ContinueMcLaren’s Lewis Hamilton took his second victory of the season in this afternoon’s Hungarian Grand Prix, seeing off the determined challenge of Kimi Raikkonen, who was restricted to a 2nd place finish behind Hamilton. The victory shifts the Brit up to fourth place in the championship table as Formula One enters its summer break.
Raikkonen’s Lotus team mate Romain Grosjean finished behind the pair in third, with Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel in fourth, ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and McLaren’s Jenson Button.
Alonso’s fifth place finish was enough to ensure that the Spaniard will enter the summer break atop of the championship with a clear lead, having extended his standing in the table by 40 points, ahead of Red Bull’s Mark Webber.
In what was a controlled drive, Hamilton led from his pole position start, in a measured, albeit defensive run where he impressively maintained his pace ahead of the faster Lotus cars of Raikkonen and Grosjean.
Grosjean provided Hamilton with his biggest opposition for their first two thirds of the race, as Raikkonen bided his time before systematically displacing those in front of him from his 5th place start. The Finn made a place through the first pit stops and then drove a stunning middle stint on soft tyres to jump ahead of Grosjean and Sebastian Vettel through the second set of stops with an exquisite set of laps.
With both Hamilton and Raikkonen tied on 18 wins each, the final stint was set to be a compelling contest between the two, a duel between a Raikkonen befitted with fresher tyres and Hamilton benefited with the better track position. The Finn came to within a second of Hamilton, but could not do enough to edge ahead the McLaren driver who secured the victory with a disciplined performance that puts his title challenge back on track.
