Sheer dominance at the 2017 Hungarian GP
Not a track where Sebastian Vettel has won on a lot many occasions, it can be said his iron-fisted triumph here in the heart of Hungary in 2017 could well be described as one of his best wins ever.
At a venue where Hamilton's won on an incredible 6 occasions, Vettel delivered an enticing victory two seasons ago after snatching pole a day earlier. With the qualifying battle largely being reduced to the two Ferraris keen to outdo one other, Vettel eclipsed Raikkonen, finishing just over a tenth of a second at the Mogyorod.
The 70-lap contest fought under clear blue skies was to be the race where a cheery Vettel would emerge on the podium striking the famous, "dance like an Egyptian pose!" And boy did that image make headlines or what?
Winning arguably his best-ever race at Hungary, his first victory coming in 2015, Vettel began well in the run-up to the first corner with Kimi tucked right behind him. Just when Raikkonen would have thought to seize the lead, Vettel moved across to cut his teammate to retain track position.
Immediately then, Sebastian Vettel began chipping away from a gathering crowd that included the two Mercedes driver, hot on his teammate's tail. The action-packed race brought out the safety car right after the completion of Lap 1 but that would do little to offset the German's concentration.
By the time of the start of Lap 6, Vettel was clearly over a second in front of Raikkonen. The pack moved along unchanged. But from the onset of Lap 18, the battle between the two Ferraris intensified, Kimi finding a lot of grip to challenge his opposite number in the red car. The gap between the German and the Finn now only a little over a second.
Later, Vettel pitted and rejoined behind Verstappen on second. By Lap 39, the only concern for Vettel was that the Red Bull driver had the track position leading his Ferrari by over 10 seconds.
A few laps later, as Verstappen pitted whilst also serving a ten-second penalty for making unfair contact with Ricciardo, his then-teammate, it was advantage Sebastian Vettel. With only 27 laps to go and the Ferrari controlling the race with dominant straight line speed, there was little that anyone could do to topple the German.
In the end, Raikkonen, who climbed back onto second following his stop earlier could only do as much as cutting down the gap to the race leader. The divide between the two Ferrari's being only 1.2 seconds. An unchallenged Vettel would go onto claim victory akin to a morning jog in the park. It was to be a memorable occasion for the two teammates who had so much respect for one another, the Ferraris managing a 1-2 finish.