Sebastian Vettel has taken victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix, holding off teammate Kimi Raikkonen and title rival Lewis Hamilton. The German suffered from steering issues for much of the race, but held on to take his fourth victory of the season.

"I'm over the moon," he stated. "It was a really difficult race. I had my hands full from three or four laps after the safety car. There was something wrong, I don't know why but the steering started to go sideways. It seemed to get worse then I stayed off the kerb. It wasn't easy, I didn't do a favour to Kimi who could go faster but I didn't have the pace."

Kimi Raikkonen came home to secure a Ferrari one-two, with the team now clawing into Mercedes' lead at the top of the constructor standings. Valtteri Bottas came home in third after teammate Hamilton let him through at the final corner of the last lap.

Bottas was running in third ahead of Hamilton before the team gave the order to let the Brit through. Bottas obeyed with the assurance that Hamilton would let him back through if he was unable to make manoeuvres on the Ferrari's.

Vettel now leads the championship by 14 points after Hamilton could only manage fourth place. Max Verstappen was fifth but will face trouble post race after he took out his teammate Daniel Ricciardo on the first lap. The pair made contact at Turn 2, resulting in a 10 second time penalty for the Dutchman which he served at his pit stop. 

Fernando Alonso claimed his best finish of 2017 so far, crossing the line in sixth. With his high points finish added to the point claimed by teammate Stoffel Vandoorne at the Hungaroring, and the top ten finish recorded in Azerbaijan, McLaren now moves from the bottom of the constructor standings and into ninth. 

Fellow Spaniard Carlos Sainz took his third seventh place finish of the year, collecting six points for himself and Toro Rosso. He finished ahead of the two Force India's, with Sergio Perez coming across the line ahead of Esteban Ocon. Rounding out the top ten was Vandoorne.

Vettel came under let pressure at the start, with the top four drivers getting similar getaways. Running off the road was Verstappen as he tried to overtake Hamilton, but ultimately ended up just dirtying his tyres. As he braked for Turn 2, he bumped into the side of Ricciardo who was forced to retire due to too much damage.

LAP 7/70: VER given a 10 second penalty for RIC collision ⏱#HungarianGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/Mua8EIMwkq

— Formula 1 (@F1) ___Escaped_link_6629e9d6bddf4___

The safety car was deployed to clear up the mess that was made while the stewards decided to immediately investigate the incident involving the two Red Bulls. They deemed it pretty clear that Verstappen was the man at fault and handed him a time penalty. By the end of the race, Verstappen had closed up onto the back of Bottas, and after losing ten seconds in the pitlane, it was a 'what could have been day' for the 19-year-old.

Paul di Resta kept out of trouble on the first number of laps amid the vexation that unfolded around him. The Brit made no major mistakes throughout the race but as Williams struggled, he couldn't make inroads on the cars ahead. With eight laps to go the team was forced to retire his car while teammate Stroll crossed the line in fourteenth, in what was a pretty uneventful race for the Canadian. 

Hamilton had dropped behind Verstappen before the safety car period and when the track went green once again, the three-time world champion attacked Verstappen for fourth place. Hamilton couldn't find a way past and had to sit behind all the way to the time of his pit stop. Bottas, Hamilton, Vettel and Raikkonen all pitted on laps 31, 32, 33 and 34 respectively, with the order being retained.

While all the afore mentioned pit stops went smoothly, Romain Grosjean's race ended prematurely on lap 22. The team told him to box as they detected a front left pressure drop, but his stop wasn't smooth as a cross thread forced him to park the car in sector 2, clamber out and start his summer break early.

Vettel's pace began to drop as his steering issues became more prominent. His steering wheel was seen hanging to the left and was told from the Ferrari pit wall to avoiding running over the kerbs. When the top four pitted for the soft compound, the issue was still there but not as critical as it had been.

Verstappen led the race for a number of laps, stretching the super soft tyres out for an impressive 43 laps. After his stop he emerged well behind the top four, who were now running within a couple of seconds of each other. Hamilton moved by Bottas in order to attack Raikkonen in front and soon started to pull away from his Finnish teammate. 

The gap between Vettel and Raikkonen was steady at around 1.1 seconds with Raikkonen unable to get close enough to attack. Similarly, Hamilton was able to get close to Raikkonen but not enough to produce an overtake. Further back, Bottas had dropped back and was being caught by Verstappen who was on fresher tyres than the leaders in front.

CAREER PODIUMS #HUNGARIANGP ??

Kimi ??

8 Raikkonen
7 Senna, Schumacher
6 Hamilton
5 Hill (D), Coulthard, Alonso, Vettel#F1FastFact pic.twitter.com/bcyHvWiAu4

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 30, 2017

Kevin Magnussen added more misery for Haas as he received a 5 second time penalty for pushing Nico Hulkenberg off the track. Hulkenberg would eventually retire with a car problem in the pit lane. Bottas was starting to struggle and looked very vulnerable to Verstappen behind, but managed to hold him off. Rounding the final corner, Hamilton let his teammate through after admitting defeat to the two Prancing Horses.

Bottas indeed reveal after the race that he was surprised that Hamilton let him back through: "I don't think a team mate would have done it when you're in the running for the podium, so it was nice from the team and nice from Lewis."

Formula 1 now goes into its summer shutdown, but teams will be staying around in Hungary as the second in-season test will take place, where many young drivers will get an opportunity. Many eyes will be on Robert Kubica, who will taste up-to-date machinery as he targets a full-time return. You can follow live updates from the two-day test at F1Today, as we bring you all the information from the sessions.

Fergal Walsh

mbmwe36

Posts: 533

Fairly unspectacular race. Nice win for Vettel, although you have feel bad for Raikonnen in this situation. But I think it was the right call to keep him as a moving speedbump.
Verstappen was once again reckless - what else is new?
Thought Di Resta did really well, all things considered.
Magnus... [Read more]

• 3
• Jul 30 2017 - 16:11

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