The timing could not have been better. Going in to the mid-season break, Lewis Hamilton got himself back on course with a well-executed victory in Hungary.
In relaxed and dominant form throughout the weekend – fastest in two of the three practice sessions, on pole by a reasonable margin – Hamilton finally proved the worth of McLaren’s recent update package by leading all the way at the Hungaroring.
But his second win of the season was not as straightforward as this suggests. McLaren were under pressure to make the right tactical decisions and Hamilton had to resist an attack from Lotus as Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean joined the Englishman on the podium.
Having had a disappointing few months – apart from his win in Canada in June – Hamilton needed maximum points to keep his name in the championship frame, albeit almost two victories away from points leader, Fernando Alonso.
In this season of rapidly changing fortunes, Hamilton took heart from Alonso finishing fifth – and considering himself fortunate to be there. Having been within the narrow performance window last week to win in Germany, Alonso and Ferrari struggled from the start of practice and it got little better in the race as the championship leader started from sixth.
Once again, teams went into this race not knowing what to expect. “Tyre degradation is going to be the big factor,” said Red Bull’s Adrian Newey. “Because of the rain during Friday’s free practice, we haven’t been able to do as much long running and tyre preparation as we would like. And because it’s been raining overnight, the track is green for the race and will change as the race goes on. It’s going to be difficult deciding whether to stop two or three times.”
Red Bull’s difficulties had been compounded by an order to change the mapping on their Renault engine, officials closing a loophole the reigning world champions had been exploiting to find more downforce from exhaust blowing. Red Bull claimed this had not affected their performance in Hungary as Sebastian Vettel could not match either Hamilton or Grosjean in qualifying and Mark Webber was at a loss to explain why he could do no better than 11th on the grid. In the end, Red Bull chose to make three stops – and got into traffic as a result.
Significantly, Hamilton and the Lotus drivers went for two stops as the race quickly settled down to a fight between these three. Saying that, it initially seemed Grosjean would be the contender for his first victory as Kimi Raikkonen, having made a mistake during his best qualifying lap, started from fifth. But this did not allow for Raikkonen committing himself to a long and fast middle stint to jump into second place after his final stop.
All of this was at the expense of Grosjean who, having stopped six laps earlier and lost 1,5 seconds struggling to get ahead of a backmarker, found himself forced to the edge of the road as the Lotus pair ran wheel-to-wheel and almost collided when Raikkonen emerged from the pits.
That done, Raikkonen found himself 4,4 seconds behind race leader Hamilton with tyres that were five laps fresher. Now it was a question of whether Hamilton could make his Pirellis last in the face of the inevitable attack from a seriously on form 2007 World Champion.
Raikkonen closed to within one second and got into the DRS zone. Would this be an extraordinary win for the Finn in his comeback year? It was not to be as his KERS failed to deliver the extra power when needed and Hamilton, having taken care of his tyres, soaked up the pressure and produced a personal best six laps from the end to keep Raikkonen at arm’s length.
Hamilton was clearly elated as he won the Hungarian Grand Prix for the third time. “These are the kind of Grands Prix, the races you win like this, where you're under intense pressure from great drivers like Romain and Kimi – for me it's a great reminder of the old days with Kimi – and this is the kind of day when you have to have your mind 100 per cent. I feel great because the team didn't flinch – and neither did I. It was about trying to make the (final set of) tyres last a long time while keeping this guy (Raikkonen) behind. Which as you know, they are absolutely rapid, these guys. If we were on another track where overtaking was much easier, I think perhaps the result would have been different.
“It’s nice to go into the break knowing that we had a win. Every year that we've done that it's been a great feeling. I think it's very important how we manage the summer break, mentally and physically, because we've clearly still got a lot of work to do.”
Battle will recommence in Belgium on the weekend of 2 September.
Driver's championship standings
1. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) – 164
2. Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault) – 124
3. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull-Renault) – 122
4. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) – 117
5. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus-Renault) – 116
6. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) – 77
7. Jenson Button (McLaren-Mercedes) – 76
8. Romain Grosjean (Lotus-Renault) – 76
Manufacturer's championship standings
1. Red Bull Renault – 246
2. McLaren-Mercedes- 193
3. Lotus-Renault – 192
4. Ferrari – 189
5. Mercedes – 106
6. Sauber-Ferrari – 80
7. Williams-Renault – 53
8. Force India-Mercedes
