Ricciardo wins Hungarian thriller, Alonso second

F1 Grand Prix, GP Hungary, Hungaroring

Daniel Ricciardo has won his second race of the season in what turned out to be an absolutely thrilling Hungarian Grand Prix. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso finished an unexpected second, closely followed by Hamilton and Rosberg.

The Hungarian GP kicked off with everybody on intermediate tyres following rain earlier in the day. The track is left very wet as some parts with standing water in turn 10, but at the same time no spray from turns 5 to 8.

As the lights went out, Rosberg retained his lead while Valtteri Bottas moved up into second. Alonso moved up from 5th to third but lost a place to Vettel again halfway through the first lap. Jenson Button also enjoyed a great start to get into 5th, ahead of Ricciardo, Hulkenberg, Massa, Vergne, Perez, Gutierrez, Sutil, RAikkonen, Grosjean, Bianchi, Kobayashi, Chilton, Maldonado, Magnussen, Ericsson, Hamilton and Kvyat.

Kvyat notably had to start from the back after stalling on the grid for the warmup lap. Hamilton on the other hand was lucky to get away from an error in the first lap. He gently hugged the barriers with his car, slightly damaging the front wing but without further damage to the car.

By lap 5, Raikkonen moved up into 13th and Hamilton into 16th. Meanwhile at the front, Vettel looks ever more threatening, attempting to find an overtake opportunity on Bottas. The Williams however is considerably faster on the main straight, complicating things for the Red Bull driver.

By lap 7, Rosberg has increased his advantage to Bottas to 9 seconds, but he too isn't faultless. Many drivers at this point in the race are going off at various points on the track.

On lap 8, Magnussen is the first seen to get off the racing line on the main straight to try to cool his intermediates. Few moments later, Hamilton gets past Raikkonen into 13th.

Another minute later, the safety car is deployed following a crash from Ericsson in turn 4. His car is badly damaged but the driver appears to be ok. The SC signal immediately triggered many to get into the pitlane. The first four in the race though were unable to do so immediately so made tehir stops one lap later.

The later stops proved to be a major disadvantage for the leading four as they rejoined the pack with several places lost. After the stops, Ricciardo is leading the race, ahead of Button, Massa, Rosberg, Magnussen, Vergne, Vettel, Alonso, Hulkenberg, Perez, Bottas, Gutierrez, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Grosjean, Bianchi, Sutil, Kvyat, Maldonado, Kobayashi and Chilton.

Interestingly, while most drivers opted to change to slick soft tyres, both McLaren's are still on inters. Button after a pitstop for new inters, Magnussen after having chosen not to pit just yet.

On lap 11, just before the SC was set to get back into the pits, Grosjean crashes out as nearly the same spot as Ericsson did 3 laps earlier, albeit ending up in the barrier on the other side of the track. Obviously this kept the safety car on track for a few more laps.

At the end of lap 13 the safety car returns to the pits, allowing more racing action as of lap 14. Button immediately took the lead and got told to push, knowing rain more rain has become less likely.

Two laps later Button pits, as well as Magnussen as their laps on inters have become considerably slower than the slick runners.

In the pack, Alonso passed Rosberg, and half a lap later Vergne does the same. That left Rosberg just ahead of Vettel and Hamilton. Just behind them, Hulkenberg retires from the race after touching his teammate and losing control of his car in the final corner.

On lap 21, Ricciardo sets the fastest lap and increases his advantage on Massa to 5.5 seconds. Alonso is third, less than a second behind his former team mate. Vergne fourth, 2.6s behind the Spaniard. The Frenchman is still closely followed by Rosberg, Vettel and Hamilton.

In the very back, Maldonado still managed to get the cameras on him by T-boning Bianchi in turn 1.

On lap 23, another safety car is deployed after Sergio Perez terribly messed up his car on the main straight. He looked too eager to get on the throttle on the exit of the final turn and hence ended up against the pitwall. This time around only few cars chose to take on new tyres, including Ricciardo, Massa and Bottas. All three got another set of softs.

On lap 26 the race is on again with Alonso leading the race for the first time this season. Vergne follows, ahead of ROS VET HAM RIC MAS GUT RAI SUT KY BUT BOT MAG CHI BIA and MAL. Massa and Bottas have surprisingly opted for the medium tire in their recent stops as they may be looking to make it to the end from this point.

On lap 32 Rosberg pits to escape from the Vergne queue, rejoining in 13th Moments later Vettel has a lucky escape as he spins on the exit kerb of the final turn but gets his car pointed in the right direction again before heavily hitting the wall. His tyres obviously are badly flat spotted. He pits and rejoins in 13th.

On lap 34 Vergne also pits after getting passed by Hamilton through the outside of the fastest left hander on the circuit. The latter is completely unleashed after that move and had 6.6 seconds to make up to Alonso. Ricciardo however is on much newer tyres and followed Hamilton at about 2 seconds.

On lap 38 Alonso pits from the lead, taking on another set of softs. He rejoins in 5th. Rosberg meanwhile managed to get past Bottas at the end of the main straight, thereby moving up to 8th.

On lap 39 Hamilton pits for mediums, undoubtedly targeting to get to the end of the race. He rejoins the track in 5th, 3 seconds ahead of Nico Rosberg who is on softs.

On lap 42 Raikkonen pits for softs and rejoins the track in 8th, just ahead of Vettel. The latter briefly got past after turn 3, but fierce defence from the Finn kept him ahead. A crucial move it would turn out, because Raikkonen turned out to be a second a lap quicker than Vettel - on mediums - on the next lap. The Finn went on to pass Maldonado later in that lap, just before the Venezuelan dove into the pits for another set of softs.

On lap 45, right when Alonso got within striking distance of Massa for second place, the Brazilian entered the pits and took on another set of primes. Strangely, the mediums from his previous stint didn't last any longer than the softs.

7 laps later, positions are still largely unchanged with Ricciardo 15 seconds ahead of Alonso. Hamilton stays around 2.5 seconds behind the Spaniard while Rosberg plays yoyo, sometimes very close to Hamilton, sometimes 2 seconds down. Another 15 seconds further behind is Bottas, followed closely by Massa and Raikkonen.

On lap 55, finally one of the front runners pits. It's the leader taking on another set of soft tyres. Ricciardo rejoins in 4th place, 4.4 seconds behind Rosberg and a comfortably 10s ahead of Bottas. Two laps later Rosberg pits as well and returns on new options in 7th place, 4 seconds behind Massa and Raikkonen.

By lap 60 Rosberg has closed in on Raikkonen and immediately passed him at the end of the straight. Bottas meanwhile, clearly slowing down ahead of Massa pitted on the same lap, rejoining in 8th, 12 seconds behind Vettel. Another lap later Rosberg takes Massa and moved up into 4th, the same position as before his stop.

Meanwhile at the front, Alonso still leads, albeit with just one second in hand over Hamilton. Ricciardo is also out on the battlefield and within striking distance of Hamilton.

5 laps from the end Ricciardo finally got past Hamilton as the Hamilton's tyres, similar to Alonso's are getting worse by the lap. One lap later the Australian also gets past Alonso and rolled on to win his second race of this season. Fernando Alonso came an incredible second, ahead of Hamilton and Rosberg who in the final laps was threatening Hamilton to get past.