Lewis Hamilton Wins The Hungarian Grand Prix In a Crushing Performance

(Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images)

Lewis Hamilton completed an astonishing turn-around in McLaren's luck and claimed the first win of the championship at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

In what could be seen a major return to the pecking order seen before to this year's massive rule changes, Ferrari took second place with Kimi Raikkonen - an emotional result with the Finn's team-mate Felipe Massa still in an induced coma in a Budapest hospital.

Mark Webber managed to eat into Jenson Button's championship lead, as the Australian took third place on a day when the Briton could only manage two solitary points for seventh.

The result now means that Webber is Red Bull's leading contender in the championship, as his team-mate Sebastian Vettel retired with suspension damage, particularly due to turn one collision with Raikkonen.

As anticipated, the KERS-equipped cars stormed off the line, with Hamilton diving past Webber into second place behind pole-sitter Fernando Alonso, and Raikkonen sliding past the slow-starting Vettel to take fourth position, making seemingly light contact on his way through.

Webber managed to dive ahead of Hamilton on the exit of Turn One as the McLaren went slightly wide, but the world champion returned the favour four laps later, using his KERS boost to get alongside the Red Bull into the first corner, forcing Webber to cut tight, and then easily accelerating past into Turn Two.

Hamilton then set off in pursuit after his former team-mate Alonso, who had stormed off into a early lead despite fuel pump problems, but was making he made the first of three stops on lap 12.

That stop proved to be the end of his race, as he rejoined the race it immediately became glaringly obvious that his right front wheel was very loose. The problem was that his brake caliper was not tightened properly by his mechanic. The wheel then fell off as he nursed his car back to the pits, and the consequent damage eventually forced him to retire from the grand prix.

That left Hamilton clear to dominate the rest of the race from the front. Webber found himself behind Raikkonen after an incident in the pitlane - the Red Bull pulling out almost alongside the Ferrari and having to move aside. Webber was delayed even further when the yet-to-stop Timo Glock managed to get between them on the out-lap.

The top three then began to stretch out as the race moved on, with Raikkonen falling back from the charging Hamilton in the second stint and then Webber was similarly unable to keep up with the Ferrari.

Hamilton then built his lead ever further to clinch his second Hungarian Grand Prix victory - an incredible result when you consider the fact that his McLaren was eliminated in Q1 as recently as Silverstone, and that he had failed to score a single point at all since Bahrain.

Webber had begun to close the gap on Raikkonen after the final stops, but he was unsuccessful in his quest, and in the process managed to pull away from Nico Rosberg's Williams, which at one point had looked like it could threaten for the final podium finish.

While Webber had been unable to capitalise on Button's lack of pace with a victory, he did manage narrow the championship gap to 18.5 points. The Australian has now jumped Vettel in the points, and is starting to find his consistency that he needs to take the title.

Heikki Kovalainen brought the other McLaren home in fifth place, with Timo Glock's unbelievably late first stop allowing him to run as high as second and eventually come through the field from 13th on the grid to sixth for Toyota.

Button, quite simply, never had the pace to get near the top five, with his radio transmissions suggesting that he was left flabbergasted by his car's lack of performance. Another frustrating weekend for Brawn, who now seriously need to get on top of their tyre issues as they can now say that not only have Red Bull leapfrogged them, but so have McLaren.

Jarno Trulli managed to take a solid eighth place for Toyota, the Italian having also gained ground earlier by running long, leaving Trulli to fend off Kazuki Nakajima and Rubens Barrichello, the latter falling way down the order at the first corner.

Jaime Alguersuari completed his debut grand prix in 15th, beating his Toro Rosso team-mate Sebastien Buemi. Alguersuari also managed to set one of the fastest laps of the race, and managed to lap mor consistently than the leaders. Not bad for a rookie.

After the race it was announced the Red Bull would be reprimanded for the unsafe release of Mark Webber, and Renault would be banned from the European Grand Prix as punishment for letting Alonso go with, well, the tyre not on the car. With the tragedy surrounding the death of Henry Surtees and a flying tyre, it astounds me that this kind of thing can happen. Personally, I think Alonso should have just pulled off, you would believe he would have enough sense.

T.V.Coverage - 7/10

Pretty bloody good, Jake Humphrey and David Coulthard as good as usual, but Eddie Jordan was disappointing. First he lied about him being told about the health of Massa after his crash, then talked complete crap on the grid walk today.

Radio 5Live regular Anthony Davidson was not at the Hungaroring today, he was competing in the FIA GT Spa 24 Hours race, so Johnny Herbert replaced him. Utterly annoying, so I had to listen to the slightly less annoying Jonathan Legard.

Legard needs to be sacked, I lost count of the amount of times he interrupted Martin Brundle was sickening.

Driver of the Day

Lewis Hamilton was just dynamite today, he proved just how good he really is today, he annihilated everyone, but he was almost matched by the young debutant Jamie Alguersuari (I love hearing his name) who did not make a single mistake all day.

I initially thought he was too young to compete so suddenly, but I was wrong, he defeated his team-mate. Well done young sire.

Race Rating - 7/10

The race was not boring, but not full of drama, but it was solid enough, so I think 7/10 is rather fair.

Congratulation to Lewis Hamilton but particularly to McLaren for pulling back almost three second of pace in just four months, I do not think any team has made a recovery like this for quite some time.

With a four week break, this correspondent will probably go nuts, so until Valencia, I say goodbye.

Michael Griffin

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