How Vettel dedicated his Hungarian win to Jules Bianchi after a race of collisions

Sebastian Vettel won the 2015 Hungarian Grand Prix and dedicated the victory to Jules Bianchi, who had died a few days earlier. Daniil Kvyat finished second for his first Formula One podium, and Daniel Ricciardo was third after a collision with Nico Rosberg. Lewis Hamilton had started from pole but was dropped to sixth after a series of incidents and a drive-through penalty.

Why did this race carry more weight than usual?

It was the first race after Bianchi's death on 17 July 2015. His crash at the 2014 Japanese race had left him in a coma for nine months before he died. Messages on helmets and cars paid tribute, and the paddock observed a minute of silence before the start.

Competitors and Bianchi's relatives, parents and siblings among them, formed a line with linked arms on the grid, the helmets gathered around Jules's in the centre.

This was the tenth round and the last race before the summer break. It was the 31st Hungarian race, and the 30th to count towards the championship.

Vettel's Hungarian win was for Jules Bianchi, and a race of collisions gave Kvyat his first podium.

What did the championship look like before the race?

Hamilton led the drivers' championship with 194 points, 17 ahead of his teammate Rosberg. Vettel was third, another 42 points back, with Valtteri Bottas on 77. In the constructors' standings Mercedes led on 371 points, Ferrari had 211, and Williams were a further 60 points behind them.

Daniel Ricciardo was the defending winner at the Hungaroring, and Hamilton arrived with his ninth pole already in the bag, taken in the tenth round. The stage was set for a title fight that would be decided in the second half of the year.

How did the circuit and tyres shape the weekend?

Pirelli brought the yellow-marked soft and the white-marked medium, the same choice as the year before. The track received some changes: catch fences and tyre barriers were renewed, and the kerb at the apex of turn 6 was taken away so that cars stopped lifting off the ground.

The Hungaroring is generally considered one of the slowest tracks on the calendar. Its fourteen corners and few straights make overtaking difficult, which put a premium on qualifying and on strategy.

Who was quickest in practice?

Hamilton was fastest in the first Friday session, one-tenth of a second ahead of Rosberg. Vettel missed the first half-hour because of electrical problems on his SF15-T, and he was sixth in the end, 1.254 seconds behind Hamilton. A red flag came out around the hour mark.

A heavy crash for Sergio Perez at turn 11 brought out the red flag. His right front wheel broke away and the Force India flipped, but Perez said he was unhurt. Kimi Raikkonen's front wing came off at turn 12 soon after, leaving debris on the track, and he still finished third on the session's timesheet.

The two Red Bulls finished fourth and fifth in that session. Bottas, using a new front wing, was ninth and six-tenths of a second quicker than Felipe Massa, and he kept the wing for the rest of the weekend. Fabio Leimer, who had won the 2013 GP2 title, made his F1 running debut in place of Merhi at Manor.

Force India skipped the second session while they investigated the cause of Perez's crash. Hamilton topped the times again, with both Red Bull drivers behind him, and Rosberg was fourth. Ricciardo's engine failed 20 minutes before the end, bringing out another red flag.

Jenson Button said the McLaren felt good and hoped for a top-ten qualifying spot. Fernando Alonso was eighth in the session and Button twelfth, a sign that McLaren were starting to find pace after a difficult season.

Force India were cleared for the final practice after changes to their suspension. Hamilton was fastest again, with Rosberg less than a tenth behind and Vettel third, within a second of the leader. Kvyat was fourth, McLaren were eighth and thirteenth, and Raikkonen was held to sixteenth by a water leak that stopped his fast laps.

How did Hamilton win pole?

Hamilton took pole, calling it probably the most dominant of his career. He had led every practice and qualifying session that weekend, and it was his ninth pole of the season. Vettel was third on the grid, Ricciardo fourth and Raikkonen fifth, and Rosberg was beaten on the day.

In the first part Button was eliminated, along with the Sauber and Manor drivers. Ricciardo chose to skip the soft tyre, which was worth up to two seconds, and he finished the part twelfth. Rosberg complained about his car's handling throughout qualifying.

In the second part Alonso, the only McLaren to reach Q2, stopped on the track when his engine shut down near the pit entry. Marshals pushed the car back to the garage, but he was not allowed to take part again. Rosberg was roughly half a second adrift of Hamilton in the second part, and Maldonado, Sainz and both Force India drivers were eliminated.

In the final part Bottas edged out Kvyat for sixth, and Massa qualified eighth. Rosberg trailed Hamilton by 0.262 seconds on average over the qualifying sessions, a gap he could not explain after beating his teammate for poles the year before.

How did the race start go wrong?

Massa lined up in the wrong place on the grid, so the start was aborted and another formation lap was run. One lap was removed from the race, and Massa was given a five-second penalty, which he served a lap after the first stops.

At the start Vettel and Raikkonen took the lead from the Mercedes pair, which had slower starts. Hamilton went wide, clipped the chicane at turn six and fell to tenth. Hulkenberg climbed from eleventh to fifth in the opening corners, while Bottas and Ricciardo made contact at the start, and Ricciardo slipped to seventh.

Kvyat led his teammate Ricciardo into sixth on lap eight. Hamilton passed Massa for ninth on lap ten, and Ricciardo edged out Hulkenberg for fifth at the same point. Three laps later Hamilton moved past Perez for eighth.

The first pit stops came on lap 14, when Bottas and Kvyat stopped first and Massa followed a lap later to take his penalty. By lap 18 Vettel was setting fastest laps, 2.7 seconds ahead of Raikkonen, with Rosberg a further seven seconds back in third.

On lap 19 Maldonado and Perez touched going into turn one, and Perez spun but continued. Maldonado was given a drive-through for the collision. Hamilton stopped on lap 20 and came out just ahead of Bottas in fifth, while Rosberg took mediums on lap 21 and the Ferraris and Ricciardo pitted a lap later.

Romain Grosjean picked up a five-second penalty after releasing unsafely from his pit box. Hamilton passed Ricciardo for fifth on lap 29, and by lap 33 Vettel had seven seconds over Raikkonen, and Rosberg was another twenty seconds back. Hamilton was eight seconds behind Rosberg on lap 36.

On lap 42 Raikkonen's engine lost power because of a fault in the kinetic energy unit, and Alonso passed him. The next lap Hulkenberg lost his front wing for no obvious reason, and he crashed into the tyre barriers at turn one. The virtual safety car came out and both Mercedes pitted at once, followed by the Ferraris a lap later, and the safety car kept control until the close of lap 49.

What happened at the restart?

At the restart Hamilton came under pressure from Ricciardo, and the two touched at turn one and both were damaged. Ricciardo gained the place, and Hamilton received a drive-through. Rosberg took second from Raikkonen, who then lost another place to Ricciardo.

Verstappen ran into the back of Bottas, which dropped the Williams and took Verstappen up to seventh. Rosberg began to close on Vettel, who was 1.2 seconds ahead with 18 laps left. Raikkonen pitted on lap 53 to reset his engine and then retired on lap 57.

Sainz followed him out three laps later, with a fuel pressure problem. Maldonado picked up two more penalties, one for speeding in the pit lane and one for overtaking behind the safety car. Verstappen was also given a drive-through because he did not keep above the time the ECU required during the safety car period.

How did the lead battle finish?

By lap 63 three drivers were contesting the win. Vettel led Rosberg by 0.8 seconds, with Ricciardo another 0.7 seconds back. Ricciardo lunged at Rosberg, and contact clipped the Red Bull's front wing and punctured the Mercedes' tyre.

Both drivers went into the pits, and Ricciardo emerged third while Rosberg dropped behind Hamilton. Kvyat took a ten-second penalty for exceeding the track limits yet kept second place, which gave him his first podium. Hamilton passed Grosjean for sixth on lap 67 and closed on Alonso, but could not catch him for fifth.

Alonso's fifth was the best result McLaren had managed so far that year. Honda also reached its 350th Grand Prix as an engine maker that day, and it was the first double points finish for the reunited McLaren-Honda team.

Why was this a landmark result?

His 41st Grand Prix victory tied him with Ayrton Senna on third place in the all-time list of winners. It was his first Hungarian victory and Ferrari's first win at the circuit since Michael Schumacher in 2004. Raikkonen, the other Ferrari, did not finish, so the team's result rested on Vettel.

It was also the first race since the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix in which no factory Mercedes finished on the podium. Hamilton's margin over Rosberg widened to 21 points, and Vettel closed in, sitting a further 21 points behind the Mercedes driver.

What did the drivers and the media say?

Vettel spoke to the team by radio as he came back to the pits and dedicated the win to Bianchi, saying he and the team knew Jules would have been part of the team one day. In the podium interview he said the victory was for Jules, and that the week had been very difficult for everyone.

Kvyat said the team deserved its podium after a very tough year. Ricciardo called it a crazy race, but said that was the way Jules would have wanted it. The Guardian described it as a heart-stopper of a race, and the BBC called it a classic.

Hamilton apologised for what he called a really bad performance and said he had chosen the wrong direction each time. Alonso called his fifth place unbelievable, but said it was a present, since McLaren were not yet super-competitive.

Several drivers collected penalty points on their Super Licences. Hamilton received his first two for the collision with Ricciardo at the restart. Grosjean reached six points over the season for his unsafe release, and Maldonado received two points for his accident with Perez, bringing him to six over two months. Verstappen received three points for speeding behind the safety car, bringing his total to five. No action was taken over the Rosberg and Ricciardo incident.

Hungary 2015 at a glance