Lewis Hamilton has scored his third Grand Prix victory of the season with a dominant lights-to-flag win at the Hungaroring. Kimi Raikkonen finished in second with Nick Heidfeld in third.
As for Fernando Alonso, who was relegated to sixth after his professional foul during qualifying, recovered to finish in fourth but the spectre of McLaren’s appeal in the constructors’ championship and the fall-out from the qualifying drama will hang over the sport for the rest of the season.
It wasn’t an easy race for Hamilton, as he had to withstand constant pressure from his Ferrari rival. In addition, the British rookie was struggling with a problem with his steering in his McLaren MP4-22 so to stay ahead is still a pretty impressive achievement.
Robert Kubica finished in fifth for BMW-Sauber ahead of Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher – who was leading the frustrated Alonso for most of the 70-lap race.
Nico Rosberg (Williams) and Heikki Kovalainen (Renault) finished in the remaining points places.
As for Felipe Massa, the Brazilian finished in a frustrating P13, no thanks to a rare error from Ferrari – who forgotten to put fuel in the car in qualifying!
And what a difference a year makes for Jenson Button in the Honda. Winner of the crazy wet-dry race, the British driver struggled with a lack of competitive pace in his ‘earth’ car and was forced to retire with engine failure. As for Rubens Barrichello, the Brazilian finished dead last and two laps down on the leaders…
It wasn’t a thrilling race at the Hungaroring, especially when you consider the last 24 hours of events. The on-going rivalry between the double world champion and his young British rookie is getting out of hand and even McLaren are having difficulty on keeping tabs on the growing tense situation.
The only positive for Ron Dennis – team principal at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – is that Lewis Hamilton still leads the drivers’ standings. He holds a seven-points advantage over Fernando Alonso as Formula One takes a three-week break. This has come at the right time when you consider the recent ‘spy’ scandal and the controversy surrounding the two drivers during qualifying. Formula One needs to focus its attention on the track rather than off-track politics, as this year’s championship has been the most competitive for some time. Hopefully the tense atmosphere will be cleared once racing gets under way in Turkey in late August.
Hungarian Grand Prix, 70 laps
1. HAMILTON McLaren 1h35m52.991s
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +0.7s
3. HEIDFELD BMW +43.1s
4. ALONSO McLaren +44.8s
5. KUBICA BMW +47.6s
6. SCHUMACHER Toyota +50.6s
7. ROSBERG Williams +59.1s
8. KOVALAINEN Renault +1m08.1s
9. WEBBER Red Bull +1m16.3s
10. TRULLI Toyota +1 lap
11. COULTHARD Red Bull +1 lap
12. FISICHELLA Renault +1 lap
13. MASSA Ferrari +1 lap
14. WURZ Williams +1 lap
15. SATO Super Aguri +1 lap
16. VETTEL Toro Rosso +1 lap
17. SUTIL Spyker +2 laps
18. BARRICHELLO Honda +2 laps
R. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +28 laps
R. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +29 laps
R. BUTTON Honda +35 laps
R. YAMAMOTO Spyker +66 laps
Fastest lap: RAIKKONEN 1m20.047s (lap 70)
After a frustrating race for Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard might be leaving McLaren to join another team next year according to a report on Autosport.com.
The double world champion is getting stressed out at the team no thanks to his very fast team-mate Lewis Hamilton…
There are rumours that Alonso could go back to Renault in 2008 but we shall wait and see.
More on this can be read here:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/61422
I hear hamilton is going out with the boss’s daughter playing with fire or what.