Hungarian Grand Prix: Vettel WINS for Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel wins the 2015 Hungarian Grand Prix for Ferrari – leading from start to finish – as Mercedes have a terrible day in Budapest.

It looked like the Hungarian Grand Prix would be a walk in the park for Mercedes after Hamilton took a dominant pole with Rosberg in second, but they hadn’t reckoned with the Ferraris taking the jump at the start, and a run of errors and bad luck that saw neither Mercedes on the podium in Budapest.

Vettel’s win was made at the start, taking Hamilton for the lead in the first corner, and Raikkonen took second place on turn two as Hamilton fell to fourth. But Hamilton compounded the start with a mistake causing him to run wide at the chicane dropping him to 10th.

As the Ferraris drove off – followed by Rosberg – Hamilton set about salvaging the day with a series of overtakes that saw him close the gap to Rosberg to just six seconds when the safety car came out and shuffled the pack up after Hulkenberg’s Force India lost its front win on the main straight and smashed in to the barriers.

The Ferraris and Mercedes shuffled up under the safety car, but many further back hit the pits for new tyres, including Red Bull’s Ricciardo who found himself in fifth place as the race restarted when the safety car went in.

With new tyres, Ricciardo made a move on Hamilton, but Hamilton slid in to the Red Bull breaking his front wing and damaging the bodywork of the Red Bull. Ricciardo continued, but Hamilton had to pit, returning in 12th place.

Hamilton got his head down to chase points, and managed to improve to sixth place which, if events in front hadn’t continued to unfold, would have seen him lose his championship lead.

Raikkonen’s Ferrari died after a hybrid system failure, and it looked like Rosberg was in for at least second place, if not the win.

But an overtake by Ricciardo on Rosberg saw the German cut back in front of Ricciardo too quickly as Ricciardo over-cooked the move, taking a chunk out of Ricciardo’s wing and puncturing his left rear tyre. Both pitted, but Ricciardo managed to come back and take third spot – with team-mate Kvyat taking his first ever podium with second place – whilst Rosberg’s long limp back to the pits for a new tyre saw him end the race in eighth.

It may have been a bad day for Mercedes – and a great day for Ferrari and Red Bull – but it was a pretty successful one for McLaren, with Alonso managing fifth and Button ninth – the best McLaren showing of the year – in what was perhaps the best race since hybrid cars arrived in F1.

And, at the end, one and all dedicated the race to Jules Bianchi.