Lewis Hamilton wins 2012 Hungarian GP

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) has capped off a great weekend by winning the 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix. Starting from pole position, Hamilton secured his 19th career win without being seriously troubled, despite having Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) sniffing around his gearbox in the closing stages of the race.

Romain Grosjean ensured Lotus enjoyed two steps on the podium by finishing third. On another day Lotus may well have broken through for their first win of the year.

Hamilton’s victory adds to his win at the Canadian Grand Prix and makes him the season’s third multiple winner behind Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber.

Tonight’s race was reduced by one lap from the planned 70 laps after a somewhat confusing aborted start. In the wash up Michael Schumacher (Mercedes AMG) started from pit lane. It was a dirty day for the former champ; he qualified a lowly 17th and eventually retired from the race on lap 58.

Mark Webber (Red Bull) made a great start from P11 and was in P7 by the end of the opening lap. He’ll be a little disappointed that his three-stop strategy did not yield a better finishing position than P8. He remains second in the drivers’ championship, but dropped points to all those in the running for this year’s title.

Thanks to Webber’s relatively poor result, Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), who could only manage to cross the line in P5, can consider himself lucky to have increased his championship lead to 40 points. However, a pack is bunching up behind Webber (124pts). Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull, 122) and Hamilton (117) are sandwiched between Webber and Raikkonen (116), meaning just eight points separate positions two to five.

Further down the field Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) managed to overcome his lower starting position and finish ahead of his teammate, Jean-Eric Vergne. Although, as seems typical for these two, they finished one behind the other with not much daylight in between.

It’s worth noting Alonso’s championship gain has not been matched by his Ferrari team. Strong results for McLaren and Lotus sees them leap frog the red team in the constructors’ race. Updated tables and the final finishing order from Budapest can be seen after the break.

For the trivia buffs, we once again saw the post-race interview carried out on the podium. We can’t say we care too much for this arrangement, despite the pedigree of former interviewers Sir Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda at the British and German races respectively. But we were further taken aback to see Spanish tenor Placido Domingo behind the mic in Hungary tonight.

The F1 circus now enters a month long mid-season break and will return for the Belgian Grand Prix on 2 September.

2012 Hungarian Grand Prix final placings

1. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), 69 laps – 25pts
2. Kimi Räikkönen (Lotus), +1.0 secs – 18pts
3. Romain Grosjean (Lotus), +10.5 secs – 15pts
4. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), +11.6 secs – 12pts
5. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), +26.6 secs – 10pts
6. Jenson Button (McLaren), +30.2 secs – 8pts
7. Bruno Senna (Williams), +33.8 secs – 6pts
8. Mark Webber (Red Bull), +34.4 secs – 4pts
9. Felipe Massa (Ferrari), +38.3 secs – 2pts
10. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG), +51.2 secs – 1pt
11. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India), +57.2 secs
12. Paul di Resta (Force India), +62.8 secs
13. Pastor Maldonado (Williams), +63.6 secs
14. Sergio Perez (Sauber), +64.4 secs
15. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso), +1 Lap
16. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso), +1 Lap
17. Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham), +1 Lap
18. Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber), +2 Laps
19. Vitaly Petrov (Caterham), +2 Laps
20. Charles Pic (Marussia), +2 Laps
21. Timo Glock (Marussia), +3 Laps
22. Pedro de la Rosa (HRT), +3 Laps

Not classified/retirements:

Narain Karthikeyan (HRT), lap 60
Michael Schumacher (Mercedes AMG), lap 58

Fastest lap: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), 1:24.136 (lap 68)

2012 World Championship top 10 (Drivers) – Round 11

1. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) – 164
2. Mark Webber (Red Bull) – 124
3. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) – 122
4. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) – 117
5. Kimi Räikkönen (Lotus) – 116
6. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG) – 77
7. Jenson Button (McLaren) – 76
8. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) – 76
9. Sergio Perez (Sauber) – 47
10. Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) – 33

2012 World Championship (Constructors) – Round 11

1. Red Bull Racing-Renault – 246
2. McLaren-Mercedes – 193
3. Lotus-Renault – 192
4. Ferrari – 189
5. Mercedes AMG – 106
6. Sauber-Ferrari – 80
7. Williams-Renault – 53
8. Force India-Mercedes – 46
9. STR-Ferrari – 6