Ten races into the 2013 Formula 1 season Lewis Hamilton has claimed his first win of the year and the first for his Mercedes team at the Hungarian grand prix.
Red Bull and Mercedes found themselves locked in the battle for pole position on Saturday. 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton snatched pole position from Sebastian Vettel’s grasp by a mere 0.038s. It couldn’t get any closer and it couldn’t have been a more perfect lap for the Brit. Regarded as a qualifying ace, Hamilton has played second fiddle to teammate Rosberg but if the tables were going to turn Hungary is where it would happen. On three occasions Hamilton had won the Hungarian GP. However, all of these victories were behind the wheel of a McLaren. This weekend Hamilton mentioned those who thought he was daft to make the move to Mercedes. He regards his first victory for Mercedes as one the most special of his sparkling career and though he may not say it, he will be enormously satisfied to have proved the non-believers wrong.
While Hamilton had it mostly his own way for all of the seventy laps of the race the battle for the podium positions was anything but straightforward.
Sebastian Vettel barely maintained second place off the starting line before he had to defend against a feisty Romain Grosjean in a somewhat pacier Lotus in the early stages of the race. Despite Grosjean’s best efforts however the notoriously difficult overtaking conditions around the Hungaroring meant he stayed behind the Red Bull driver.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso made his customary lightening start but could only gain one position to run fourth at the end of the first lap. The afternoon wasn’t one to remember for the Marenello based team as Alonso lacked the pace to fight amongst the frontrunners for the entire race. “We didn’t have the pace. We were too slow with the soft. We were too slow on the medium. We just had no pace,” said a frustrated Alonso.
There is no doubt that as a true championship winning driver Fernando Alonso can be expected to be fighting for this world title until the last possible moment. Questions have always been about how a driver will acclimatise to team, how he will adapt to the DNA of a new car. In Alonso and Ferrari’s situation it’s the opposite. The question is can Ferrari deliver a car that is worthy of Alonso; and if not how much longer can Fernando Alonso be expected to remain loyal to the prancing horse? Ferrari and Fernando Alonso were also fined 15,000 Euro for illegally using DRS three times while not within the prescribed one second range of the car in front.
This particular Sunday was all about Lewis Hamilton. Doubts about how Mercedes would fare of the new Pirelli tyres were on the forefront of most people’s minds. In the post qualifying press conference, despite being on pole position, Lewis Hamilton said that it would take ‘a miracle’ for him to win the Hungarian grand prix. However, as the race progressed it was evident that Hamilton was not going to face the immense level of tyre degradation the team had suffered at previous race weekends. Hamilton was the first of the frontrunners to enter the pitlane as he swopped his softs for the medium compound tyres on lap nine.
As Vettel encountered a slower Jenson Button after his first pit stop Lewis Hamilton edged the gap out to nearly ten seconds over the Red Bull driver. By the halfway mark of the race it was evident, due to Hamilton’s pace that the three time former winner of the Hungarian GP was not going to be caught.
It set up a fight between the two Red Bull’s and the two-stopping Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn had pitted thirteen laps earlier than Vettel and should have been a sitting duck for Vettel and his fresh rubber. Raikkonen, not a pushover by any stretch of the imagination, held off the German for second place. Raikkonen completed the longest stint of laps on the medium compound – 33 laps in total.
Mark Webber put in a fighting drive to recover from tenth on the grid to fourth on Sunday. Fernando Alonso held off Romain Grosjean for fifth in a typically determined drive. Grosjean pulled off a tremendous move around the outside of turn four to overtake Felipe Massa but was later struck with a harsh drive-through penalty for leaving the circuit and gaining an advantage. It went from bad to worse for Grosjean as he was hit with a 20 second post race penalty for a causing a collision with Jenson Button. Nevertheless, Grosjean retains his sixth place finish.
Jenson Button and Felipe Massa finished seventh and eighth respectively while the sister McLaren of Sergio Perez was ninth. Nico Rosberg’s late retirement from the race, which appeared to be engine related, gave Pastor Maldonado tenth place overall and Williams their first point of the 2013 season.
Lewis Hamilton ended his victory drought in great style by taking a dominant fourth victory at the Hugaroring. A first win for Mercedes will undoubtedly by cherished but what was more impressive about Hamilton’s drive was the sheer determination and hunger that practically oozed from the former champ. An on song Lewis Hamilton is a formidable opponent and if Hungary is anything to go by he is far from letting go of this championship without a fight.
Photo credits:
Lewis Hamilton – Photo via Mercedes F1 Twitter Team
Grosjean vs Vettel – Screen grab by F1 Madness Team
Alonso – Screen grab by F1 Madness Team
Raikkonen – Lotus F1 Twitter Team
If Kimi Raikkonen moves to Ferrari, he would have to play second fiddle to Fernando Alonso, which seems very unlikely. He would however join James Allison who served as Lotus’ Technical Director before moving to Ferrari earlier this year. Alonso has been rumoured to be in the sights of Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz despite Alonso’s long term contract with Ferrari.
