The teams were in Hungary for the final race before the Formula One summer break. It was the FORMULA 1 MAGYAR NAGYDÍJ 2018. At the end, Lewis Hamilton took the pole and win, while Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas collided in the closing stages of the race.
Lewis Hamilton made a good start off the line, but Kimi Räikkönen’s was better. Things remained orderly out front, but Sebastian Vettel sailed around the outside of his teammate into turn two and was nearly able to challenge Valtteri Bottas. But he was unable to do so and things spaced out at the front. Around 1.5 seconds separated each of the top four cars, which is about the gap required to avoid overheating brakes.
Further back in the field, it was chaos at the start. In the first corner, Marcus Ericsson made contact with Daniel Ricciardo and then made minor contact with his teammate Charles Leclerc. Leclerc also became the meat in a Force India sandwich, making contact with Sergio Pérez and Esteban Ocon. Everyone was able to continue the race, except for Leclerc, who pulled over and retired from the race.
Only six laps into the race, Max Verstappen’s race was over due to a loss of power from his Renault power unit. This brought out the virtual safety car, but it was far too early for any of the leading cars to make a pit stop.
Bottas had dropped back from Hamilton, increasing the leading gap to 3.6 seconds, then 4.4 seconds and then 5.5 seconds. It was critical for Vettel to get by Bottas in order to have a shot at chasing down Hamilton, but he was struggling to stay within 2 seconds of the second place Mercedes.
As the pit window opened, Räikkönen was the first of the leading cars to pit for fresh tyres on lap 15. The goal was likely to try and force Bottas into an early pit stop while also getting Räikkönen out of the dirty air from his teammate. He rejoined the race in P6. Bottas covered off Ferrari, pitting the following lap and rejoining the race in P4. His pit stop was substantially quicker than Räikkönen’s.
With Vettel now in clean air, he was free to chase down Hamilton. While Vettel was setting quick lap times, they were not quite fast enough to close the gap quickly. But the tyre cross over began to happen on lap 23, meaning that Hamilton was slower on the ultrasoft tyres than Vettel on the soft tyres. Vettel ran wide in lap 12, losing more than a second, but the gap began to decrease again in the sectors to follow.
On lap 25, Mercedes called Hamilton into the pits for a fresh set of soft tyres. Unsurprisingly, he came out of the pits in a comfortable P2 with about a 13 second gap to Vettel and a 7.5 second gap to his teammate behind. The gap at the front stayed steady at 13 seconds, but the gap started to decrease when Vettel got caught in traffic.
Kimi Räikkönen was the first of the Ferrari drivers to pit for fresh tyres, making his second pit stop of the day for used softs on lap 38. Vettel pitted the following lap for new ultrasofts, but he was at risk of losing his advantage to Bottas, partially thanks to Carlos Sainz who ignored 9 blue flags (6 more than the regulations permit). A pit stop error with the front left tyre during the pit stop secured Vettel’s fate and he rejoined the race behind Bottas.
On lap 51, Stoffel Vandoorne pulled over to the side of the track with a mechanical failure. This brought out the virtual safety car. Mercedes brought their mechanics into the pit box with two sets of tyres, but neither of their drivers pitted. It was either a bluff to try and get Ferrari to pit or an attempt to react in case Ferrari decided to pit at the last minute. Regardless, neither Mercedes or Ferrari pitted their drivers and the VSC ended the following lap.
When the race resumed, Vettel was able to decrease the gap to Bottas and get within the DRS range of the Mercedes. Bottas had been on the soft tyres since lap 15, which was undoubtably hindering Bottas’ race pace as the rear tyres got slippery. While Vettel was gaining time on Bottas, Räikkönen was rapidly gaining time on Vettel and managed to get without DRS range.
With just five laps remaining in the race, Vettel was right on the gearbox of Bottas down the main straight with DRS. Bottas covered off the inside into the first corner, but Bottas struggled to get the power down on the exit of the corner, running a little wide and allowing Vettel to get a good run on the outside into turn two. Vettel turned into the corner, not quite clearing the Mercedes and chopping off part of the front wing of Bottas’ car. Vettel was fortunate to escape serious damage and maintain his P2.
Dropping back to P4, Bottas was struggling with the damaged front wing. Daniel Ricciardo attempted to make an overtake around the outside of the first corner, but the damaged Bottas failed to turn into the corner. He ran wide and made contact with the sidepod of the Red Bull. The stewards noted the incident and Bottas gave back the position on the final lap.
Meanwhile, his teammate was able to cruise home for a race victory, collecting 25 points in his championship hunt. With more points in the bag, the World Drivers’ Championship lead increases to 24 points.
It will be a while before the cars are back on the race track, as we commence the Formula One summer break. Sadly, this means that cars will be locked up in a garage for the next month. The Formula One season will resume on the weekend of August 26 for the Belgian Grand Prix.
Above results table does not include any post-race penalties
