Lewis Hamilton equals Michael Schumacher record with Hungarian Grand Prix triumph

Hungarian Grand Prix

Hamilton equals Schumacher record with Hungarian Grand Prix triumph

The Briton beat Red Bull's Max Verstappen by almost nine seconds

Ian Parkes

Sunday 19 July 2020 16:55

Lewis Hamilton chalked up another Formula 1 record en route to claiming the 86th victory of his career.

The six-time F1 champion took the chequered flag in the Hungarian Grand Prix at a canter in his seemingly unbeatable Mercedes, and for the eighth time at the Hungaroring to equal the number of wins at a single race track set by Michael Schumacher at Magny Cours.

In cruising to an 8.702-second triumph over Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who had Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas hot on his heels at the finish, Hamilton is now just five victories away from equalling another of Schumacher's marks for race wins that stands at 91.

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After taking on the soft tyres with a handful of the 70 laps remaining, Hamilton added fastest lap for good measure on lap 68, which he improved upon on the final lap, to claim a vital extra point.

It means Hamilton heads into the British Grand Prix in a fortnight's time with a five-point lead over Bottas, who had headed into this race with a six-point cushion.

Hamilton's race was so emphatic that he lapped everyone up to fourth-placed Lance Stroll in his Racing Point, and most notably Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel on lap 58.

Rain into the early part of the afternoon eventually abated and left a damp track 30 minutes before the start as the drivers made their way on to the grid.

What followed was a highly embarrassing moment for Verstappen as on intermediate tyres he slid off the track at turn 12 and into a tyre barrier, ripping off the front wing and seemingly damaging the steering arm.

The Dutch driver was able to limp his way to the grid where his team of mechanics performed wonders by making the necessary repairs which led to words of commendation from Verstappen, who said: "You've done incredible work guys, that's unbelievable. Thank you."

It proved to be a masterstroke from Red Bull on behalf of Verstappen as he proceeded to make a lightning start as he managed to force his way up to second after the first few corners behind polesitter Hamilton.

As for the Briton's front-row companion in Bottas, the Finn appeared to make a jump start as he pulled forward a couple of inches, stopped and started again once the five red lights disappeared, but an expected penalty from the stewards never materialised.

The lack of momentum resulted in Bottas dropping down to sixth after emerging from turn one, and with it went any chance of a win.

Given the conditions, it was not long before the drivers dived into the pits to switch to dry tyres, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Bottas the first to do so after two laps, followed by Hamilton, Racing Point's Sergio Perez and Vettel a lap later, amongst others.

Vettel's stop proved a disaster as his team missed a window to release him, and he was forced to hold for around six seconds while other cars filed past.

After four laps the running order was a remarkable one, with Hamilton leading Verstappen, and then Haas duo Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean following a superb call at the end of the formation lap.

With Magnussen the only driver set to start on full wets, and Grosjean on the intermediates, the team opted to call them in to switch to medium rubber and start from the pit lane.

It meant that after the first flurry of pit stops had unfolded, the Dane and Frenchman found themselves at the sharp end.

At the midway point of the race after 35 laps, Magnussen was still in a healthy fifth position, but Grosjean had been swallowed up by those behind and had dropped out of the points.

Two laps prior to that, Bottas made his second stop on to another set of mediums, with Mercedes performing the undercut superbly on Stroll, who pitted two laps later to relinquish his third place.

Second-placed Verstappen pitted after 36 laps on to the hard tyre, and was soon being reeled in by a flying Bottas, who then took on a fresh set of hard tyres with 20 laps remaining to give him a run at the Red Bull.

Bottas finally closed on Verstappen on the last lap, but it was too little too late and he was forced to settle for third.

Behind Strolll, Alex Albon was fifth, but the Red Bull driver is facing a post-race investigation that could lead to disqualification as his team artificially dried his gridbox by using the engine cooling air of their leaf blowers when using these to cool the engine.

Vettel was sixth ahead of Racing Point's Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo in his Renault, Magnussen and Carlos Sainz in his McLaren, with Leclerc outside of the points in 11th.

Following his heroics in the first two races in Austria, McLaren's Lando Norris could only finish 13th, while George Russell's fears over race pace again materialised.

After qualifying a superb 12th, the Williams driver could only manage 18th ahead of team-mate Nicholas Latifi who was involved in a minor pitlane collision with Sainz following an early release that led to a five-second time penalty, with the Canadian also spinning during the race that led to him finishing five laps down.

AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly was the only retiree with what appeared to be further power unit issue, completing a nightmare weekend for the Frenchman.