Hamilton wins Hungarian GP

Lewis Hamilton won the Hungarian grand prix today after leading from lights to flag, fending off pressure from Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen in the closing stages and stretching his championship lead over team-mate Fernando Alonso to seven points.

BMW's Nick Heidfeld made it to the podium in third after similarly fending of Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton had started from pole after Alonso was moved back six places by the stewards for impeding him in the pits on Saturday. The penalty also meant Nick Heidfeld (BMW) started from the front row, the first time this season that the front row included a car which was not a McLaren or a Ferrari.

Drivers could opt between soft and super soft tyres, but practice showed that the super soft deteriorated very quickly and most drivers therefore started with the harder of the two. Hamilton held his position at the start but Heidfeld was slow and was passed by Raikkonen who had been third.

Alonso (sixth) lost a position to Robert Kubica (BMW) . He then made a mistake and was passed by Mark Webber (Red Bull). He re-gained P7 after a lap and also overtook Kubica after a brief tussle.

Felipe Massa (Ferrari) on P14 also lost two places at the start.

Hamilton, meanwhile, was the fastest man on the track and quickly built a gap on Raikkonen but after seven laps it was the Finn who started putting in the fastest laps.

Satum Yamamoto had a short debut race with Spyker, crashing into the barriers in his sixth lap.

At this point Alonso was closing in on Ralf Schumacher (Toyota) while at the front Raikkonen was trying to keep close to Hamilton, clearly with a view to staying out longer and then overtaking during the first round of pit stops. The two now traded fastest times in the various sectors as Heidfeld fell back.

Further back Massa, probably on a heavy car, was not making progress from P16.

Heidfeld, Rosberg and Alonso dashed into the pits on lap 18. Schumacher went in a lap later but stayed in front of Alonso when he emerged.

Hamilton and Raikkonen both went in on lap 19 and emerged with the Briton two seconds in front having apparently taken slightly more fuel than the Finn. Raikkonen started to slowly gain on the leader.

With a third of the race gone Hamilton was leading from Raikkonen, Heidfeld, Kovalainen (Renault), Rosberg (Williams), Coulthard (Red Bull), Kubica, Schumacher and Alonso in ninth, 31 seconds behind the lead. Kovalainen and Coulthard had not gone into the pits however. They did on laps 27 and 28 with Kovalainen, having started on super softs, again opting for this tyre. As a result of the stops Alonso moved to seventh, still behind Ralf Schumacher.

At the front things started to hot up with Raikkonen closing to 0.8s off Hamilton and continuing to gain. Massa remained at P14 stuck behind Takuma Sato in the Super Aguri but Sato went in on his first pit stop on lap 33, giving the Ferrari driver some clear air. On emerging from the pits Sato almost had a coming together with Hamilton, who was forced to lock as Raikkonen continued to gain. By the half way point Massa was the only driver who had not gone into the pits. The Brazilian went into the pits for a short stop on lap 36.

Button, the 2006 race winner, retired on lap 37 with a failure.

Hamilton was now sandwiched between Massa, who was about to be lapped, and Raikkonen. The overlap proceeded smoothly.

The second round of stops was now in progress.

Davidson had a spin and crashed into the barriers after a coming together with Fisichella, with the car ending up rather dangerously half on the kerb in a curve, bringing out the yellow flags but not the pace car.

As expected, Raikkonen went in for his second pit stop before Hamilton, who at this time was 4.2 seconds ahead. The Briton did not put in any particularly fast laps at this stage, although he did manage to stretch his lead slightly. It was enough however for him to stay in the lead, by four seconds, when he re-emerged after his own second stop.

Schumacher, who had kept Alonso behind him from the start, went in on lap 49 and Alonso now pressed hard in an effort to get ahead of the German and, at last, he did it and was now in sixth, his starting position, behind Hamilton, Raikkonen, Heidfeld, Kubica and Rosberg.

Massa, meanwhile, was back in 14th, which was also his starting position.

Heidfeld went in for his third pit stop on lap 55 briefly handing third place to team-mate Robert Kubica who however soon also went in, as did Rosberg. Both lost their position to Alonso who climbed to fourth and starting pressuring Heidfeld for third.

With 13 laps to go Raikkonen was right behind Hamilton whose right rear tyre appeared to be deteriorating fast.

A battle for first and second and third and fourth now started shaping up with 10 laps to go - on a circuit where overtaking is difficult, but, as this race had showed, not impossible.

Massa, meanwhile, was in P13 and pressing Fisichella for twelfth.

With six laps to go Hamilton had eeked a lead of one second on Raikkonen while Alonso made a slight mistake as he chased Heidfeld but managed to keep up the pressure. None of them managed to launch an attack, however, and the race ended with Hamilton taking his third F1 win and stretching his championship lead on team-mate Alonso.

Raikkonen was second, Heidfeld third and Alonso fourth. Massa remained out of the points.

No constructors’ trophy was presented at the podium ceremony after the stewards on Saturday stripped McLaren of any constructors’ points from this race. Ferrari closed the gap on McLaren in the constructors’ title by nine points, pending an appeal by McLaren.

Fastest lap: Kimi Raikkonen with 1:20.047 in the last lap.