World Champion Lewis Hamilton extended his Formula 1 title advantage with a controlled victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Hamilton adopted a one-stop Ultrasoft/Soft strategy to beat Sebastian Vettel by 17 seconds, extending his lead in the championship to 24 points in the wake of back-to-back wins.
Kimi Raikkonen completed the podium positions while Valtteri Bottas dropped from second to fifth in the closing stages after two costly collisions.
Hungarian Grand Prix: Race Result | Championship Standings | Race Gallery
Hamilton retained the lead from pole position at the start, while Bottas slotted into second, as Vettel, the only one of the front-running quartet to take Softs, jumped Raikkonen.
Hamilton built a solid buffer during the first stint and ran longer than Ultrasoft-clad rivals before pitting on lap 25 of 70, by which time he had opened a near 10-second advantage over the yet-to-stop Vettel.
The Vettel-Hamilton gap hovered around the 14-second mark until the Mercedes driver began chipping away, bringing the deficit down to nine seconds when Vettel ducked into the pits on lap 39.
A slow front-left change hampered Vettel’s prospects and he emerged behind Bottas, who had taken on a set of Softs on lap 15, a delay that ultimately skewered his hopes of hunting down Hamilton.
Vettel tried attacking Bottas soon after he came out of the pits but was unable to overhaul the Mercedes driver and backed off, before drawing closer in the final stages of the race.
Vettel launched a challenge on lap 65 and used superior traction exiting Turn 1, aided by a defensive Bottas suffering a kick of oversteer, to move ahead.
Bottas tried to counter on the run to Turn 2 but swiped the rear of Vettel and slid wide, damaging his front wing endplate and relinquishing position to Raikkonen.
Raikkonen had run a two-stop strategy and such was Bottas’ defensive pace on worn tyres that the Ferrari driver was able to catch the Vettel/Bottas scrap with relative ease.
By the time Vettel, who avoided damage after the hit from Bottas, and Raikkonen cleared Bottas leader Hamilton had established a 23-second advantage up front and he comfortably claimed his fifth win of the year, and sixth at the circuit.
Vettel and Raikkonen took the remaining podium positions while matters got worse for Bottas as he was reeled in by Daniel Ricciardo.
Ricciardo tried to go around the outside of Bottas at Turn 1 but the Finn understeered into his rival and pitched him wide.
Ricciardo nonetheless regrouped and overtook Bottas shortly after to seal a strong recovery drive from 12th on the grid, having dropped as low as 16th after Turn 1 contact with Marcus Ericsson.
Bottas trailed home fifth, while Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly eased clear of his midfield rivals to take a fine sixth place, in front of Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.
McLaren ran long and took advantage of the yet-to-pit Esteban Ocon holding up opponents for Fernando Alonso to jump into eighth, with Stoffel Vandoorne ninth.
Vandoorne, though, was unable to retain his position as a gearbox problem terminally slowed his MCL33.
Vandoorne’s demise elevated Carlos Sainz Jr. to ninth, with Romain Grosjean completing the top 10, just half a second behind.
Brendon Hartley narrowly missed out on the points in 11th, while Nico Hulkenberg took a low-key 12th, ahead of Force India pair Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez.
Marcus Ericsson and the Williams pair of Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll rounded out the 17 finishers.
Max Verstappen retired from fifth place after just six laps due to a suspected turbo failure and vented his frustration with an expletive-ridden radio message.
Sauber’s Charles Leclerc capped a disappointing weekend by parking at the end of the opening lap in the wake of making contact with both Force Indias through the exit of Turn 1.
The 13th round of the season, the Belgian Grand Prix, will take place at Spa-Francorchamps from August 24 to 26
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