Lewis Hamilton has won the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix as he denied Max Verstappen a pole-to-victory with the perfect strategy at the Hungaroring in Budapest. Sebastian Vettel finished a distant third in the Ferrari.
As the race started, Verstappen got off to a good start as the Red Bull and the two Mercedes went into turn 1 three cars abreast. Valterri Bottos in the middle of the three, locked up and that left Verstappen on the inside to gain an advantage to get a clean first lap. However, Bottas needed a new wing after a small collision with Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari and Mercedes eventually brought him in for a front wing and fresh set of hard tyres to go deep into the race.
But at the front, Verstappen and Hamilton left the pack with Ferrari struggling to keep anywhere near the Red Bull and the Mercedes. As the race progressed, Verstappen and Hamilton found themselves on the hard tyres after their first pitstops. But late in the race as Hamilton was struggling with engine and brake temperatures driving in the wake of the Red Bull’s turbulent air, Hamilton had to yield. Noticing a massive gap to the Ferrari’s nearly half a minute behind, Mercedes caught Red Bull napping as they brought in Hamilton for a fresh set of medium tyres. By the time Verstappen would get around with worn hard tyres, Hamilton had closed the gap to under the 20 seconds closing the pit delta for Verstappen to react.
Redbull decided to leave Verstappen out and provided full engine power modes and overtake. But, the might of the Mercedes on the newer medium tyres, Hamilton was able to close the gap to Verstappen who seemed to be left out on track like a sitting duck. Verstappen was struggling for grip and informed the team over the radio that his tyres were dead. With five laps remaining, Hamilton got extremely close to Verstappen in the closing stages at an unbelievably rapid pace. Using DRS on the main straight, Hamilton made his move on the Dutchman to take the lead and went on to win the race, happily accepting the gift from Red Bull.
Verstappen then made a stop for a set of softs with a clear gap over the Ferraris to try and maintain damage control to claim the extra point for the fastest lap of the race. While Verstappen did get that extra point with a new lap record at the Hungaroring with a 1:17.103 on the final lap, it seemed that if Red Bull had brought Max in for a set of soft tyres, even though he would have come out behind the Mercedes, he may have had a chance to fight back the lead rather than conceding the place for a runners up spot. Vettel finished third ahead of Leclerc in the second Ferrari. Carlos Sainz claimed fifth for McLaren, Pierre Gasly sixth in the other Red Bull, Kimi Raikkonen scores point yet again in the Alfa Romeo finishing seventh ahead of Bottas and Lando Norris in the McLaren and Alex Albon claimed the final championship point for Torro Rosso finishing 10th.
The championship now goes into the summer break with Lewis Hamilton leading the championship with a comfortable 250 points. The season will be returning for the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix at the Spa Francorchamps circuit scheduled for August 30-September 1.
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