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GOING FOR GOLD . . . Championship leader Sebastian Vettel held on to his pole position to race to victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring circuit in Budapest yesterday. — AFP.

BUDAPEST. — Sebastian Vettel increased his drivers’ world championship lead to 14 points when he led Kimi Raikkonen home in a dominant Ferrari one-two at the Hungarian Grand Prix yesterday.

In his 50th race for Ferrari, the four-time Formula One champion German controlled the contest from pole position in stifling heat to reel off his first win in five races since the Monaco Grand Prix.

His main title rival Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes finished fourth, after handing a podium finish back to his team-mate Valtteri Bottas on the final lap following a late switch to enable the Briton to attack the two Ferraris.

Hamilton, who produced one of Formula One’s most wonderful recent moments of sportsmanship on the last lap, was given every chance to win a controversial Hungarian Grand Prix, but victory went to Ferrari’s Vettel.

The British driver asked his team if he could have a crack at the two front-running Ferraris of Vettel and Raikkonen rather than be stuck behind his Mercedes team-mate Bottas.

About lap 45, Hamilton said: “I’ve got a lot of pace now let me use it. I don’t know why the Ferraris are slow.”

He then said, making a promise he later honoured: “If I can’t catch [the Ferraris] I’ll let Valtteri back past. Or let me at least race Valtteri.”

His wish was soon their command to Bottas. He let Hamilton through. The British driver then duly got right on the tail of Raikkonen. But Hamilton made his predicament clear. “It’s getting very hard to get close.”

His Mercedes engineer said: “Do what you can, you’ve got to overtake – and five laps to make it work.”

“No pressure then,” replied Hamilton.

Still, Hamilton stuck close to Raikkonen, who was about a second behind Vettel, who had steering problems. But, still, he could find no way through.

The five laps were up. Mercedes extended his free rein to another five laps. Hamilton offered to cede his advantage, but he was told to stay where he was. Bottas had fallen way, way back, and that his moral claim on being ushered back up to third was losing ground as fast as he was.

But on the line, sportingly, Hamilton let Bottas through. It was a wonderfully sporting move and does Hamilton very credit indeed.

The upshot was that Hamilton finished fourth and goes into the summer break 14 points behind Vettel, handing the psychological advantage to the German before the Belgian Grand Prix on August 27.

Raikkonen, who was panicky over the radio as Hamilton’s Silver Arrow shimmered ever closer, held on to second to complete a Ferrari one-two at a venue where, in 2001, the team celebrated the second of Michael Schumacher’s five titles with them. Bottas was ultimately third, waving his thanks to Lewis as the Brit let him through.

The early controversy came courtesy of Max Verstappen receiving a 10-second penalty for crashing into his Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo on lap one..

Hamilton was jumped at the start by the two Red Bulls. Then, at turn two, Verstappen braked late, his front left locked up and he bashed hard into the side of Ricciardo’s car. The Australian’s radiator was damaged and he spun to a halt at turn three, bringing out the safety car.

Ricciardo was angry. He asked if he had been hit by who he thought he had. He was told yes, replying: “F***ing sore loser.”

Verstappen was penalised for “causing a collision”.

On returning to the paddock Ricciardo let fly, saying: “It’s not on. It was amateur to say the least. It’s not like he was trying to pass. There was no room to pass. Valtteri was in front and I was on the outside so there was no room.

“I don’t think he likes it when a team-mate gets in front. You’ve got the whole race to try to repair the mistake but the pass was never on. It was a very poor mistake.

“The team will do their bit and I’ll do my bit. We’ll sort it out. I don’t think it’s trying too hard. There isn’t an excuse for it.

“He tried the outside at turn one and all of a sudden what was a good start is a bad start. He sees me go past and thinks ‘I’ve got to fix this’ and then we crash.” — AFP