As the Hungarian Grand Prix unfolded on Sunday afternoon, it was already clear that this was to be 2015’s most exciting race of the calendar. At least so far.

The event started with a “bang” and ended with an equally unbelievable “bang”. Right off the line, the Ferraris jumped in front of both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, who had qualified 1-2 and had looked extremely fast throughout the weekend.

Vettel ran a perfect race, taking P1 ahead of Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo – where the latter actually had a good chance of winning, if only a couple of more laps had been available to him.

Lewis Hamilton did extend his championship lead over teammate Nico Rosberg, but did so by finishing sixth to Rosberg’s P8. McLaren-Honda ended up with both cars in the top 10, totaling 12 points thanks to Alonso’s P5 finish and Button crossing the line 9th.

Other point-scorers were Toro Rosso‘s Max Verstappen who was 4th (his best career result), Romain Grosjean who took home P7 and Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson who was 10th ahead of his teammate Felipe Nasr.

This was definitely the most exciting race of the year, especially with so many minor collisions between drivers. Even though Ferrari dominated the race through flat out pace, skill but also a bit of luck, Red Bull were also dominant thanks to an excellent aerodynamic setup on their car – which was once again fastest through the corners, most evident during the middle sector of the track.

Ricciardo fought his way through the pack and had a couple of sensational passes where he simply launched his car on the inside under braking – something not a lot of drivers tend to do unless they’re right behind their target. Ricciardo did it from quite a distance, which made the maneuvers even more spectacular.

Mercedes are expected to bounce back after the summer break is over, since the next two races are in Belgium and Italy, two of the fastest tracks on the F1 calendar.

10 Random Things We’ve Noticed

– Extremely surprising to see Ferrari match Mercedes in terms of lap times early on in the race. Though it’s still unclear just how quick Ferrari is, since they don’t seem to be quite there whenever a really fast track comes along.

– Williams have gone from going toe to toe with Mercedes, to fighting with the likes of Lotus and Sauber for position. Massa and Bottas’ P12 & P13 finishes were extremely disappointing. Lacking downforce is never good on a track like the Hungaroring.

– Pretty early in the race, Hamilton needed Ricciardo to oversteer just so he could get close enough and pass him on the pit straight. Nobody was getting past that Red Bull otherwise. Excellent performance from a team that was actually dominant not too long ago.

– By the way, we had it right in our ‘Which F1 Teams Should Expect Positive Results in Hungary?’ piece! We focused on Ferrari and Red Bull and those two exact teams filled up the podium. Sure, we were expecting more from Force India as well, but who wasn’t?

– Safety Car in on lap 44 after Hulkenberg suffers catastrophic front wing failure and ends up biting the wall. At that moment, it was hard not to think about how Mercedes just got lucky yet again.

– Chaotic restart to the race! Hamilton locks up, hits Ricciardo, yet the Aussie soldiers on with a damaged car and goes on to set the fastest lap of the race!

– With 15 laps to go, it was a three-horse race between Vettel, Rosberg and Ricciardo – who was on a fresh set of soft tires.

– Just a thought but, is Pastor Maldonado Formula 1’s version of Real Madrid’s Pepe? Before he settled down and stopped hitting people hard all the time that is. It just seems like you’re never safe around Lotus‘ driver.

– Another amazing sequence where Rosberg collides with Ricciardo after the Red Bull driver launched himself on the inside of T1! Rosberg limps away with a puncture.

– Sebastian Vettel wins the Hungarian Grand Prix, making this his 41st career GP win, equalling the late great Ayrton Senna.

Hungaroring Race Results

1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari
2. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull
4. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso
5. Fernando Alonso, McLaren
6. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
7. Romain Grosjean, Lotus
8. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
9. Jenson Button, McLaren
10. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber
11. Felipe Nasr, Sauber
12. Felipe Massa, Williams
13. Valtteri Bottas, Williams
14. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus
15. Roberto Merhi, Marussia