Hamilton edges Raikkonen to win in Hungary

Race winner Lewis Hamilton (Right) and Kimi Raikkonen share a joke on the podium following the finish of the Hungarian Grand Prix Sunday in Budapest. Photo by Press Association.

BUDAPEST, Hungary-Fending off a last minute challenge by Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton capped off a spectacular weekend by winning the Grand Prix of Hungary Sunday afternoon at the Hungaroring. France’s Romain Grosjean, who started second on the grid, finished third just seconds ahead of Sebastian Vettel.

The race got off to an interesting beginning, as the starting lights for the race encountered a glitch, and the grid had to take one more lap and return back to the grid, leaving the race one lap less for a total of 69 laps to be run. But Michael Schumacher was one car that could take that extra lap, as his Mercedes stalled on the grid, and had to start from the pit lane.

Once the race got under way, Hamilton took advantage from the start and broke away to hold a gap over Grosjean by 2.6 seconds before the first of the pit stops began on lap 22. Schumacher decide to enter the pits to acquire softer tires but broke the speed limit coming out of the pits and had to serve a driver though penalty. In the battle for third, Vettel and Jenson Button battled each other for many laps, as the latter held only just eight tenths of a second between them. Grosjean began to gap the time between himself and Hamilton, but wehen a slow pitstop occurred for the Frenchman, Hamilton increased his lead until 15 laps from the end when Raikkonen took the lead and set fastest times. But the Finn, had to pit one more time, and when he came out, he just did in front of his teammate Grosjean. But Raikkonen went after Hamilton, and when the Briton came out of the pitlane for the final time, he regained the lead again, but held the lead by only just under two seconds. But Raikkonen’s tires were more broken in, and the Finn began to close the gap to Hamilton to 1.8 seconds.

But Hamilton could not be denied, and the 2008 World Champion held on to his lead, winning his second race of the season, and moving up to fourth in the driver’s standings. Series leader Fernando Alonso finished fifth in the race, and holds a 40 point lead over Mark Webber going into the summer break, with the next race at the end of August in Spa Francochamps, Belgium.

Despite the victory, Hamilton believed that the team still had more work to do.

"There is a long way to go and we have a lot of work to do, but we are going to give it everything." He replied.

Grand Prix of Hungary- point finishers

  1. Lewis Hamilton (GBR)  McLaren Mercedes
  2. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN)   Lotus Renault
  3. Romain Grosjean (FRA)  Lotus Renault
  4. Sebastian Vettel (GER)    Red Bull Racing
  5. Fernando Alonso (SPA)   Ferrari
  6. Jenson Button (GBR)      McLaren Mercedes
  7. Bruno Senna (BRA)       Williams
  8. Mark Webber (AUS)      Red Bull Racing
  9. Felipe Massa (BRA)      Ferrari
  10. Nico Rosberg (GER)     Mercedes

World Championship standings- 1. Alonso-164; 2. Webber-124; 3. Vettel-122; 4. Hamilton-117; 5. Raikkonen-116; 6. Rosberg-77; 7. Button and Grosjean tied with 76; 9. Sergio Perez- 47; 10. Kamui Kobyaschi- 33.

Mark Gero

A 12 year veteran writer who has covered race weekends for RIS for three years. Also did the same for motorsport.com.For the last two years, I have been a member of AARWBA.

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Volume 2012, Issue 7, Posted 11:39 AM, 07.29.2012