Hamilton aims for hat-trick of wins

Lewis Hamilton can chalk up his third win in a row when he returns to Budapest for Sunday's Hungarian GP, a race he won in controversial circumstances last year.

McLaren's F1 championship leader, now four points clear of Ferrari's Felipe Massa after stunning wins in Germany and Britain, has every chance of extending his advantage before the summer break.

Despite the ease with which he went past his rivals at Hockenheim, and his astonishing performance in the wet at Silverstone, the 23-year-old was taking nothing for granted.

"I'm wary about making any strong predictions," the Briton said in a team preview.

"Yes, we were strong in the last two races but we encountered difficulties in the two before that. So it's impossible to call this weekend."

The example of last year, and of 2006 when Honda's Jenson Button won against the odds, serves as a reminder of how the unexpected can always happen at the Hungaroring despite the difficulties of overtaking.

Last year saw any pretence of friendship between Hamilton and his then team-mate Fernando Alonso, blown away spectacularly in Saturday qualifying.

After earlier refusing to give way to the Spaniard, Hamilton was blocked in the pits by Alonso in a move that prevented the rookie from getting in a final quick lap.

Alonso secured pole but the stewards demoted him to sixth place on the starting grid, promoting Hamilton to the top slot.

The Briton won the race and dialogue between the two drivers ceased, with Alonso and McLaren bosses also falling out.

By the end of the year, Alonso was back at Renault and Hamilton the main man at McLaren after finishing runner-up in a championship he had led to the final race.

Alonso, who took his first grand prix win with Renault in Hungary in 2003, will be less of a worry to Hamilton this time than his own Finnish team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, who has extended his contract with McLaren for another season, and the Ferraris.

Ferrari have not won in Hungary since seven-times champion Michael Schumacher triumphed in 2004 but Kimi Raikkonen won there for McLaren in 2005.

The champions struggled at Hockenheim but team boss Stefano Domenicali said subsequent analysis showed the problems were tyre-related.

"Despite the fact that the last two races have been negative for us, the Scuderia (team) is definitely not in crisis," he said.

"The team is still leading the constructors' championship and theoretically one of our drivers could be back at the top of the drivers' classification on Sunday. We are on a similar points tally to last year, we have won half the races so far and taken half the pole positions."

Factbox on Hungarian GP

Circuit: Hungaroring.

Total distance: 306.663km (190.560 miles), 70 laps of 4.381km each (2.722 miles).

Race lap record: Michael Schumacher (Germany) Ferrari, 1:19.071 (2004).

2007 pole position: Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren, 1:19.781.

The track: The Hungaroring is one of the slowest circuits used by F1. In the past, qualifying has been crucial due to the difficulty of overtaking once the start is out of the way.