Sebastian Vettel finished fourth for Ferrari while the Red Bull of Max Verstappen held off Kimi Raikkonen to finish sixth.
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Rosberg, who agreed a two-year extension to his contract with Mercedes on Friday, leads Hamilton by one point in the championship. Rosberg would recover from his poor start, that pushed him down to third place, while Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo managed to move into second, by reclaiming second on the second lap of the race.
“The start was everything”, said Hamilton, who before this victory was tied with Michael Schumacher for most wins at the Hungaroring, with four.
“I don’t know how much Nico was up but I got the fastest first sector”, he said.
Rosberg pitted on the following lap and returned clearly ahead of Ricciardo but over four seconds behind Hamilton, who again lowered his pace and controlled the race as his teammate closed in.
“I don’t really think of the past in those ways, just looking forward to it now, because of pole position and I’ve been really feeling good out there the whole weekend, in all conditions – wet, dry, even with high fuel on Friday – so it’s been a great weekend so far”. This time, the turning point looks to have been the Spanish Grand Prix, where Hamilton took both himself and Rosberg out on the opening lap.
Don’t forget a year ago Hamilton ignored team orders to slow for the German, claiming Rosberg wasn’t fast enough.
And it was effectively decided at the start as Hamilton made a better getaway which allowed him to take the lead away from Rosberg. “It’s still close and it just takes a small thing to switch it the other way and I want to do that at Hockenheim on Sunday”.
“All us drivers need to fully understand the yellow flag situation because obviously in the way it’s written is not how it’s interpreted by the stewards or the drivers”, Hamilton said. The team did a fantastic job with the strategy, preparing the vehicle as always, and the guys back at the factory continuing to push flat out so a huge thank you to them.
The Red Bull driver ended up third on the grid after slowing for the flags when Fernando Alonso spun in his McLaren Honda.
Many drivers and seasoned paddock observers believe that waved yellow flags in qualifying should be extended to the full circuit to end a driver’s qualifying lap. “I’m not really too disappointed”. “This is a race where you don’t need a five or ten second gap”.
Gutierrez, Romain Grosjean, Kevin Magnussen, Daniil Kvyat and Felipe Nasr filled positions 13 through to 17, with Felipe Massa, Pascal Wehrlein, Marcus Ericsson and Rio Haryanto then in 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st, all 2 laps down.
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As the race drew on, the fight for fifth was heading up with Raikkonen inching the nose of his Ferrari closer to Verstappen’s rear wing.
