Button takes 2nd win of season in Hungary

BUDAPEST, Hungary- R.I.S.- Following his first win on this circuit five years ago, Jenson Button took advantage of his teammate Lewis Hamilton’s slide on turn seven, to win the Grand Prix of Hungary Sunday in mixed conditions at the Hungaroring. For Button himself, it was his second win of the season and it celebrated his 200th grand prix start of his career. Sebastian Vettel took second and increased his lead over Mark Webber in the driver’s championship by 88 points with eight races to go. Fernando Alonso finished third for Ferrari.

"It's very easy to say now, but personally I felt [a win was possible] at the end of the first stint," he said. "I felt that I was able to look after the tires for the remainder of the first stint. I think that halfway through people began struggling and I was able to push on and the car felt really good. I think I was about three seconds behind Lewis when he pitted on the first stop, he'd pulled in about a second a lap up to that point.

"So at that point I knew that I was in good shape, the car was working well for me and I thought it was a matter of time in the dry conditions for us to get the jump on Lewis, because at the end of the stints he was struggling. Obviously it turned out a little bit differently with the rain coming down, it was difficult on the prime tyre - those aren't the conditions for those tires - but a lot of fun all the same. It's always fun racing with Lewis, I think we're pretty fair, I don't think we touched this time and it was great to come away with a victory this time."

The race began with slightly damp conditions and this forced the drivers to use intermediate tires, which were quickly shelved laps later. Vettel moved into the lead at the start, but went wide on lap five, giving the lead to Hamilton. The 2008 world champion lead for the next 35 laps, with Button in second after two rounds of pit stops. Even a car fire by Renault’s Nick Heidfeld out of the pits on lap 27, did not deter the field and the rain finally arrived again, but was falling slightly onto the track. All the drivers were moving in and out of the pits with the changing conditions and after losing his position earlier, Hamilton passed Button on lap 51 but because of the damper conditions, Hamilton had to pit for better tires. This gave Button the chance to stay in the lead for the rest of the race, winning over Vettel by eight seconds.

"In the last stint I had to let Jenson go, because I did feel that I had more speed in the car, but I had a couple of problems with the brakes and it was difficult to know, with 20 laps to go, how the car would be at the end so I couldn't push as hard as I would have liked to," recalled Vettel afterwards.. "But still I think second place today is an important step, nevertheless I think the win was in reach and we didn't get it. We have to work hard because I think both of the McLarens are very strong in all sorts of conditions. So it's clear now that they have done a step forward and make sure we come back definitely."

Hamilton finished fourth, but could have had a better position, as he served a drive through penalty for blocking Paul Di Resta as he recovered from his slide earlier in the race.

"First of all congratulations to Jenson," Hamilton said " He was pushing me hard the whole race and the better man won today, he did a fantastic job and congratulations to the team.

"It was an intense race, we obviously got a good start, did great for the first half of the race - I was struggling a lot with the graining on my left front tire, I don't know if it was my fault for pushing too much - then I had a big mistake. Again my left front tire was pretty worn so I went a bit wide, came out of the chicane and spun which is very very rare, I think it's one of the first times I've spun. And then after that I have to apologize to Paul di Resta, I didn't see him, so I had absolutely no clue - I don't know where or what happened - but I got a penalty for something which is to be expected I guess sometimes, so I apologize to him."

 Mark Webber was fifth, Felipe Massa took sixth, and Di Resta ended up in seventh. Sebastian Buemi, Nico Rosberg and Jaime Alguasuari rounded up the top ten.

"It's good having a couple of weeks break because it might take me that long to get over tonight," Button added afterwards. "This is the first place where I won a grand prix back in 2006, in these sorts of conditions, and this is my 200th race and we've won here again. For some reason I like these conditions, don't ask me why, but it was a great call by the team to put me on the prime tyre when they did. And I think a great call by all of us when we decided not to go to the inters.

"All round, an amazing weekend and I want to say a big thank you to the whole team; the mechanics, the engineers, everyone within the team who have worked so hard to produce the car that we have now. I think we're going into the break on a nice high, but I think every day that we're on holiday we're going to be thinking about Spa already. I'm excited about coming back and hopefully doing the same again."

But Button and the others will have to wait nearly a month before returning to the legendary Spa Franchochamps circuit in Belgium, which begins the weekend of August 28th.