First of all Wingman Hurts – Valtteri Bottas

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton led from start to finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Meanwhile, teammate Valtteri Bottas traded paint jobs twice, with Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo. The victory ensured that Hamilton comfortably extended his championship lead.

Bottas displayed excellent defense in second place to try and deny the Ferrari duo. Surprisingly, when the Finnish driver was praised by his boss he was furious at being labelled a No 2 driver.

“First of all wingman hurts,” Bottas said. “Second of all I don’t see any positive in this race for me.”

Theoretically, the one stop should have worked for them. However, they stopped early to cover off Kimi Raikkonen. Even with 20 laps to go, he felt comfortable and in control.

Unfortunately, the rear tyres began to fade away leaving him vulnerable. He tried to defend as best as he could but to no avail. It all ended up being a mess with a broken front wing and bruised ego.

“We need to speak after this race. We are over halfway of the year. The points gap is big, so for sure the team will decide at some point.”

Bottas hung on to second until a dramatic 66th lap. He collided with Vettel at Turn 2, suffering damage to the front left wing. Almost a lap later, Bottas collided with Daniel Ricciardo and was ordered to surrender fourth position back on the penultimate lap.

“So we touched and I was the only one who got damage. Fair enough, I think a racing incident. With Daniel, pretty much a similar thing. But I was next to him on the inside. I had no half of my front wing so I was locking up as well. I’m sure he saw I was still going quite quick into the corner, but he turned in and then we touched.”