Ferrari would undoubtedly go into the month-long break with smiles on their faces after Sebastian Vettel won and extended his championship lead. However, regardless of the result, F1 fans and the live betting faithful who bet online on the race were the real winners of the day following an eventful Hungarian Grand Prix.
Indeed, most online gambling fans already expected the result of the race considering that pole positions are important in a track like Hungaroring that doesn’t exactly promote overtaking. Nonetheless, that didn’t lessen the intensity of the race that featured quite a drama right from the start.
Vettel won the race after taking the pole position in qualifying. He finished almost a second ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, but he didn’t win it comfortably as he suffered a steering wheel malfunction from the get-go that bothered him throughout.
Fortunately, the German driver held his ground despite a stifling contest from his teammate who pressured Ferrari to let him overtake Vettel for a chance to win and avoid any Mercedes threat.
Meanwhile, Vettel’s main title rival, Lewis Hamilton, finished fourth after handing the last podium place to his Mercedes partner Valtteri Bottas.
Hamilton started fourth from the grid and even dropped to fifth after Red Bull’s Max Verstappen overtook him on Lap 2, but he was able to retake his lead in the latter stages and asked his Finn teammate to switch with him to try and take on the Ferrari’s – promising that he will return the position to Bottas if he fails.
The Brit star eventually wasn’t able to challenge Ferrari as they were left behind by more than 12 seconds; and true to his word, he let Bottas through in the final lap despite Verstappen closing in and trying to overtake.
On the other hand, Red Bull have another horror night after Verstappen rammed his teammate Daniel Ricciardo on the first lap and forced him to retire. The 19-year-old ran wide at the first corner and locked up his tyres before sliding into the Australian, earning the Dutch teenager a 10-second penalty which proved to be costly as he ended up fifth.
The other Top 10 finishers were left behind by more than a lap by the leading drivers. However, McLaren—who had lots of troubles in the past with their Honda engine—would still be satisfied with their performance after both of their drivers, Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne, finished well and got some championship points.
It was Ferrari’s first one-two victory in Budapest in 13 years as they cut Mercedes’ lead in the Constructor standings to just 39 points. For Vettel, he again increased his lead in the driver standings, now to 14 points.
For Hamilton, missing the podium can be costly as he lost an extra three points with what he did. Though, in terms of sportsmanship, he certainly won a lot of points for that.
Formula One racing will take a midseason break and will return in late August for the Belgian Grand Prix.
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