Max Verstappen sealed a superb victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix, rising from 10th to 1st, as he strengthened his grip on the world championship.

The Dutchman had been looking for damage limitation this weekend with Charles Leclerc up in third place on the grid but Ferrari botched their strategy once again with the Monegasque, whilst George Russell did not have the race pace to ultimately convert pole into the win, as he came third behind a hard-charging Lewis Hamilton.

Russell got an ideal getaway and managed to defend his lead into the first corner, with the two Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Leclerc also holding position ahead of Lando Norris.

Hamilton was one of the early winners from the start, meanwhile, as he rose from 7th to 5th, whilst the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez began their respective climbs up the field from P10 and P11.

Indeed, Max soon found himself up to 6th behind Lando and Lewis, with the title rivals from 2021 able to dispatch of the McLaren on lap 12, before Max then got the better of Hamilton over the course of the first set of stops.

Out in front, Russell held onto the lead through the first stops but Leclerc jumped Sainz, and was soon harrying the Mercedes man for the lead, something he would take on lap 31 with a fine move down the outside into turn 1.

Indeed, we were seeing some great racing, encapsulated by Daniel Ricciardo's opportunistic double overtake of the two squabbling Alpines, and more great action was to follow in the second half of the Grand Prix as spots of rain hit the TV cameras.

The second set of stops provided more drama as Leclerc found himself on hard tyres, which he'd describe as poor but in much more expletive fashion.

Indeed, he soon found himself in the clutches of Verstappen who was showing incredible pace in what looked a battle for the net lead with Sainz and Hamilton in front still to stop, and the Dutchman soon found himself getting by the Ferrari, though he'd need to do it twice.

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY - JULY 31: Charles Leclerc of Monaco driving the (16) Ferrari F1-75 makes a pitstop during the F1 Grand Prix of Hungary at Hungaroring on July 31, 2022 in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

After the first overtake, a rare mistake from Max sent him into a 360 spin on the exit of the penultimate corner here at the Hungaroring and Leclerc was back through, whilst the kerfuffle behind meant Russell could get past Perez.

It wouldn't be long until Max was back past Charles, however, with Ferrari leaving many baffled as to why they put Leclerc on the hard tyres for the final stint.

It wouldn't be long before Leclerc was now being hassled by Russell, whilst Sainz and Hamilton pitted for soft tyres - at least Ferrari got that call right - and they'd come out behind their team-mates engaged in their battle.

Verstappen would lead on lap 52, then, ahead of Leclerc, Russell, Sainz, Hamilton and Perez, with Norris the best of the rest in his McLaren.

A couple of laps later, Russell repaid the overtaking favour with Leclerc, lunging down the outside of turn 1 to take second place and that would prove the final straw for Charles and the hard tyres, with him pitting moments later for a set of softs - several laps way too late it must be said - which dropped him down to sixth.

Indeed, those that were on softs were the cars to beat in the final stages, with Sainz and Hamilton producing very fast lap times, and closing in on the top two Verstappen and Russell at a vast rate of knots.

It was Hamilton that was the fastest man out on track at this point, too, and he'd find a way past Sainz with relative ease before closing up behind team-mate Russell for the final six laps.

Indeed, relative ease is the way to describe how Hamilton moved up to second as well, with him given the chance to try and close down Verstappen, up the road by just under 11 seconds, in the final few laps.

Hamilton continued to show great pace, too, but could not reel Max in, with Valtteri Bottas' Alfa grinding to a halt and causing a VSC to rather scupper the Merc man's charge.

Victory it was for Max, then, as he drove from 10th to 1st, and as we head into the summer break that second championship title is getting ever closer.