Sunday 31 July 2011

Brilliant Button wins Hungary thriller

Jenson Button won his second race of the season with a brilliant drive at the Hungaroring in changable conditions.

World champion and championship leader Sebastian Vettel was 2nd for Red Bull, while Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was 3rd. Button marked his 200th race with a win at the track that brought him his first ever win, in 2006, also in wet-dry conditions.

Vettel just held the lead from the start, while Button flew away, but couldn't find a way past Hamilton. Mercedes were the best starters though, Rosberg jumped from 7th to 4th, and Schumacher from 8th to 5th. Also, Fernando Alonso jumped team mate Felipe Massa for 6th.

Hamilton took the lead though when Vettel went wide, and the McLaren driver seemingly was heading for a second win in a week. On lap 10, Massa and Webber were the first to pit, putting on super-soft tyres. Hamilton, Vettel and Button were all in by Lap 13 as well. Button overtook Vettel on Lap 14, while Mark Webber took fourth from Fernando Alonso. At this point it was Hamilton-Button-Vettel-Webber-Alonso.

By Lap 20, Hamilton had a nine-second lead over his team mate, while Paul di Resta was up into seventh for Force India. Then on lap 25, after a botched pit stop, Nick Heidfeld's Renault car dramatically caught fire as he left the pits. Fortunately, neither he nor the marshals were hurt. Even more fortunately, the Safety Car was not required.

On Lap 29, an overtaking manouvre from Michael Schumacher on Felipe Massa went wrong as he spun and there was a gerbox failure. It was a shame for the Mercedes driver, who was flying. Alonso was the first man to pit for a third pit stop, and set some seriosuly quick laps on new Super-Soft tyres. Webber went for a different startegy though, and put on the Soft tyre, hoping to run the rest of the race on them. Vettel and Button selected the softs, while race leader Hamilton chose Super Softs.

Then, on Lap 47, rain began to fall. Race leader Lewis Hamilton made a mistake and went over the chicane, spinning and almost taking out himself and Paul di Resta in a reckless move. Jenson Button took the lead of the race. Then Button went wide into Turn 2, and Hamilton re-took the lead! Also, Jerome D'Ambrosio almost killed his entire pit crew as he spun while entering his pit box.

Hamilton then came in for intermediate tyres, but Button and Vettel stayed out. Hamilton realised it was a mistake soon after, and then he was handed a drive-thru penalty for almost taking out di Resta. He came in and got rid of his intermediate tyres, before coming in on the next lap for his drive-thru. Hamilton overtook Massa and Webber in the closing stages, but he couldn't get on the podium.


So Button won after a great drive, followed by Vettel and Alonso on the podium. Hamilton will be disappointed with fourth, while Webber and Massa were fifth and sixth. Paul di Resta did a brilliant job with seventh, Toro Rosso celebrated their 100th race with Buemi in 8th and Alguersuari also getting points with 10th, and Nico Rosberg was ninth.

Picture from F1Fanatic

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