From second on the grid behind polesitting Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, Hamilton took the lead into the first corner and controlled the race from there.
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The two Red Bull drivers, Daniel Ricciardo and Dutch teenager Max Verstappen, were third and fourth ahead of Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari.
The Mercedes driver beat Lewis Hamilton to pole position in contentious circumstances after his fastest time was achieved despite waved yellow flags being deployed at Turn 8 for the spun Fernando Alonso.
The line-up for the weekend was: Mercedes – Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
Hamilton knows that a victory here, which would be a record-breaking fifth at the Hungaroring, will see him lead the championship for the first time this season.
It was enough for Hamilton to take precedence as another set of softs was fitted after 41 laps, with Rosberg following a lap later, and both stayed ahead of the early-stopping Ricciardo. And so it proved.
“Well yes, when it is a yellow flag it says that you have to be prepared to slow down or you have to slow down and lose some time”, he said.
Hamilton said: “The start was everything, I got a good start and one of the Red Bulls was in the inside of me so I was pressured a lot into Turn One”. It would have been interesting without that yellow so I’m a little disappointed because of what could have been, but at the same time the session went really well. “The risk is we’re putting the win in jeopardy”.
Hamilton just made it, having been fastest at one stage but dropping to 10th with 1m 24.836s after running wide on his last try, leaving Grosjean as the first to miss out on Q3 with his lap of 1m 24.961s for Haas. “There is a long race ahead of us tomorrow”.
Hamilton reported graining on his left front tyre after Mercedes asked him to try to up his pace. But in reality, his win was never under threat. Michael Schumacher also has four wins in Hungary.
When the sun returned and the track quickly dried out, the Red Bull duo of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen locked out the second row of the grid, while McLaren secured their best team performance of the season so far with Fernando Alonso in seventh and Jenson Button eighth. The 2009 world champion became the latest to criticise the draconian radio regulations, and his mood will not have been enhanced by an oil leak ending his miserable afternoon seven laps from the end. It got a bit tight so I had to back out.
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Speaking after the race, Hamilton said: “The track is great, the city is great and thank you to the fans”. It did not work out unfortunately as I lost out in Turn one so now I move my focus on to Hockenheim. The team did a fantastic job with the strategy. “It was just really unfortunate I had to lose my lap”.
