2016 Hungarian Grand Prix Driver Reaction

Lewis Hamilton stormed into the drivers' championship lead with victory in the 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix.

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The British driver beat Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg to the win, with Daniel Ricciardo completing the podium. Here's what some of the F1 grid had to say after the 11th round of the season.

Lewis Hamilton

"I don't know what the secret is here. Naturally, having a great team and everything coming together is key. But it's a track that I think really works well for an aggressive driver. Today was one of the hottest races I can remember here. Looking after the tyres in those conditions was really hard, so I'm glad I managed. Thank you to everyone in the team for all their hard work - and to all the fans I have here.

"I don't know why but, when I go to Budapest, I always seem to have a lot of support. I love it here so it makes for a great week. I didn't know how long the tyres were going to last, so trying to spend the money wisely in terms of tyre life and being able to push when I needed to push was a tricky balance to find. The race was going really well and I was just thinking "huh, no mistakes so far" when I managed to lock up and went off at T12!

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"At that point I was like "hey, stay focused and get back on it!" which luckily I managed to do. I've not really thought about the standings much but it's definitely a good feeling to get the job done here - particularly as it's not been my strongest weekend. Not as strong as Silverstone, for example. But it's been an awesome few races and I've just got to keep that kind of form up for the rest of the season."

Kimi Raikkonen

"Today my car was really good and behaving well, we had the speed, but obviously this is not the easiest place to overtake. Unfortunately, after yesterday’s qualifying, today we were not in a position that would allow us to get the result we deserved, and this is the most disappointing thing. Regarding the battle with Max, it’s not for me to decide but I think that his
manoeuvres are questionable.

"The first time he started to move on the right and I went left, but he moved back there too, so I had to try and get out of it because I was hitting him hard on the rear and I lost my front wing, which didn’t make it easier to attack again.

"Then later, every time I managed to make a move and I was committed to somewhere he decided to turn afterwards, and at that point I had nowhere to go. It’s not my job to determine if he was correct or not, but I have seen people being penalised for much less. Today we did our maximum, I’m disappointed because I couldn’t get past Verstappen and go catch the rest."

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Daniel Ricciardo

"I’m really pleased with a podium today, I don’t think we could have got a win. We tried at the start; we had a good run off the line and at the apex the Mercs were in my blind spot, so I thought I was in the lead, but on the exit I was done by Lewis (Hamilton) and then Nico (Rosberg) got me round the outside of Turn Two. I think even if we had got the lead, their pace was good so they could have even over-cut us if they stayed out an extra lap.

"Third was the best we could do and Seb (Vettel) got really close in the last three laps; my tyres were getting towards the end, so coming over the line in third was good. Three podiums in a row here is great, it’s a good place for me. I feel really good. Fridays and Saturdays have been really good for us from the start of the season but the last few Sundays, for whatever reason, I haven’t been that satisfied with, so it was important to put it together from Friday to Sunday this weekend and I believe I did that. And now we’ve got another in seven days, so that’s another chance to be happy again!"

Valtteri Bottas

"The start of the race was really good. It was very important to get ahead of the Force India. After that we pretty much executed our plan. The supersoft tyre was holding on a lot better than we thought it would, so we ran a bit longer in the first stint.

"After that our pace on the softs more or less matched our predictions. I think we got the maximum points today from the starting position that we had. I’m sure in Hockenheim we can get more points and try to build a bigger gap from Force India."

Nico Hulkenberg

"I am not overly happy with my afternoon because it was a pretty difficult race for us. I found myself in the wrong place at turn one and lost a position, which made things a bit harder for me. The main problem in the race was after our first pit stop, when we fell behind the Toro Rosso of Kvyat and the Williams of Massa, and I just couldn’t get by. It’s so hard to overtake here and as soon as you get close to the car in front, you lose so much downforce and you destroy your tyres.

"That was the story of my race. I lost a place to Palmer at the second pit stop – that was my mistake actually and I hold my hand up and apologise to the team. During the pit stop I let the clutch slip and that made the car move, so the boys couldn’t fit the tyres properly and it cost us a little time.

"The next race in Germany should be fairly similar to this one: we have the same tyre compounds and the track has lots of medium-speed corners. We have shown today that even with a difficult race we can bring home points, but we need to do a better job in the coming races to pick up more points."

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Kevin Magnussen

"The car definitely felt better this weekend. I had a pretty decent stint on my first set of supersoft tyres; I was able to look after them well and do quite a few laps on that set.

"Unfortunately that was after a poor start where I lost a few positions. I’ve had really good practice starts all weekend so that was quite disappointing.

"From then on, we pushed to make up places but my second stint on supersoft didn’t go as well as I hoped and the last part of the race was spent behind Grosjean and Gutierrez. I certainly hope we can carry our improved pace into the rest of the season."

Carlos Sainz Jr.

"A solid race from us today here in Budapest, I’m satisfied with the result. I’m pretty pleased with the race, even if Fernando Alonso got past us at the start. We were able to keep up with McLaren’s pace, something that during the practice sessions on Friday and Saturday didn’t look like we’d be able to do…

"It was just impossible to overtake him! If you would have told me I’d finish P8 after the bad start to the weekend that we had, I wouldn’t have believed it! I think we can be very happy and pleased with ourselves – the team did a great job to turn things around and I’d like to thank them for this! We can now go to Germany feeling confident."

Felipe Nasr

"A tough race for us. The beginning was ok, I gained one position after the first lap. But then after my first pit stop I got stuck in traffic, which slowed us down and cost us some time. Overall, I had decent pace during the race, especially on the soft tyres. We have to keep on working hard to become more competitive step by step."

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Fernando Alonso

"Well, P7 has been my position all weekend! It’s a pity we couldn’t improve this afternoon but still I think we were best of the rest today. Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari are out of reach at the moment for everyone – they’re on another level – so, in the other mini-championship we’re racing in, we were quite competitive and I feel we delivered the maximum we could today.

"There wasn’t much action in the race though. For us, it was a little bit of a boring afternoon at some points – not the usual Hungaroring show – and the only retirement, unfortunately, was Jenson. I’m happy about how the weekend went and hopefully we can keep this up progress. We’ve been more or less competitive here and at Silverstone, on two very different circuits, so I’m looking forward to next weekend at Hockenheim."

Pascal Wehrlein

"It was a very difficult race today. It was clear very early on in the weekend that this was not ‘our’ track and I think that showed today. I got a really good start and climbed to 17th position, and then up to 16th, but we didn’t have the car to stay there or fight for more. I think it’s something positive that, even with all those factors, we still managed to keep a Sauber behind us, but still disappointing overall."

Romain Grosjean

"It was just a bad afternoon. Nothing really worked. Our strategy didn’t work, the car didn’t work. I was trying to find a balance, but I just couldn’t get it. I’m sure there’s a lot to learn from the afternoon, but it’s a disappointing outcome. I was expecting us to be in better shape. I was expecting to be able to score points after yesterday’s qualifying session."