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| A good clean victory for the Brit brings him right back into contention for the 2012 F1 title |
Lewis Hamilton saw off the challenge of Lotus pair Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen
to secure victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix – and bring himself firmly back into
contention for the 2012 F1 title. Proving himself to be the dominant force at the
Hungaroring, Hamilton topped every session bar one in Budapest to snare his second victory
of the season and go some way towards making up for the recent disappointments in Valencia
and at Hockenheim.
Hamilton finally makes his pole
count!
At the start, Hamilton was able to hold the lead with a perfect
getaway while behind, Grosjean found himself under pressure from defending champion
Sebastian Vettel into turn one. The early part of the race saw Hamilton and Grosjean pull
away from the closing pack although the Frenchman was unable to get close enough to try
and make a move for the lead. An opportunity presented itself when Hamilton was ever so
slightly delayed during his first pit-stop after stopping before his rival, but Grosjean
was unable to complete his own in-lap quick enough to emerge out front when he stopped a
lap later.
Almost there for Raikkonen
Raikkonen managed to get onto
terms with Hamilton but without seriously being able to challenge for the lead, allowing
Hamilton to clinch his third victory in Budapest, putting him level with Ayrton Senna in
terms of wins in Hungary and just one behind the record currently held by Michael
Schumacher. Raikkonen had to settle for his third podium in the past four races and has
now dropped a place in the overall standings behind Hamilton as a result.
Grosjean proves his mettle again
While the Frenchman was
unable to get close enough to make a move on Hamilton, it was the move to a second pair of
soft tyres that got Grosjean lapping quicker than the leader. Grosjean closed up on
Hamilton only to then undo his hard work when mistakes on consecutive laps dropped him
back from the McLaren. But in the end, Grosjean rounded out the podium to give Lotus a 33
point haul, enough to move it ahead of Ferrari into third in the constructors'
championship.
Vettel just misses the podium
Vettel tried hard to get past Grosjean but the Frenchman defended well to keep the
German at bay as Vettel found himself shuffled back to fourth by Jenson Button out of turn
three. Like the Lotus drivers, Vettel had run soft tyres through the first and second
stints before swapping to the medium rubber but he we was unable to make the strategy work
in the same way as Raikkonen or Grosjean, which led to his late gamble that fresh softs
would allow him to overhaul his French rival. Although lapping noticeably quicker at the
finish, Vettel simply ran out of laps as he took the flag a second away from the
podium.
Alonso has a quiet race at Hungary
Point’s leader Alonso produced a perfect race of damage limitation in a race where
he expected to struggle for outright pace to secure fifth, which also allowed him to
extend his championship advantage over Mark Webber's Red Bull.
Senna
gets in the points again
A determined drive to seventh from Bruno
Senna, in the Hungarian Grand Prix strengthened Williams’ hold on seventh position
in the Constructors’ Championship and, although not his best finish, his drive at
Hungaroring is considered the Brazilian’s best showing in Formula One to date.
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