Complete Hungarian Grand Prix results below the fold in case you’ve still not seen the race…
Hamilton Earns His First Win for Mercedes
On another mega hot day at the Hungaroring, Lewis Hamilton finally earned his first win of the 2013 season and first ever with his new Mercedes Team. On his 4th start from pole this year, Hamilton was at last able to convert his starting position to the top step of the podium. Remarkably, this was Hamilton’s fourth career victory at the twisty, demanding Hungarian circuit.
His teammate Nico Rosberg was not really a factor. After a first lap incident where Ferrari’s Filipe Massa ran into him from behind and pushed him off the track, he fell back through the field and languished outside the top 10 for most of the race. Just as he seemed to have worked his way into a points paying position, the unlucky German’s engine expired in smoke and flames a mere 6 laps from the finish.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel desperately tried to pass second place Kimi Raikonnen of Lotus-Renault in a fierce duel over the last 10 or so laps, with the slower-seeming Finn making himself very wide and forcing the German wunderkind off the circuit as Vettel tried to dive down the inside through the tight 6-7-8 complex. Having dirtied up his tires by running out amongst the spent rubber, this effectively sealed Vettel’s third place, even though he could be heard complaining about Raikonnen’s defensive driving over race radio. Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber had a solid race and came home fourth.
Romain Grosjean, who qualified third in his Lotus-Renault, had a bizarre race, as he received two penalties: a drive through for leaving the track in a dice with Massa (which seemed completely unjustified to me); and a 20 second time penalty after the race for earlier contact with McLaren’s Jensen Button (which did seem justified). Nonetheless, the pace of the Frenchman was such that he still finished 6th. Button, who had a dynamite getaway from the start but was less than pleased with Grosjean’s wheel banging antics, still placed a strong 7th after starting only 13th and bested his Mexican teammate Sergio Perez, who finished where he started, 9th.
Ferrari had what can only be considered a disappointing weekend, as Fernando Alonso seemed to consistently lack the pace of the top 3 finishers and had to settle for 5th. Despite his early contact with Rosberg, Filipe Massa ended up 8th.
Williams finally scored their first point of the season, most likely due to Rosberg’s late retirement, as Pastor Maldonado snuck up to 10th.
Perrelli switched back to the 2012 Kevlar belt construction of their tires with the 2013 rubber compounds for this race and there were no catastrophic blowouts or other dramas as happened at Silverstone and tire degradation seemed consistent and relatively predictable.
This was the last race before the summer break. The next Grand Prix will be August 25th at the great Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.
Race recap from Sky Sports here.
Complete race results here:
Results - 70 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1h42m29.445s
2. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault +10.938s
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault +12.459s
4. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault +18.044s
5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari +31.411s
6. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault +52.295s*
7. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +53.819s
8. Felipe Massa Ferrari +56.447s
9. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
10. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault +1 lap
11. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari +1 lap
12. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
13. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
14. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault +2 laps
15. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault +2 laps
16. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth +3 laps
17. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth +3 laps
Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes +4 laps/DNF
Nico Rosberg Mercedes +6 laps/DNF
Retirements:
Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 42 laps
Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 28 laps
Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 19 laps
* 20 second penalty added to race time
World Championship standings, round 10:
Drivers: Constructors:
1. Vettel 172 1. Red Bull-Renault 277
2. Raikkonen 134 2. Mercedes 208
3. Alonso 133 3. Ferrari 194
4. Hamilton 124 4. Lotus-Renault 183
5. Webber 105 5. Force India-Mercedes 59
6. Rosberg 84 6. McLaren-Mercedes 57
7. Massa 61 7. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 24
8. Grosjean 49 8. Sauber-Ferrari 7
9. Button 39 9. Williams-Renault 1
10. Di Resta 36
11. Sutil 23
12. Perez 18
13. Vergne 13
14. Ricciardo 11
15. Hulkenberg 7
16. Maldonado 1
All timing unofficial