Jenson Button has his second victory in mixed conditions at the Hungarian Grand Prix following his win under similar circumstances in Canada earlier this year.
Hungarian Grand Prix – Button clinches victory
His victory was helped byMcLaren team mate Lewis Hamilton’s decision to changeinto intermediate tyres in the final stages of the race only to find that the conditions didn’t suit them, forcing him to change backforcing him to pit for the 5th time.
Vettel finished runner up and Alonso claimed the last podium spot. Button and Hamilton – who finished 4th – fought for a victory that centred on tyre strategy.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel clinched the pole, just ahead of Hamilton. The race started in damp conditions, with intermittent rain and 18 degrees of track temperature, meaning that all the drivers chose to start on the intermediate tyres.
Though Vettel tried to hold them off, the McLarens passed him in the early stages of the race, using very different tyre strategies. Button stopped three times, completing a final 28-lap stint on the soft tyres, despite the rain in the closing stages.
On lap 46, with light rain falling, Hamilton spun – allowing his team mate to overtake him. But with the rain continuing, Hamilton’s supersoft rubber helped him to find extra grip and reclaim the advantage, after the lead changed four times in four laps.
Hamilton gambled on more rain falling and switched to intermediates on lap 50, like Red Bull’s Mark Webber (finished at 5th) and Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, but that turned out to be the wrong decision.
Hamilton’s fight back on soft tyre to fourth place in damp conditions was a laudable feat, despite a drive-through penalty that meant he visited the pits six times in total. Sebastian Vettel stopped three times and claimed the runner-up spot, 3.5 seconds behind the winner, while Ferrari’s Alonso stopped four times to take third.
A variety of strategies were used by the teams, but in the end, it boiled down to the ability of the drivers to steer the car in slipper conditions with the slick tyres.
The race also saw Nick Heidfeld’s Lotus Renno go up in flames after a pit stop, and exploded when the fire was being extinguished. No one was injured. The organizers failed to close the pit lane after the accident and Vettel, exiting the pit had to veer off from the damaged car.
Felipe Massa impressed in the Ferrari after a spin saw him lose part of his tail. Massa recovered from a pit stop to finish 6th. A battle between Massa and his former team-mate Michael Schumacher ended with the German spinning off and parking his car, knocking him out.
Button’s victory was the 11th of his career, taken at his 200th grand prix. The Hungaroring was also the scene of Button’s very first grand prix win in 2006, which was also held in wet conditions.
Vettel still leads the Championship with 234 points, and team-mate Webber is a distant second at 149. Third is Hamilton with 146 and Alonso next with one point lesser.
Tags: F1, Formula One, Hungarian Grand Prix, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Motor Sports, Motorsports, Sebastian Vettel
