Vettel triumphs as Mercedes implode in Hungary

Sebastian Vettel scored what will be remembered as one of his most famous victories, as he triumphed in a sensational action packed Hungarian Grand Prix while Mercedes faltered in dramatic fashion.

From the start Vettel edged his Ferrari ahead of both Mercedes drivers, who were sluggish off the line, and thereafter the quadruple Formula 1 world champion kept a cool head, in the scorching heat of Budapest, to notch up an important at a crucial time for the sport.

Vettel said on the podium, "An incredible day but this victory is for Jules. It has been an incredibly tough week for all of us. And for all the people at Ferrari, we know sooner or later he would have been part of our team."

But it was by no means plain sailing for the Ferrari driver as he had to survive a virtual safety car period, followed by a real safety car period and then a scare as his team were forced to retire teammate Kimi Raikkonen with a terminal MGU-K problem - the Finn running strongly in second for much of the race.

He also had Rosberg filling his rear view mirrors, and Ricciardo feisty with better rubber after the safety car period. But Vettel never flinched, kept to the task at hand by making no mistakes under intense pressure to bag maximum points - his first ever win in Budapest.

Crossing the line in second and third were Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo respectively, the Red Bull duo making the most of a track which suited their car.

With Kvyat surviving a 10 second penalty for an off track overtaking infringement, and Ricciardo withstanding contact with both Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton during a race in which the Aussie was always in the thick of things.

Kvyat mused afterwards, "After Turn One I thought my race might be over because I had a massive flat-spot. My team told me to keep pushing and today I learned what it means to never give up."

Clearly emotional Ricciardo said on the podium, "It was a crazy race. I had contact at the restart with Lewis and thought my race might be over. I had contact with Nico and thought my race was over. I left it all on the track today. I gave it everything and I owe my race to Jules. I gained extra strength today and I owe that to him."

Thus for the first time in 31 races there was no Mercedes driver on the podium. Often it has been said that the only ones who cane beat the silver cars are Mercedes themselves and this was the case in Hungary.

With Hamilton on pole and Rosberg beside him, they both botched the start, getting tangled up with one another throughout the opening lap and by the time the dust had settled Rosberg had managed to hang on to third, but only just.

Meanwhile Hamilton got it all wrong in the chicane area and was down in tenth at the end of lap one - although Hamilton was complaining over the radio about Rosberg they were clearly both to blame.

Thereafter the pair were always on the back foot and oddly had no answer to the Ferrari duo and Red Bulls when it mattered. Also evident was the fact that the W06 is not happy running in dirty air.

From the outset chasing all the time, Hamilton came together with Ricciardo in Turn 1 where the Aussie was almost unbeatable. This earned the world champion a drive through penalty, which saw him drop down the order late in the race, before he fought back with a flurry of fastest laps to finish sixth and crucially ahead of Rosberg.

The Briton summed up his afternoon, "Today was weird. Do I deserve any points? I didn't give up and drove as hard as I could. To come away from one of the worst performances I've put in in a long, long time... it shows we are human. The team worked incredibly hard but I'll come back stronger."

"I was all over the place. I don't have any words to explain what happened. It was a really bad performance from myself. I pushed and never gave up but when I had two different choices I chose the wrong one very time," added Hamilton as he heads into the three-week summer break with a 21 points advantage, up from 17.

Rosberg recovered well thanks to safety car and looked set for at least second place, if not victory but went toe-to-toe with that man Ricciardo exiting Turn 1 and ended up with a puncture as he tagged the Red Bull's front wing. It was a long journey back to the pits for repairs.

The German finished eighth and reflected, "Daniel still had his front wing there. The FIA have looked at it and decided to take no action and that's the way it is. I'll just keep going. It was close. We're at half-time. With little differences, I could have had the lead at half-time. There is a good chance I could pass Lewis in the world championship some time soon."

With the attrition high there were inevitably those who benefited from the foibles of others. Notably Max Verstappen avoided the mayhem to deliver a mature performance and claim fourth place. Just missing out on matching father Jos's distinction of scoring his maiden podium at the 1994 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Behind him Fernando Alonso showed his experience and tenacity as he claimed fifth place for McLaren, actually overtaking cars and going wheel-to-wheel with rivals on several occasions. Teammate Jenson Button was ninth, to make it a memorable day for the team's new Honda era.

Romain Grosjean, unlike his Lotus teammate Pastor Maldonado, kept out of trouble to finish seventh. Maldonado on the other hand accumulated four penalties for an assortment of infringements and was perhaps lucky not to be black flagged for his indiscretions.

Marcus Ericsson claimed the final point for Sauber.

There was a scary moment not long after the midway mark when the front wing on Nico Hulkenberg's Force India failed at the end of the main straight. The wing simply snapped from its struts, going under car and shattering into a millions pieces of carbon fibre. The car plunging into the tyre wall which prompted the safety car period. Hulkenberg emerged unscathed. Sergio Perez's sister car was retired not long after.

Ricciardo did well to avoid the exploding shards, while Valtteri Bottas' Williams narrowly avoided being hit from the back.

Yes, Williams were in the race too we know this because Felipe Massa, despite his huge experience at the highest level, got a penalty for lining up incorrectly on the grid for the start of the race, but thereafter neither really featured in the 'wars' that ensued on the day. Massa ended 12th and Bottas 13th.

[highlight ]Hungarian Grand Prix, Hungaroring - 26 July 2015[/highlight]

* Provisional Results

Fastest Lap - Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 24.821s (Lap 68)