Hamilton takes first 2009 win

Lewis Hamilton banished all the frustrations of miserable 2009 title defence by taking his and McLaren’s first victory of the season in emphatic fashion in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The world champion moved up from fourth on the grid to second within the first five laps and controlled the race after early leader Fernando Alonso pitted, pulling away from the field with apparent ease.

It was a remarkable turnaround for the Woking team, which just a few races ago was languishing embarrassingly in the lower midfield before making a breakthrough with the car upgrade it introduced in Germany two weeks ago.


Indeed having not scored a podium all season, and failed to even score points since Bahrain in April, Hamilton's 10th career victory more than doubles his points tally for the season.


Kimi Raikkonen made a lightning KERS-assisted start and capitalised on a slow first pit stop for Mark Webber to secure the runner-up spot, his and Ferrari’s best result of the season - a particularly poignant result given Felipe Massa's frightening qualifying accident.

On a day when Brawn was reduced to a bit part and Jenson Button scored just two points with seventh, Red Bull failed to take full advantage.

A problem disengaging the fuel hose at Webber’s first pit stop allowed Raikkonen through into second place and the Nurburgring winner had to settle for the lower rung of the podium.

But Webber still moved ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel into second place in the championship, 18.5 points adrift of Button, after the German was hit by Raikkonen at the first corner of the race and later retired with damaged front suspension.

Nico Rosberg chalked up his sixth consecutive points finish with another impressive drive to fourth place for Williams, while Heikki Kovalainen brought the second McLaren home in fifth.





At the start, Alonso made a textbook getaway from pole, but the Red Bull duo directly behind came under immediate attack from the fast starting KERS cars of Hamilton and Raikkonen.

With front-row starter Vettel not for the first time this season getting away sluggishly, the McLaren and Ferrari dived for the gap between the two RBRs and nearly met in the middle – Hamilton doing well to avoid Raikkonen as the Finn swung his F60 right.

Lewis didn’t let this deter him, however, and slung his down the inside of Webber into the first corner to move up to second, although this stay there was only brief as he ran slightly wide on exit which allowed the Red Bull to duck back inside him.

Indeed, with Raikkonen and the recovering Vettel the cars also eyeing second place the cars briefly ran four-abreast as they powered out of the right-hander - although the inevitable contact happened when the former got out of shape and hit Vettel’s front-left wheel.

Raikkonen was put under investigation by the stewards for the incident, although it was announced a decision would not be made until after the end of the race.

The contact pushed Vettel out towards the right-hand edge of the track and he lost more ground as Rosberg and Kovalainen swept past, meaning he dropped to seventh ahead of Kazuki Nakajima and title rival Button.

Alonso, meanwhile, quickly set about trying to open a lead over Webber and Hamilton on his significantly lighter fuel load – the Spaniard opening a 2.3s lead by lap two.

However, the Renault driver’s crucial first stint would soon become a lot tougher courtesy of old foe Hamilton.

Having lost his chance of capitalising on his MP4-24’s vastly improved form at the Nurburgring after Webber punctured his tyre at the first corner, Hamilton was clearly keen to maximise his opportunities this time and passed the Australian definitively on lap four with a beautifully-judged move at the first corner.

Going to the outside of the Red Bull under braking for the first corner, the world champion then switched back inside Webber on exit and through either great traction, or timely use of his KERS power boost, got fantastic drive out of the corner and swept past on the outside going into turn two.

Now Hamilton, potentially releasing all of the frustration from his miserable title defence, really got the bit between his teeth and hunted down Alonso.

Lapping considerably faster than his 2007 team-mate, the McLaren driver reeled the Renault over the following laps – Alonso’s problems exacerbated by a graining right rear-tyre and a developing fuel-pump issue.

By the time the race leader pitted for his expected first of three stops on lap 11, Hamilton was just one second back and as he swept round to take the lead, Alonso’s afternoon was about to seriously fall apart.

As the Renault rejoined the track following his seemingly routine stop, it soon became clear that there was a problem with his front-right wheel – the fairing beginning to work itself loose as he braked for the first corner.

Then after the wheel cover flew off half-way round the lap, the wheel detached itself completely at turn nine.

But thankfully, given the frightening recent events of debris hitting drivers, the wheel bounced towards the grass and outside barrier, with marshals quickly clearing up both pieces of debris.

For Alonso, however, it was a disaster for his race and while he dragged his R29 back to the pits on three wheels and Renault managed to properly fit a new tyre, the damage to his car was done and the next lap he pulled back into retirement.

Hamilton, meanwhile, had used the disappearance of Alonso to put the hammer down even more, stringing together a series of laps which were up to 0.7s faster than anything the closely-matched Webber and Raikkonen could manage behind.

His increasingly distant pursuers then pitted together on lap 18, although they would leave in a different order as Red Bull suffered the first of two pit-stop problems.

A problem disengaging the fuel hose on Webber’s car cost the Australian several crucial seconds and as Raikkonen came down the pit lane, RBR released its car back into the pit road which very nearly caused a collision.

In any case, the Ferrari driver saw it coming and kept his foot in to move up to second – which allowed the Finn to set his sights on trying to catch Hamilton, the leader completing a perfect fuel stop of his own a lap later to rejoin with a 7.3 lead.

Red Bull then encountered more dramas when it serviced Vettel’s car on lap 20, the team trying to jump Kovalainen and get its driver into fifth as the pair pitted together.

However, following the contact with Raikkonen on the first lap, the team experienced problems changing the car’s left-front tyre and couldn’t get Vettel back out in front.

However, it would make little difference to the German’s afternoon as just four laps later, after complaining over the radio that the car was now undriveable, he pulled into the pits again where mechanics changed the front nose and inspected the car in a bid to alleviate the problems.

But while he was sent back out onto the circuit, he was back in the pit lane soon after and this time pulled into his fourth retirement of the season – meaning he missed out on a golden opportunity to claw more points back on Button.

His two RBR title rivals’ problems would have come as welcome news to Button at this stage, the Briton in the middle of an increasingly fraught battle to score any points due to yet more problems with tyre wear.

While he had quickly re-passed Nakajima with a well-judged outbraking move at the start of the second lap after falling behind the Williams off the line, he quickly well off the back of Vettel on his heavier fuel load and into the clutches of the Japanese driver and the heavier-fuelled Toyota of Jarno Trulli.

Meanwhile, back at the front Raikkonen began to show signs that he might be able to do something about Hamilton’s now comfortable-looking position at the front as the pair settled down for their second stints.

However, while the Ferrari driver initially closed to within 6.5s of the lead, Hamilton quickly responded and for the majority of their second stint they traded lap times within several tenths of a second of each other.

Having eventually increased his gap to 10.8 seconds as he wound up for his final pit stop, any potential Raikkonen challenge was permanently snuffed out on lap 44 when he lost more time as he struggled to find drive away from his pit stop.

So when McLaren completed another error-free service of Hamilton’s car a lap later, the world champion was now all-but home and dry and duly went on to claim an imperious victory over the Finn by 11.5s.

Having fallen back from Raikkonen in the second stint, Webber finished just 5s behind at the flag after shaking off challenges from Kovalainen and Rosberg in the middle phase of the race.

The second McLaren of Kovalainen used a short middle stint to move onto the tail of the Red Bull, with Rosberg also having moved within striking distance.

However, Kovalainen would lose out to the pair when he pitted early for his final stop – but the Finn's fifth place nevertheless ensured a hugely morale-boosting overall 14-point haul for McLaren.


Kovalainen had to withstand a late surge from Toyota’s Timo Glock, who once again used a long first stint and excellent race-long pace to haul himself up the leader board from 14th on the grid.


Button’s race-long struggle ended in a frustrating seventh, although given RBR’s less than perfect afternoon it could prove to be a handy two points in the final reckoning


Trulli completed a fine turnaround day for Toyota to take the final point, although Raikkonen’s second place still means the Cologne squad is overtaken by Ferrari for third in the constructors’ championship.


Hungarian Grand Prix result (70 laps)

1. HAMILTON McLaren
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +11.5s
3. WEBBER Red Bull +16.8s
4. ROSBERG Williams +26.9s
5. KOVALAINEN McLaren +34.3s
6. GLOCK Toyota +35.2s
7. BUTTON Brawn +55.0s
8. TRULLI Toyota +68.1s
9. NAKAJIMA Williams +68.7s
10. BARRICHELLO Brawn +69.2s
11. HEIDFELD BMW +70.6s
12. PIQUET Renault +71.5s
13. KUBICA BMW +74.0s
14. FISICHELLA Force India +1 lap
15. ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso +1 lap
16. BUEMI Toro Rosso +1 lap
17. VETTEL Red Bull +41 laps
18. ALONSO Renault +55 laps
19. SUTIL Force India +69 laps


Fastest lap: WEBBER 1m21.931s (lap 65)