McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton ended his poor recent run and claimed his second Grand Prix victory of the season in Hungary on Sunday, while Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso extended his championship lead despite finishing fifth.
Hamilton, who had only managed four points in three races since winning in Canada, led from start to finish in a dominant display, winning ahead of Lotus pair Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean.
World champion Sebastian Vettel came in fourth, while Alonso finished ahead of his closest rival, Red Bull’s Mark Webber, who claimed only four points down in eighth.
The result opens up a 40-point lead for Alonso from Webber, while Vettel is third, two points behind the Australian on 122 points, while Hamilton fourth on 117 and Raikkonen fifth on 116.
“I don’t think we have been quick on Saturday or Sunday or on Friday and we still finished ahead of our main rivals, so it’s been another Sunday that was better than expected,” Alonso said after the race.
”I think no one here thinks it’s normal to finish ahead of a McLaren or a Red Bull, but we finished ahead of one of each, so it was better than expected, especially thanks to the strategy, because the cars that finished behind us made three stops. We made two and this time it was the right call and it turned out well.“
Meanwhile, winner Hamilton, who also was triumphant in Budapest in 2007 and 2009, held off Raikkonen late in the race, having kept Grosjean at bay earlier in the piece.
“If we were on another track where overtaking was easier, the result might have been different,” Hamilton said.
He added: “This weekend shows it is all to play for still. If we can continue this kind of performance we can catch up. We need consistency and we need to improve the car still in many areas and I am sure we will do that.”
Heading into the break, Alonso said: ”We have a lead of forty points, courtesy of a car that has not been the best in this first half of the season. Now we must try and make a good leap forward in terms of performance to allow us to keep the lead in the Championship, because in the long term, what we have now will not be enough.”