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Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo has snatched fourth place at the Hungarian GP despite a late collision, while Lewis Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton has won from pole position to go into the August break with a 24-point lead over rival Sebastian Vettel.
Vettel who was runner-up, 17.1 seconds behind, also survived a late collision with Hamilton’s team mate Valtteri Bottas on a dry and sweltering afternoon at the Hungaroring outside Budapest on Sunday.
Ferrari, mourning the death of former chairman Sergio Marchionne, had Kimi Raikkonen finish third to complete a podium of champions.
But it was Australia’s Ricciardo, starting from back in 12th position on the grid, who was the clear stand out performer of the day
The Red Bull driver picked off his rivals as he worked his way to the lead pack with only a few laps to go.
Ricciardo was trying to pass fourth-placed Bottas on the second last lap when the Mercedes driver locked up and understeered into the side of the Australian’s car.
Ricciardo then overtook Bottas on the final lap, in his second shot at the wounded Mercedes car, to finish fourth.
The Finn ended up fifth, and was called to see stewards about the collisions, with French driver Pierre Gasly sixth for Toro Rosso.
The victory was Hamilton’s record sixth in Hungary, fifth of the season and 67th of his career.
In a race effectively decided by Saturday’s wet qualifying, when Mercedes locked out the front row of the grid against expectation, Hamilton was never challenged.
“We came here knowing Ferrari would be really quick this weekend so to come out with these points, we’ll definitely take it as a bonus,” said Hamilton in a pitlane interview after embracing team members.
“I’m really happy with how strong it’s come in the last couple of races. We’ve got to come strong in the next half,” added the 33-year-old, who won in Germany from 14th place on the grid a weekend earlier.
After 12 races, Hamilton has 213 points to Vettel’s 189, while Ricciardo is on 118.
The Australian’s Dutch team mate Max Verstappen retired early on with a Renault engine failure that infuriated both driver and Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.
“We pay multi-millions of pounds for these engines and for first class, or state-of-the-art, product and you can see it’s quite clearly some way below that,” said Horner.
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