Ricciardo won an exciting race at the Hungaroring

Daniel Ricciardo claimed his second victory of the year at the Hungarian Grand Prix. He only took the lead towards the end of the race when he found his way past Lewis Hamilton and Fenando Alonso.

All racers started the 70-lap race on light rain tires as the track was wet with rain just before the start of the race. Rosberg remained in first place right after the start, while Valtteri Bottas overtook Sebastian Vettl.

After the start from the pits in the second turn, Hamilton made a mistake and spun, and fortunately only slightly crashed into the wall. The race was exciting until it was calmed down by a safety car, which drove onto the track due to the accident of Marcu Ericsson, who smashed his Caterham well in the protective tires of the third turn. When the race management had already announced the withdrawal of the safety car, Romain Grosjean smashed his car and Bernd Mylander's Mercedes remained on the track.

The first four racers did not change tires in the first lap of the break, and the racers behind them took a risk and put dry track tires on the race cars. By the time the race resumed, everyone had changed their tires, except for leader Jenson Button and his teammate Kevin Magnussen, who had to change their tires due to the drying track.

Daniel Ricciardo and Felipe Massa took the initiative in the forefront and gained quite a few advantages, but Rosberg found himself in trouble. He fell behind Jean-Eric Vergen and Fernando Alonso, and Sebastian Vettel and Hamilton approached him.

The race was interrupted again when Sergio Perez lost control of the car in the last turn and smashed it against the wall separating the start-finish plane from the pits. The accident happened shortly after the Mexican was hit by teammate Nico Hulkenberg, who finished the race in protective tires.

Ricciardo took advantage of the break for another tire change, where he chose another set of soft ones, while Massa followed his example, only to put on harder tires. The other racers did not decide to change, and Alonso found himself in the lead, ahead of Vergen, Rosberg, Vettl and Hamilton.

Despite the difficulties, Vettel successfully resisted Hamilto's attacks until he made an atypical mistake and spun like Perez. The four-time world champion, unlike the Mexican, saved his race from all the hardships and was able to continue the race.

Rosberg, Vergne and Alonso drove into the pits to get new tires, and the lead was taken by Hamilton, who then fitted harder tires to the race car to stay on the track until the end of the race. The Briton returned to the track in front of teammate Rosberg, who quickly made up for the delay with different tactics. The German received a message from the team that Hamilton would withdraw from him, which did not happen.

Ricciardo took the lead until, due to heavy tire wear, he moal in the 55th lap to a new stop. Massa had to take turns ten laps earlier. The Red Bull racer returned to the track in fourth place, five seconds behind Hamilton.

With only 13 laps left until the end of the race, Rosberg made his last stop and returned to seventh place on the track. With newer tires, he quickly overtook a few racers. He gained the place with the stop of Valtteri Bottas, and then overtook Kimi Raikkonen and Masso. The leading trio of Alonso, Hamilton and Ricciardo got involved in a triathlon to win, and Rosberg also quickly joined the showdown with the qualifying rounds.

Ricciardo overtook Hamilton with an excellent maneuver on the outside, and then overtook Alonso, whose tires gave way. Ricciardo quickly escaped the win towards, Alonso retained second place and Hamiton barely defended Rosberg’s attacks for third place.

Massa was fifth, Raikkonen, who staged a great breakthrough from the background, during which he also masterfully outwitted Vettl, recorded the best result of this season with sixth place. Vettel was seventh, eighth Bottas, and Vergne and Button finished ten.

Photos: Red Bull