Ricciardo claims his second victory of the season

Ricciardo pounces on Mercedes mistakes to claim his second victory of the season.

With Lewis Hamilton starting from the pit lane, the Hungarian Grand Prix gave Nico Rosberg yet another chance to strengthen his grip on the Driver Championship.

As the lights went out on the damp circuit, Nico Rosberg got a reasonable start, with Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas following close behind. Bottas made a great move around the outside of Vettel at Turn One to take second, with Fernando Alonso taking advantage and nabbing third for a short time before Vettel slipped back through.

Hamilton's braks, obviously cold from his pit lane start, forced him off at turn two. He was now well behind the field and seemingly his chance to claim points had dwindled.

Laps later, Hamilton began to make ground on the field making several ambitious overtakes to make his way up to 13th by lap 8. Marcus Ericsson had a huge accident, crashing into the wall at turn 3, causing the first, but not the last safety car of the race. Rosberg elected not to pit but Hamilton and Ricciardo chose to change onto dry tyres, while Button put on a set of intermediates. A lap later the rest of the pack pitted, but they had lost huge amounts of time to the others. Grosjean spun and crashed under safety car conditions, resulting in the safety car staying out a further few laps.

Ricciardo now lead the race with Rosberg down in 4th, Hamilton up to 10th. As the safety car pulled in, Ricciardo took over from the safety car with Button close behind. With light rain still falling, Button made his move down the straight to take the lead of the race from a helpless Ricciardo. Rosberg was having trouble with grip and was going backwards through the pack. Hamilton meanwhile was thriving and had made his way up to 7th, two places behind his team-mate and championship rival.

A spin from Perez forced the second safety car of the race as he crashed into the wall on the exit of the final corner. Ricciardo and Massa pitted, leaving Alonso out to take the lead of the Grand Prix.

Rosberg now in 3rd, Vettel 4th and Hamilton in 5th.
Alonso began to pull away at the front, setting fastest lap after fastest lap. Vettel made an error and spun on the exit of the final corner, releasing Hamilton. Moments later Lewis made one of the moves of the season around the outside of Vergne, somehow staying on the circuit and keeping momentum.

Alonso pitted, allowing Hamilton to take the lead of the grand prix for the first time. A lap later Hamilton pitted and vitally for his championship hopes came out ahead of Rosberg. On differing strategies Hamilton was asked not to hold up his team mate. Hamiltons reply was that Rosberg was not close enough to let him past. Rosberg relayed his annoyance to the team over his team-mates refusal to yield.

Ricciardo who by now had regained the lead and opened up a 15 second gap on Alonso made his way into the pits. He rejoined in 4th behind Rosberg, who still had one more stop to make.

An exhilarating final 10 laps featured a three-way scrap for the lead when Alonso, Hamilton and Ricciardo’s differing strategies brought them within 2 seconds of each other. Alonso was on worn soft tyres, Hamilton was on slightly newer mediums and Ricciardo and the rapidly closing Rosberg in fourth on fresh softs.

Hamilton tried everything within his power to make his way past Alonso, but his tyres wouldn't afford him the grip he craved. Alonso was able to keep the Mercedes at bay, but would Ricciardo be able to steal the victory?

Ricciardo made a superb move on the struggling Mercedes of Hamilton and quickly made his move on Alonso for the lead with three laps to go. Pulling out a 4 second lead in the remaining laps to claim victory.

Hamilton judged the conditions of the race perfectly but was unable to convert his efforts into a victory.

It was Daniel Ricciardo who took a surprise victory and cemented his place in 3rd in the Drivers Championship. Alonso came home in 2nd with Hamilton 3rd , narrowly beating Rosberg across the line.

The result reduced Hamilton’s deficit to Rosberg to 11 points.

Hungarian Grand Prix Result

1 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:53:05.058
2 Fernando Alonso Ferrari +5.2 secs
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +5.8 secs
4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes +6.3 secs
5 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes +29.8 secs
6 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari +31.4 secs
7 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault +40.9 secs
8 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes +41.3 secs
9 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Renault +58.5 secs
10 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +67.2 secs
11 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari +68.1 secs
12 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes +78.4 secs
13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault +84.0 secs
14 Daniil Kvyat STR-Renault +1 Lap
15 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari +1 Lap
16 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari +1 Lap
Ret Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari ERS
Ret Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault Fuel system
Ret Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes Accident
Ret Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes Accident
Ret Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault Accident
Ret Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault Accident

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