Vettel wins in Hungary

 

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel has won his second Grand Prix of the season after finishing first in a dramatic Hungarian Grand Prix.

Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat took his first career podium as he finished second, despite being one of the drivers to suffer a penalty as a result of driving transgressions, ahead of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

As the thrilling race drew to a close, Ricciardo dropped Rosberg from second after the two collided, puncturing Rosberg’s tyre in the process.

17 year old Max Verstappen came home fourth, his best finish to date, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, who finished a disappointing sixth.

 

But Hamilton began the day poorly, being overtaken from the off by both Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen before the Brit went wide later on the opening lap, sliding off the track and dropping as far back as 10th.

With both Ferrari’s comfortably out in front, the reigning world champion set about closing the gap. Overtaking the trio of Felipe Massa, Sergio Perez and Ricciardo, Hamilton began to draw the race leaders in, but when Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg suffered a front wing failure resulting in mass debris all over the track, the safety car came out, denting Hamilton’s progress.

And as they went to go once the race had resumed, Hamilton, now under pressure from Ricciardo, made another error, locking up and making contact with the Red Bull. But it was Hamilton that came off worse as his front wing took a severe amount of damage, and after a couple of laps he was forced to retreat to the pits for a replacement, dropping him back down to 12th.

Despite Hamilton apologising profusely over the radio to his mechanical staff, he managed to pass Felipe Nasr, Marcus Ericsson, Jenson Button and Romain Grosjean to regain 6th place.

Meanwhile up front, Kimi Raikkonen had suffered a hybrid system failure when occupying second, eventually resulting in his retirement from the race.

And despite the late drama involving Ricciardo and Rosberg, the spotlight was on Vettel who had led from the off, leaving him to claim his 41st career victory – matching that of three time world champion Ayrton Senna.

Vital points for the German, but more vital were the points Hamilton recorded as the Brit extends his drivers Championship lead over team-mate Rosberg to 21 points.

Vettel, unsurprisingly, dedicated the victory to the late French driver Jules Bianchi who died last Friday, nine months after his horrific crash as the Japanese Grand Prix.

Vettel said in French over the radio on his slowing down lap: “Merci, Jules. Cette victoire est pour toi.” (Thank you, Jules. This victory is for you).

He added in English: “You will always be in our hearts. We know sooner or later you would have been in this team.

A one minute silence was held for the former Marussia driver on the grid, and all the drivers paid their respects too.