2013 HUNGARIAN GP: LEWIS HAMILTON WITH FIRST MERCEDES WIN - FORMULA 1

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Monday, July 29, 2013

2013 HUNGARIAN GP: LEWIS HAMILTON WITH FIRST MERCEDES WIN

Lewis Hamilton has taken his first win for Mercedes in Hungary, in some of the hottest conditions seen all year, with ambient temperatures peaking at 35 degrees centigrade. Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen was second, while Sebastian Vettel finished third for Red Bull to extend his championship lead over Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso heading into the Formula One summer break.

The start was always going to be a crucial part of the race and Hamilton hooked up a perfect one to lead comfortably into the first corner. Vettel found himself under attack from Grosjean but managed to hold the Lotus as Alonso also tried to join the fun in the top three at Turn 2. Nico Rosberg made a good start off the line only to find himself fending off and making contact with Felipe Massa at turn five, which was the start of slippery slope for the Mercedes driver. After sustaining damage, his race eventually ended with a plume of smoke from the right bank of his Mercedes engine five laps from the end.

The first of the frontrunners to stop for new tyres was polesitter Hamilton on lap nine, switching to the medium compound and promoting Vettel into the lead, who pitted two laps later and re-joined behind Hamilton. By lap 14, Webber – who had started on the medium tyres – was in the lead, pitting for the first time for more mediums on lap 23.

Hamilton pitted from the lead once more on lap 31 and lap 50, maintaining his cushion over the following Red Bull drivers on each occasion by taking the initiative when it came to pit stops. His closest challenger at the end of the race was Raikkonen, who finished 10 seconds behind the Mercedes driver despite stopping for tyres only twice. The Finn and the two McLaren drivers were the only top 10 finishers to adopt a two-stop strategy.

Lewis Hamilton has listed his win at the Hungarian Grand Prix among the most important of his career: "I think this is probably one of the most important wins of my career. To move to a new team and to win for Mercedes Benz is a real privilege. I'm so glad I can be a part of the team and I really couldn't be happier. I hope there is many more to come. I think you could tell I was hungry for it and I was just going all out. I needed to get past those people, usually I get stuck in traffic in my races, but today I just wasn't having it. I was going for every move I had. Champion? We've got to work hard. You never know how the tyres are going to last but if we can come here and make them last we can do it anywhere."

Kimi Raikkonen says anything can still happen so he’ll keep fighting until the end: "It was a good race and a good result for the team. The strategy worked well. We did two long stints on the tyres but they weren’t too bad and the car felt strong so it allowed us to make one less stop. In the last few laps the rears were a bit on edge, but apart from that it was ok. Sebastian [Vettel] got the run on me a couple of times but luckily it was in places that you can’t really overtake. The main positive is that we gained a few points to Seb in the Championship. For sure we could have maybe closed the gap a little more with a win, but anything we can get back will help. We’re only halfway through the season and it will be hard to catch up, but anything can still happen so we’ll keep fighting until the end."

Sebastian Vettel: "I would have loved the race to have been a bit longer, as it was fun with Kimi at the end. It’s hard to pass on this track, I got close but I wasn’t in the prime overtaking spot at that point. I was trying to set something up for the next corners, but it didn’t work. The key issue in the race was when I got stuck behind Jenson, there’s no one to blame for that, I lost more time than expected on the way into the first stop and we came out just behind him. I couldn’t get past, I tried to force it and damaged my front wing, which was a mistake from my side. I was maybe trying to urge a bit too much. It was close with Kimi and nice to be on the podium again today. Congratulations to Lewis, he did a good job today."
HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX, HUNGARORING
70 laps, 301.458km., Weather: Sunny.

CLASIFFIED:
 P.   DRIVER                TEAM             TIME    
 1. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes AMG    1ч42:29.445
 2. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus            +   10.938
 3. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull         +   12.459
 4. Mark Webber           Red Bull         +   18.044
 5. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari          +   31.411
 6. Romain Grosjean       Lotus            +   32.295
 7. Jenson Button         McLaren          +   53.819
 8. Felipe Massa          Ferrari          +   56.447
 9. Sergio Peres          McLaren          +    1 lap
10. Pastor Maldonado      Williams         +    1 lap
11. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber           +    1 lap
12. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso       +    1 lap
13. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso       +    1 lap
14. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham         +   2 laps
15. Charles Pic           Caterham         +   2 laps
16. Jules Bianchi         Marussia         +   3 laps
17. Max Chilton           Marussia         +   3 laps
18. Pol di Resta          Force India      +   4 laps
19. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes AMG     +   6 laps

Fastest Lap: Mark Webber - 1:24.069                  

NOT CLASIFFIED:
DRIVER                 TEAM         LAP              
Valtteri Bottas        Williams         42
Esteban Gutierrez      Sauber           28
Adrian Sutil           Force India      19

After 10 races:
 Drivers:                  Constructors:             
 1. S.Vettel       172     1. Red Bull       277
 2. K.Raikkonen    134     2. Mercedes AMG   208
 3. F.Alonso       133     3. Ferrari        194
 4. L.Hamilton     124     4. Lotus          183
 5. M.Webber       105     5. Force India     59
 6. N.Rosberg       84     6. McLaren         57
 7. F.Massa         61     7. Toro Rosso      24
 8. R.Grosjean      49     8. Sauber           7
 9. J.Button        39     9. Williams         1
10. P.di Resta      36
11. A.Sutil         23
12. S.Peres         18
13. J.Vergne        13
14. D.Ricciardo     11
15. N.Hulkenberg     7
16. P.Maldonado      1