2020 F1 Hungarian Grand Prix report: Crushing victory not enough for Hamilton

“For me personally it was very, very slippery on those laps to the grid but it really helped me gauge where the track was; when we started that lap it had dried quite a lot. There is this balance of going over the limit and easily risking it. The race is not a sprint, it’s a marathon, so you’ve really got to be cautious not to throw it all away.”

And from there, he was never to be threatened. The only thing that was going to ruin his day was rain, but despite two worrying spells when it started to drizzle, anything heavier managed to skirt the circuit, ensuring a dry race once the grid had piled into the pits for slicks.

Verstappen was thankful for no further drama in terms of the weather, as he had set about repaying his mechanics in some style. With the car fixed and one formation lap under his belt, the Dutchman made a stunning start, putting full faith in his car to run fourth by Turn One and overtake Charles Leclerc for third on the exit.

Lance Stroll was up to second as Bottas was joined by Sergio Perez in struggling off the line, and Verstappen showed supreme skill to set a faster lap with intermediate tyres on a drying track than Stroll could after pitting a lap earlier for slicks. The Red Bull was one of the last into the pits but emerged in second, ahead of the two Haas drivers after their strategic gamble.

That buffer allowed Verstappen to pull clear of any threats from behind, even if he couldn’t keep up with Hamilton. Attention then turned to Bottas as he carved his way through the field into fourth place, jumping Stroll at the second round of pit stops by switching to mediums earlier than the Racing Point.

“I’ve lost the world championship in the past by one point, so I know how crucial it is to maximise on every moment.”

The Mercedes pace advantage from qualifying was soon on display again, as Bottas left Stroll far behind and reeled in Verstappen before opting for a third stop, this time for hard tyres and a 20-lap sprint to the finish. A 22-second gap needed closing, and for a while it looked like a repeat of 12 months ago was on the cards, when Hamilton did the same to snatch victory.

But Bottas would run out of time despite a number of rapid laps, and could only close to within 0.7sec on the final lap, with Verstappen judging his pace well to secure a remarkable second place.

“I was just trying to do my own pace and I could see he was catching a second a lap but of course following here is quite tricky so when he was within 1.5sec it was difficult for him,” Verstappen said. “On the last lap we had traffic in front which didn’t make it easy for me on those old tyres and we’re very happy with second.

“I thought I was not going to race so to be second is like a victory today.”

That squabble allowed Hamilton time to really confirm his dominance with a late pit stop for softs and a new lap record on the final lap to secure an extra point, something he felt was worth the risk to take maximum points in the championship fight against his team-mate.

“You have to weigh up the risks and I didn’t push so much that I was going to make a mistake and go off, it was a controlled lap,” Hamilton said. “I’ve lost the world championship in the past by one point, so I know how crucial it is to maximise on every moment.

“We’re in a year where you don’t know what reliability is going to be like, you don’t know how long the season is going to be… Valtteri had a great first race, at the time he had the fastest lap, I had the gap, I felt it was necessary to just get that point with the gap that I had.”

Hamilton’s dominance was such that Stroll in fourth finished almost a minute behind, but Racing Point were left to rue the tricky conditions at the start as a podium slipped away, with Perez down in seventh. Those results are provisional, with Renault lodging another protest against the RP20’s legality.

Alex Albon bettered Verstappen’s progress by climbing eight places from 13th on the grid to finish fifth, and his committed overtaking showed a driver more confident in his car than he had been on Saturday, though he was aided by Sebastian Vettel running wide at Turn Two in the closing stages to give him the final place.

Vettel held off Perez late on, while Daniel Ricciardo took another four points with a measured drive in eighth ahead of Magnussen and Carlos Sainz, as both McLarens suffered from poor starts and slipped outside the top ten early on.

It was a race to forget for Nicholas Latifi as a puncture picked up due to contact with Sainz in the pit lane triggered a difficult afternoon that ended with five pit stops, while Pierre Gasly’s miserable weekend was complete when he retired early with a gearbox issue. But the early drama turned into a more muted affair the longer the race wore on, and Hamilton’s serene progress when there was potential for mistakes is an ominous sign for the rest of the year.

2020 Hungarian Grand Prix results

*Additional point for fastest lap
**Includes 10sec penalty