Hungarian Grand Prix (2014): RESULT

With Nico Rosberg on pole and Lewis Hamilton starting from the pits – and the promise of rain – the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix promised to be a cracker of a race.

What a difference a year makes – in 2013 Lewis Hamilton was on pole for the Hungarian Grand Prix, but this year, after a car fire in qualifying, Hamilton starts from the pit lane as his team mate, Nico Rosberg, starts from pole in Hungary.

Did Lewis manage to win? No, but he managed third place behind Ricciardo and Alonso and beat Rosberg, who finished fourth in one of the best F1 races there’s been.

Rain, crashes and safety cars made the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix one to remember, with Hamilton spinning off on his first lap thanks to cold brakes – and damaging his front wing – but 45 minutes later he’d managed to claw his way up to fifth spot.

Much of that was down to a safety car – first for Caterham’s Ericsson off at turn eight as the rain arrived and continued for Romain Grosjean’s Lotus which spun in to the wall – followed by a second safety car after Sergio Perez – who put Hulkenberg out in a tussle – ran wide at the last turn, hitting the concrete wall on the start finish straight.

Ricciardo and Massa pitted under the second safety car leaving Alonso at the front followed by Vergne, Rosberg, Vettel and Hamilton as the safety car pitted – but the race wasn’t even half done.

As a round of pit stops rolled out Hamilton briefly led the race, but after he stopped he was back in fifth, but he worked his way up to third with Rosberg behind in fifth.

At thi8s point the Mercedes team were asking Hamilton to move over for Rosberg – who still had another pit stop to go whereas Hamilton was planning to go the the end on his tyres – but Hamilton refused to move over on the basis that Rosberg wasn’t close enough to overtake. Which seemed perfectly reasonable.

At the front, Ricciardo pitted for fresh rubber – just as Rosberg had on the previous lap – leaving Alonso in the lead with Hamilton chasing, but both were on worn rubber.

Ricciardo made his move on Hamilton on lap 67 followed by an overtake a lap later on Alonso to take the lead and drive away, but Rosberg quickly captured Hamilton and Alonso on his fresh rubber and the closing few laps saw Alonso just managing to hold off Hamilton and Hamilton just keeping Rosberg in fourth for a third place and a podium.

Whose was the best drive? Ricciardo did an amazing job taking the Red Bull to a win, Alonso is probably the only driver who could have taken a second place in the Ferrari under the circumstances and Hamilton’s drive from pits to third place was frankly unbelievable at the Hungaroring. A draw, we think.

It was, by any measure, one of the best races in F1 ever.