Heikki Kovalainen Earns First Career Victory at Hungarian Grand Prix

Today's Grand Prix at the Hungaroring had a few surprizes in store for the fans. The racing gods weren't very kind with the points leaders.

After a great start from Felipe Massa, who took first place at the first corner, the race positions stabilized for a while and the pilots completed their first pit stop without any great position changes.

Then, the first major incident transformed the face of this race.

Lewis Hamilton, in his McLaren-Mercedes, is said to have rolled on debris and one of his tires was punctured. He had to make an extra pit stop to change his tire and got out of the pit lane in 10th position. The rest of his race was run in damage control mode which allowed him to finish in fifth position.

After the second pit stop, Massa led Kovalainen, Glock, Raikkonen, and Alonso. The gap between the leaders was too big to expect any position change until the end.

But the racing gods had another trick left up their sleeve. With only three laps to go, Felipe Massa, who was well ahead, saw his engine explode. A cruel turn of events for the Ferrari driver, who was about to take the lead in the championship.

Massa's tragic engine blowout gave an unexpected first career victory to Heikki Kovalainen, and an equally unexpected second place to Timo Glock in his Toyota. The third place was awarded to Kimi Raikkonen.

The Formula One circus will now take a three-week break before resuming its activities. For a first time, the championship will stop in Valencia, Spain.

Hungarian Grand Prix top 10 finish:

Winner: Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren)
2. Timo Glock (Toyota) -11.061 seconds
3. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) -16.856 seconds
4. Fernando Alonso (Renault) -21.614 seconds
5. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) -23.048 seconds
6. Nelson Piquet Jr (Renault) -32.298 seconds
7. Jarno Trulli (Toyota) -36.449 seconds
8. Robert Kubica (BMW-Sauber) -48.321 seconds
9. Mark Webber (Red Bull) -58.834 seconds
10. Nick Heidfeld (BMW-Sauber) -1:07.709

Drivers championship after 11/18 races

1-Lewis Hamilton 62 points
2-Kimi Raikkonen 57 points
3-Felipe Massa 54 ponts
4-Robert Kubica 49 points
5-Nick Heidfeld 41 points
6-Heikki Kovalainen 38 points
7-Jarno Trulli 22 points
8-Fernando Alonso 18 points
9-Mark Webber 18 points
10-Timo Glock 13 points
11-Nelson Piquet Jr 13 points
12-Rubens Barrichello 11 points
13-Nico Rosberg 8 points
14-Kazuki Nakajima 8 points
15-David Coulthard 6 points
16-Sebastian Vettel 6 points
17-Jenson Button 3 points
18-Sebastien Bourdais 2 points

Constructors Championship

1-Ferrari 111 points
2-McLaren 100 points
3-BMW-Sauber 90 points
4-Toyota 35 points
5-Renault 31 points
6-Red Bull 24 points
7-Williams 16 points
8-Honda 14 points
9-Toro Rosso 8 points