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Writer's pictureRhonan Colquhoun

F1: Hamilton blitzes opposition to win in Hungary

Lewis Hamilton wins the Hungarian GP for a record eighth time with ease ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Mercedes Valterri Bottas to take the lead in the championship.


19th July 2020


Right from the start of the race where the track conditions were tricky, Lewis Hamilton was totally dominant, pulling out a lead that was comfortable and putting on a performance that lapped nearly all of the field to win for the 86th time.


With the victory and the bonus point for the fastest lap, Hamilton takes the lead in the championship and also matches the record held by Michael Schumacher with wins at one given circuit.


Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1st

"Round One had multiple different punches that I wasn't perhaps ready for but I refocused and the last two have been fantastic."


Max Verstappen's race looked to be over before the race had even started as the Dutchman slid off the track on the lap to the grid and hit the barriers. On the grid, his Red Bull mechanics worked furiously to get the car fixed - mainly his suspension on the front left tyre and a new nose cone. A job that normally takes 90 minutes, his mechanics got it done in 18!


It was a good start by Verstappen and stayed out a lap longer than everyone when the track was drying to jump into second. He remained second and held off a very fast Bottas in the dying laps.


Coming into this race as championship leader, Bottas lined-up in second but moved before the lights went out, jumping the start, due to a light on his steering wheel. His delayed start dropped him down the order. Despite this, he never got a penalty as he was still within his grid spot.


Valterri Bottas, Mercedes, 3rd

"It was a pretty bad race from me to be honest. Starting second, obviously we aim to win the race. But I lost it from the start, I reacted to a light on my dash that went off. I don't know what it was. I lost many places and it made the race pretty difficult for me."

The Finn climbed his way back through and closed on Verstappen before making a late pit-stop. He closed the gap, setting fastest lap after fastest lap, to be within striking distance on the final lap but couldn't find a way through.


Lance Stroll drove a brilliant race for Racing Point who ran as high as second at the start of the pace to finish fourth. The Canadian made the necessary overtakes at the right time, had the pace to hold-off Bottas, to finish fourth, the highest he's finished since Germany last year.


Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 4th

"Very happy. It was a great race. We had a great start on the inter, which was a relief. You never really know with a wet start how you will get off the line. All in all a great result by the team. We did a great job and had a great package all weekend, strong pace and great points for the team."


After such a hard qualifying, Alexander Albon put in a great drive to finish fifth after starting in 13th. It was a good start and battled the Ferrari's throughout and a late pass on Sebastian Vettel gave the London born Thai-Brit for a great fifth place. However, his hard work could be undone as Red Bull have been summoned to the stewards for allegedly drying his grid spot.


Vettel finished sixth for Ferrari, fending off the Racing Point of Sergio Perez in the final laps to take home eight points.


Behind Perez in seventh, Daniel Ricciardo took eighth after a mega stint on the Medium tyres to grab four points for Renault after starting in 11th.


Kevin Magnussen was arguably one of the drivers of the day after an inspired strategy by him and his Haas team to pit for the dry tyres at the end of the formation lap. Team-mate Romain Grosjean followed suit and both ran in third and fourth when everyone else pitted. Magnussen defended well and finished the race in ninth taking his and Haas's first points of the season.


Carlos Sainz Jr took the final point for McLaren in tenth after a late pass on his team-mate for next year, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.


Leclerc and Vettel made a good start for Ferrari and when it came to the first round of pit-stops, Leclerc went onto the Soft tyre which the Monegasque did not like - calling them "rubbish". They didn't work at all and he fell back into the clutches of Albon and Vettel. He pitted onto the Hard tyre and lost out on a point after being overtaken by Sainz.


Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 11th

"It is disappointing but at the end we just need to work now. To be honest I think there was something wrong in the race, it doesn't match with the car I had in qualifying and Friday. The car was extremely hard to drive on my side today."


Daniil Kvyat took 12th for for Alpha Tauri ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris who overtook the Renault of Esteban Ocon for 13th with only a few laps to go.


Grosjean fell down the order after his second stop, losing grip and pace on the Hard tyre, eventually finishing 14th. Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen, who started last for the first time in his F1 career, lined-up in the wrong position, received a time penalty but finished 15th.


George Russell, Williams, 17th

"There are plenty of positives, we just need to rectify the negatives and make the pace of the car a bit better."


Antonio Giovinazzi in the second Alfa Romeo took 16th ahead of George Russell who qualified in 12th for Williams. The Brit and his Williams team are still baffled by their lack of race pace.


Nicholas Latifi had a horrible race. After his first pit-stop, he was released into the path of Sainz, got a puncture and spun. Later on in the race, he spun again and ended the race five laps down.


Pierre Gasly was on the only retirement of the race after the Alpha Tauri driver retired after an issue with his new power unit that was installed before the race.


After the Race


The Stewards gave Magnussen and Grosjean a ten second time penalty each after they were in breach of the regulations. This was directed at the start of the race where both drivers communicated with their team to change tyres at the end of the formation lap which is forbidden. Magnussen dropped to 10th with Grosjean to 16th.


Albon and Red Bull escaped any sort of penalty after an investigation was launched after the team was alleged to have used blowers to dry Albon's grid spot.


Hungarian GP Result

  1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 71 Laps

  2. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, +8.702s

  3. Valterri Bottas, Mercedes, +9.452s

  4. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, +57.579s

  5. Alexander Albon, Red Bull, +78.316s

  6. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, + 1 Lap

  7. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, + 1 Lap

  8. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, + 1 Lap

  9. Carlos Sainz Jr, McLaren, + 1 Lap

  10. Kevin Magnussen, Haas, + 1 Lap

  11. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, + 1 Lap

  12. Daniil Kvyat, Alpha Tauri, + 1 Lap

  13. Lando Norris, McLaren, + 1 Lap

  14. Esteban Ocon, Renault, + 1 Lap

  15. Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo, + 1 Lap

  16. Romain Grosjean, Haas, + 1 Lap

  17. Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo, + 1 Lap

  18. George Russell, Williams, + 1 Lap

  19. Nicholas Latifi, Williams, + 5 Laps

  • Pierre Gasly, Alpha Tauri, DNF

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