On Sunday it was a perfect race day for Ferrari with Sebastian Vettel winning and Kimi Raikkonen placing second at the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix. The Third was Mercedes’ Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas. Vettel’s main rival for the F1 title, British Lewis Hamilton finished in fourth place, reports Xinhua news agency. This was Vettel’s 46th career victory. He has won once previously in Hungary for Ferrari in 2015. The race started with a first lap crash between Red Bull’s drivers Max Verstappen of Netherlands and Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo had to retire and that brought out the safety car.
It was not an easy race for Vettel as he had quite some problems with steering after the safety car period. He managed to stay in front and won, extending the championship lead to 14 points. After the first lap crash, Red Bull’s Dutch driver Max Verstappen was penalised with a 10-second penalty and managed to finish in 5th. It was the season’s best finish for McLaren’s Fernando Alonso of Spain finishing in 6th, beating Spanish Carlos Sainz in Toro Rosso. Mexican Sergio Perez was faster than his team-mate in Force India, Esteban Ocon of France, with Stoffel Vandoorne of Belgium completing the top ten.
The drivers now head for the in-season test on Tuesday and Wednesday and after the tests is the summer break with the next race taking place in legendary Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium in the last weekend of August. The Sebastian Vettel victory with Hamilton in the fourth extended championship lead to 14 points as Formula 1 heads into its four-week summer break.
