Hungarian Grand Prix 2011 – Race Report

Jenson Button celebrated his two-hundredth race start in the best possible way with a fantastic victory in changing conditions at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Button's McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton seized the early advantage, but ultimately an ill-fated decision to switch to intermediate tyres cost him any chance of remaining in contention. He ended up behind Sebastian Vettel, who extended his championship lead, and Fernando Alonso who completed the podium.

After a disappointing last race for Vettel, normal service appeared to have been resumed during qualifying as the German secured his eighth pole position of the season. Hamilton's qualifying lap was good enough to see him line up alongside on the front row, ahead of Button and the two Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Alonso. Webber's disappointing pace meant he would begin sixth at the very place his last race win was achieved.

A light rain shower before the start of the race had dampened the circuit, obliging the entire field to begin on intermediate tyres. As the lights went out, Vettel was able to hold on to his advantage, whilst Button very nearly made use of his superior getaway to pass Hamilton for second. He however decided discretion to be the better part of valour at the second corner, unlike Nico Rosberg who charged from seventh to fourth place by the end of the first lap, passing Webber and both Ferraris.

Hamilton was able to latch on to the back of Vettel almost immediately, putting the Red Bull ace under considerable pressure. He finally cracked as he ran wide at turn 2 on the fifth lap, allowing Hamilton into a lead that he would stretch to around six seconds by the time of his initial pitstop. In that time, Alonso had found his way back ahead of Rosberg for fourth place for a second time after running wide after doing so the first time, whilst the other Ferrari of Felipe Massa span his way down to ninth place at turn 2 on lap 8, inflicting minor damage on his rear wing in the process.

With the track drying, Webber and Massa were the first to change on to dry tyres at the end of lap 10. Within the next two laps, all the rest of top eight had followed suit, with Michael Schumacher staying out for an additional lap to briefly lead the race. Hamilton retained his lead ahead of Vettel, Button, Alonso and Webber, who moved ahead of Rosberg during the stops into fifth. Vettel appeared to be struggling for pace, and on lap 14 was passed at turn 2 by Button, while Webber also deprived Alonso of fourth.

Hamilton had pulled out an advantage of roughly 9 seconds by lap 21, but in the next five laps, his teammate had eroded over half of the gap as he struggled with wear on the super-soft tyres. The race leader made his second stop on lap 26, a lap after the battling duo of Alonso and Webber, a lap before Button, and two before Vettel. With the top three having become rather spread out at this stage, the most fierce on-track battle was between Webber and Alonso for fourth.

The Spaniard went for an early third stop for fresh super-softs, coming in on lap 36. Vettel and Webber both decided to opt for the harder soft tyres, pitting on laps 41 and 39 respectively, but the gains made by Alonso were enough to propel his Ferrari past both Red Bulls into third. Hamilton and Button held their one-two formation after pitting on laps 40 and 42, with the McLaren team hedging their bets by putting the former on super-softs and the latter on softs.

Once on fresh tyres, Hamilton had stretched his lead to 6.5 seconds, but this evaporated when the race leader span his car at the chicane on lap 47. The rain had returned on the far side of the circuit, and a wheel-to-wheel battle between the teammates ensued over the next couple of laps. Both exchanged the lead of the race several times, but the battle was eventually decided in favour of Button as it became apparent that Hamilton's tyres were too worn to sustain the fight. With the rain still falling, he threw the dice and equipped his car with intermediate tyres when he made his fourth stop on lap 52.

This turned out to be the wrong call: Alonso, who had previously fallen back behind Vettel on lap 45 after the German sailed around his outside at turn 1, passed his arch-rival on lap 54 as the rain subsided, hobbling those who had switched to intermediates. He returned to the pits at the end of the lap for soft tyres, but was then slapped with a drive-through penalty as the stewards judged his rejoining of the track after his earlier spin to be dangerous. This dropped him down to sixth behind Massa and Webber.

At the front, Button now comfortably led from Vettel, both of whom had decided not to pit for intermediates when the rain fell, with Alonso in third after making a fourth stop for softs on lap 47. Webber had also taken the plunge onto intermediates, dropping him behind Massa, but the Brazilian's worn super-softs meant the Red Bull pilot was then able to recover fourth with relative ease. Hamilton also didn't take long to find a way past Massa, whose tyres by this point were crying enough; he made his final stop of the afternoon at the end of lap 58. Five laps later, Hamilton also overtook Webber at turn 12, but despite a late spin from Alonso, the gap ahead was too large to do anything about.

There was also nothing Vettel could do to stop Button, who cruised home to his eleventh career victory. Alonso took his fourth consecutive podium finish with third, from Hamilton, Webber and Massa. Paul Di Resta made a good start and drove well throughout to take seventh for Force India, passing Rosberg who was another to take the gamble of intermediate tyres. The Mercedes driver finished in ninth, with the Toro Rossos of Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersauri finishing either side, representing a particularly impressive outing for Buemi, who began the race from 23^rd place.

Kamui Kobayashi's strategy backfired as he began to haemorrhage places in the closing stages on extremely worn tyres, meaning he finished in eleventh ahead of Vitaly Petrov who endured a poor race for Renault, and Rubens Barrichello for Williams. Adrian Sutil and Sergio Perez both squandered their top ten starting positions on the first lap, consigning themselves to fourteenth and fifteenth places. The Mexican also earned himself a drive-through penalty for attempting to overtake the Force India driver under yellow flags, while Pastor Maldonado received a similar fate for speeding in the pit-lane. He ended up sixteenth ahead of Timo Glock for Virgin, Daniel Ricciardo for Hispania, Jerome D'Ambrosio, who almost entered his pit-box sideways at one stage at the wheel of the other Virgin, and Vitantonio Liuzzi in the second Hispania. Neither Lotus made the finish as both cars fell foul of mechanical woes, while Germans Michael Schumacher and Nick Heidfeld also retired – the former suffered a gearbox failure after some contact with Massa early on, whilst the latter's Renault set on fire as he left the pits, his KERS battery reportedly exploding not long after he leapt out of the cockpit. Thankfully, neither Heidfeld nor the marshals that attended the stricken Renault were injured.
Vettel's championship lead now stands at a mighty 85 points over Webber after another somewhat lacklustre performance from the Australian, with Hamilton sitting just a further three behind in third, one point ahead of Alonso. For anybody to take the fight to Vettel surely now requires a minor miracle, mostly because of the frustrating inconsistency of the other supposed title contenders. With Alonso, Hamilton and Button having won one race apiece in the last three, one of them needs to step up to the plate after the summer break before the last glimmer of hope of toppling Vettel fades. Over to you, gentlemen.