Ricciardo wins Hungarian GP

Ricciardo overcame early rain and a series of crashes at the Hungaroring on Sunday to win an action-packed race where the top four finishers were separated by just 6.3 seconds.

Safety cars and brave driving by Ricciardo proved decisive during a day of unexpected moves and surprises.

"It feels as good as the first win, it really does," said Ricciardo, 25, after the race. Sunday's victory is his second of the season and his career after winning this year's Canadian Grand Prix.

The rain just before the start made conditions very difficult at the beginning of the race. Several drivers, including Romain Grosjean and Kamui Kobayashi, crashed, bringing out the safety car.

Championship leader Nico Rosberg of Germany started from pole position, but missed out on the podium after finishing fourth. Mercedes had urged Rosberg to overtake Hamilton, who was in third, late in the race, but the Briton ignored the orders.

Hamilton battles back

Hamilton himself did exceptionally well to reach the podium after car trouble during qualifying meant he had to start Sunday's race from the pit lane. The result means Hamilton has now cut Rosberg's championship lead to 11 points after 11 races.

"It's been a pretty crazy weekend," said Hamilton, who managed to recover from a spin-out on the second corner of the first lap that nearly became the latest in a string of unlucky incidents.

"The brakes were very, very cold. [They] locked up and I was gone," he said of the wet opening period of the race.

Felipe Massa of Williams finished fifth, ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel had to settle for seventh.

Safety cars decisive

After rain trouble at the start, the safety car was brought out on lap nine following a crash by McLaren's Marcus Ericsson. Ricciardo and Hamilton promptly pitted, while Rosberg, Vettel and Alonso all lost considerable time pitting on lap 10.

The safety car was brought out again on lap 24 following Sergio Perez's crash. Vettel nearly crashed at the same spot on lap 33 but managed to narrowly avoid hitting the wall.

Ricciardo led twice during the race, before fighting back and overtaking Alonso in the final three laps following a series of daring passes.

"The safety car at first played to our advantage but the second one didn't really help us, but we got there in the end and I had to do the overtaking at the end which was fun," said Ricciardo. "Definitely going to celebrate today and party for a few days I think, and enjoy a bit of time off."

The Formula One season continues after the summer break on August 24 with the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps.

dr/kms (AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa)