Lewis Hamilton Scores His First Win of the Season in the Hungarian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton scored his first victory of the season with ease at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Hamilton pulled out an early lead, and besides dropping down the order a few times while cars cycled through pit stops, he led the entire way.

It was not simply a procession of cars, though. Behind Hamilton there was some great racing. Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel had quite the race during the closing laps to take second and third respectively. 

The first lap has exciting action all over the track. Hamilton had a good start and pulled out a one-second lead by the end of the first lap. Felipe Massa made contact with Nico Rosberg, but it was minor enough for both drivers to continue. Romain Grosjean kept control and remained in third through the first lap.

Vettel started suffering from mechanical issues around lap 20. His team came on the radio and told him to back off from Jenson Button because Vettel's car was overheating. The team also said that his KERS system was failing. 

Mark Webber inherited the lead when Hamilton came in on lap 10. He was on the medium tire compound, and it allowed his tires to last longer than all of the other top runners. While Vettel was falling down the order with his failing car, Webber commanded at the lead. He finally pitted on lap 24. Hamilton retook the lead. 

Grosjean could have ended the day on the podium, but the stewards handed him a drive through penalty for passing Massa with two wheels off the track. The penalty moved Grosjean back to sixth and ruined his day.

The final 15 laps were the ones to watch, and they were among the best racing that we have seen this season. Hamilton was comfortably in first, but behind him Vettel and Raikkonen were pushing. Vettel was on top of Raikkonen for the last three laps. Raikkonen was on older tires but ahead, which meant he had to keep Vettel at bay if he wanted to finish second. The biggest move came on lap 69 when Vettel tried to pass, but Raikkonen pushed him wide and maintained the advantage. It was some great racing.

It also appeared for a while that Webber might be challenging Vettel for third. He was on fresher tires and was taking over a second a lap out of him at one point. Webber was too far back for his speed to matter, though.

The postscript to this story is that Raikkonen stopped the car as soon as the car crossed the finish line. If he turns out to have run of fuel, there will be a penalty.

With Nico Rosberg's engine exploding in the final quarter of the race, Pastor Maldonado inherited tenth. It brought him and the Williams team their first championship point of the year.

This race is also causing a shakeup in the World Drivers' Championship points standings. Sergio Perez moves up one position to 12th place, which knocks Jean-Eric Vergne to 13th. Jenson Button also moves up one position to ninth place, and Romain Grosjean moves up three places to sixth. It knocks Paul di Resta down two places to 10th. Kimi Raikkonen also moves into second with a one point lead over Fernando Alonso in third.