Lewis Hamilton wins Hungarian Grand Prix to seize title lead

The six-time world champion claimed pole in Saturday qualifying and had no trouble in converting that into a race victory, with Max Verstappen finishing second to prevent a second consecutive Mercedes one-two. Valtteri Bottas still made it on the podium after a start which saw him fall from P2 to sixth in the opening lap.

There was drama before the start as Max Verstappen crashed into the barrier on his way to the grid, with the Red Bull engineers only just patching up the Dutch driver’s car in time to start the race.

Verstappen recovered from this early setback to a distant second behind the dominant Hamilton, with Racing Point’s Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel rounding out the top five.

F1 now takes a two-week break before heading to Silverstone after three race weekends in three consecutive weeks.

Max Verstappen (Red Bull): The Dutch driver’s race got off to the worst possible start as Verstappen ended up in the barrier before he’d even got to the grid. This sparked a race against time in the Red Bull garage to get the car patched up in time. Verstappen then made amends by finishing second, keeping the faster Mercedes of Bottas behind him for the final 10 laps. It wasn’t quite a race victory, but this will feel like one for Verstappen. He earned those points.

Parade lap! Verstappen has amazingly crashed into the barriers on the parade lap on his way to the grid! Red Bull now face a race against time to get a new front wing on the car before the five-minute deadline! Drama!

1/70 - LIGHTS OUT! And we are racing at the Hungaroring! Hamilton gets a decent enough start off the grid, but Bottas has had a stinker! Was that a jump start from the Finn? He is way down in P6 now! Stroll is up into second and Verstappen has been the big winner of the first lap, with the Red Bull up into third!

12/70 - Bottas passes Leclerc! The Silver Arrow gets past the Ferrari. There's still no news from the stewards over a potential penalty for the Finn due to his jump start off the grid. For now, Bottas is up to P6 and chasing down Grosjean, Stroll and Magnussen.

17/70 - First retirement of the race! Gasly appears to have a fire of some kind in the back of his car and his race is over. That's some bad luck for him.

33/70 - Lando v Leclerc! That was some good defending from the McLaren! Leclerc looked to have the racing line on Norris, but the young Brit gets his elbows out and keeps the Ferrari for him, but in the end Leclerc gets the job done and moves up into P13!

38/70 - Hamilton box, box! The race leader is into the pits. He goes on to the medium compound tyres and has enough of a lead over Verstappen to emerge once again as the race leader. The only thing that can stop him now is a mechnical issue. Not even sure rain would stop him.

50/70 - Bottas box, box! Mercedes are going to try the undercut here. They clearly feel that Verstappen is going to have to pit again and so Bottas has been moved on to the hard compound tyres for the final 20 laps of the race. This will be interesting to see how things pan out.

62/70 - Sainz into the points! The Spaniard has been stuck behind Leclerc for quite some time, but he's now finally up into P10 and that puts the McLaren in the points. Leclerc's tyres in the end just didn't allow him to fight any longer.

70/70 - The last lap! There's less than one second between Verstappen and Bottas headig into the final lap! Can the Finn complete the Mercedes one-two? Is Bottas just going to run out of time? Verstappen is hanging on for dear life at the moment.

Chequered flag - Hamilton wins! Hamilton wins three races in a row at the Hungaroring and his second race victory in as many weeks! Bottas wasn't able to get past Verstappen and so the Red Bull will celebrate that one after his mistake on his way to the grid! Hamilton also got the fastest lap!

"Give me more power. Why aren't you giving me more power?" Alex Albon complained over the Red Bull team radio as he found himself sandwiched between the two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel a third of the way through the race. It’s not the first time the young Thai driver has expressed frustration with his team over the early part of the season.

Described as like Monaco without the boats, there isn’t much scope for overtaking at the Hungaroring, but Leclerc performed an exceptional pass on Lando Norris, with Carlos Sainz also passing the Ferrari to finish in the points late on.