Lewis is a Brit good in Hungary
MAKING A SPLASH ... Lewis Hamilton celebrates his victory
Published: Today at 15:08
LEWIS HAMILTON held off a strong challenge from Kimi Raikkonen to win the Hungarian Grand Prix for the third time.
The McLaren took full advantage of his pole position — but he was made to work for this win, which puts him up to fourth in the drivers’ championship.
Raikkonen, who started in fifth place, had to settle for second after making up his places during tactical pitstops.
His Lotus team-mate, Romain Grosjean was in third while Sebastian Vettel was in fourth, one spot ahead of championship leader Frenando Alonso.
Jenson Button was in sixth.
Before the race, Hamilton was cautious about his start after he was slow off the line in Australia and in the last race in Germany.
But he was made to wait even longer on the start-line here after Michael Schumacher stopped his car on the grid after some confusion with the starting lights.
When the race did get underway, Hamilton made a fantastic start to pull clear of Grosjean while Vettel blocked out Button going into turn one.
But Button managed to hold the inside line and quickly passed the German to move into third place.
While Button was flying, Schumacher’s miserable race was compounded when he was caught speeding in the pitlane, where he was forced to start the race.
And the seven-time world champion was hit with a 20-second drive-through penalty to drop him to the back of the chasing pack.
But out in front, Hamilton set about trying to pull clear from Grosjean.
However, the Frenchman, who has impressed this season, was hot on his heels.
The Lotus’ driver started to reel in Hamilton’s lead, meaning that Button was in danger of being cut adrift in third.
The Brit soon found himself under pressure from Vettel as the Red Bull driver pressed to regain his third place.
And he took it at the end of the 15th lap when Button went into the pits for a new set of tyres, which dropped him down to 10th.
But then Vettel himself made a pitstop at the end of his 17th lap and when he returned to the track, Button just managed to squeeze past him.
There was another game of cat and mouse with the pitstops between Hamilton and Grosjean which added to the excitement.
First Hamilton made his stop, yet there was a delay of 1.2 seconds before the 2008 world champ pulled away.
That meant, should Lotus perform an error-free and quick stop, then Grosjean would take the lead.
However, they too made a slow change to let Hamilton off the hook, as he retook the lead.
The two started pulling away from Button, who himself was kept busy fending off the challenge from Vettel.
Meanwhile, down in fifth place was Raikkonen, who was ahead of championship leader Alonso, while Mark Webber was seventh at the halfway stage.
That train of cars continued for a number of laps like a procession, leaving their teams crunching the numbers in an attempt to gain some sort of an advantage with the tyre strategy.
McLaren were first to show their hand, as they told both their drivers they were switching to “Plan B” – a three-stop strategy, beforecalling in Button to the pits for a used set of soft tyres.
The call was a wrong one – as it meant Vettel was able to leapfrog Button, who found himself behind the Williams of Bruno Senna, effectively putting pay to his chances of winning.
Presumably, McLaren realised their mistake and reverted Hamilton to the original two-stop strategy of “Plan A”, with a view to making his tyres last for a total of 29 laps until the end of the race.
The flurry of pitstops shuffled the pack and it allowed Raikkonen to seize the advantage.
He started setting about some quick lap times, while also nursing his tyres.
It was a good stint from the Finnish driver which pulled him into contention of winning this race.
Further back, there was a battle between Paul Di Resta and Pastor Maldonado for 12th place, which resulted in the Venezuelan forcing the Brit off the track.
The stewards watched the incident back and hit the Spanish Grand Prix winner with a drive-through penalty.
But out in front, Hamilton continued to hold off the challenge of Raikkonen and Grosjean while Button was struggling to find a way past Alonso in seventh.
Yet as this race went into the final 10 laps, the excitement went up a notch as Raikkonen pressed his car to the limit to catch Hamilton.
It heaped the pressure on Hamilton, who had to balance his pace with preserving his tyres, while also negotiating the backmarkers.
But he managed the situation beautifully and took the chequered flag ahead of Raikkonen for his 19th GP victory.
