Lewis Hamilton took a brilliantly controlled victory in
Hungary today. In many ways it was reminiscent of how Fernando Alonso won in
Germany a week ago.
He always had that slight edge as potentially quicker cars
behind him tried to have a go at grabbing the win from him. It was in the final
sector where Hamilton was just able to keep enough of a gap so no one could
touch him in the DRS zone down the start finish straight.
Leading from pole position he immediately got a gap out to
Romain Grosjean’s Lotus, but it was never more than a few seconds. It was a hot
day in Budapest, conditions that were ideal for the Lotus cars. Grosjean pegged
that gap then started to close, getting to within a second.
But Lewis never had to defend from the Frenchman, and as
they completed the second pit stops on lap 40 he was three seconds to the good.
The challenge was over, well at least from that Lotus.
Ahead of him Kimi Raikkonen was finally into clear air and
charging. The Finn, never happy this season without a win shot straight in to
the 1.25s as he sought to build a gap.
He had started in fifth and lost a place to Alonso, but
through the first pit stops he managed to jump the Ferrari and tagged onto the
back of Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull. He was obviously quicker, but despite the
Pirelli tyres and the DRS zone this race would not be an overtaking fest.
Unless it rains in Hungary there’s unlikely to be much
chance of overtaking. As soon as Vettel pitted Kimi was unleashed and started
taking seconds out of everyone else as they battled through traffic.
He got the gap up to 14 seconds, but after 5 laps Lewis had
got his tyres working as Kimi’s degraded and the gap began to fall. He boxed
instantly and had done just enough to get ahead of his team mate Grosjean.
Exiting alongside, he locked up his right front pushed
Grosjean wide into turn one and was through. It was crucial. Three seconds
behind Lewis, he pushed as hard as could. With five laps worth of fresher tyres
he caught the McLaren easily, but as he admitted over the radio he needed
Hamilton’s tyres to fail.
They didn’t, Lewis looked after them superbly as when he
needed to, he pulled out a quick lap just to show the Lotus that he still had
some pace there.
Hamilton crossed the line less than a second ahead of the
Lotus, but the pace that McLaren’s updates have brought was finally demonstrated
with his second victory of the year.
He’s still a long way off championship leader Alonso, but took
a significant 15 point chunk out of the Spaniard’s lead. Hamilton isn’t out of
the title equation yet, and as they head into the summer break he’ll be
optimistic having taken pole position and victory in a very assured manner.
The top three in the
championship
The top three in the title chase had quiet afternoons. I
think Alonso will be quite happy with his afternoons work after finishing fifth
and actually extending his lead in the championship over second placed Mark
Webber to 40 points.
He’d already said his main focus was to keep Webber behind
him, but after they’d made their second stops Webber had turned out in front.
Red Bull however, didn’t believe they’d make it to the end on those tyres and
pitted Mark with 13 laps left dropping him to eighth and while he was quick at
first he became stuck behind Bruno Senna’s Williams and just couldn’t get by.
Sebastian Vettel was
urging his team to find a way past Jenson Button, in the end McLaren did it for
him by converting him to a three stop strategy which dropped him from
challenging for a podium to 6th by the end, tucked up behind Alonso.
Anyway, it was doubtful he’d have stayed ahead of Kimi.
Vettel too went with a three stopper but by the time he made
his final stop he was able to come out ahead of Alonso still, and cruised up to
the back of Grosjean for third but didn’t have time to make a move, despite
lapping 2 seconds quicker than those in front.
The rest of the top
10
Senna came home in seventh in a fine drive. He was always on
the pace during the race, in fact for the entire weekend. It was a good
performance, and one he needed as we enter the break as he’s been under
pressure. Despite being out qualified by his team mate Pastor Maldonado again,
he had actually over shadowed him for most of the weekend, and as Maldonado
fell down the field due to another penalty Senna maintained position and actually went forwards.
It should be noted that Senna has actually had more points
winning results than his team mate, it’s just that Maldonado had that great win
in Spain. Senna needs to up his qualifying form and get himself a shining
result to keep his seat because he’s in danger of falling off the radar despite
his consistency.
Felipe Massa had a bad start, falling from seventh to ninth
by the end. He didn’t do much wrong and was actually fairly close to Alonso by
the end of the race, but the start cost him and he couldn’t make any passes to
progress, much like everyone else.
Nico Rosberg moved up from 13th on the grid to
grab the final point on another disappointing day for Mercedes. After
qualifying only 13th and 17th their race day turned worse
for Schumacher. As they lined up for the start, the lights flashed to abort the
start and he switched off his engine.
Everyone else went round for another parade lap as he got
pushed into the pits. He then speeded in the pit lane as he took up his
position, made an early stop for tyres, got a drive through, tried to go on a
one stop but eventually retired after making progress passed the newer teams
but little else. Mercedes have a lot of work to do If they want to get anything
else from this season.
After the impressive showing in Germany, Sauber had an
utterly anonymous day at the races. Neither drive made much progress from a
poor qualifying, they just didn’t have the pace.
The title battle
And so now there is a five week break until the next race at
Spa in Belgium. Fernando Alonso has built up almost a two win advantage over
Mark Webber, but he’ll be slightly concerned, because in full dry conditions,
the Ferrari still doesn’t seem to have the pace of at least three teams.
Alonso will work for every point and no doubt grab the odd
win along the way, he’s also an expert in damage limitation, but despite his
elevated position he knows there’s a marathon of a fight to come.
Red Bull head the constructors championship by a significant
margin as their two drives are separated by just two points. Webber has been a
bit lacklustre since his Silverstone win and Vettel gives the impression of
becoming increasingly frustrated.
But despite this and the various allegations of stretching
the rules that have been thrown at them, they are still probably the quickest
car in all conditions. With Adrian Newey pushing the envelope at every given
opportunity they won’t let Ferrari rest for a tenth of a second.
Two good results later and McLaren are not being written off
anymore. At Silverstone they were down and out, now they’re right back in it.
Hamilton is only seven points away from being second in the championship and
this win will give a lot of encouragement for the rest of the season. He's been mostly brilliant this year and as McLaren develop
well, if they can get Button up there consistently too, they’ll have a lot of
words to say as the script is written for the title chase.
Despite not having a win to his name this year Kimi
Raikkonen remains the dark horse in the championship. He’s only a point behind
Hamilton, and actually has the joint second highest amount of podiums this
year.
He could have had at least two wins this year, possibly
three. If he can get his act together in qualifying, the wins will come easier.
He’s certainly driving well, as is Grosjean, Lotus will win a race this year
and it could come from either, but for the championship, they’d wanted it to be
Kimi who’s a bit more consistent at bringing the car home, they just need him
to qualify like Grosjean.
The win could come at Spa, last time Kimi visited there in
2009 he took his fourth win in Belgium. With nine races left it’s still all to play for, the top teams may have more certainty and control over the tyres but there's a lot more story to be told in this epic 2012 season.
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