Lewis Hamilton came, saw and conquered as the British ace took a magnificent victory in a race judged to perfection leading from start to finish. Kimi Raikkonen finished in a superb 2^nd place as the “Iceman” showed glimpses of getting back to his very best, while his teammate Romain Grosjean capped a brilliant race for the Enstone based Lotus team by taking the final spot on the podium in 3^rd place. Sebastian Vettel finished in 4^th place for Red Bull having run out of laps, to catch up with Grosjean, as championship leader Fernando Alonso finished a frustrating race in 5^th place for Ferrari.

Alonso did, however, fair better than his immediate challenger in the world championship, Mark Webber, who brought the second Red Bull home in 8th place. Alonso will take a comfortable 40 point lead into the 3-week summer break, though the battle for second place is really heating up with Vettel, Hamilton and Raikkonen all within 8 points of the Aussie driver.

The Lotus F1 team showed strong pace at the Hungarian Grand Prix, with both drivers challenging Lewis Hamilton for the win today. Kimi Raikkonen edged Romain Grosjean to finish runner-up while the rookie Frenchman continued to impress, rounding up the podium places.

Kimi Raikkonen showed he still has every bit of skill in his comeback year with a fantastic series of race-defining fastest laps in the middle of the race. Starting 5^th, the Finn lost a place to Ferrari's Fernando Alonso at the start, and at a track which is notorious for lack of overtaking, had to trail the Spaniard until the first round of pitstops. The 2007 Champion jumped Alonso by pitting on lap 21. He kept 5^th position until the second pit stop window, setting a string of purple times in clear air to spectacularly overhaul the battling duo of Grosjean and Vettel effectively taking 2^nd. Exiting the pits, Raikkonen went side-by-side with Grosjean at Turn 1, the scrap seeing Romain briefly run wide off the track. The last stint saw the Lotus catch up leader Hamilton with some impressive pace, but he was unable to mount a challenge despite being within the DRS zone, finishing a second behind the McLaren.

Red Bull Racing had an eventful day at the Hungarian Grand Prix today as Sebastian Vettel came in a feisty fourth place, with Mark Webber finishing 8^th. The squad did not quite have the quickest car in the race forcing the team to gamble on strategy for both cars.

Sebastian Vettel began third on the grid, jinking right, then left in his bid to overtake Lotus' Romain Grosjean. Amid the fight he was forced to go off throttle after turn 1 as Grosjean closed the door, leading Jenson Button to pounce and take the position. Vettel kept up with the McLaren through the first period of the race, with both keeping the positions after their respective pitstops. With the German on the faster soft tyres on this stint, McLaren called in Button for a change of rubber, enabling Vettel to make the jump. At the end of the second stint Vettel was able to catch the Lotus of Romain Grosjean. Pitting on lap 39 forced Grosjean to follow suit on the next lap, but the Lotus was able to stay ahead. Red Bull tried a final roll of the dice when they pitted Vettel for softs on lap 59, and attempting to overhaul an 18 second deficit in 9 laps. That proved not to be as Vettel ran out of laps in that quest for third.

The Mercedes AMG Petronas team will not be a happy camp after a dismal showing at the Hungaroring today. Nico Rosberg scored a solitary point with an uneventful race to 10^th, while Michael Schumacher severely underwhelming with a retirement from 18^th place.

Ross Brawn gave a fair assessment of where his team stood, sharing, "Nico did a good job today, and 10th place is about where the car was, if not a little better. He drove very well to make the tyres last which is a positive sign, and a good strategy saw him pick up places. Michael had a much more eventful race. He started from the pit lane, incurred a penalty and then had a puncture so it wasn't exactly an ideal start to the afternoon. During that period, we lost all telemetry on his car, and subsequently had various problems during the race which we weren't entirely sure what they were, therefore we decided to retire the car. We are clearly not as competitive as we want to be and, whilst we got everything out of the car today, we need to find more performance and lap time."

McLaren Mercedes' 2012 campaign is firmly back on track with a hard-fought win by Lewis Hamilton today in Budapest.  The Briton controlled the race masterfully from the front, fending off the charging Lotuses of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean. Team-mate Jenson Button had a relatively tough afternoon with strategy not going according to plan, finishing sixth.

Hamilton made a textbook start off the blocks from pole, quickly built up a 2 second gap to second placed Grosjean by Lap 3. The pair traded fastest laps in the first stint on the soft Pirelli tyres, with Hamilton emerging in front after the first round of pitstops, his own slow stop being matched by that of Grosjean. However the Lotus having switched to soft tyres hounded Hamilton, being fast enough for McLaren to consider a change in strategy mid-race. That came to nought as the black car was unable to keep up its challenge, Hamilton staying ahead after his second trip to the pits on lap 41 and pulling out a gap. The final stint was a fascinating battle with the other Lotus of Raikkonen, and although the Finn was within a second behind for most of that period, Hamilton held on to take the chequered flag.

There were no special birthday presents for Fernando Alonso, who turned 31 today, but as the Spaniard said earlier in the week, the important thing is to always bring home as many points as possible, be that a win or a fifth place. Today, that meant the lesser of those two options, but thanks to the 10 points that come with it, the Spaniard saw his lead in the Drivers' classification grow by a further six points from 34 to 40, over Mark Webber, who finished eighth today in the Red Bull. Although Felipe Massa in the other F2012 never really recovered from losing a few places at the start, the 2 points he gets for ninth place today, help keep Ferrari within 4 points of second place in the Constructors' table, even if the Italian team has slipped back to fourth place.

The race was won by Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren, the Englishman taking his second victory of the season. It was hardly surprising, as he had been quickest all weekend. Behind him on the podium came the two Lotus, Kimi Raikkonen getting the better of team-mate Romain Grosjean with a spirited passing move in the later part of the race.

Lewis Hamilton claimed a dominating Pole Position at the Hungaroring with his final hot lap of Q3, a whooping 0.413 s faster than eventual 2nd placed driver Romain Grosjean. It's the Briton's second pole position in Hungary, his third of 2012 and the 22nd of his career, and also marks McLaren's 150th Pole Position in Formula One. Romain Grosjean put Lotus on the front row of the grid for the first time this season as the Frenchman pulled together a stellar lap after the chequered flag was waved. Sebastian Vettel got only one bite of the cherry in Q3 as using an extra set of the soft tyres in Q1 prevented the German from doing a second run in Q3.

Jenson Button managed to put his McLaren on the second row of the grid in 4^thplace with Kimi Raikkonen managing a competent 5^th place for tomorrow's race.