Webber Takes Victory in Hungary

Mark Webber won today’s Hungarian Grand Prix, while Sebastian Vettel found himself with a drive through penalty, and pitlane chaos saw the end of the race for three drivers.

Webber got a good start, but it was Fernando Alonso who made a charge from third on the grid to split the Red Bulls, with Vettel taking an early lead. Vitaly Petrov was making moves from seventh on the grid to pass Lewis Hamilton for fifth in the second corner, but the McLaren driver dived around the outside of the Russian a lap later to reclaim his position.

Vettel began to take a second per lap out of Alonso in second, who in turn appeared to be holding up Webber, Felipe Massa and Hamilton in third down to fifth, respectively.

Jenson Button, who had started 11th, dropped back in the first corner, despite getting a good start, and soon found himself down in 15th. On lap 15, the reigning champion pitted for fresh tyres, a lap before the safety car was deployed for debris on the track.

Vettel got a late call to come into the pits, and was followed several seconds later by Alonso, Massa and Hamilton. While the two Ferraris got away with having to queue for a fresh set of tyres, the mechanics weren’t ready with Massa’s tyres, and the Brazilian found himself behind Hamilton. Webber remained on the track, behind the safety car, and for a while, there was a concern it would hinder his race.

Meanwhile, the mid-field found themselves in a scrap in the pitlane, with Nico Rosberg losing his right-rear wheel while exiting his pitbox, the wheel bouncing through the BMW Sauber pitbox. Renault tried to release Robert Kubica at the same time as Adrian Sutil was diving into his pitbox, one ahead of the Renault team. The two drivers collided, ending Sutil’s race, and resulted in a ten second stop-go penalty for Kubica. The Renault driver eventually retired.

While Vettel found himself over ten car lengths behind Webber at the restart, resulting in an eventual drive through penalty for the German, Webber found himself getting away from Vettel very early on. Hamilton retired from the race on lap 24, suffering from mechanical problems.

After Vettel took his penalty, and Webber eventually came in for his pitstop, the Australian had a gap of over 20 seconds to Alonso, and rejoined the track in the lead ahead of Alonso, and Vettel, who had managed to stay ahead of Massa after his penalty and was fighting with Alonso for second. The difficult nature of the track meant Vettel was unable to pass Alonso, but further down the field, Rubens Barrichello managed to pass Michael Schumacher, in the closing laps of the race. The Mercedes driver was then put under investigation by the stewards for pushing the Williams driver into the pitwall as he made his pass, but the Brazilian was able to make the move stick.

Webber crossed the line nearly 18 seconds ahead of Alonso, with Vettel close behind in third. Massa followed in fourth, with Petrov in fifth, his best finish of the season. Nico Hulkenberg finished sixth, ahead of Pedro de la Rosa in seventh, scoring his first points of the season. Button crossed the line in eighth, ahead of Kamui Kobayashi in ninth, and Barrichello in tenth, the last of the points-scorers.

Webber’s win elevates him in the fight for the title, putting him in the lead on 161, four points ahead of Hamilton, still on 157 after his second retirement of the season. Vettel sits third on 151, with Button fourth on 147, and Alonso fifth on 141. 20 points separate the top five, with Massa sixth on 97 points. In the constructors’ standings, Red Bull take the lead on 312 points, eight ahead of McLaren on 304, with Ferrari further behind on 238.

Formula One now takes its summer break, with a two-week factory shut down for each team over the next four weeks, with the sport returning at the end of August, with qualifying for the Belgium Grand Prix on Saturday 28th, and the race live on BBC1 on Sunday 29th August.