Race Analysis - Domination

By Dan Knutson

Lewis Hamilton dominated the Hungarian Grand Prix. It was his 86th Formula 1 win, and he is now just five victories away from equaling Michael Schumacher's record of 91 wins. This is how it happened.

TWO BY TWO

Hamilton started from the pole alongside Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas. Row two of the grid consisted of Racing Point's Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez. Row three contained Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc.

RAIN

It had rained just before the start of the race, but the track was already drying as the drivers headed to the grid on Pirelli's intermediate rain tires.

GAME OVER

But it was still slippery out there. Max Verstappen, who had qualified second in his Red Bull, slid off the track and bent the left front suspension of the car. It seemed like it was game over for him.

FAST WORK

Verstappen wanted to return to the pits, but the team told him to go to the grid. The mechanics worked fast and repaired the suspension with about 20 seconds to spare.

"I thought the race was over before it had even started," he said. "I braked, locked a wheel, came off the brakes and tried to brake again but went straight on into the wall on the out lap. I couldn't believe it but I managed to reverse out of the wall and get to the grid."

DRY

Rather than take their places on the grid, Haas drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen pitted for dry tires at the end of the formation lap.

WELL CLEAR

Hamilton took the lead and was soon well clear of Stroll, Verstappen, Vettel, Leclerc, Bottas and Perez – the latter two having made bad starts.

PITS

Leclerc and Bottas were among the drivers to pit at the end of lap three to switch to the medium compound Pirelli dry tires.

MANY

Many drivers including Hamilton and Stroll did the same at the end of lap three.

ORDER

After all the stops, the order was Hamilton, Verstappen, Magnussen, Stroll, Bottas, Grosjean and Leclerc.

RADAR

A dozen laps into the 70 lap race there was rain on the radar. But apart from a bit of drizzle it never materialized.

30

By lap 30 Hamilton had a 14.7 second lead over Verstappen. Bottas was third ahead of Magnussen, Alex Albon (Red Bull), Perez and Daniel Ricciardo (Renault).

KEPT

Hamilton pitted at the end of lap 37 to get the medium Pirellis, and he kept the lead.

FAST LAP

Hamilton pitted again at the end of lap 69 to get a set of the Pirelli soft tires.

GOAL

His goal was to set the fastest lap of the race, which he duly did on the 70th and last lap, and thus earned the extra point.

MATCHED

It was Hamilton's eighth win in Hungary, which matched Schumacher's record of eight victories at the same circuit.

"Even though I was on my own for the majority, it's a very different kind of challenge and I was pushing hard out there - particularly for the fastest lap at the end," Hamilton said.

MORE

Hamilton has more wins in Hungary than the rest of the grid combined.

SECOND

From crashing on the formation lap to finishing second in the race was the tale for Verstappen.

"This podium is definitely dedicated to my mechanics," he said. "To be second here between the two dominant Mercedes cars is an unbelievable result and we did not expect it yesterday after qualifying and such a difficult weekend. We want to try to close the gap to Mercedes, they are really dominant at the moment so it will be very hard to beat them but we won't stop trying."

LIGHT

Bottas wound up third after his poor getaway.

"Obviously starting second on the grid, you aim to win the race," he said, "but I had a bad start and lost a few positions. I reacted to a light on my dash that went off, instead of the start lights, which then meant the car went into anti-stall and I had to do the start again. I lost some ground there and that made the race very difficult for me, as I was fighting right to the very end. It was pretty close with Max and I think the gamble to pit late on was definitely worth taking, as it gave me the difference in tire life.

BRILLIANT

Hamilton with 63 points has now taken the championship lead from Bottas who has 58 points.

"We had great pace today, brilliant pit stops, a fantastic strategy and then, as I was managing those mediums for a long, long time, at the end it was the perfect time to get on fresh tires and take that extra point for fastest lap," he said. "Everything has just been on point throughout the weekend, so we need to try and keep it up."

TRIPLEHEADERS

The season opened with three races in succession. There will now be a weekend off before the next tripleheader with two races in Britain and one in Spain.

"I can't wait for Silverstone now, although I'll miss the energy the fans bring, so I hope I can perform for them there as I know they'll be watching from home," Hamilton said.