Hungarian GP 2016: Hamilton wins it at the start and takes the championship lead

Lewis Hamilton won the 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring ahead of his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull. Hamilton started from 2nd and was already past Rosberg on the run to the first corner. After that, he only gave up the lead during the pit stops. The win put him at the top of the championship for the first time this season, just before the summer break.

Saturday was already eventful. A thunderstorm hit before qualifying. According to Motor Sport Magazine, the first segment lasted over an hour as a result and was red-flagged four times. Q2 started on intermediates and finished on slicks. The drying track was a problem for Kimi Räikkönen: the Ferrari driver dropped to 14th on the grid.

In Q3, Fernando Alonso spun his McLaren at Turn 9 on his final attempt. The double-waved yellow flags ruined Hamilton's lap. Rosberg, on the other hand, took pole. The stewards looked into whether he had slowed down enough under the yellows and cleared him. Behind the Silver Arrows lined up Ricciardo, Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso.

Hamilton won the start. Rosberg came under pressure on the inside as Ricciardo attacked around the outside, and he had to lift at Turn 1. At Turn 2, Rosberg took second place back from Ricciardo, but by then Hamilton already had his decisive gap. Afterwards he said, in essence, that the start had been everything. According to grandprix.com, he was 1.4 seconds ahead after two laps.

The supersoft tyres degraded quickly in the heat, so the field took things cautiously for a long time. The lead briefly changed hands during the stops: Hamilton pitted on lap 16, Rosberg a lap later. After that, Hamilton was back in front. On fresh soft tyres, he drove so conservatively that Rosberg closed to within fractions of a second and Ricciardo drew closer again. According to Motor Sport Magazine, Mercedes warned Hamilton that if he did not go faster, Rosberg would be pitted first. Hamilton then picked up the pace.

The second stops followed the same pattern: Hamilton on lap 41, Rosberg on lap 42, with the order unchanged. Things got tense once more in traffic. According to grandprix.com, Esteban Gutiérrez in the Haas held up the leader, and Rosberg closed to within 0.6 seconds. Gutiérrez received a five-second penalty for ignoring blue flags. Hamilton could not be passed and, according to grandprix.com, won by 1.977 seconds.

Further back, strategy decided things. Ferrari brought Vettel in on lap 14, the first of the leading group to stop. According to Motor Sport Magazine, the team wanted to undercut Verstappen. It worked: Vettel rejoined in fourth. Red Bull responded with Ricciardo a lap later. Verstappen lost time at his stop because the car rolled forward. According to Motor Sport Magazine, Räikkönen, who had yet to stop, went past him as he came out of the pits.

Ricciardo made his second stop on lap 33 and briefly dropped to 5th. On fresher tyres, though, he won the positions back. Vettel pitted for the second time on lap 41 and came out behind the Australian. Vettel was quicker at the end but could not get past. Ricciardo claimed his third consecutive podium at the Hungaroring. Vettel felt Ferrari could have taken 3rd place with a better qualifying.

The toughest fight of the afternoon was between Räikkönen and Verstappen. Räikkönen started on soft tyres and ran a long first stint. He did not stop until lap 29 and then again on lap 50, switching to supersofts both times. On the fresher tyres, he caught Verstappen. According to grandprix.com, he set the fastest lap of the race on lap 52 with a 1:23.086.

According to Motor Sport Magazine, Verstappen defended so late on lap 59 that Räikkönen's front wing touched the rear of the Red Bull, and a piece of the front wing endplate broke off the Ferrari. The Finn accused the Dutchman of changing his line under braking. Over the radio he fumed: “If he does it again, I hit him.” The stewards did not penalise Verstappen, who called it normal defending. Verstappen finished fifth, Räikkönen sixth.

Winners of the day:
- Lewis Hamilton: He won it at the start and took the championship lead. According to grandprix.com, it was his fifth win in Hungary and his 48th Grand Prix victory.
- Kimi Räikkönen: Gaining eight places, from 14th on the grid to 6th, he was the best climber of the day. He also set the fastest lap.
- Jolyon Palmer: The Renault driver gained five places to finish twelfth. According to grandprix.com, he spun on lap 49 while running thirteenth but kept going.

Losers of the day:
- Jenson Button: Early in the race, a hydraulic problem sent his brake pedal to the floor. Because McLaren gave him instructions over the radio, he received a drive-through penalty for illegal radio messages. Under the rules in force since Silverstone, the team should have called him into the pits instead. Button retired after 60 laps with an oil leak. He was the only driver who failed to reach the finish.
- Daniil Kvyat: He lost four places and finished only sixteenth. According to grandprix.com, he received a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
- Nico Rosberg: He started on pole and lost the race at the start, and with it the championship lead.

The remaining points went to Alonso in seventh, Sainz, Valtteri Bottas in the Williams and Nico Hülkenberg in the Force India. His team-mate Sergio Pérez only finished eleventh. According to Motor Sport Magazine, his one-stop strategy did not work out. When a second stop was needed after all, the crew was not ready because of a communication error.

In the 2016 standings, Hamilton led after eleven races with 192 points to Rosberg's 186. Rosberg had started the season with four wins. Now Hamilton was in front for the first time this year. According to grandprix.com, both Mercedes drivers had five wins each at that point. Behind them it was tight: Ricciardo moved up to 3rd with 115 points, one point ahead of Räikkönen on 114. Next came Vettel on 110 and Verstappen on 100.

The constructors' fight was close too. Mercedes led comfortably with 378 points. Ferrari, on 224, were just one point ahead of Red Bull on 223. There was little time to catch breath in the battle for P2: the action resumed just a week later with the German GP at the Hockenheimring, and only then came the summer break. You can find all lap times and the full result on our race page for the 2016 Hungarian GP.