Hamilton back on top in Hungary
Hamilton clinched McLaren's first win of 2009 in Hungary
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By Adam Leveridge. |  |
Sunday, 26, Jul 2009 02:40
By Adam Leveridge.
After a tough start to the season, Lewis Hamilton stormed to McLaren's first victory of the year at the Hungaroring, beating the sole Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen and the Red Bull of Mark Webber by 15 seconds.
The Hungarian grand prix proved to be more crucial than expected in the world championship fight with Sebastien Vettel retiring early on in the race with suspension issues, and Jenson Button scoring just two points for seventh place.
Webber's podium finish demonstrates that the Australian has momentum following his victory in Germany; his third place moves him up to second in the standings, ahead of his young team-mate Vettel.
When the lights went out, all the front runners got away well, but it was Alonso who led the field through turn one.
As expected, Hamilton used his KERS system to full effect by jumping up the order. He slotted into second as the field turned into the first corner, but Webber ducked underneath the world champion, immediately snatching second place back.
Vettel fell down to seventh place at the first corner after he made contact with Hamilton as the field streaked away from the grid.
The two Brawns both made bad starts, Button falling down to ninth at the first corner and Barrichello down to 18th.
Hamilton made an opportunistic lunge past Webber and up into second place as the pair approached turn two on lap three. The Briton made the Red Bull driver go defensive into turn one and then used his KERS to power past the Australian as they exited the corner.
Hamilton then set about chasing down Alonso setting fastest lap after fastest lap - the McLaren driver was half a second faster than the Spaniard on lap three, despite having to pass Webber and continued to catch the Renault by four tenths per lap.
Alonso opted to do his first stint on the softer tyre, but seven laps in, he started to suffer with severe graining, allowing Hamilton to draw in behind him even faster.
At the same time, Button had climbed back up to seventh, but didn't seem to have the pace to match Kovalainen and Vettel who found themselves in fifth and sixth.
With ten laps gone, Alonso still led and Hamilton's progress towards the back of the Renault was halted when he hit the dirty air, which allowed Webber to start re-catch the McLaren driver.
Alonso then pitted on lap eleven, two laps earlier than predicted - the Renault team opting to switch the Spaniard onto the harder compound tyre.
But Alonso's race was ruined when a problem with his right-front wheel fairing which caused the wheel to come adrift from the car on his out-lap, which led to his retirement.
With Alonso out of the way, Hamilton proceeded to pull out a comfortable lead over Webber and, by lap sixteen, he had a 4.4-second advantage over the Red Bull driver.
Mark Webber then made his first stop of the afternoon. It went smoothly until the lollipop was raised prematurely, before the fuel hose has been completely removed from his car.
This delayed the German grand prix winner and he was then released into the path of the sole remaining Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen. Webber was lucky to avoid a drive-through penalty.
Hamilton was the next of the front-runners to pit. It was a smooth stop by the McLaren mechanics, but the team were forced to hold Hamilton for an additional two seconds or so, while the Williams of Rosberg cruised down the pit-lane to make his stop.
Button's stop came on lap 25. It was a clean effort from the Brawn team, getting Button fitted with a new set of soft tyres and refuelling his car in 8.7 seconds.
Unfortunately, the British driver filtered out of the pits into the path of a heavily fuelled Giancarlo Fisichella in the Force India, who passed the Brawn driver into the first corner.
Vettel became the third retirement of the afternoon when he suffered a problem with his rear-suspension following a moment at turn 11 on lap 27.
At this point Hamilton had a fifteen-second advantage over Raikkonen in second and Webber in third, allowing the McLaren driver to pace himself and look after his tyres.
Kovalainenthen started hustling Webber for third spot as the race approached half-distance, but the Finn had a determined Rosberg distracting him in fifth and was unable to do anything about the Red Bull.
Webber was fuelled for four laps longer then Kovalainen and the Australain kept the Finn behind him until the second round of stops, effectively destroying Kovalainen's chances of a podium.
Kovalainen came in to the pits from fourth with 27 laps to go, McLaren fitting the Finn with a new set of super-soft tyres and fuelling him until the end of the race.
Raikkonen came in on the following lap to take on the harder compound tyre, but he was delayed in his stop when he couldn't engage first gear.
Hamilton's stop, on the otherhand was flawless, the McLaren team even managing to get the Brit out in front of Webber who had yet to make his second stop of the day.
Crucially, when Webber eventually made his final stop with 20 laps to go, he retained a new third place ahead of Rosberg's Williams and Kovalainen in the second McLaren.
Hamilton continued to stretch his lead and, with 16 laps to go, had built a gap of 17 seconds over Raikkonen, who was being harassed by the Toyota of Timo Glock - the German was on a one-stop strategy and was yet to make a stop.
But, in a car which was more than two seconds slower than the rest of the field at the beginning of the season, Hamilton cruised to victory followed by Raikkonen, Webber and Rosberg.
Glock made the most of an effective one-stop strategy to take fifth, ahead of Kovalainen, whose front brakes were overheating during his final stint.