Lewis Hamilton has won the Hungarian Grand Prix following a brilliant display at the Hungaroring that saw him finish ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, claiming his first win for Mercedes and his fourth Hungarian Grand Prix victory.
Hamilton’s pace throughout the race was highly impressive, making his strategy work as Vettel – the pre-race favorite – got stuck behind Jenson Button for 12 laps and ended up losing a great deal of time to Hamilton before eventually falling behind Raikkonen during the final part of the race.
Off the start, Hamilton proved that he had learned from his mistake in Germany by holding the lead into turn one from Vettel and Grosjean, but the Lotus quickly came under pressure from Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso. The Ferrari driver could not quite pass Grosjean after being forced wide, allowing Rosberg to attempt a pass. However, the Mercedes was touched by a fast-starting Felipe Massa, causing Rosberg to run off the track at turn five and drop down to 12th place. On the medium tire, Button and Webber both made good starts to try and get in the running with their alternative strategies but they could not match Hamilton’s pace out in front. The Briton began to open up a lead over Vettel as Grosjean quickly reeled in the Red Bull, although he could not quite pass using DRS. Just nine laps into the race though, Hamilton elected to pit for fresh tires, releasing Vettel and Grosjean at the front but Red Bull soon pitted Vettel in reaction to Mercedes’ tactic. As a result, Lotus had their drivers P1 and P2 with the plan being to two-stop as their rivals would have to pit one extra time. However, the high tire wear meant that both Grosjean and Raikkonen had to pit, handing Mark Webber the lead on the medium tire.
The race slowly began to move away from Vettel as he got stuck behind Jenson Button and unable to get past, allowing Romain Grosjean to catch him up and, more worryingly, Hamilton to open up a five second lead over the Red Bull. Knowing he had to find a way through, Vettel tried to pass Button on the inside of turn two but instead made contact with Button, causing damage to his front wing and allowing Grosjean and Alonso to close up as Button pulled away. After dropping back, Vettel drew Button back in and made a fine pass on the inside of turn four, with Grosjean making contact on his way past the McLaren. At the front though, Hamilton took the lead once Webber pitted and enjoyed a 13 second lead over Vettel, putting the Mercedes driver in the box seat to claim his fourth win in Hungary.
Lotus took the decision to pit Grosjean in order to get the undercut on Vettel, and the Frenchman pulled off a great overtake on Massa in order to stop himself from being held up. Hamilton soon followed the example of the Lotus, coming out ahead of Raikkonen to hand Vettel the lead once again. However, the Briton soon disposed of Webber and re-took the lead when Vettel and Alonso pitted, with Vettel re-emerging behind Jenson Button once again. This time though, Vettel soon passed the two-time Hungarian GP winner but the gap to Hamilton now stood at 15 seconds.
Romain Grosjean’s race soon took a turn for the worse after the stewards handed him a drive-through penalty for the pass on Massa after putting all four wheels outside of the white line, ending his chances of a maiden grand prix victory. His teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, put himself in a position to two-stop following a long run during his second stint. Mark Webber had also been pushing hard to make his strategy work, coming back out in P3 after his second stop, and he was ahead of Hamilton when the race leader made his final pit stop. However, Hamilton made a brave move on the inside of turn three to re-take second place, now just 7 seconds behind Vettel who still had one more stop to make. The German driver looked to open up the gap to Hamilton, but he was soon forced to pit and dropped to 4th behind Hamilton, Webber and Raikkonen.
Vettel quickly set about catching Raikkonen and began to pressurize him for 2nd place once Webber had pitted for the final time. Mercedes gave Hamilton the call to cool his engine, with the 11 second cushion to Raikkonen allowing him to ease off in the final ten laps of the race. Vettel was forced to back off from Raikkonen in order to cool his car down, but he then began to push once again and was on the rear wing of the Lotus with just five laps remaining.
Mercedes’ near-perfect afternoon took a turn for the worse when Nico Rosberg pulled over at turn four following a sizeable engine failure, causing the engineers to become concerned about the condition of Hamilton’s car. This did elevate Maldonado into the top ten, handing Williams their first point of the season come the checkered flag. Vettel once again closed on Raikkonen, complaining when he wasn’t given enough room to make a pass on the Lotus, and the defending world champion could not find a way past on the last lap. Out in front though, Hamilton managed to keep it on-track to take his first win for Mercedes since joining the team and his fourth in Hungary crossing the line ahead of Raikkonen, Vettel, Webber and Alonso.