Hungarian Grand Prix 2016: Lewis Hamilton wins, plus full finishing order

Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes took the lead over teammate Nico Rosberg in the first lap of the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix, and has now taken the lead in the Drivers’ Championship after winning Sunday’s race. Hamilton trailed Rosberg by a single championship point going into Sunday, but managed to pass his teammate on the first turn and kept the lead for most of the race.

Hamilton only lost it when he took a pit stop, but eventually took it back. Rosberg stuck to him the entire race, but every time Rosberg got into DRS range, Hamilton managed to find the time to get just out of it and extend his lead. Those two were running their own race, with Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel scrapping behind them.

Ricciardo and Vettel were battling for much of the last 10 laps, but Red Bull’s Ricciardo managed to hold him off. Just behind them, it was a Red Bull who managed to hold off yet another Ferrari as Max Verstappen held off Kimi Räikkönen. The latter was frustrated big time in the final laps of the race as he was unable to pass Verstappen despite staying within DRS range of him.

The start of the race was plenty exciting, with both Mercedes drivers getting a strong start. Rosberg was concentrating on defending against Hamilton, and was briefly passed along the outside by Ricciardo. While Ricciardo briefly pulled into first, Hamilton passed both of them on the inside and took the lead on the opening corner, from Rosberg and then Ricciardo.

After both McLaren drivers qualified well enough to lock out the fourth row, Jenson Button dropped all the way back to 22nd place when he lost hydraulic pressure. It looked like his race would be over, but around lap 10 the problem seemed to be fixed and Button was able to continue.

Max Verstappen found himself frustratingly behind Kimi Räikkönen of Ferrari through most of the race. Räikkönen waited a long time to take his first pit stop, and eventually made it up to fifth place, with Verstappen stuck behind him unable to pass. That separated Verstappen from the rest of the pack, and put him more than 10 seconds behind Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari by the time Räikkönen did go into the pits.

On lap 41, both Nico Hülkenberg of Force India and Jolyon Palmer of Renault went into the pit box, with the former leading. But Renault’s pit crew put in a great stop and Palmer released quicker than Hülkenberg, taking his position late in the race.

Red Bull and Ferrari tried pitting Ricciardo and Vettel early to try and pass up the Mercedes drivers out in front. Hamilton was given a warning by his team that he needed to pick up the pace, with the implication being that Rosberg would be given pit stop priority. But Hamilton eventually went in and came out in second behind his teammate.

Rosberg then went in himself on the 43rd lap, and Hamilton easily took the lead into the following lap. Little happened for the next 10 laps or so, with Raikkonen finally taking another pit stop on lap 51, where he came out in sixth position, which was still great given his start in 14th on the grid. Shortly after that, Hamilton was behind and held back by a Haas car, and Rosberg managed to bring the gap between the two down to .6 seconds.

Palmer seemed poised to finish in the points when he spun off the track on lap 50, and rejoined in 13th place. But things got a bit more exciting further up in the pack a few laps later when Räikkönen found himself on Verstappen’s rear. Räikkönen made a move on Verstappen, who moved to cover him, and then Räikkönen moved again, and Verstappen seemed to perhaps break the rules by moving once again to cover Räikkönen.

Räikkönen then broke off a portion of his front wing on the back of Verstappen’s car and had to fall back. He came over the team radio and complained that Verstappen had made a double move to cover him, which is not allowed in Formula 1.

The first driver to retire in the race was Button, who went in on lap 63, ending a disastrous race day for him. Hamilton once again allowed Rosberg to get within DRS range of him, but again pulled out. Räikkönen stayed within DRS range of Verstappen and that scrap continued despite the damage to Raikkonen’s front wing. But he was unable to seal the deal and finished in sixth.

The top ten was rounded out by Fernando Alonso of McLaren, Carlos Sainz of Toro Rosso, Valterri Bottas of Williams and Nico Hulkenberg of Force India. Below is the full finishing order for Sunday’s race: