F1 Paddock Notebook - Hungarian GP Sunday
With a final round-up from the Hungaroring following Sunday's grand prix, wuqian0821.com F1 Digital Editor Luke Smith brings you his paddock notebook.
- Lewis Hamilton charged to his 67th Formula 1 victory in Hungary on Sunday, recording his fifth win of the seasonꦬ so far. It was also his sixth win at the Hungaroring, extending his all-time record at the circuit.

With a final round-up from the Hungaroring following Sunday's grand prix, wuqian0821.com F1 Digital Editor Luke Smith brings you his paddock notebook.
- Lewis Hamilton charged to his 67th Formula 1 victory in Hungary on Sunday, r꧒ecording his fifth win of the season so far. It was also his sixth win at the Hungaroring, extending his all-time record at the circuit.
- Hamilton confirmed after the race he had been managing his pace in the early stages of his second stint to ensure h♈is Soft compound tyres would make it to the end of the race. This allowed him to still produce personal best laps in the clꦗosing stages of the race, with his final margin of victory to Sebastian Vettel in second standing at 17 seconds.
- Vettel had been chasing his first F1 win from outside the top three☂ on the grid in Hungary on𒁏 Sunday, having started fourth. However, he was left to settle for second after struggling to pass Valtteri Bottas in the second Mercedes in the early part of his final stint.
- The two drivers made contact on Lap 65 when battling for second place, with Bottas trying to defend boldly at Turn 2 before running deep. Vettel escaped without any damage, while Bottas was left with a broken front wing. The Finn opted not to pit, but dropped to P4 behind Kimi Raikkonen as a result of thꦯe incident. The stewards deemed no action needed to be taken over the clash.
that he never races with a drinks bottle, claiming it saves around 1.5 kg on the car.- Ferrari slipped a further two points b💮ehind Mercedes in the construc♕tors' championship, with the gap standing at 10 points heading into the summer break.
- Pierre Gasly was able to score his first points since Monaco with a seamless drive to sixth. Gasly passed Carlos🦋 Sainz Jr. at the start before inheriting a position from Max Verstappen when he retired, and ran as high as third at one point. The result marked Gasly's third points score of the season, and is his second-best result in F1 (P4 in Bahrain still being his best). Gasly was the last driver not to be lapped.
- Toro Rosso teammate Brendon Hartley was caught out by Romain Grosjean, Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne all getting the overcut, having made an early pit stop ꦜfrom Ultrasofts to Mediums while running ninth. Hartley finished the race 11th, and was frustrated to have not passed Sainz - who started on Softs - at the start as he felt he had more pace.
- Haas recorded only its second double-point finish of the season following Austria as Kevin Mag♎nussen and Romain Grosjean finished P7 and P10 respectively. Grosjean rose up into the points following Vandoorne's retirement with 21 laps to go.
- Vandoorne had been set to score his first points since Baku, running P9 and just two seconds behind Alonso befor🍰e a gearbox issue forced him to park up. The Belgian showed improved pace in the race after changing chassis for this weekend.
- Sainz was Renault's only driver in the points, finishing nintജh as teammate Nico Hulkenberg could only finish 12th. Hulkenberg struggled with a lack of balance on his car and gamb𝄹led on a second pit stop under the Virtual Safety Car called for Vandoorne's stoppage.
- Force India suffered its first non-score since France as Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez finished 13th and 14th in the race. Perez spent all of his race outside of t🍨he points, while Oco𒅌n only spent a few laps in P10 after a long first stint before dropping back.
- The result came at the endꦦ of a turbulent weekend for Force India, with the team entering administration on Friday after legal action was triggered by Perez. The Mexican issued a statement on Twitter hitting back at suggestions he was looking to harm the team, having been approached by insiders to help take action that would prevent it from going bust.
- Sauber failed to score for just the second time since Monaco, with Charles Leclerc retiring after damage on the opening lap and teammate Marcus Ericsson finishing two laps down in P15. Ericsson only finished ahead of the Williams pair of Sergey Si♓rotkin and Lance Stroll.
- Max Verstappen's early retirement was higဣhlighted by an angry radio rant, with the Dutchman joking after th💮e race that FOM should not have bleeped out his expletives. For those wondering what he said, .
- Another point oဣf humour before the race came in Daniel Ricciardo's radio message regarding instructions reading 'B D E' shown to him on the grꦿid. .
- In tyre news, Pierre Gasly completed the longest stint on Ultrasofts, managing 32 🌜laps. Bottas did 55 laps on the Softs, while Ericsson managed 62 laps on the Mediums.
- Finally, Kimi Raikkonen's three-year-old sonꦡ, Robin, was once again the star of F1's TV coverage on Sunday in the race, appearing in parc ferme. He later was invited up onto the podium꧙ to spray a bottle of water in celebration. "He’s always happy, so that’s nice," Raikkonen said of his son after the race.