Photo: Daimler AG
This year's string of bad luck has finally ended for Lewis Hamilton, who took his first ever win as a Mercedes-AMG driver this weekend, at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Starting from pole-position, there were few people, including Lewis himself, which expected the race to end as good as it had started, especially considering the Pirelli tire-sage that's been going on this season.
“We really didn't expect this when we came here this weekend and I said last night that I would need a miracle to win today. Well, just maybe they do happen. […] The team has just done an exceptional job: we have worked so hard to understand these tires and we got the balance spot on today. I am very hopeful this could be a real turning point for us as we coped with these high track temperatures.”
After managing to fight off a charging Vettel in the beginning of the race, Hamilton kept leading the race until he pitted first, on the ninth lap, when he switched his soft tires with medium ones. This first pit stop put Red Bull's Mark Webber in the lead, right in front of the Mercedes-AMG driver, but they switched positions between them on the 22nd lap, when the Aussie finally got rid of his medium tires.
Hamilton lost his lead for the second time on lap 31, to Vettel, but regained it just three laps later and kept it until the end. Against all odds and even though he, himself, was expecting to struggle with extreme tire wear as the track temperature exceeded 50 degrees Celsius, the Pirellis of his Mercedes-AMG managed to resist until the end and he took the checkered flag, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastien Vettel.
Lewis is now in the same famous company with the likes of Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss as a Formula 1 winner for the three-pointed star. Mercedes-AMG is still in second place in the F1 Constructors Championship, with 208 points against Red Bull's 277 and ahead of Ferrari's 194.
After managing to fight off a charging Vettel in the beginning of the race, Hamilton kept leading the race until he pitted first, on the ninth lap, when he switched his soft tires with medium ones. This first pit stop put Red Bull's Mark Webber in the lead, right in front of the Mercedes-AMG driver, but they switched positions between them on the 22nd lap, when the Aussie finally got rid of his medium tires.
Hamilton lost his lead for the second time on lap 31, to Vettel, but regained it just three laps later and kept it until the end. Against all odds and even though he, himself, was expecting to struggle with extreme tire wear as the track temperature exceeded 50 degrees Celsius, the Pirellis of his Mercedes-AMG managed to resist until the end and he took the checkered flag, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastien Vettel.
Lewis is now in the same famous company with the likes of Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss as a Formula 1 winner for the three-pointed star. Mercedes-AMG is still in second place in the F1 Constructors Championship, with 208 points against Red Bull's 277 and ahead of Ferrari's 194.
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