Hamilton wins, Kimi Räikkönen second at Hungaroring

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Finnish Formula One driver Kimi Räikkönen finished second at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon, after McLaren's Lewis Hamilton just held on to win by a narrow margin of only 0.7 seconds. BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld took third place a respectful 43 seconds adrift of the leading pair.
      Hamilton led from start to chequered flag, after inheriting pole position when his McLaren-Mercedes team-mate Fernando Alonso was penalized and moved five places down the grid as a consequence of impeding Lewis Hamilton in qualifying. Moreover, McLaren was to lose its constructors' points from the event after Saturday's controversial qualifying session. Alonso eventually finished off the podium in 4th.
     
Even though the Finn managed to put intense pressure on Hamilton, Räikkönen's chances of winning were lost as a consequence of poor pit stop strategy from the normally meticulous Ferrari team.
      Thanks to Alonso's demotion, Räikkönen started in third place on the clean side of the track, and accelerated away quickly to pass Heidfeld and take second spot. As Hungaroring is a track on which overtaking is notoriously difficult unless the other driver makes a mistake, the Finn remained behind Hamilton throughout the race.
     
Räikkönen's only real chance without pilot error from his opponent would have been a shrewd pit stop strategy, particularly as his Ferrari proved a lot faster under race conditions than it had in qualifying. However, this time the team's tactics failed. Not even setting the fastest lap on the final circuit of the track was enough to put Räikkönen on the top step of the podium.
      Heikki Kovalainen brought his Renault home in 8th for the final point, finishing just behind the Williams of Nico Rosberg, the son of former Finnish World Champion Keke Rosberg.
     
In the drivers' standings, Hamilton now has 80 points, Alonso 73, and Räikkönen 60 points. Felipe Massa of Ferrari is in fourth place with 59 points, followed by Nick Heidfeld on 42 points.
      Kovalainen is 8th in the overall standings with 16 points, and Rosberg now has seven points, putting him in 12th place.
     
The Formula One circus now moves on to Istanbul and the Turkish GP in three weeks' time.
      There the attention will be as much on how the McLaren-Mercedes team has patched up the differences between its two drivers as it is on the racing itself. Rumours are rife that Alonso might seek early release from his McLaren contract, which still has two years to run.
      Last year's Turkish GP was a disaster for Räikkönen after he crashed out early following a tyre problem, but he comfortably won the inaugural event in 2005, leading from start to finish.


Links:
  Official Formula One Website

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