Button wins Hungarian GP in his 200th race

By Christian Hollmann Jul 31, 2011, 14:03 GMT

Budapest - Jenson Button won an exciting and wet 25th Hungarian Grand Prix for McLaren on Sunday, making the most of his 200th Formula One race on the course where he claimed his first victory five years ago in similar conditions.

Button won from world championship leader Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, while long-time leader Lewis Hamilton in the other McLaren had to settle for fourth in the end.

Button and the pole sitter Vettel had the best strategy for the second half of the race when they chose hard tyres and stayed on them even as light rain set in.

'This is the first place I won a Grand Prix, in 2006 in these sorts of conditions. It's a great moment. For some reason I like these conditions, I don't know why,' said Button.

The rain caused Hamilton to spin in the 47th of 70 laps, he got a drive-through penalty and changed to intermediates which ended all his hopes of a second win in eight days, the first being the German GP.

'I am disappointed in myself,' said Hamilton, who pitted six times in a race which saw a GP record 88 trips to the pits.

Vettel increased his championship lead again thanks to the second place, now holding 234 points from 11 of 19 races. His team-mate Mark Webber has 149, Hamilton 146, Alonso 145 and Button 134.

Vettel gained valuable points but the second straight McLaren win showed that the season is far from over when it resumes after a four-week summer holiday in Belgium in late August for the final eight of 19 races.

'We are going into the break on a nice high,' said Button. 'But every day we will be thinking about (the next race in) Spa.'

Vettel said: 'Second is an important step, but the win was in reach and we didn't get it. It has been clear for a couple of races they (McLaren) have made a step forward. We need to come back.'

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner also remained upbeat although Vettel has won just one of the last five races after taking five of the first six.

'All things considered second is still very valuable. It was such a lottery in those conditions. We have a lot of work to do,' said Horner.

Vettel won the start from pole ahead of Hamilton, but soon came under pressure from the 2008 champion who could clearly drive faster in the wet conditions and almost effortlessly passed in the fifth lap as the German went wide.

A drying track after morning rain soon prompted the drivers to get dry-weather slicks and Button overtook Vettel in the 14th lap for a double McLaren lead.

But the drama unfolded later as the different strategies were chosen and light rain set in as well after Button and Hamilton had briefly fought wheel-to-wheel for the lead.

Button coasted to his second season victory in the fourth straight wet GP in 1 hour 46 minutes 42.337 seconds, with Vettel 3.5 seconds adrift and Alonso 19 seconds off the pace.

Earlier, Nick Heidfeld escaped a burning Renault unharmed after a second pit stop in the 24th lap.

'The pitstop took longer than it should have. Probably something overheated,' Heidfeld said in first television interviews.

'I was a bit (scared). After I stopped I think the fire marshals were trying to put the fire out and then there was a small explosion on the left. I've never seen anything like that before.'