Hungarian Grand Prix (2013) RESULT

Lewis Hamilton is on pole for Mercedes in the Hungary Grand Prix , but can he hold off the challenge from Red Bull’s Vettel to take his first Mercedes win?

Photo Lewis Hamilton Hungarian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton wins the Hungarian Grand Prix

The story of Lewis Hamilton’s first season at Mercedes has been on of qualifying highs and race lows, but could Hungary be the place Hamilton turns all that promise in to a win?

In a word – yes.

Lewis Hamilton has won his first Grand Prix for Mercedes at the Hungaroring – a race he’s won three time before – in a brilliant drive, helped by a few lucky breaks, and despite Mercedes having problems all weekend with overheating.

Lewis had a great start and quickly opened up a gap from second place Vettel (by contrast, Rosberg in his Mercedes, managed to go wide twice on the first lap and finally dropped out near the end with a blown engine) and even the lagging Brits caught the front runners too, with Button quickly up to eighth and di Resta cutting through the pack.

Hamilton hit the pits before Vettel and came out behind Button, but soon got by, but Vettel, who pitted a few laps later and also came out behind Button, stayed there for 11 laps.

Vettel did finally get past Button and Grosjean tried to do the same in the Lotus but managed to clip Button in the process (something Vettel also managed), despite which Button managed to continue on to a seventh place.

After Hamilton pitted for the second time he came out behind Webber – but ahead of Raikkonen, soon despatched Webber – who went on to finish fourth, and left Vettel trying to overtake the by now second place Raikkonen for second place.

But despite old tyres on the Lotus and new tyres on the Red Bull, Kimi managed to make his Lotus wide enough to keep Vettel at bay, with the Lotus finishing second (the same driver 1-2 as last year) and the Red Bull third.

It was a good race to go in to the summer break, and perhaps heralds an end to Mercedes tyre problems that have dogged their season so far.

We’ll fin out if that’s the case at Spa in three weeks time.