2013 Hungarian Grand Prix - Hungry Hamilton triumphs in beautiful Budapest

By Simon Wright

The British summer of sporting success continued this afternoon at the Hungarian Grand Prix, as Lewis Hamilton reminded everyone of his class to win his first race of the 2013 season.

The 2008 world champion has taken time to adjust to his new surroundings at Mercedes GP, but he showed his hunger on a circuit where track temperatures nudged 50 degrees.  The excessive heat though didn’t provide any issues on his tyres as he charged to a fourth victory in Budapest.

Hamilton overcame personal issues to win in Hungary once again

Hamilton (pictured) finished 12 seconds clear of the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen, with defending world champion Sebastian Vettel having to settle for third, but once again increasing his championship lead as the sport heads for its official summer break.  Jenson Button had an action-packed drive to seventh place, but it was a tough day for several teams including Ferrari who simply couldn’t live with the ultimate pace at the tight and twisty Hungaroring.

This event was the first since Pirelli went back to a new construction of tyre following the constant failures in the first half of the season, and it has to be said that they passed the test with flying colours, especially with air temperatures hitting 35 degrees Celsius on raceday, only comparable with races in Dallas in the 1980s and the 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix.

A sterling lap from Hamilton in qualifying once again meant he took his third successive pole position, and that was the first ingredient of a perfect weekend for the Stevenage-born driver.  He made a great start too and comfortably led into the first corner.  Fellow front row starter Vettel had a tardy getaway, but just managed to hold off the Lotus of Romain Grosjean, giving the Frenchman very minimal space to work with.  Further back, the sister Mercedes of Nico Rosberg went backwards.  After being squeezed out in the first corner shuffle, he had contact with Felipe Massa at turn five on the opening circuit and went off-track, leaving him stuck in the midfield in 12^th place at the end of the lap.

The option tyre lasted longer than many expected, with Hamilton not peeling in for his first stop until lap 10.  His lead was only slender over Vettel and Grosjean, but it was at this point that won him the race.  Rejoining behind former team-mate Button, he quickly utilised the strong straight-line speed on his Mercedes to pass Button a lap later into the first corner.  When Vettel and Grosjean rejoined, they got stuck behind the former double winner of the Hungarian event.

Vettel spent 12 frustrating laps behind the McLaren, and ended up conceding a costly 13 seconds to Hamilton, who was able to build up a gap and maintain decent levels of cooling and tyre temperature in the process.  During the battle, there was contact between Vettel and Button at one point, leaving the German with minor front wing damage.

Team principal Christian Horner admitted afterwards that this element of the race was what denied his driver a chance at a first victory in Budapest.  As quoted by Planet F1 afterwards, he said: “I think the most damage to us was emerging from the pits behind Jenson and not being able to pass him, then damaging the front wing.

“I think that released Lewis and put us back into the realms of Kimi.  Nonetheless it was still a very strong podium finish and we extended our lead in the Drivers’ Championship.”

Romain Grosjean and Jenson Button both had lively races

Vettel eventually found a way through on lap 25 as Button’s tyres lost their edge.  Two corners later, Grosjean (pictured with Button) tried to follow through but a clumsy misjudgement of spacial awareness once again led to contact between the two drivers. 

The Lotus man admitted he was at fault afterwards.  He told Sky Sports F1: “With Jenson I was a bit too much on the left.  The track goes narrow uphill and I was wider than that so I want to apologise.

“We were fortunate that none of us got anything (damage), so that was good.”

The race stewards investigated the incident, and Grosjean received a 20-second time penalty, though that didn't affect his final finishing position.

However, he did get a harsh drive-through penalty soon afterwards.  After an early second stop, he rejoined behind Massa’s sluggish Ferrari and pulled off what looked like one of the best overtaking passes of the season around the outside of turn four.

Television replays later showed Grosjean had put all four wheels off the track by a couple of centimetres, but that was only to avoid contact with his rival.  The stewards disagreed and handed him a penalty which ruined his chances of fighting for the victory.  He ultimately finished sixth.

With a safe 13-second lead, Hamilton looked strong and he made some bold passing when he needed to, including two decisive overtakes on Mark Webber who was running a different strategy after a qualifying session beset with KERS and electrical issues.

During the race, Hamilton was asked to change some settings on the differential, and the response on team radio was: “Hey man, I’m trying to drive here.  I’m happy with the way the car is.”

Mercedes were concerned about engine temperatures though and that was further highlighted six laps from the chequered flag when Rosberg’s engine blew up spectacularly in the 350^th Grand Prix for the German manufacturer as an engine supplier in Grand Prix racing.

Hamilton was unfazed though, and reeled off the remaining few laps with supreme control and confidence to take his first Grand Prix victory outside of his happy spell with McLaren.  It is his first triumph since last November’s United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

It has been a tough few weeks for Hamilton away from the circuit.  He has been left devastated by the end of his five-year relationship with X-Factor judge and pop superstar Nicole Scherzinger, and he has been fairly open about the pain of the split on his Twitter account.  This was even more in evidence in an interview with Sky Sports F1 anchor Simon Lazenby after the team celebration photograph when he had to stop himself from breaking down after mentioning the continued support he had been getting from his family.

When a bit more composed, he said: “It’s an incredible feeling.  My team did an incredible job.  We studied things a lot last night and were hoping the tyres would last.  We had no idea it would go that well.

“I was hungry for it today, I was going all out.  Usually I get stuck in traffic, but today I was going for every move I could.

“For the last 20 laps it was then about managing the tyres, but this is one of the most important wins of my career.”

As Hamilton controlled proceedings at the front of the field, the battle for second spot between Raikkonen and Vettel intensified.  Raikkonen aimed at a two-stop strategy and had to do a final stint on the medium compound tyre of 33 laps.

He had to hold off a quicker Red Bull and he managed to do this, despite one close call in the final three laps.  On the podium, Raikkonen admitted: “I knew it was going to be pretty tight so I saved the tyres with 10 laps to go a bit.

“I didn’t have any doubts I could keep him behind, I had good speed in the last sector.”

Webber made the most of his slightly different tyre strategy to finish an excellent fourth.  That was a notable result considering he had to settle for 10^th on the grid.

 

Ferrari had another difficult day.  Fernando Alonso was hoping to give his country something to smile about after the tragic train accident in the country that claimed the lives of over 70 people in midweek.  However a decade on from his first Grand Prix victory, he was never in the fight for the win today.

Alonso revealed his chassis was “too slow” on both types of tyre and could do no better than fifth.  Massa struggled to eighth.  Ferrari are now the fourth fastest car in Formula One, and this event was the final nail in their coffin as far as a title challenge goes in 2013.  Alonso will never give up, but the car is lacking fundamental grip and the gap is looking too much, especially with strong Red Bull events like Singapore and India to come.  Focus at Maranello must now start shifting towards a more capable challenge in 2014.

It was another double point’s finish for McLaren with Button beating Massa fair and square for seventh.  Despite a crash in FP3, Sergio Perez did well to finish in ninth place, but did finish a full lap behind the winner.  Rosberg’s late withdrawal from proceedings was like gold dust for Williams.  It meant Pastor Maldonado crossed the line in 10^th place, and meant they finally achieved their first point of the campaign after the worst start to a season in their illustrious history.

Force India had an event to forget.  Neither car finished, with both retiring thanks to hydraulics gremlins.  Paul di Resta never got higher than 13^th following a disappointing Q1 elimination as the new specification of tyres seems to have hurt them the most.  There was another finish for Max Chilton in 17^th spot, but three laps down as Marussia slip firmly behind Caterham in the battle to avoid being the main backmarker in the sport.

We are now officially halfway through the 2013 season, and while it hasn’t been the most intriguing campaign thanks to political matters and controversial issues such as team orders, tyre failures and illegal tests, there is a championship still to win.  

Vettel still has it all to lose, but both Lotus and Mercedes still have chances to capitalise on any mistakes.  Lewis Hamilton will believe he does have an opportunity to overturn his 48-point deficit to Vettel after this win.  The next event is in four weeks’ time at one of the championship’s most spectacular tracks, the daunting Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

	FORMULA 1 MAGYAR NAGYDIJ 2013 RESULT
Pos	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Reason	Grid
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes GP	70	+1hr 42min 29secs	1
2	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault	70	+10.9secs	6
3	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault	70	+12.4secs	2
4	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault	70	+18.0secs	10
5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	70	+31.4secs	5
6	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	70	+52.2secs	3
7	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes	70	+53.8secs	13
8	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	70	+56.4secs	7
9	Sergio Perez	McLaren Mercedes	69	1 Lap	9
10	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault	69	1 Lap	15
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber Ferrari	69	1 Lap	12
12	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR Ferrari	69	1 Lap	14
13	Daniel Ricciardo	STR Ferrari	69	1 Lap	8
14	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Renault	68	2 Laps	20
15	Charles Pic	Caterham Renault	68	2 Laps	19
16	Jules Bianchi	Marussia Cosworth	67	3 Laps	21
17	Max Chilton	Marussia Cosworth	67	3 Laps	22
Retired	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes	66	Hydraulics	18
Retired	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	64	Engine	4
Retired	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Renault	42	Hydraulics	16
Retired	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber Ferrari	28	Gearbox	17
Retired	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes	19	Hydraulics	11

GROSJEAN PENALISED 20-SECONDS FOR CAUSING AN AVOIDABLE COLLISION WITH BUTTON, BUT KEEPS HIS SIXTH PLACE

Drivers’ Championship after 10 rounds: Sebastian Vettel 172, Kimi Raikkonen 134, Fernando Alonso 133, Lewis Hamilton 124, Mark Webber 105, Nico Rosberg 84, Felipe Massa 61, Romain Grosjean 49, Jenson Button 39, Paul di Resta 36, Adrian Sutil 23, Sergio Perez 18, Jean-Eric Vergne 13, Daniel Ricciardo 11, Nico Hulkenberg 7, Pastor Maldonado 1

Constructors’ Championship after 10 rounds: Red Bull Racing 277, Mercedes GP 208, Ferrari 194, Lotus 183, Force India 59, McLaren 57, Scuderia Toro Rosso 24, Sauber 7, Williams 1

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