Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes 2-3 over maiden citizen George Russell, who had led for 30 laps, as front-row starter Carlos Sainz dropped to fifth ahead of a recovering Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. Meanwhile, early leader Charles Leclerc was the only front-runner to make three stops as he was passed on track twice by Verstappen and eventually dropped to sixth. Russell wore a set of second-hand softs to launch on a dry track, with the spots of rain that had landed in the build-up to the race not developing into a full-on shower initially. Thanks to the stronger rubber, Mercedes fired hard to pull away and eventually see off Ferrari’s mid Pirelli threat at Turn 1 and duly consolidate first place. Sainz had tried to bully it around the outside of the right-hander before the W13 dropped to the top, with the Scuderia then holding on with Leclerc moving up to third. Hamilton, meanwhile, nailed his breakaway to clear both Alps for fifth behind a soft Lando Norris, as Verstappen pushed his RB18 past Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo to quickly move up to eighth position after losing power in qualifying late in the 3rd quarter. Russell crossed the line at the end of the first lap 1.6s in hand over Sainz. After a quick virtual safety car for Sebastian Vettel with Alex Albon, Russell added another second over the F1-75 chase next time, with Leclerc 1.5s adrift. It took until lap 14 for the red-walled C4 Pirellis to show the first signs of degradation for the W13 as Sainz tore a 0.6s slice from Russell, while the first Ferrari had to show enough pace to avoid the pitwall to change the order under pressure for intervention from Leclerc. With the red cars nose to tail, it looked like they would be separated when Sainz was told to pit at the end of lap 16, but he stayed out as Russell then came in for his first stop. The polesitter was slowly replaced in a set of middles after a delay on the front right to appear side-by-side with Fernando Alonso, taking turns 2 and 3 to seal sixth place. One tour later Ferrari responded. Sainz was called upon to release Leclerc, but the Spaniard too was late in a mid-change at 3.7s to come decisively behind Alonso’s Alpine machine. This left Leclerc with an 11-second lead over Hamilton before Mercedes was called on lap 20. Russell was therefore left in second place, but 19′ behind the leader Leclerc. As the lap counter hit the teenagers, Leclerc’s pace dropped. He then stopped at the end of lap 21 for a set of mediums in 2.9 seconds to propel Russell into the lead. The maiden polesitter had 2.6s in hand over his Monegasque chaser as Sainz sat a further 1s behind, while champion Verstappen took fourth place a further 3.5s further back. With Ferrari matching the tight Hungaroring all weekend, Leclerc soon tapped into DRS overtaking assistance to close the gap and weld into Mercedes’ gearbox. Russell was forced to defend, squeezing the F1-75 into the outside lane where possible to maximize the distance Leclerc had to cover on the difficult Budapest field. Then, on lap 31, Leclerc made it. Russell moved to the inside lane at Turn 1 early to cover the Ferrari, but with DRS he was squeezed tightly into the braking zone for the first time. Leclerc immediately pulled seven tenths back on the Mercedes and doubled that gap over the rest of the lap, with the advantage climbing to 2.8 seconds with Russel third and Verstappen fourth. Verstappen made a crucial stop on lap 39 for the midgets and despite sparks flying from the back right corner he was serviced with a quick 2.4s – encouraged by the radio message that “there’s still a long way to go”. Verstappen came out in sixth as Russel made a second pit stop next time out, Leclerc then visited the garage for an unlucky set of the harder C2 Pirelli tire available. The Red Bulls, having leapfrogged Russell, Ferrari dropped back to third behind Hamilton and Sainz in the slower stage and struggled to build up the temperature to leave him vulnerable. Verstappen had DRS on Leclerc at Turn 1 to throw off the Ferrari, the Dutch ace cleverly opening his steering a fraction at the top to force Leclerc to compromise his line further. Back on the power, the Ferrari came off the line to let Verstappen go. But Leclerc was given a second chance despite blowing the tire condition. Verstappen tried to power through the penultimate Turn 13, but extended back and spun. He caught the Red Bull in the 360, but not before the Ferrari had passed behind, even if Perez limited the damage by blocking Russell and staying behind his team-mate. But on lap 43, Verstappen came back to within a second of championship chief rival Leclerc and cut his RB18 back out of Turn 2 to retake the position down the hill at Turn 3. Ferrari called on Sainz three laps later to relinquish the lead and an errant left-back change on the softs meant he was held for a slow 4.6s to give Hamilton a 6.4s margin on Verstappen. Hamilton finally made his second stop at the end of lap 51 for a switch to softs and exited fifth, 10 seconds down on Sainz as Russell usurped Leclerc – still struggling on the hard tyres. The Ferrari broke away at the final corner to give Russell an easy run for second over the line as Ferrari eventually botched their strategy and were forced to make an extra pit stop. The soft tires were bolted, but having taken the lead he was back over 30 seconds behind Verstappen. With Verstappen managing the means to the flag, including a late VSC for Bottas to stop with a loss of power in his Alfa Romeo at Turn 12, he cruised to an improbable victory by 7.8 seconds. Mercedes were the next fastest cars in the closing stages of the race, with soft Hamilton able to pip Sainz on older tires and then teammate Russell for second place. Despite complaining that his tires were flat, Russell also had the legs on Sainz to make it 2-3 back-to-back for Mercedes as Perez inflicted more pain on the Ferrari in fifth. Leclerc’s extra pitstop saw him finish sixth ahead of Norris, who switched to hard tires to stay ahead of the Alpines of Alonso and Ocon. Vettel recovered from early contact with Albon to take the final point in the refreshed Aston Martin ahead of team-mate Lance Stroll, the Canadian having spun out after contact with Daniel Ricciardo, the McLaren driver who earned the penalty of 5s. Pierre Gasly crossed the line in 12th place from a pitlane start after exceeding the engine allocation limit with a power unit change on Saturday night. Zhou Guanyu led Mick Schumacher and a reprimanded Ricciardo, while Kevin Magnussen was left in hiding on the upgraded Haas sole after an early switch to hards before stopping twice more. Albon finished 17th ahead of FP3 pacesetter and Williams team-mate Nicolas Latifi. Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the finishers after moving from 17th back through turn 6-7 as Bottas was the only driver to retire in the final race before the summer break. Pos Driver Car/Engine Gap 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull – 2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes -7,834 3 George Russell Mercedes -12,337 4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari -14,579 5 Sergio Perez Red Bull -15,688 6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 7 La.Mc. 1’18.300 8 Fernando Alonso Alpine/Renault – 9 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault – 10 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin/Mercedes – 11 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes – 12 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Red BullAlphaTauri/Red Bull-13 Mick Schumacher Haas/Ferrari – 15 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren/Mercedes – 16 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari – 17 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes – 18 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes – 19 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTaurier-Butterfall/Red
