Lewis Hamilton takes first win for Mercedes in Hungary

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton dominated the Hungarian Grand Prix from start to finish to take his first win for Mercedes.

Before the race, everyone expected Hamilton to move backwards as his Mercedes have struggled previously with tyre wear and thermal degradation. But with temperatures lower than expected, Hamilton was able to keep his rivals at bay and take his 22nd career victory and fourth at the Hungaroring.

Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Romain Grosjean all came behind Jenson Button after their first stop, who started on medium tyres, and thus, went longer on his first stint.

While Hamilton got past Button in less than a lap, Vettel and Grosjean got struck behind Button for 12 laps.

Hamilton, meanwhile, went on to extend his race lead by over 12 seconds to the championship leader. The final part of the season saw a great duel between three-stopper Sebastian Vettel and two-stopper Kimi Raikkonen for second position. Despite being on much fresher tyres, Vettel couldn’t get past the Finn and finished the race in third place. He complained to his team that Raikkonen didn’t gave him enough space at one of the corners and asked them to refer the matter to Charlie Whiting.

His teammate, Mark Webber put on a great drive after starting down in 10th place. He completed the race on a reverse strategy hoping to put a late race charge on soft tyres. While he couldn’t catch Vettel for final spot on the podium as his tyres degraded earlier than expected, he still finished in fourth place.

Fernando Alonso was disappointed after finishing in fifth place as he didn’t have the pace of Red Bull, Mercedes and Lotus. He also lost out to Kimi Raikkonen in driver’s championship and now sits 39 points behind leader Sebastian Vettel.

Romain Grosjean had a disappointing day at the office after finishing in sixth place, as he was aiming for P1 during early parts of the race.

Once Vettel got past Button on lap 24, Grosjean sensed an opportunity but ultimately collided with the McLaren driver. Later, he put on a great move over Felipe Massa but since he ran off the track, he was given a drive through penalty for gaining an unfair advantage. That penalty ruined his chances of finishing on the podium.

Behind Grosjean, Button finished in 7th place on a two-stop strategy. He was in top 10 right at the start of the race and that helped him in scoring a decent haul of points. His teammate, Sergio Perez, finished ninth, ensuring a double points finish for McLaren.

Felipe Massa got sandwiched between the two McLaren and finished in a disappointing eighth place having damaged his rear wing after a first lap incident with Nico Rosberg.

Rosberg, who had a great start to the race and went side-by-side with Vettel on start/finish straight, hit Massa and went off track twice in that lap. He fell outside top 10 before recovering to ninth place until his engine blew up just a few laps before the chequered flag.

Pastor Maldonado ended Williams points duck after finishing in 10th place.

The result helps Hamilton to decrease the gap to Vettel to 48 points. Raikkonen moves into second place in the standings with 134 points, one point ahead of Fernando Alonso.

In the constructors, Red Bull lead the championship with 277 points, 69 points clear of Mercedes. Thanks to a double points finish, McLaren are just two points behind Force India.