Race Report
Hungarian GP
Fernando Alonso took the lead from the flag in the Hungarian GP but it was Lewis Hamilton who edged past Red Bull's Mark Webber into second place aided by the KERS power of his McLaren. Significantly Kimi Raikkonen also made good use of the start to pass Sebastian Vettel who had made a poor start in his Red Bull for fourth place. Vettel came out the poorer in more ways than one as the two cars touched causing damage to the Germans' car that would lead to his eventual retirement. Despite being passed again by Mark Webber Hamilton soon regained the advantage and set off in pursuit of Alonso who was on a three stop strategy. Disaster struck for Alonso at the first of his pit stops when the mechanics failed to fit the right front wheel securely before the car left the pits. As Alonso limped around the circuit the wheel broke loose and bounced alarmingly along the edge of the circuit and the resulting damage to the Spaniards' car soon led to his retirement. This piece of good fortune was all that Hamilton needed to impose his authority on the race and although Raikkonen passed Webber for second place in the pits with the two cars narrowly avoiding a collision he was never in a position to challenge the rejuvenated McLaren driver revelling in the new found performance of his car. Webber closed in on Raikkonen in the closing stages but settled for third place at the flag.Nico Rosberg was a fine fourth for Williams with Heikki Kovalainen and Timo Glock rounding out the top six. A dejected Jenson Button finished seventh struggling to explain what had happened to the performance of his Brawn car which was expected to perform well in the higher temperatures afforded by the Hungarian circuit. Jarno Trulli secured the remaining championship point for Toyota with eighth place. Kazuki Nakajima and Rubens Barrichello completed the top ten finishers. It was another dismal performance by the BMW team as Heidfeld and Kubica languished along finishing eleventh and thirteenth.
