Lewis Hamilton wins Hungarian Grand Prix, plus full results from F1 race

Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes increased his and his team’s lead in the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships on Sunday, winning the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday.

It was an easy race for Hamilton, or at least it was an uneventful one. There was a difference of strategy between Hamilton and his top competition, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, and also one between Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas.

In the end, it was Vettel next to Hamilton in second place on the podium, after a controversial pass of Bottas in the final four laps where he arguably didn’t give Bottas enough room, causing a collision. Bottas fell to fourth, and Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull began chase. They themselves wound up colliding, and Ricciardo was relegated to fifth with a lap to go.

Mercedes wound up instructing Bottas to give the position back because the second collision could be blamed on him. That gave Ricciardo fourth, and Raikkonen was lucky in the fracas, nabbing third for a podium finish.

Pierre Gasly, Kevin Magnussen, Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz Jr. and Romain Grosjean rounded out the points finishers.

Ricciardo fell back a couple spots near the start of the race. He slowly carved his way through the pack though, and was chasing cars in his caliber before the first round of pit stops were completed. Off the start, both of Hamilton and Bottas got off the line well, but the strategies were quickly split as Ferrari pit Kimi Raikkonen early.

Mercedes responded by pitting Bottas from second, covering Raikkonen easily but ceding position to Vettel. Mercedes eventually pit Hamilton from the lead, and rejoined 13 seconds back of Vettel, who at that point was trying to keep an edge over Bottas. Ricciardo, meanwhile, slowly carved his way through the pack and made it up to fifth position, without a pit stop.

After Vettel finally pit on Lap 40 to fit the ultrasoft tires, he rejoined the track behind both Mercedes drivers, just barely missing Bottas due to a slow pit stop. After Ricciardo’s pit stop, he remained in fifth, and was chasing down Raikkonen for the fourth spot.

Charles Leclerc of Sauber was the first driver to retire from the race, going out on the opening lap with engine trouble. A few laps later, it was Max Verstappen of Red Bull who had to stop, going over the team radio with a tirade that contained an awful lot of censored words. It was another problem with the engine, the turbo, which has been the problem in past retirements for him.

The next driver to stop was Stoffel Vandoorne, many laps later around Lap 50, prompting a virtual safety car, but nobody in the points stopped. He was running in the points and was having one of his better drives, so a very disappointing end for him.

Below, you can view the full finishing order for Sunday’s race, and below that is the live-blog in reverse order.

Lap 70/70 - FINAL

Ricciardo gains on Bottas and gives Bottas plenty of room — but perhaps Bottas’ wing issues came into play, and now they’ve crashed! Ricciardo spins out, but maintains fifth position. Bottas was a sitting duck, but the move didn’t get done! Bottas’ team comes over the radio and instructs him to give the position back to Ricciardo, likely getting ahead of any action by the stewards. And as that happens, Hamilton brings it home for the lead, ahead of Vettel, Raikkone, Ricciardo, Bottas, Gasly, Magnussen, Alonso, Sainz and Grosjean.

Lap 67/70

Wow! Vettel makes a move on Bottas, and it’s not a clean one! He connects with Bottas, who also loses his spot to Raikkonen! There’s damage on Vettel’s car, but no signs of a puncture. That was a bad one ... and Bottas has to pit with four laps to go — or not. He stays out with significant damage to his front wing, with Ricciardo 4 seconds behind him. This is a disaster for Bottas. Wow.

Lap 63/70

The soft tires of Bottas and Raikkonen should be reaching the end of their lives, and the two are separated by less than two seconds, with Vettel in-between them. Hamilton checks in on Bottas behind him, and is told that his teammate is doing fine. He’s still got Vettel half a second behind him, though.

Lap 58/70

Vettel’s team radio tells him that Bottas is going to make it the rest of the race. Vettel begins pushing again on Bottas, gets within DRS range of him again by Lap 57. Raikkonen is also 3.2 seconds back of Vettel, so if Vettel makes it through, there’s a chance that Raikkonen can capitalize as well. Vettel’s radio tells him that Bottas is losing his rear tires. He’s staying within as econd of Bottas, but he hasn’t made any real charges for a pass. The ultrasoft tires aren’t looking that great, at least for Vettel.

Lap 52/70

Grosjean is struggling to catch Sainz, who himself is struggling to catch the two McLaren cars ahead of him. Ricciardo is 21 seconds up on Gasly, who is nearly 10 seconds up on Magnussen, who is nearly 20 seconds up on Alonso, so there are some large gaps on the track. Vandoorne has to stop with some kind of car issue, and we’ve got a virtual safety car. Mercedes had their pit crew out there, and it looks like a bluff (or a drill). Yup, neither Hamilton nor Bottas stop. No bait for Ferrari there.

Lap 46/70

Vettel is right behind Bottas, but he falls back after making a few attempts at passing. Ricciardo comes in for his only pit stop, and rejoins the race in fifth, ahead of Gasly and well ahead of Magnussen behind him. The Top 10 is Hamilton, Bottas, Vettel, Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Gasly, Magnussen, Alonso, Vandoorne, and Sainz.

Lap 40/70

Sainz held up Vettel big time and he lost some important time to Bottas. Ferrari pit crew comes out, but Vettel stays out. A lap later, he pits on Lap 40, and fits the ultrasoft tires — and it’s a slow pit stop! Vettel loses the place to Bottas and rejoins in third! It was a slow pit stop with the left front having some issues.

Lap 33/70

Gasly is maintaining a nice gap to the Haas cars behind him. Vettel seems to be staying out long enough for a late push with a set of ultrasoft tires, but its hard to imagine him getting another 14 laps out of his tires like he’d need. His gap to Bottas is still about 22 seconds as of Lap 31. Magnussen’s pit stop was quite slow and rejoins in ninth place — he was running very well before that, but now has to chase down a pair of McLarens.

Lap 28/70

Vettel goes wide and loses nearly 1.5 seconds that he had just gained on Hamilton over the last two laps. Hulkenberg comes into pit on Lap 24, swapping his softs for medium tires. Hamilton comes in on Lap 26, and he rejoins the track in second. That’s 10 laps later than Bottas. Hamilton is 13.1 seconds back of Vettel after his pit stop. Ricciardo is pushing Gasly for fifth — Christian Horner said that’s where he wanted Ricciardo to end up. Hamilton is already cutting into Vettel’s lead, so he’s gotta stop soon. Vettel’s lead over Bottas is 21.3 seconds.

Lap 22/70

It will be interesting to see if Hamilton or Vettel eventually have to respond to Bottas, who is 25 seconds back after a lap, which could easily give him provisional lead with slow pit stops. Ricciardo is just behind Magnussen, and has DRS assistance on Lap 21. Ricciardo tries to make it down the main straight, but Magnussen defends well. Two turns later though, Ricciardo takes the spot. Hamilton is eight seconds up on Vettel, and Raikkonen manages to make it past Gasly for fourth position.

Lap 16/70

Sounds like somebody forgot to include Raikkonen’s drink in the car with him, so that’s rough. Raikkonen asked them if they forgot to include the bottle or if they didn’t connect the bottle, and it sounds like the former. Hamilton is 5.2 seconds up by Lap 12, with Vettel 1.9 seconds back of Bottas and Raikkonen just behind him. A couple laps later, and Raikkonen comes in for what seems like a very early pit stop! He fits new soft tires, and rejoins the race in sixth behind Magnussen and Gasly. Ricciardo is up to eighth, and he’s pushing Sainz already for seventh. Mercedes is responding by pitting Bottas, who has am uch quicker pit stop. He rejoins ahead of Magnussen and, of course, Raikkonen! And now Ricciardo has passed Sainz, and is only 4.5 seconds back of Raikkonen.

Lap 10/70

Ricciardo makes a move on Alonso to move into 11th position, and will now chase down Grosjean for the final points position, though there’s al ot of race left. Ericsson had to pit before the safety car for some kind of issue. Verstappen is out, and he gave a radio message that the broadcast had to censor A LOT.

Lap 7/70

Hamilton is out of DRS range by the time it’s enabled. Ricciardo is in 14th, seemingly recovered from his slow start. Behind the top five, it’s Gasly, Magnussen, Sainz, Hartley and Hulkenberg. Ricciardo is trying to make a move on Vandoorne, and he gets him around the outside of Turn 2 — but he goes wide himself and doesn’t get the spot. Grosjean is down to 12th, behind Alonso in 11th, just outside the points. 3.6-second lead for Hamilton, and Ricciardo makes the move stick on Vandoorne. And wow! We’ve lost another, as Verstappen is losing power in his Red Bull! He has to pull over and stop! Ouch. Virtual safety car as a result!

Lap 3/70

Hamilton gets away well, and so does Raikkonen, who is immediately pressuring Bottas. While Raikkonen is trailing Bottas, Vettel goes around the outside on Turn 2 and makes up a place on his teammate. Verstappen and Alonso both pick up places. Sainz also lost a place, as did Ricciardo. Hamilton is one second up after the first lap. Magnussen made up a few places. And oh no, we have our first retirement! It’s Charles Leclerc, with some kind of car issue. Ricciardo also may have sustained some damage.

Heavy rain turned the qualifying session for the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix into one of the most exciting and unpredictable of the season. Lewis Hamilton has pole position and he has his Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas, next to him on the front row despite the Ferrari cars seemingly being favored going into the weekend.

Sunday’s race is set to begin at 9 a.m. ET in the United States, and will be broadcast on ESPN. Live online streaming of the race can be had via WatchESPN, the ESPN App or F1 TV Pro.

Hamilton and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel are locked in a battle at the top of the Drivers’ Championship. Vettel did not finish the last race, and now trails Hamilton by 17 points. Vettel will start fourth on the grid, behind tammate Kimi Raikkonen, who had provisional pole throughout the third qualifying session, but lost out at the last second to both Mercedes drivers.

Many felt that Ferrari and Red Bull would have the edge at the Hungaroring, but the wet conditions really mixed things up. Hamilton, for what it’s worth, doesn’t think Mercedes “needs” a wet race to win on Sunday.

“I don’t think we need the rain tomorrow,” Hamilton said. “Hopefully we don’t need the rain.”

The not-quite-as-big-but-still-very-big story is the relative lack of performance from the Red Bull cars of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. Verstappen made it into the third qualifying session, but despite generally being considered one of the best wet-weather racers, he qualified seventh fastest on the wet tires, behind Carlos Sainz Jr. of Renault and Pierre Gasly of Toro Rosso.

“The car was just not having a lot of grip,” Verstappen said. “Especially on the [wet] tires we were really struggling. But even on the intermediates it was not fantastic. I don’t know why [I was 2.3 seconds back of Hamilton] otherwise we would have changed it.

The car felt weak at all stages of cornering. Just sliding around, no grip, locking. Mid-corner: no grip, no traction. Like driving on eggs.”

Ricciardo will start 12th, barely making it out of the first session and being caught out by the rain and timing in the second. He had to abort a lap due to yellow flags caused by a Lance Stroll spinout.

Brendon Hartley of Toro Rosso and the Haas drivers, Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean, round out the top 10 of the grid.

Below is all you need to know to watch the race on Sunday.

Date: Sunday, July 29

Location: Hungaroring, Budapest

Time: 9 a.m. ET

TV: ESPN2

Online Streaming: WatchESPN, ESPN App, F1 TV Pro