Lap 52, Button is inches behind as the two McLaren’s run nose to tail. He activates the DRS, applies a little bit of KERS and dives to the inside as they shoot down the start finish straight. Hamilton immediately sets about trying to get back past and does so immediately, passing into turn two as Jenson runs wide. At the end of the lap Hamilton pits for intermediates, it is the decision that puts Button on the path to victory.
'It is just perfect for my 200th Grand Prix'
Jenson Button triumphed in the Hungarian Grand Prix after a quite thrilling race, full of incident, wheel to wheel action and 88 pit stops. Despite being called into the pits as the rain fell late in the race for a change to intermediates, Button made the right call and stayed out on his prime tyres to take control.
The rain stopped as 24 raging Formula 1 cars lined up to take the start, Sebastian Vettel was starting from pole position and used it well as he shot down to the first corner, no one was anywhere near him into turn one.
The McLaren’s of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button diced into turn two. In the early laps it was extremely slippery, and Hamilton revels in such conditions. He was soon on to the back of the Red Bull, a few times trying to go round the outside into turn one, it looked very tight as his wheels just avoided the grass, Vettel again proving to be more than capable with his defensive driving.
But in these conditions it was almost inevitable that Lewis would be through sooner rather than later. He just had too much speed to resist although it was a slightl mistake going in to the second corner of lap 5 that cost him. Running wide Lewis was immediately past and started to pull away fast. Button closed on the Red Bull but was content to keep a watching brief in the early stages.
After being one of the early stoppers for dry tyres on lap 12, Button’s tyres were up to temperature and he was straight on the back of Vettel who stopped a lap later. Using the DRS he closed up and was parked under Vettel’s rear wing. Sweeping to the left Jenson was on the inside into turn two and Vettel had to accept the inevitable.
For the next 43 laps the McLaren’s circled, never more than 8 seconds apart. For all the world, it looked like Lewis Hamilton was going to cruise to his second successive win and fire a warning shot to Vettel as the season entered its summer break. Suddenly there were spots of water on his visor, and equally as suddenly he was facing the wrong way round after pirouetting on the kerb at turn seven.
Lewis could see the race disappearing, Button had never been far behind and was into the lead on lap 47 as Hamilton spun the car in the right direction again, almost collecting Paul di Resta in the Force India. Hamilton wasn’t going to let it go that easily, as the rain still fell he got back on to the tail of Button 4 laps later to take advantage as Jenson ran his McLaren wide, Hamilton was through.
Lap 52, Button is inches behind as the two McLaren’s run nose to tail. He activates the DRS, applies a little bit of KERS and dives to the inside as they shoot down the start finish straight. Hamilton immediately sets about trying to get back past and does so immediately, Button runs wide into turn two again and Hamilton is through. Button shadows his team mate to the end of the lap, but Hamilton pits for intermediates, it is the decision that puts Button on the path to victory.
The rain stops, the very next lap everyone still on dry tyres is five seconds quicker, anyone on intermediates has just ruined their race. Jenson tops the pack and he is untroubled by Vettel as the laps wind down.
Yet again Jenson Button demonstrates just how calm he is in mixed conditions, taking the time to judge everything to perfection, keeping his car in the right direction and being on the right tyres at the right time. It was ultimately his decision to stay out and it took him to glory, a great drive.
The other Sebastian
There is another Sebastian driving a Red Bull backed car, and he drove what must have been a fantastic race. The coverage didn’t show much of him apart from a good move to pass Kamui Kobayashi who had a train of cars behind him at one point.
Buemi started 23rd after a grid penalty for knocking into Nick Heidfeld at the previous race, and charged through to a fantastic 8th place. He’ll be especially pleased as he had been beaten by his Toro Rosso team mate Jaime Alguersuari in the last four races, and despite being confirmed for the rest of the season, he’ll be feeling the pressure as Daniel Ricciardo could well be installed at the team next season leaving only one seat available.
Alguersuari still had a good race though, finishing up 10th despite a half spin when he tried to follow Buemi through on Kobayashi. Instead he gave him a friendly tap but he passed him soon after. Another good drive by the Spaniard, but Buemi is giving him plenty of competition.
Hamilton’s eventful day and Vettel’s championship lead extended
Lewis Hamilton had an eventful day to finish 4th. It was a race he looked to have in the bag. He had radio problems which he has blamed for the switch to intermediates. He was the quickest out there all day, but even without that doomed choice of tyre it was looking doubtful he’d be able to claim the win.
Between laps 40-42 all the front winners pitted. Both Red Bulls and Button went on to the harder prime tyre in the hope it would last to the end of the race. Hamilton and Fernando Alonso continued with the super soft. It was the wrong choice, as throughout the race the super soft was being chewed up and lasting barely 15 laps for most runners.
It was a possibility that with 10 or 15 laps to go, Hamilton would have pitted and charged through the field like only he can, but it would have been a minor miracle for it to work. Anyhow after the spin that let Button through, he’d nearly taken out Paul di Resta when correcting it. His manoeuvre was deemed dangerous and he suffered a drive through penalty which dropped him back. For so long he looked the winner, but today fate conspired to take it away and what would have been a good dent into Vettel’s championship lead.
Vettel had a good day after finishing second. He made a few decent passes particularly on Alonso, defended strongly and generally was right up there with the McLaren’s for most of the day. Despite not winning for the fourth time in five races he’s managed to extend his championship lead to 85 points, thats 3 wins and a 5th place ahead.
Vettel is in charge when it comes to the championship, but having said that Red Bull was again beaten on pace for the 3rd successive race and the next two tracks in Belgium and Italy should suit his rivals. It’s just he’s got so many, they’re all taking points off each other.
The Others
I can’t help but feel Alonso had a missed opportunity today. He was blindingly fast in the opening laps, but dropped back through a couple of mistakes. He made up the ground, but if it hadn’t been for Hamilton’s penalty he wouldn’t have made the podium. He finished behind Vettel which isn’t good for the championship, but like I said, Ferrari are quick, in the next two races they need to capitalise on that.
Mark Webber was one who lost out due to a switch to intermediates which he was back into the pits to change only a few laps later. If it rained like the forecast was saying he’d have looked a hero, instead he looked a bit silly and ended up with 5th after what had been a generally strong race.
Massa was 6th after Michael Schumacher kindly spun his car round to avoid making contact with him. I’m sure Felipe was very grateful, but it was another race where he ended up ages behind his Ferrari team mate, and he didn’t look like he put up too much defence when Alonso passed him early in the race.
The other top 10 members not mentioned include Paul di Resta who was up there all afternoon to finish 7th. He needed a decent race as he hasn’t scored a point since Malaysia, especially after the great result his team mate Adrian Sutil had in Germany. But while Sutil wasted a top 10 qualifying slot and faded away in the race, di Resta made a great start and was battling with the Mercedes for a long time, his avoidance of Hamilton also showed some pretty decent reactions.
Nico Rosberg ended up 9th, again a few spots down on his qualifying, this time because he was another to get caught out with the intermediates in the latter stages of the race. He was great in the early wet laps, shooting up to fourth at the start with the other Mercedes of Schumacher just behind.
Rosberg managed to stay near the front a bit longer, but eventually he succumbed to Alonso and ran seventh when the track dried with di Resta catching him. Schumacher again set about catching Rosberg during the race once the conditions improved and again got caught in a spin and then gearbox failure. All in all it wasn’t a wonderful day for Mercedes.
Exploding, spinning and noteworthy
Two of the more bizarre events included seeing Nick Heidfeld jumping from a burning car, the flames were licking at his cockpit. It then exploded around a marshal’s legs as they tried to put the fire out. It’s the second time that has happened this season, although not with added bang.
Jerome d’Ambrosio for Virgin Racing decided to liven up events by managing to spin in the pit lane. His pit crew scattered as he tried to enter backwards, it would have been pretty interesting to see if they’d still changed the tyres.
Daniel Ricciardo for HRT, formally Hispania, was outqualified only just by his experienced team mate Tonio Liuzzi. However in the race it was a completely different story, Ricciardo swept ahead in the mixed conditions and finished not only ahead of Liuzzi but d’Ambrosio in the Virgin too.
A great result for him and one in which Red Bull will take great delight. They have high hopes for Ricciardo as part of their young driver program and will be encouraged he’s adapting well in only his third race.
Looking ahead
So that’s it for a month, next time is Belgium. As good as it was for Jenson Button to take the win, it’s also a result that will not have displeased Vettel. There is not one person who is really taking the challenge to him on a consistent basis despite better pace. Vettel has only finished outside the top two once in 11 races, the others are all over the place with finishing positions. McLaren and Ferrari are strong now but Red Bull haven’t got slower either. We could still have a battle but with only eight races left it’ll be tough to beat him now.
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