Hungarian Grand Prix: Five things we learned as Lewis Hamilton wins and Valtteri Bottas pays the price for crash

Bottas crashed twice in the closing stages with Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, but there was no stopping Hamilton from sealing his fifth win of the season

Lewis Hamilton clinched a second consecutive victory and his fifth of the season in Hungary to extend his championship lead over Sebastian Vettel heading into the summer break.

In what was expected to be a weekend that favoured Ferrari, the victory was a significant moment for Hamilton in the championship battle and gives him a 24-point advantage with nine races remaining – the largest gap that either he or Vettel has enjoyed all season.

Saturday’s wet qualifying session saw Hamilton take pole position and he converted that into a relatively simple victory, but behind him chaos would engulf the final five laps.

His teammate Valtteri Bottas attempted to fend off Vettel and his Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen in 50-lap-old tyres, only to collide with the former five laps from home and then be involved in a second accident with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo on the penultimate lap.

It meant that Vettel finished second to limit the damage inflicted by Hamilton, while Raikkonen made it a double-podium for Ferrari at the end of a tough week that saw their former president Sergio Marchionne pass away due to illness.

Red Bull salvaged a fourth-place finish through Ricciardo, although there were mixed fortunes as Max Verstappen was forced to retire early in the race by yet another Renault power unit failure, while Fernando Alonso came home eighth on his 37th birthday to score points for McLaren.

Here are five things we learned from the race:

Happy Hamilton turns up when it matters most

Lewis Hamilton leads the field into turn one (Getty)

Many times this season Lewis Hamilton has cut a frustrated or angry or unhappy figure. But each time he bounces back emotionally, and that has been none clearer than over the last week. Staring at a nightmare afternoon in Hockenheim, Hamilton took full advantage of Sebastian Vettel’s crash to take a thrilling victory, and that was only part one of his summer gift as part two arrived in Hungary.

There was no wrapped present, but instead a enormous rain cloud that opened up on Saturday afternoon and gave him the tools to take a pole position that by his own admission was probably out of reach in the dry. From there, Mercedes drove the perfect race as Hamilton stayed out of touch to take what was a strangely simple victory.

It is something that we’ve seen so many times before that when the chips are down, Hamilton rises to the fore where others fall away.

What happened to Ferrari’s pace?

Sebastian Vettel passes Kimi Raikkonen on the outside of turn two (Getty)

We were led to believe that the superior practice pace that Ferrari displayed in the dry meant that come race day, they would be a force to be reckoned with. That simply wasn’t the case for two-thirds of the race as Hamilton was able to drive away from the rest of the pack, and Bottas was relatively unchallenged too.

The Ferraris only came to life in the closing stages when Bottas’ tyres were over 40 laps old, and even then Vettel was not able to have a full run at the Finn as he drove a perfect defensive line to maintain his second place.

Red Bull right to be furious with Renault

A furious Max Verstappen makes his way back to the pits after retiring (Getty)

“Can I not just go ahead, I don’t f***ing care if this engine blows up. What a f***ing joke all the f***ing time with this s***, honestly."

It was the expletive-laden rant that would normally have resulted in the classic ‘Max Verstappen needs to grow up’ rant that has been all too common this season. But in this instance, it was perfectly understandable.

Yet another Renault engine had let go, following Daniel Ricciardo’s retirements in Germany and Austria. With Red Bull set to end their association with Renault at the end of the season, there will not be any fond farewells for the French engine supplier, given this was Red Bull's big chance to score another win this season. Such was Ricciardo’s pace throughout the race as he sliced his way through the field, had Verstappen been able to build on his impressive start as he went from seventh to fifth in one corner, Red Bull would have been a force to be reckon with. Instead, they were just another also-ran.

Raikkonen stands the true physical test

Kimi Raikkonen had to last the entire race without a drinks bottle (AP)

The panic in Kimi Raikkonen’s voice was clear. Just a handful of laps into the race, the former world champion had clocked that his drinks bottle wasn’t working – in one of the hottest grand prix we’ve seen this season.

Air temperature was clocked at 33 degrees Celsius at the start of the race, with cockpit temperature significantly higher than that, and with the work that Raikkonen had to put in it was amazing to see the 38-year-old haul himself out of the cockpit and onto the podium. It was a well-deserved glug from the champagne magnum.

Bottas to blame for not biting the bullet

Valtteri Bottas crashed twice late on to drop him from second to fifth (EPA)

The final stages of the race felt oddly familiar as Valtteri Bottas tried to fend off the two charging Ferraris shod with much fresher tyres. By the time Vettel finally had a run at the ailing Mercedes that was losing rear grip by the second, 50 laps had passed since Bottas pitted for tyres.

What followed was unfortunate for all involved, but perhaps avoidable. Vettel used the outside line in Turn One to switch back for Turn Two, and looked to have won the corner to take second from Bottas. Whether Vettel had the corner is up for debate, but the simple matter is that with Vettel in front with superior grip, he was always going to emerge the winner in that battle. Bottas should have conceded the position and focused on finishing on the podium by keeping Raikkonen at bay, but instead he braked too late, ran into the back of Vettel and damaged his own front wing.

That not only allowed Raikkonen through for third, but left him horribly exposed to the charging Daniel Ricciardo, and when the Red Bull moved to the outside of turn one, the damaged Mercedes predictably didn’t turn in as the front washed out and contact was inevitable. It was a disappointing end given his superb defensive effort, but sometimes you just need to take your medicine.