Hamilton keeps focus and wins from start

Aug 5, 2007, 18:08 GMT

British Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton of McLaren Mercedes in action during the Grand Prix of Hungary at the Hungaroring race track near Budapest, Hungary, 05 August 2007. Hamilton won the race ahead of Raikkonen and Heidfeld. EPA/CARMEN JASPERSEN COLOR

Budapest - Championship leader Lewis Hamilton in a McLaren- Mercedes won Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix from pole, beating Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen into second place.

Third place went to Germany's Nick Heidfeld in a BMW-Sauber.

Hamilton needed one hour 35 minutes 52.911 seconds for the 70 laps on the 4.384-kilometre Hungaroring for a total of 306.663 kilometres.

Hamilton led from start to finish after gaining pole following team-mate Fernando Alonso's five-place penalty for an infringement. Alonso had posted the fastest time in the qualifying, but was found to have prevented Hamilton from completing a final lap by not moving out of the pits fast enough.

Hamilton managed to win the start from Heidfeld, who fell behind Raikkonen by the end of the first lap and even though Raikkonen managed to close the gap between himself and Hamilton to less than a second, he was just not fast enough to overtake.

Hamilton acknowledged that it had not been an easy weekend. 'It has been an eventful weekend and quite an emotional one. We were not sure if we would be ahead of Ferraris, but we managed.

'In the second stint I had a problem with steering and it made it quite difficult to keep pace, but I managed to stay ahead. I am not sure what the problem was,' the 22-year-old said.

'Kimi was on my tail, he drove a fantastic race and pushed all the way.'

He said that it had not been all that easy to remain focused on the race. 'With all the drama that had gone on all weekend it would have been easy to lose focus and it was a bit of a downer, but it proves that there is nothing to stop us.

'I know how to win races and I have experienced Kimi on my tail before. That makes it slightly easier.'

Raikkonen said that on the Hungaroring there was just no opportunity to overtake. 'We knew they were going to be quick, but when two cars are close at this course you need the other car to make a mistake to overtake.

'It showed in qualifying that we were not quick enough on these kind of circuits, but we should be better in the other races.'

Alonso, who had been forced to start from sixth after being found guilty of an infringement that also resulted in McLaren not being awarded any points in the constructors' standings, lost another place at the start and then battled throughout the race to catch up with the leaders.

The Spaniard managed to move up to fourth with a faster petrol stop towards the end than Germany's Ralf Schumacher in a Toyota to restrict the points deficit against Hamilton to seven points.

Schumacher was later also overtaken by Robert Kubica in a BMW to finish sixth.

The final point positions went to German Nico Rosberg in a Williams and Heikki Kovalainen, who finished seventh and eighth respectively.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who started from 14th, had a terrible race and lost ground against several of the slower cars throughout the race and only managed to improve his starting position by one place to finish 13th - well outside the points.

The victory sees Hamilton extend his lead at the top of the championship standings to seven points from Alonso, who finished fourth. The Briton has 80 points with six races remaining, while Raikkonen moves to 60, one more than his team-mate Massa.

McLaren leads the constructors' standings with 138 to Ferrari's 119, but as they have appealed the FIA decision not to award them any points for the Hungarian race, they could move to 153 points.

They were not allowed to receive the cup for the team with the most points after the race, which was not awarded. Team principal Ron Dennis said that he was disappointed that they did not get any points, though they hoped that they would still be awarded the points by the appeal board.

He also admitted that they faced a problem in the team. 'I am hoping that we can use the three weeks before the next race to sort out these problems. We will have to speak to the two drivers to solve the problems.'

The next race is the Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul on August 26.