Budapest : Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull overtook Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso near the end of the race to win a thrilling Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday, his second Formula One victory of the season and his career.
Lewis Hamilton, who started from the pit lane after his engine caught on fire during qualifying, was third, holding off Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, who started from pole position.
Ricciardo finished the race 5.225 seconds ahead of Alonso. Hamilton was just 0.632 seconds further back and 0.504 seconds ahead of Rosberg. Ricciardo, an Australian competing in his fourth Formula One season, made three pits stops — compared to just two for Alonso and Hamilton — and his newer set of tires paid off in the end as he surged past the leaders with three laps to go. “We had the fresher tires but I knew it was going to be an exciting finish,” Ricciardo said, adding that it was a lot of fun, the last few laps. I am definitely going to celebrate tonight, party for a few days and enjoy a few days off,” he added.
Ricciardo won his first F1 race at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal in June and is the only non-Mercedes driver to win this year. Rosberg still leads the championship with 202 points, followed by Hamilton with 191 and Ricciardo with 131. In the constructors’ standings, Mercedes has 393 points, Red Bull 219 and Ferrari has overtaken Williams for third place, 142 points to 135. Mercedes told Hamilton to let Rosberg pass him as the race was winding down, but Hamilton said he saw no reason to obey team orders considering his good position at the time. “I was very, very shocked that the team would ask me to do that,” Hamilton said. Rosberg “did get close enough to overtake but I was never going to lift off and lose ground to Fernando or Daniel to enable him to have a good race.”
“That was a bit strange,” he added.
Hamilton also started from the pit lane at last week’s German Grand Prix and moved up to finish third. He had won the last two races in Hungary and was looking for his fifth win on the twisting, relatively slow Hungaroring.
Force India draws blank
Budapest: Sahara Force India recorded its worst performance of the season as the team had first no-points finish with both Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez crashing out of the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday. Hulkenberg collided with Perez at turn 13 in lap 14 as his record of scoring points in all races this season ended. “It was not the best day in the office and I am feeling very disappointed. The track was drying out and I was quite close behind Checo when I made contact with him at the final corner. The previous lap he had taken a much wider line so I tried to overtake on the inside, but he took a tighter line and I couldn’t back out of the move,” Hulkenberg said.
“I made contact with his car, lost my front wing and went straight on into the barrier. It was my mistake and I have apologised to the team. It is especially frustrating because there was a lot of potential in this race, but I guess it was one of those days when things didn’t go our way.”
