Hamilton shuts down dominant Ferrari's to win Hungarian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has won the Hungarian Grand Prix and takes a 24 point championship advantage into the summer break. The British driver managed to keep the Ferrari in the rearview mirrors as he wins his 2nd race in as many weeks. Vettel overtook Bottas late on to take 2nd and Kimi followed through to complete the podium.

The biggest task for Mercedes was to keep the Ferrari's behind them coming out of the first corner. The Silver Arrow's succeeded to gain control of the race. And it was this control that allowed Hamilton to win. Mercedes looked like they were going to pick up a 1-2, but Ferrari spoiled the party in a dramatic last few laps.

Max Verstappen retired early on from the race with a mechanical failure, eliminating a potential threat coming through the field.

Vettel was attacking Bottas for the last 30 laps, but couldn't get past even with the aid of DRS for the majority of the time. Daniel Ricciardo started in 12th but clawed his way through the field to demonstrate the pace of the Red Bull. He finished 4th.

The race started in a complete contrast to yesterday's wet qualifying. Pundits and fans expected the dry conditions to favour the Ferrari cars but they couldn't find a way to overtake in the first corner.

With Hamilton and Bottas leading, Ferrari pulled their second driver in to bring Bottas down. They'd hope it would push Vettel ahead of Bottas after the German's pitstop. The plan failed. Vettel was now stuck behind Bottas and his attention turned into damage limitation rather than going to win the race.

With the pressure piling on Bottas, eventually, the Finn cracked. With just 4 laps left, Vettel challenged as hard as he could. He got in front of Bottas who then ran into the back of Vettel damaging his front wing. Raikkonen then followed through to get both Ferrari's on to the podium.

Hamilton went on to cruise the last 20 laps, a lot less drama involved this weekend compared to Hockenheim. He took the chequered flag and extends his championship lead going into the summer break.

Further down the field, McLaren were running well and looking likely to take a hefty points total. But Stoffel Vandoorne had a power failure with about 20 laps to go leaving Birthday boy Alonso out on his own. 

Gasly continued his strong form from yesterday and had a simple drive to bring home 6th place. He faced pressure from Haas driver Kevin Magnussen, but nothing came from it.

After a busy couple of months, it's time to refresh and recover for the final sprint into the winter! What a championship season we have!

FULL RESULTS 

RACE CLASSIFICATION: @LewisHamilton cruises to victory #HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/QReEpB2R4F

— Formula 1 (@F1) 29 juli 2018