Enlarge image
Max Verstappen was also the fastest driver in Hungary
Photo: Attila Kisbenedek / dpa
Max Verstappen won the Hungarian Grand Prix.
After a spectacular race to catch up, the Dutchman prevailed in the Red Bull ahead of Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
With the victory, defending champion Verstappen further extended his lead in the world championship standings and has the best chance of becoming Formula 1 world champion again.
His closest rival, Charles Leclerc, had led the race for several laps, but ultimately only finished sixth after tire problems.
The start of the 13th race of the season was moderately spectacular: Mercedes driver Russell defended his lead on his pole debut, followed by the Ferrari.
At the back of the field, Alex Albon's Williams lost some carbon parts in a collision, during a virtual safety car phase the track was cleaned and the order for the first laps was cemented.
Two prominent drivers then worked their way through the field: Former world champion Hamilton moved up from seventh to fourth place in the second Mercedes, world champion Verstappen improved from tenth to fifth place.
In qualifying, technical problems on the Red Bull prevented Verstappen from getting a better result, and the Dutchman also complained to his team over the radio during the race.
Leclerc overtakes and Russell - and is then passed
After the first pit stops, Hamilton and Verstappen swapped places, Leclerc moved closer and closer to Russell and passed the Briton after 31 of 70 laps.
A look at the sky was the main source of excitement: Dark clouds had gathered over Budapest even before the start, and a shower could have thrown the strategies of the teams into confusion.
There was no downpour until the last lap, so the two World Championship candidates exchanged blows: After the second stop, Verstappen, now the fastest man in the field, was only fractions of a second away from Leclerc in front of him.
While the Ferrari was struggling to get the hard tires up to temperature, Verstappen first passed, lost the place he had gained by spinning and then overtook Leclerc a second time.
The Ferrari continued to fiddle with the tires.
Russell in the Mercedes also passed Leclerc again, who could hardly put up a fight and got a new set of soft tires in the pits with 15 laps to go.
Leclerc was now only sixth, and Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari had to defend his third place against Hamilton, who was now also faster.
Because that also failed, the ambitious racing team from Italy could not even look forward to a consolation.
Hamilton also conceded to his team-mate shortly before the end of the race.
Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin was able to celebrate a World Championship point in the first race after the announcement of the end of his career after the current season in tenth place, Mick Schumacher in the Haas finished 14th.
For the next four weeks, Formula 1 is now taking a summer break.
The Belgian Grand Prix continues in Spa-Francorchamps on August 28th.
cev
