With Nico Rosberg sitting on the pole position and Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton residing at the back of the grid entering the race, there seemed to be nothing to prevent the dominant Mercedes team from capturing another victory to pile on to their many other victories in the 2014 season. But Mother Nature had another plan for the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest and with rain wreaking havoc at the beginning of the race – causing early race spins for both Hamilton and four-time defending champion Sebastian Vettel – and frenetic tire changing strategies, it was Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo who was able to defeat a fading Fernando Alonso and Hamilton as well as a hard-charging Rosberg – who finished fourth. Vettel recovered for a seventh-place finish.
As was the scenario entering last week’s German Grand Prix, Hamilton started at the back of the pack, this time due to a fire in qualifying, and then made matters worse with a early spin on the damp track – but the spin did no damage to the car chassis and with Mercedes having a technically superior car this year, it was merely a matter of time and tire-changing strategy circumstances to make his way through the field to hold on to third – fending off a late-charging Rosberg who made a late tire change and came from 20 seconds down in the final nine laps to pressure Hamilton for the final podium position. Six cars did not finish the race and only 13 cars were on the lead lap at the finish.
In the season point standings, Rosberg has the season lead over Hamilton with 202 points to Hamilton’s 191 followed by Ricciardo in a distant third with 131 points.
The 2014 Formula One racing season continues with the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps on August 24, 2014.
2014 Hungarian Grand Prix Results
Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts
1 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault 70 1:53:05.058 4 25
2 14 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 70 +5.2 secs 5 18
3 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 70 +5.8 secs 22 15
4 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 70 +6.3 secs 1 12
5 19 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 70 +29.8 secs 6 10
6 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 70 +31.4 secs 16 8
7 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 70 +40.9 secs 2 6
8 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 70 +41.3 secs 3 4
9 25 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Renault 70 +58.5 secs 8 2
10 22 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 70 +67.2 secs 7 1
11 99 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 70 +68.1 secs 11
12 20 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 70 +78.4 secs 21
13 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 70 +84.0 secs 20
14 26 Daniil Kvyat STR-Renault 69 +1 Lap 10
15 17 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 69 +1 Lap 15
16 4 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 69 +1 Lap 18
Ret 21 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 32 ERS 13
Ret 10 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 24 Fuel system 17
Ret 11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 22 Accident 12
Ret 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 14 Accident 9
Ret 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 10 Accident 14
Ret 9 Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 7 Accident 19