Lewis Hamilton takes the chequered flag for the fourth time in Hungary and wins his first race in a Mercedes car. It was a race where Hamilton was fairly unthreatened throughout and ended up winning at a canter. Kimi Raikkonen overtakes Fernando Alonso in to second in the overall standings after staving off an attack from Sebastian Vettel to finish second. There was also good news for Williams as a tenth place for Pastor Maldonado meant that they had now secured their first point of the season.
Romain Grosjean looked very competitive in the early going and was in contention for a podium until a drive through penalty ended that attempt. Nico Rosberg got beaten up on the first lap and ended up retiring late on with a blown engine.
Alonso had his usual good start, overtaking Rosberg and challenging with Vettel and Grosjean. Felipe Massa also tried to get around the Mercedes and there ended up being contact which sent Rosberg off the track before rejoining in 12th. Mark Webber and Jenson Button were also winners from the first lap, landing seventh and eighth respectively.
With Hungary well known for its lack of over-taking. Most of the talk was about the strategy and the pit stops. Hamilton pitted on lap nine and crucially came out ahead of Button, who had began on the medium compound not the soft. Vettel would pit on lap-11 but come out behind the McLaren which caused the Red Bull a problem. Alonso would pit on lap-13 before both Lotus cars came in on lap-14 with Grosjean coming out behind both Hamilton and Vettel, leaving Webber in the lead.
The first retirement of the race came on lap-20 when Adrian Sutil suffered a hydraulic leak. Webber pitted on lap-24, giving Hamilton the lead again. Meanwhile, Button's tyres were going and it allowed Vettel, Grosjean and Alonso to overtake the McLaren. There was contact between Grosjean and Button which caused the McLaren to pit in an incident that was to be investigated after the race. The Lotus also pitted on lap-26, possibly also due to the incident as well as just a tyre change.
Grosjean looked to have overtaken Massa fairly on lap-29 to gain sixth but because he went off track just after the manoeuvre, he was brandished with a drive through penalty on lap-37. Esteban Gutierrez became the second retirement of the race to continue his miserable debut season. Button also managed to overtake Massa to gain seventh on lap-31.
Hamilton pitted on lap-32 and just came out behind Webber, which would have played in to Vettel's hands. But Hamilton managed to overtake Webber two laps later as both Alonso and Vettel decided to pit. The Red Bull once again ended up behind Button but it didn't cost him as much time this time around as he managed to overtake the McLaren on lap-37 to go fifth.
Valtteri Bottas became the third retirement on lap-45 when his car looked to break down near the finish line. Hamilton pitted for the third and final time on lap-51 and came out behind the two Red Bulls before Hamilton aggressively overtook Webber. Vettel would pit on lap-55 and gained third place when Webber pitted on lap-60.
Rosberg's race came to an end on lap-66 because of that engine failure. Force India's disappointing weekend came to an end when they also decided to retire Paul Di Resta who had had a truly miserable weekend. Race result:
1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), 2. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus), 3. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), 4. Mark Webber (Red Bull), 5. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), 6. Romain Grosjean (Lotus), 7. Jenson Button (McLaren), 8. Felipe Massa (Ferrari), 9. Sergio Perez (McLaren), 10. Pastor Maldonado (Williams), 11. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber), 12. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso), 13. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso), 14. Giedo van der Garde (Caterham), 15. Charles Pic (Caterham), 16. Jules Bianchi (Marussia), 17. Max Chilton (Marussia) DNF: Adrian Sutil (Force India), Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber), Valtteri Bottas (Williams), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Paul Di Resta (Force India)
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