Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton took an uncontested win at the 2018 Formula 1 Hungary Grand Prix, taking his sixth victory at the Hungaroring. The British driver took a comfortable win starting from the pole position and took the win with a massive margin of 17.123s over Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who took P2 passing Bottas in the final stages of the race and surviving a contact in the process. Kimi Raikkonen took the last spot on the podium, 2.978s off his teammate, turning out to be one of the most consistent drivers on the grid this season.
(Cool as ever, Kimi Raikkonen finished third on the podium)
After a brilliant qualifying session in the rains, Hamilton was flying right from the opening lap creating a considerable gap between him and teammate Bottas, who started second on the grid. Vettel, on the other hand, jumped to P3 on the opening lap passing Raikkonen at Turn 2. Vettel was now only a couple of second off Bottas and only passed the Finn when the latter decided to pit on Lap 15, a lap after Raikkonen.
Hamilton had created a lead over six seconds by now and it was a tough task ahead for the Ferrari driver to come close to the W09. However, the Briton was running on ultrasofts and was yet to pit, allowing Vettel to catch up who was using softs. Having made a mistake on Lap 23, Vettel lost a second as he ran wide on Turn 12, handing over the advantage back to Hamilton. The lead W09 finally pitted at almost half point in the race, allowing Vettel to take the lead, albeit briefly.
Howwever, fresher tyres meant Hamilton didn't take too long to retake the number one spot from the German and clearly had the pace. Meanwhile, Vettel pitted on Lap 39, which saw the driver face a problem with the front-left side of his car. The incident allowed Bottas to move into P2 as Vettel joined back in P3. With Bottas defending Hamilton, Vettel had little space to charge down on the race leader.
(Bottas made contact with Vettel on Lap 65, dropping down to P5)
Bottas defended his position for the next 20 laps as both Vettel and Raikkonen charged at the Mercedes driver in a battle for second. With five laps to go, Vettel closed in on Bottas and passed the Finn on the outside of Turn 2. Bottas, however, braked too late and came close to Vettel making contact and clipping the front wing on the Ferrari and damaging the W09 too. Vettel, now in P2 was a distant second over Hamilton, while the incident allowed Raikkonen to move to P3.
Bottas moved down the order to P5 and further made contact with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo on Lap 66, who finished fourth after starting a distant 12th on the grid. For teammate Max Verstappen, it wasn't the best day after an engine problem forced him to retire. The incident clearly didn't go down well with team Christian Horner, especially amidst the team's decision to move from Renault to Honda engines next season.
Finishing sixth was Torro Rosso's Pierre Gasly with a Honda engine, ahead of Kevin Magnussen of Haas and Fernando Alonso of McLaren. It was expected to be a double points finish for McLaren, but Stoffel Vandoorne had to retire following a gearbox issue in the final stages of the race. Renault's Carlos Sainz was then promoted to ninth with the final point taken by Haas' Romain Grosjean.
Having added the Hungary GP to his name, Hamilton now has a lead of 24 points over Vettel on the points table before the summer break. Meanwhile Mercedes dominates the constructors' standings with a lead of 10 points over Ferrari.
