After the British Grand Prix provided the ideal response to those doubting the excitement of Formula One earlier this month, last Sunday's race in Hungary managed to go one better.
It has been a tough and emotional week or so for everyone involved with the sport after the passing of Manor Marussia driver Jules Bianchi, who was laid to rest in Nice last Tuesday, and tributes to the Frenchman were everywhere to be seen in Budapest.
From the drivers' helmets to banners in the crowd, the name Bianchi and his number 17 - respectfully retired by the FIA recently - were adorned everywhere in tribute to the former driver, who it was revealed was in line to become a driver for Ferrari in the future.
The most touching tribute however - at least before the race - was when all 20 drivers gathered in a circle for a minute's silence before the race and laid all their helmets alongside that of Bianchi's.
The Hungarian Grand Prix served as a fantastic way to honour the memory of Bianchi, but whilst his passing reminded us of the potential dangers of the sport, it was also the perfect way to move on from Bianchi's death - in that it was a sublime display of everything good about F1, and it was yet further evidence that the 2015 season is not quite so dull and predictable as many seem to think it is.
Silver Arrows' start not so sterling
After such a dominant weekend until now, all eyes were on Hamilton when the lights went out.
The world champion had gone fastest in all three practice sessions, and secured pole position by over half a second - topping all three segments of qualifying too, meaning he was undoubtedly the favourite to take a record fifth win at the Hungaroring.
But after sealing his 18th consecutive front-row start, he failed to follow it up - as he was plagued by yet another substandard start.
Similarly to his poor starts in Britain and Austria, he fell behind team-mate Nico Rosberg and by turn one he was as far down as fourth, with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen having easily bypassed him.
But if Hamilton thought his race had started badly, things would only get worse on the first lap, as he ran off track at the chicane of turn six and seven - leaving him down in tenth less than a minute into the race.
It was a hectic, yet enthralling, start to what would proved to be the most exciting race of the season thus far.
There was plenty more early drama, with Williams' Felipe Massa penalised for an incident which saw the race start initially halted - whilst Daniil Kvyat complained to his team that his car was almost impossible to drive.
He was passed by fellow Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo on lap eight after a team radio call told the Russian not to hold his team-mate up, before Hamilton made his way past Massa - not without a bit of tyre kissing - to get his recovery underway.
Not much later, Hamilton was challenging Sergio Perez' Force India to move into eighth, passing him all too simply at the first turn as Ferrari, with Vettel in first and Raikkonen in second, continued to fly out front.
A range of pit stops changed things up a bit, allowing Hamilton to move into fifth - with Ricciardo ahead of him in fourth, but as was to prove a recurring theme throughout the day, more drama wasn't far away - and we only had to wait until lap 19 for the first big collision of the afternoon.
Maldonado collects the first penalty of many
Perez and Pastor Maldonado came wheel-to-wheel on the exit of turn one, with the Mexican coming off worse - jumping up into the air and spinning off track but fortunately sustaining no serious damage - whilst the Venezuelan would receive the first of his rather impressive tally of three penalties come the end of the race.
The following lap saw Hamilton pit and re-emerge in front of Valtteri Bottas, before Rosberg, Vettel and Raikkonen followed into the pits - whilst Ricciardo retained his fourth place.
But he didn't stay there for long, with turn one again the location of Hamilton's overtaking. He used the advantage of DRS to cut around the outside of the Australian, before then speeding off down the straight with a 15-second gap to Rosberg to chip away at.
Whilst things began to, rather temporarily, cool down on track - Hamilton had his sights set on catching the German, lapping at nearly 1.5 seconds faster than his Mercedes team-mate.
Sooner rather than later, Rosberg's lead was down to just five seconds - with him being told to push as hard as he can by the pit wall, as the Ferrari's continued to dominate further ahead of him.
But then the attention was taken off of the Silver Arrows, as Raikkonen - who had had issues previously in the weekend with his front wing dropping off and then a water leak which hampered his preparations for qualifying on Saturday - reported a loss of power failure. Then came the real race-defining drama.
Front wing failure provides more than a spark
With Vettel breathing comfortably out in first, perhaps the last thing he would have wanted was the safety car - but that was exactly what came after an incident on lap 42.
Hulkenberg - going down the pit straight towards turn one - saw his front wing fall and crumble underneath him, which left him helpless to go straight on into the tyre wall, narrowly missing the back end of Bottas on his way through.
Though he came out unharmed, the virtual safety car was deployed with the pit straight cluttered with debris. Two laps later, the real safety car was out to allow stewards to clear the wreckage, by which time most of the grid had already pitted to set up an interesting finale as the majority switched to the softer compound tyre for added grip.
Even more interestingly, Raikkonen's power issues persisted - with MGU-K problems causing him to lose great pace and his advantage over Rosberg at the restart - which occured with 20 laps left.
But all eyes were on Hamilton and Ricciardo, who clashed into turn one as the latter locked up and smashed into the side of the Red Bull - causing damage to Ricciardo's floor and to his own front wing.
It caused Hamilton to drop down again as he lost significant pace, whilst Rosberg - despite having passed the handicapped Raikkonen - could not catch the superior Vettel, who had remained untroubled despite the safety car and led by just over a second to avoid the threat of DRS.
Hamilton, meanwhile, limped around for a couple of laps before being forced to pit for a replacement front wing. However, if it was bad then, what was in store would make things only worse for the Briton - as a drive-through penalty hampered him further.
But focus could only remain on the world champion for so long, as Raikkonen pitted for a complete system restart - forcing him to drop back before eventually conceding to the inevitable and retiring.
That meant Ricciardo jumped up into the podium finishes, whilst Hamilton - who apologised profusely over the team radio, rejoined the pack in 12th after his penalty.
But that didn't stop him going fastest and getting his head back down to catch Sauber duo Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson.
There was hardly enough time to keep up, as Maldonado suffered two more penalties for speeding in the pit lane and overtaking behind the safety car whilst Perez was forced to retire.
Hamilton soon took advantage, moving up into P9 before using his greater engine power to fly past Jenson Button and move up into eighth. He was gaining momentum, and suddenly someone, somewhere looked down upon him and handed him a gift he was more happy to take.
Late drama in store
With more than 90% of the race over, it seemed as though Rosberg was going to profit Hamilton's dreadful day. But the latter could count himself fortunate.
Rosberg had seen Ricciardo in his side mirrors for some time, andthe Australian - who won in Hungary the year before - decided that, with his soft tyres seeing him maintain good pace, he wasn't going to leave anything out on the track as he made an audacious overtake.
Ricciardo, after overtaking around the first corner, clipped the German's rear wheel with his front wing - giving the Mercedes a puncture and putting him down to eight after having to change tyres.
Depending on your stance on the matter, whether you're a Hamilton fan or just a general F1 fanatic, the incident can be construed as both negative and positive.
Supporters of the Briton will have been understandably delighted, with Hamilton retaining his spot at the top of the leaderboard after moving up into sixth following a pass on Romain Grosjean - but others may be disappointed by the fact that - had Rosberg finished second or even first - the pendulum would have swung back in his favour and left the Drivers' Championship on a knife-edge going into the summer break.
A race to remember
The Rosberg-Ricciardo incident ultimately meant that the race ended dramatically different to what just about anybody had predicted 10 minutes beforehand, nevermind at the start of the day - with Vettel drawing level with Ayrton Senna on 41 career victories - leaving him behind just Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher.
He capped it off with a beautiful team radio message - which managed to be as touching as the pre-race tributes to Bianchi, as Vettel said: "merci Jules, you will always be in our hearts and we know that sooner or later you would have been part of this team," on his slow-down lap.
Even more surprisingly, with Ricciardo forced to pit for a new wing - Kvyat found himself in an unfamiliar second, where he would stay to record his best ever finish despite a late penalty for going off track.
Further back, despite keeping themselves out of the action for much of the day, McLaren Honda duo Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button finished in fifth and ninth to secure their first double points finish of the season so far after a relaxingly trouble-free day's work.
But it ended as a slightly less simple day for Mercedes - who looked a little choked under pressure, but perhaps a rather welcome win for Vettel and the Prancing Horse - with some getting sick of the sight of a Mercedes driver stood atop the podium.
There was also a first podium double for Red Bull since Singapore last year and not to mention two points finishes from McLaren and a fourth-placed finish for 17-year-old Max Verstappen, who became the youngest ever driver to take P4.
But there was just about everything on offer. From Maldonado's abundance of penalties, Hamilton's uncharacteristic mistakes, daring overtaking manoeuvres, Hulkenberg's front-wing failure and a cruel twist of fate for Rosberg. There was barely a minute to turn away from the television.
It was an excellent way to bid farewell to Bianchi - who would have wanted nothing more than for the drivers to put on the spectacle they set out to do every race weekend - and an even better way to
Had Rosberg finished on a podium it would have set the second-half of the season up perfectly, but as it is - there's still plenty to left to play for with nine races remaining.
The 2015 Hungarian Grand Prix will forever be remembered not just for the fact that it marked the first race since the tragic death of Bianchi, but because it was one of the finest demonstrations of all the drama and excitement Formula One can bring.