Lewis Hamilton in Mercedes Wins Hungarian GP over Ferrari.

Vettel in the Ferrari was extremely strong. The Mercedes / Hamilton victory was largely luck of the draw via tire choices, pit stop strategies and traffic.

Lewis Hamilton won in Budapest yesterday 1:37:16.427 with teammate Valtteri Bottas fifth. It was a hard-fought race run in the sunshine, unlike the rain-soaked qualifying that preceded it. It was Hamilton’s  67th career victory – his fifth in 2018 and sixth at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Bottas finished P5 (1:38:16.427) after running P2 much of the race and defending the position strongly. Finishing P2 and P3 for Scuderia Ferrari were Sebastian Vettel (1:37:33.550)  and Kimi Raikkonen (1:37:36.528). Aston Martin Red Bull Racing with driver Daniel Ricciardi was fourth 1:38:02.846.

The upshot: Hamilton (213 points) leads the Drivers’ Championship in a Mercedes Silver Arrow by 24 points ahead of the hated Ferrari driven by Sebastian Vettel (189 points) with Bottas (132 points) in P4. Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (345 points) leads Ferrari (335 points) by a mere 10 points in the Constructors’ Championship.

“We’ve definitely had ups and downs in this Championship, it’s such a roller-coaster ride,” said Hamilton, “ but the team has just remained strong. We’re in a great position right now, but what’s important is that we don’t drop the ball. The last two weekends have been such a blessing with the rain, I’m so grateful.

“There’s still a lot of work to do because Ferrari are still slightly ahead of us, (No kidding: Vettel was extremely strong. The Hamilton victory was luck of the draw via tire choices and pit stop strategies.) they had the pace this weekend, especially on this circuit. Today I had them covered, but had they been on pole, we would have struggled. So, we’ve got some improvements to make in our overall package to try and close the gap to them, but I’m happy with the job everyone’s done so far, we just must keep going.

”The goal is now to really pull together and become even stronger for the second half. That will be key to add to what we’ve built in this first half of the season. I’m excited about the summer break; I will do different stuff over these two weeks, but I will be training through the whole period, trying to improve my physique. Physicality-wise, I’m not struggling out there at all, but there are always areas where you can be better, and I want to make sure I come back with more energy, so we can turn up the heat in the second half of the season,” Hamilton said post-race.