Button marks milestone in the best possible fashion after Hamilton slips

To add to the poignancy of such a triumph, the Hungaroring was also the scene of Button’s maiden victory in 2006, remarkably in similarly changeable conditions given the grey skies and on-off light rain.

Button, though, has made his name and taken the chequered flag when the weather is far from ideal, as he did in Canada last month, and also in Australia and China last year with McLaren.

“For some reason I like these conditions, don’t ask me why, but it worked out in the end,” said Button, who now has 11 career wins overall.

“To win this type of race means a lot because it wasn’t easy out there. So this is just pretty amazing, an amazing day, a wonderful race, and perfect for my 200th. This is where I first won in F1, so I’m going to enjoy this.

“I would say it was one of my most enjoyable races, but please, I would like to win one in the dry.”

The opening few laps, after drizzly rain had prevailed all the way through to the start, led to a tip-toe beginning by all the drivers as they danced across the circuit.

The first key error came from pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel who ran wide at turn two on lap five to allow Lewis Hamilton to take the lead.

From that point the race was a relatively straightforward one as the first two pit stops came and went with little fuss.

The one exception saw Nick Heidfeld’s Renault catch fire after his second stop, the German making a hasty exit as flames lapped around him.

But the race then turned with 22 laps remaining as another light sprinkling of rain coated the circuit, making it slippy in places once more, sending Hamilton into a spin.

The 26-year-old lost the lead to Button, and in straightening his car into oncoming traffic, compelled Force India’s Paul di Resta to take evasive action by running off the track.

As the next few laps unfolded, Button and Hamilton duelled for the lead which changed hands on three occasions.

That was before Hamilton made a crucial error in switching to intermediate tyres as the rain had grown slightly in intensity.

It was a bad move as Hamilton pitted two laps later – his fifth stop of the race – to take on soft tyres, followed swiftly by him serving a drive-through penalty for his ‘donut’ that forced Di Resta wide.

From a race-winning position, Hamilton came home fourth behind both championship leader Vettel and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton apologised to di Resta for going within inches of wrecking the Scot’s Hungarian Grand Prix on lap 47.

“I had a big mistake,” said Hamilton.

“My left-front tyre was pretty worn, so I went a bit wide, came out of the chicane and spun which is very, very rare.

“I think it’s one of the first times I’ve spun, and then after that I have to apologise to Paul di Resta. I just didn’t see him.

“I had absolutely no clue. I don’t know where or what happened, but I got a penalty for something which is to be expected I guess, so I apologise to him.”

Di Resta, who criticised Renault’s Heidfeld for his lack of an apology after the German ran into the back of him on lap one of the previous week’s race at the Nurburgring, was grateful.

“It was close,” said di Resta on the incident.

“At the same time there are no hard feelings. He said he didn’t see me, although was puzzled as to why he got a penalty, even after the race.

“Had he hit me it would have been a disappointing end. If I hadn’t taken avoiding action, it would have been a disaster.

“He did apologise, but I can understand why he did it (the move).”

Blaming his radio for the mistake of switching to intermediate tyres, Hamilton added: “We were having issues. I could hear my engineers but they couldn’t hear me.

“It was a very difficult call for them. I heard them say it was going to rain, and it was already spitting, so we opted to go for the wet tyres. They called me in and I did the lap, but the tyres went off. It wasn’t necessarily the best call, but that’s motor racing.”

Following the high of the previous week’s win in Germany, this was another of those low points for Hamilton.

“We would have loved a one-two, so I feel like I let the team down a little, but we’ll bounce back at the next race,” said Hamilton.

For di Resta, there was obvious relief at finally conjuring a good result as he said: “I was under a bit of pressure to score points.

“But at the same time I didn’t make any mistakes in the last three races that have cost me anything.

“I’ve always said there would be highs and lows, and I hope we’ve had a low and are now rebuilding to a high.”

Button, who had endured wretched luck in the previous three races with a KERS failure in Valencia, losing a wheel at Silverstone and then a hydraulics issue the previous weekend at the Nurburgring, is 100 points adrift of Vettel, with Hamilton 88 down.

The 31-year-old, whose website was hacked into on Saturday night leaving a bogus report saying he was in a critical condition following a road accident in Budapest, knows his title hopes are threadbare.

“I’m a long way behind Seb. I’ve got to beat him at every race, and that is exactly what we are going to try and achieve after we’ve had a break,” added Button.

For Vettel, who is 85 points clear of team-mate Mark Webber who was fifth and 89 ahead of Alonso, back-to-back titles are starting to loom large.

The 24-year-old is not getting carried away, however, as he said: “It was a good race for me with a lot of people finishing behind, except Jenson. But there is still a long way to go, and with races like this, we know how quickly things can change.”

Di Resta kept his nerve to conjure his best F1 result to date by finishing seventh, and the Scot now has eight points to his name.