Hungary Grand Prix – Race Results: P2

| Source: autosport.com | lotusf1team.com |

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Lewis Hamilton claimed his first victory for Mercedes with an imperious drive in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Briton pulled himself clear of a fraught race behind, in which Kimi Raikkonen ultimately beat Sebastian Vettel to second, Mark Webber salvaged fourth and Romain Grosjean’s chances were spoiled by a penalty.

Raikkonen worked his way forward on a two-stop strategy, spending the early part of the race trapped behind Massa before bringing himself into contention.

Pos  Driver        Team
 1.  Hamilton       Mercedes
 2.  Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault
 3.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault
 4.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault
 5.  Alonso         Ferrari
 6.  Grosjean       Lotus-Renault
 7.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes
 8.  Massa          Ferrari
 9.  Perez          McLaren-Mercedes
10.  Maldonado      Williams-Renault
11.  Hulkenberg     Sauber-Ferrari
12.  Vergne         Toro Rosso-Ferrari
13.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari
14.  van der Garde  Caterham-Renault
15.  Pic            Caterham-Renault
16.  Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth
17.  Chilton        Marussia-Cosworth
DNF  Di Resta       Force India-Mercedes
DNF  Rosberg        Mercedes
DNF  Bottas         Williams-Renault
DNF  Gutierrez      Sauber-Ferrari
DNF  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes

World Championship standings, round 10:

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel        172        1.  Red Bull-Renault          277
 2.  Raikkonen     136        2.  Mercedes                  206
 3.  Alonso        133        3.  Ferrari                   194
 4.  Hamilton      122        4.  Lotus-Renault             185
 5.  Webber        105        5.  Force India-Mercedes       59
 6.  Rosberg        84        6.  McLaren-Mercedes           57
 7.  Massa          61        7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         24
 8.  Grosjean       49        8.  Sauber-Ferrari              7
 9.  Button         39        9.  Williams-Renault            1
10.  Di Resta       36
11.  Sutil          23
12.  Perez          18
13.  Vergne         13
14.  Ricciardo      11
15.  Hulkenberg      7
16.  Maldonado       1

Lotus Team Quotes:

Kimi Raikkonen – 2nd: “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.”

Romain Grosjean – 6th: “For sure this is one that got away, but I’m very happy with my race and I honestly don’t think I could have done much more. Maybe the strategy didn’t quite work how we wanted, but the car felt really good and it was the traffic that cost us. Without this maybe there would never have been a drive-through penalty which for sure didn’t help. I haven’t seen the footage yet and I thought it was a good move, but unfortunately the stewards took a different view. I’ve no problem with the time-added for the incident with Jenson and I apologised to him afterwards. This could have been the one for me, but we will just have to wait a little bit longer and keep improving like we have been recently to make it happen.”

Eric Boullier, team principal: “Another good result for Kimi today. He drove very well and was backed up by a strong strategy to help him make the podium. Romain was very unfortunate in that we couldn’t quite jump Fernando [Alonso] in the pits which cost him a lot of time, plus the drive-through penalty cost him a far better result. He made a great move at a circuit where overtaking is difficult and he had no room to do anything else. For us the Stewards’ decision was harsh. The most important thing to take from the weekend has been the pace of the car; this circuit is a bit special, and I think there will be some circuits where we have to work a bit harder, but I’m confident we’ll be consistently fighting for podiums at every race weekend in the second half of the season. Red Bull are a long way ahead, but we’ve shown today that they can be beaten so we want to keep pushing them all the way.”

Alan Permane, trackside operations director: “It was a great race today from Kimi – as always. We started the race intending a three-stop strategy, but as the race played out it became clear that a two-stop would give us better possibilities so we switched over to that strategy. Kimi drove superbly to look after his tyres but deliver exactly the pace we needed at the appropriate time. He was rewarded by returning to second in the drivers’ championship. I feel really sorry for Romain for what appears to be a very harsh penalty for a fantastic overtaking move on Felipe Massa. Yes, he ran off the track, but he had nowhere else to go. It certainly seemed like good racing to me; were it not for the drive-through penalty, we would have had two cars on the podium again.”

Videos: SkySports post-race interview, drivers’ parade interview