Lewis Hamilton

Starting position: 1st



Lewis Hamilton topped all three practice sessions and every segment of qualifying in Budapest, but the world champion’s good work was undone within the first few seconds of Sunday’s race as he bogged down off the line and was swamped by the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, as well as team mate Nico Rosberg’s similar F1 W06 Hybrid. Toto Wolff, Mercedes head of motorsport, suggested after the race that Hamilton’s bad start was probably the result of the team focusing too much on the revised start procedure for Belgium (when drivers will receive less assistance from teams) during practice, and not enough on the current method. Hamilton was fourth as he exited Turn 1, giving him an excellent view of Rakkonen’s Turn 2 pass on Rosberg, but before he could mount his own attack on his team mate he made a catastrophic mistake under braking for the Turn 6/7 chicane, locking up and running onto the grass before tripping through the gravel. The Briton rejoined the track in 10th, saying that Rosberg was to blame for the incident because the German had changed lines under braking. The stewards disagreed with his assessment, but what do you think? Nico Rosberg

Starting position: 2nd



Rosberg made a slightly better getaway than Hamilton from the dirty side of the grid, but like his team mate it wasn't as good as either Ferrari. The German was third approaching Turn 1, but braked a fraction of a second later than either Vettel or Hamilton and for a moment it looked like he’d take the lead. In the end though the German was compromised by his tight inside line, with Vettel, attacking from a wider angle and therefore able to carry more apex speed, getting past easily around the outside. His exit similarly compromised, Rosberg then came under threat from Raikkonen, with his attempts to keep the Finn at bay ultimately faltering when he ran too deep into Turn 2. The resulting slide and left-front lock-up presented an easy overtaking opportunity to the 2007 world champion, which he duly accepted. Sebastian Vettel

Starting position: 3rd



In contrast to those ahead of him, Vettel made an almost perfect start as the lights went out, and within 100m the quadruple champion was alongside Hamilton. The two drivers were just millimetres apart as they accelerated towards Turn 1, with Vettel ever so gently squeezing his Ferrari towards Hamilton’s Mercedes. This compromised the Briton's approach to the corner, leaving him in the comparitive no-man's land of the centre of the track whilst Vettel was able to take the favourable - and much grippier - racing line. As such, Vettel was able to brake slightly later than Hamilton, but wary of Rosberg’s presence on the inside, the German takes a wide line into the right-hander. This enabled him to maximise his exit speed on the run down to Turn 2, and though he then locked his inside wheel slightly into the downhill left-hander, by this stage his rivals were already trailing in his wake. Daniel Ricciardo

Starting position: 4th