Budapest, Hungary - Rookie Lewis Hamilton led every lap while capturing the Grand Prix of Hungary at the Hungaroring in Budapest. The No.2 McLaren driver crossed the finish line 0.715 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.
The victory was Hamilton’s third of the season.
After Fernando Alonso was removed from the pole (dropped to sixth), Hamilton led the field off the grid for 70 laps of racing. Also dropped on the starting grid was Giancarlo Fisichella. He went from eighth to 13th for blocking Sakon Yamamoto.
On the start Hamilton immediately got away and Raikkonen slid past Nick Heidfeld for second place. Meanwhile, Alonso lost one place to Mark Webber in a rare poor start for the two-time World Champion.
Hamilton’s lead after two laps was already 2.4 seconds. He continued to pull away from Raikkonen as the early laps clicked off.
Alonso regained his composure and began the long fight back up the charts. He made a nice move around Robert Kubica on lap three and got right on the back of Ralf Schumacher’s Toyota.
Raikkonen finally began to cut into Hamilton’s lead beginning with a fastest lap of the day on lap six and again on lap eight, but he was still more than three seconds behind. Both drivers were well ahead of third-place Heidfeld as they approached the first round of pit stops.
Behind the two leaders, most of the top drivers pitted indicating that not only could they not keep pace, but they had less fuel on board and therefore were lighter. Alonso took about three seconds more of fuel than most, planning on a long second stint.
On lap 19 both Hamilton and Raikkonen made their stops and remained one-two after getting their fuel and new tires.
Raikkonen was closing in on Hamilton cutting the gap to just 1.5 seconds on lap 25 and 1.2 seconds one lap later. At the mid-point of the 70-lap event the margin was just 1.0 seconds.
Massa, who qualified a distant 14th and was using a one-stop strategy, came out after his stop just in front of Hamilton, but almost a full lap down.
Would he hold up Hamilton in an attempt to help his teammate Raikkonen?
The answer would come on lap 39 when he correctly pulled to the inside and allowed both race leaders to get by.
Hamilton and Raikkonen were still about one second apart and more than 35 seconds ahead of third-place Heidfeld.
On lap 47 Raikkonen pitted for the final time and put on the softer compound tire. Hamilton remained out and put in a a couple pretty good laps so he would have a bigger lead after his final stop.
Hamilton came in on lap 51 and after a clean stop he returned to the track with a 4.4 second lead.
Meanwhile, the longer stint by Alonso worked in helping him get past Ralf Schumacher, who he had been following for most of the race. Alonso only needed a quick fill on the final stop and re-entered the track ahead of Schumacher.
Hamilton and Raikkonen were working their way through lapped traffic and Raikkonen was doing it better, cutting the lead to 0.5 seconds with 13 laps to go. Heidfeld was still in third place and Alonso was up to fourth.
By lap 60 Hamilton and Raikkonen broke away from the slower traffic and it was one-on-one for the Grand Prix of Hungary. Slowly, Hamilton edged away from Raikkonen. With seven laps to go the gap was up to 1.1 seconds. It was still around one second with five circuits remaining.
Hamilton was mistake-free over the final laps and Raikkonen could never find a way to catch him despite setting the fastest lap of the race on the final lap.
Hamilton led all 70 laps en route to his third career win.
“With all the drama it would have been easy to lose focus,” said Hamilton. “But the team remained positive and the energy in the team remained which just proves there is nothing that can stop us.”
Heidfeld, Alonso, Kubica, Schumacher, Nico Rosberg and Heikki Kovalainen completed the points-scoring positions.
With the win, Hamilton expands his lead to seven points over Alonso (80-73).
The next race in the championship is scheduled for Sunday, August 26th for the Grand Prix of Turkey.
