Eliminated in Q1 were Sauber's Gutierrez, Force India's di Resta, Caterham's Pic and Van der Garde and the Marussias of Bianchi and Chilton.

Eliminated in Q2 were Force India's Sutil, Sauber's Hülkenberg, McLaren's Button, Toro Rosso's Vergne, and the Williams cars of Maldonado and Bottas.

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton took pole position with a time of 1:19.388 narrowly followed by Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, and the Lotus of Romain Grosjean.

Shortly after Grosjean's penalty, Esteban Gutierrez who suffered an engine failure in FP3 and was eliminated from Q1 continued to have reliability issues and was wheeled back in the garage with transmission problems.

Despite being a potential contender for points, his teammate Hülkenberg picked up a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

Rosberg retired late in the race with a fiery engine failure which lifted Maldonado and Williams into the points for the first time this season.

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton went on to win the 2013 Hungarian Grand Prix followed by Lotus' Kimi Räikkönen and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.

Stewards concluded that although Alonso gained a small advantage (less than a second), he also suffered a disadvantage by being unable to use DRS on every legitimate occasion.