BUDAPEST: Red Bull fancy their chances in the heat of the Hungaroring this weekend but given that no driver has won in Hungary and gone on to take the title in the same season since Michael Schumacher in 2004 Lewis Hamilton will not lose too much sleep about that.
While the prospect of a Daniel Ricciardo or Max Verstappen victory is of little real concern to Mercedes’ championship leader what really matters is beating Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel before Formula One heads into the August break.
Hamilton came away from an epic German Grand Prix win last Sunday having turned an eight-point deficit into a 17-point lead but he knows the stars were aligned for him in that race and a hurting Ferrari will come back strong.
“It’s usually not our strongest track,” said Hamilton, who has won a record five times at the circuit outside Budapest but never in a championship year.
Last year he sportingly handed back third place to teammate Valtteri Bottas, despite the loss of championship points, after the Finn had let him go past earlier to try to chase down the Ferraris.
