who raced superbly, after starting 14th on the grid.
🏁 POINTS SCORERS 🏁
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 24, 2016
1 HAM
2 ROS
3 RIC
4 VET
5 VES
6 RAI
7 ALO
8 SAI
9 BOT
10 HUL#HungarianGP 🇭🇺 pic.twitter.com/EulnTo6ADu
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Final lap! Can Hamilton hold on and claim his 48th F1 victory?
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Lap 69/70: Two laps remaining! Hamilton is still the race leader, Rosberg is 2nd and Ricciardo is 3rd. Vettel is in fourth.
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Lap 68/70: Massa has just pitted, and could yet set the fastest lap, despite being right at the back of the field. There’s a reason they don’t give prizes for the fastest lap ...
Meanwhile, Raikkonen, again, is blocked by Verstappen. Raikkonen, over the team radio, is still livid at Verstappen, when he failed to get past the Red Bull a few laps ago.
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Lap 67/70: Raikkonen has so much more grip and pace than Verstappen but the Ferrari is still in sixth.
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66/70: It’s been far from convincing really from Hamilton but he still is the man out in front and in the lead. Can Rosberg do something special to finish victorious here? Rosberg, who started on pole, will probably rue the very start of this race, when Ricciardo distracted him before Hamilton prevailed, taking his lead.
Lap 65/70: Alonso is gaining on Raikkonen a little in a battle for sixth. Hamilton locked up going into turn 12, which will not aid his attempt of trying to stay out in front. 5 laps to go!
Lap 64/70: That traffic is working a treat for Rosberg again as Hamilton loses his lead on his team-mate. Rosberg is just over half a second now behind his team-mate. Until now, though, Hamilton has found that extra speed when he needs it. Can he do so again?
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Lap 63/70: Button retires from the race. A miserable afternoon.
Lap 62/70: “Raikkonen is going out of the track limits,” moans Verstappen. Shortly after, Verstappen locks in but manages to hold off Raikkonen.
As it stands:
- Hamilton
- Rosberg
- Ricciardo
- Vettel
- Verstappen
LAP 60/70: Not deterred by the damage, RAI comes back for more... pic.twitter.com/CEXffTB28r
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 24, 2016
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Lap 61/70: Rosberg and Hamilton continues to be a game of cat-and-mouse. The gap is now inside two seconds. Button is up into 19th in terms of those back-markers. Wehrlein, Ericsson and Haryanto are all behind the McLaren.
Lap 60/70: Raikkonen continues to force the issue with Verstappen. He’s not giving up easily. Haryanto and Kvyat are obstacles that might not aid the Red Bull.
Lap 59/70: Hamilton now leads Rosberg by 2.3 seconds, so the gap has closed a little. Raikkonen remains in sixth, hunting down Verstappen in fifth.
Lap 58/70: As we know, you’re only allowed the one change of direction. Raikkonen did indeed try to go around the outside before Verstappen shafted the car from right to left and back again. Let’s see what happens with that.
Lap 57/70: Raikkonen has lost part of his front-wing! He clashes with Verstappen. “He moved right and then back to left when I was going there,” says Raikkonen. They were both moving.
Lap 56/70: Hamilton continues to turn it on, extending his lead over Rosberg to 2.9 seconds. Mercedes’ rollocking seems to have done the trick. Raikkonen has go a go into turn 2 on the outside but Verstappen positions his car perfectly to hold off the Ferrari. There’s half a second between those two.
Lap 55/70: Raikkonen, as thought, has caught up with Verstappen and is giving it a good go. The Dutchman is going to have to try and keep Raikkonen, who is faster in the Ferrari on super-soft tyres, at bay.
Lap 54/70: Hamilton has found an extra gear and has opened up a bigger gap between him and his team-mate Rosberg. He’s managed to pull out a faster lap which eases the pressure on him slightly. Meanwhile, Alonso has been given a warning for exceeding track limits.
Lap 53/70: Rosberg has closed the gap on Hamilton to almost half a second! Hamilton was held up by a back-marker, like Ricciardo, by traffic in the field. It was Gutierrez who caused him a problem and Hamilton is quick to let him know what he thinks about it.
Lap 52/70: Ricciardo is trying to weave through the traffic jam ahead of him and is suffering as a result. The Red Bull looked ready to steal a march on Hamilton and Rosberg before pitting but it’s not really worked out for him – yet.
Lap 51/70: 20 laps to go, then. Raikkonen has come into the pits, for his second stop. Ferrari have brought him in then, seemingly, as there’s a nice gap for him to slot into to go and ransack Verstappen.
Lap 50/70: Verstappen has been given another warning for going too wide at turn 4, where Palmer also just exceeded the track limits. Palmer certainly went off the track and was fortunate not to end up in the barriers.
Lap 49/70: Oh dear! Double-drat! What was a great race for Palmer was almost over. He lost it on turn 4 and has almost certainly thrown away those hopes of championship points. Palmer has now gone back to 13th. Shame.
LAP 50/70: Bad luck for PAL as he spins off shortly after moving into the points
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 24, 2016
He's back on track but in P13 pic.twitter.com/NjsWDkLso3
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Lap 48/70: Kvyat, who was penalised for speeding in the pit lane earlier, is back in the pits. Palmer has now jumped up into the points as a result of Kvyat serving that five-second penalty in the pits.
Lap 47/70: Rosberg is gaining on Hamilton. The gap has been almost halved, and is now 2.1 seconds. Hamilton cannot find the same pace as his team-mate. The Red Bull of Ricciardo is four seconds behind the German in third.
Lap 46/70: Perez is looking a little wobbly after that bizarre pit. He’s just lost his traction when trying to take on Gutierrez. “Why were you not ready?” Perez asks his team about that pit-stop. Towards the front, Vettel is 5th, Verstappen is now 6th.
Lap 45/70: Raikkonen, who started 14th on the grid, is currently fourth but he will have to pit again. Anyway, he’s having a great race.
FASTEST LAPS (after 45 of 70 laps)
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 24, 2016
Kimi 💨#HungarianGP #F1 🇭🇺 pic.twitter.com/kq0whmL58p
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Lap 44/70: Hamilton has gained a little over two seconds during that second pit-stop cycle, by pitting before his team-mate. Elsewhere, Gutierrez is 13th, Perez in 14th.
Lap 43/70: Before the two Mercedes headed to the pits, Hamilton was 2.5 seconds ahead of Rosberg. Now, he’s got a lead of almost 4.8 seconds. Race leader Hamilton has not done too badly out of that.
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Lap 42/70: Vettel comes out on the medium tyre and ahead of Massa. Rosberg is about to pit.
Lap 41/70: Hamilton comes in to pit again. Perez also pitted but totally surprised the Force India mechanics, who were not ready to see him. Vettel has also made a smart stop.
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Lap 40/70: Hulkenberg and Palmer are both pitting. They were neck and neck going into it. But Palmer has come out ahead of Hulkenberg. Force India had a slight problem on the right-rear and Palmer’s team have done it. Palmer has moved into 12th. What a move!
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Lap 39/70: Dutch flags and Verstappen T-shirts are everywhere in Budapest. He’s a pretty popular 18-year-old.
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Lap 38/70: Verstappen is warned for going off track at turn 11. Hamilton has shaved a second of his lap time since being warned by his team to speed up, or face the consequences.
Lap 38/70: Mercedes are given a little breathing space because Ricciardo has slowed, but only because the Red Bull was forced to lap Button, who’s having a miserable Sunday. The cage was momentarily rattled, but Mercedes are still in the driving seat.
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Lap 37/70: Hamilton has ramped it up a little but Rosberg is still in danger of being undercut. Elsewhere, Ericsson, who has just found a way past Massa, is eyeing up taking on Wehrlein.
Lap 36/70: Massa has been relegated to 20th-place by Ericsson. Button is still making up the numbers right at the back of the grid.
Lap 35/70: Half-way stage in Hungary, then. Hamilton leads, Rosberg in 2nd, Vettel in 3rd, Verstappen in 4th and then Ricciardo in fifth after pitting.
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Lap 34/70: Hamilton has been told to speed-up or Rosberg will be given the preferential treatment going forward here. Hamilton needs to find some more pace from somewhere.
Lap 33/70: Rosberg is increasingly vulnerable. “I’m driving to the best of my availability,” says Hamilton. He’s been told to open a gap because the Red Bulls are on his tail. Is Hamilton driving intentionally slow, to create problems for Rosberg? The team aren’t too happy about the situation regardless. Ricciardo pits, forcing Mercedes into a re-think.
Lap 32/70: Things just getting better for Raikkonen. He’s just unleashed a 1.23.254 lap – the fastest yet. Those super-soft tyres already prevailing after starting on the soft tyres.
Lap 31/70: Rosberg is losing ground on Hamilton now, 1.6 seconds behind the race leader. Elsewhere, Raikkonen, again, excels, sliding past Alonso into sixth. It’s been a great race for him so far.
Lap 29/70: Ah, lovely! Verstappen speeds past as Raikkonen pits. Super-soft tyres on. Alonso has now passed Raikkonen, who is now in seventh after starting 14th on the grid.
Lap 28/70: All 22 drivers are still going in Hungary, then. Verstappen is looking increasingly frustrated, judging by his driving at least as continues to flirt with Raikkonen. Meanwhile, Kvyat is given a five-second penalty.
Lap 28/70: ‘Hang on in there’: that’s the message for Raikkonen. He continues to hold off Verstappen, who cannot get past the Ferrari in fifth.
📻 Ferrari: "Pace is still good, hang on in there"
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 24, 2016
Looks like RAI (P5) is on a one-stop #HungarianGP #F1 🇭🇺 pic.twitter.com/3lsSrazmPe
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Lap 27/70: Kvyat is being investigated for speeding in the pit lane. Meanwhile, Massa pits, and goes onto a medium tyre. Will that last him until the end?
Lap 26/70: “I’m working on it,” says Hamilton, after being asked to pick up the pace a little bit. This all looks very rosy for Ricciardo and Verstappen in the Red Bulls.
Lap 25/70: Vettel has a second warning for exceeding the track limits. One more, and he’ll have himself a penalty. Elsewhere, Ericsson now trails the group behind Button.
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Lap 24/70: Hamilton appears to be struggling through the first sector. Meanwhile, Renault duo Palmer and Magnussen, who are yet to stop, are looking good down in P8 and P9.
Lap 23/70: Rosberg is faster than Hamilton. Everybody, seemingly, is lapping faster than Hamilton at the moment but he still leads.
Lap 22/70: Ricciardo is catching them. Hamilton’s 6.5 second lead has been chopped down to almost 5.7. Ricciardo, Verstappen and Vettel are all currently faster than the Mercedes.
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Lap 21/70: Rosberg is now just a second behind Hamilton. Ricciardo is also closing on the two Mercedes and the front two have a little bit of a headache. The Red Bull is one second quicker than both of the Mercedes at the moment. What can Mercedes do about it?
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Lap 20/70: Hamilton says he’s “struggling for pace” and the race leader is not having it all his own way. Rosberg, meanwhile, will be pretty happy with that.
Lap 19/70: Raikkonen, who is yet to pit, is driving a team race, keeping Verstappen at bay. Vettel will probably be given the freedom to have a little more of a go. Verstappen continues to poke away at Raikkonen, but he cannot get past.
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Lap 18/70: Rosberg pits. Hamilton restores his lead, and he’s ahead of his team-mate once more.
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17/70: Raikkonen and Verstappen are having a lovely little duel. The Red Bull nipped in ahead of the Ferrari but Raikkonen shows his experience and powers back in front. The race for fifth continues.
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Lap 17/70: Rosberg goes into the lead as Hamilton comes out of the pits and into no mans land. Bottas pits, allowing Ricciardo and Vettel to charge on.
Lap 16/70: Now Ricciardo pits. Nice and quick, he’s in and out. But he fails to come out of the pits ahead of Bottas, although he’s in front of the Ferrari of Vettel.
Lap 15/70: Vettel, Hulkenberg and Grosjean have all gone into the pits. Verstappen continues to sway and he’s losing ground on Ricciardo and co.
Lap 14/70: Grosjean continues to bat Raikkonen’s attentions away. DRS is not helping.
Elsewhere: “The brake pedal going to floor isn’t classed as a safety issue, I think somebody needs to read up on what is safe and what isn’t,” says Button, who is fuming.
Lap 13/70: Some grandmas are probably very quick around the track. Verstappen is drifting and sliding a little. Raikkonen continues to trail Grosjean, but he cannot find a way past.
Lap 12/70: Wehrlein has pitted, as has Massa. The two Mercedes remain out in front.
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Lap 11/70: Button is in the pits again for a drive-through penalty. He’s probably not feeling too jolly.
Lap 10/70: Have some of that, Nico, says Hamilton as he lands a new fastest lap of 1.25.674.
Lap 9/70: Button is back on the track and up-and-running, with plenty of room in front of him. Rosberg has set a new fastest lap of 1.26.04. Meanwhile, Button has been penalised for those rogue radio communications.
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Lap 8/70: “I’m driving like a grandma,” says Verstappen. He’s the first one into the pits. Meanwhile, Button’s been investigated for ‘unauthorised radio communications’ after being ordered into the pits by McLaren.
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Lap 8/70: The pit-stop window is now open but nobody has sought out the pits just yet. Hamilton leads, Rosberg is second with Ricciardo sat in third.
Lap 7/70: Raikkonen and Gutierrez are battling away for 11th. Raikkonen, on soft tyres, is directly behind his former team-mate Grosjean. Raikkonen has amassed seven podium finishes here in Hungary over the years.
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Lap 6/70: Rosberg closes the gap a little on Hamilton. Button is now running in 22nd, at the back of the group. He’s been told to stay out on the track, although he’s not too happy about it.
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Lap 5/70: Button has an issue with his brakes. Over the team radio, he’s told they’ve lost hydraulic pressure. Race engineer Tom Stallard is trying to find a solution. “Game over,” says Button, though.
Lap 4/70: Hamilton is 1.6 seconds ahead of team-mate Rosberg. Vettel is 5th, Alonso 6th and Button has been overtaken by Bottas and Hulkenberg.
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Lap 3/70: Massa has slid down to 19th, Kyvat is 20th. The Brazilian might still be having steering trouble, which hampered Williams’ preparation this afternoon. Meanwhile, DRS is enabled.
Lap 2/70: Hamilton charges away from Rosberg, he’s intent on doing the business here today, and recording back-to-back wins in the process. Hamilton has built a lead of more than one-and-a-half seconds ahead of Rosberg. Button is still down in eighth, where he started.
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Lights out!
It’s a great start for Hamilton and Ricciardo, who slides ahead of Rosberg down the inside. The German fights back, though, but remains behind Hamilton, who stormed out off the line. A brilliant start. Verstappen trails Ricciardo.
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The clock strikes one! The drivers are off on the warm-up lap. Super-soft tyres across the board for the top 10 on the grid.
The drivers are on the grid, with the race just 60 seconds away. A reminder that the Red Bull pair Verstappen and Ricciardo, start just behind Mercedes’ Rosberg and Hamilton, who are on the front row.
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Killer stat, sort of. No driver has won the Hungarian Grand Prix and then taken the championship since Michael Schumacher since 2004.
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Claire Williams, the Williams deputy team principal has spoken out about Massa’s problems. “He was having problems on one side, we replaced part of the rack again but coming into the grid, now he’s got a problem in the other direction.” It doesn’t sound too promising.
Mercedes chief Toto Wolff looks cool, calm and collected ahead of this one. “I think pace-wise, we should be OK,” he says.
Here come the anthems. Meanwhile, Massa has made it onto the grid, so Williams appear to have rectified that problem.
LIFT-OFF = T-MINUS-15-MINS 🚀#HungarianGP 🇭🇺 🚥 pic.twitter.com/HPuMYBCnzR
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 24, 2016
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Felipe Massa has a problem with his steering rack. There’s a flurry of Williams mechanics trying to do address the situation, most with glum faces.
The pit lane has been slowly filling up ahead of the off, which is almost 20 minutes away now. The cars are out and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, over the radio, has expressed some concerns. “It’s very difficult out here,” he says.
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The grid!
1 Rosberg 2 Hamilton
3 Ricciardo 4 Verstappen
5 Vettel 6 Sainz
7 Alonso 8 Button
9 Hulkenberg 10 Bottas
11 Grosjean 12 Kvyat
13 Perez 14 Raikkonen
15 Gutierrez 16 Nasr
17 Palmer 18 Massa
19 Magnussen 20 Ericsson*
21 Wehrlein 22 Haryanto
*Marcus Ericsson will start from the pit lane after a new chassis was fitted following a crash during Q1
The 107% rule, discuss. Article 35.1 of the sporting regulations states:
“During Q1, any driver whose best qualifying lap exceeds 107% of the fastest time set during that session, or who fails to set a time, will not be allowed to take part in the race.
“Under exceptional circumstances however, which may include setting a suitable lap time in a free practice session, the stewards may permit the car to start the race.
“Any driver accepted in this manner will be placed at the back of the starting grid after any other penalties have been applied.
“Should there be more than one driver accepted in this manner they will be arranged on the grid in the order they were classified in P3.”
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“How do you get into Formula One? Go-karts and that? It’s like your life is a constant stag-do,” the comedian Rob Beckett asks Daniel Ricciardo, from a segment of Sky’s A League of Their Own show.
Jenson Button’s contract situation remains a little blurry, and Williams where he started his career, are supposedly sniffing around him. McLaren racing director Eric Boullier says discussions over a new deal will not start until September. “It’s up to him, he does what he wants, but we have all agreed to start discussions at the end of the season,” says Boullier. “There is a lot speculation around the drivers and the biggest distraction you can bring into your team are these kind of discussions.”
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“A lot of the entries into the corners are very bumpy, especially around four, five and six,” says Jenson Button. “Although, this year they have a lovely smooth asphalt.” Button won his maiden F1 race in Budapest 10 years ago. Today he starts eighth on the grid.
Preamble
Good morning/afternoon! There is still plenty of racing to come, but the head-to-head race at the top of the driver’s championship between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg is already a pulsating one. Just a point separates the two going into today’s race in Budapest. Rosberg, who signed a new contract with Mercedes earlier in the week, is on pole and has no doubt been toasting his new deal in the Széchenyi Baths, possibly plunging rival and team-mate Hamilton into the piping hot thermal springs. As ever, Hamilton is close by, and will also start on the front row, alongside Rosberg.
Yesterday’s qualifying was an all-day event. It was a wet-dry marathon, with delayed starts, four red-flag stoppages and a stewards investigation – three hours after qualifying finished – into Rosberg’s conduct during yellow flags waved to indicate a car was stationary on the circuit.
“These drivers are the best in the world,” said Toto Wolff. “They need to be in control and they need to be able to judge what speed is appropriate for the circumstances and I think we can trust them as Formula One drivers.”
The race begins at 1pm BST, so, until then, read Giles Richards’ report from qualifying yesterday.
Buoyant, upbeat and in irrepressibly good humour all weekend, Lewis Hamilton was dealt a firm reminder in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday that a season of fluctuating fortune has no intention of allowing him to escape the spills as well as the thrills.
As has been the case so often this year, the world champion and his Mercedes team-mate, Nico Rosberg, were at the centre of the drama. But so too was Formula One, which had cause to consider a safety issue that has been sensitive ever since the accident in 2014 that led to the death of Jules Bianchi last year.
And gem yourself up on all things Hungaroring, which just slips off of the tongue. According to Wikipedia, erm, the track was built in just eight months.
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