Flawless victory for Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton delivered a flawless drive from pole position to the chequered flag to win Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix for McLaren and revive his challenge for this year’s Formula One drivers’ world championship, writes Gordon Howard.

Team by team analysis of Sunday’s Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix (listed in championship order) follows:
RED BULL (Sebastian Vettel 4, Mark Webber 8).
Red Bull were adamant that this week’s FIA ruling, which forced them to change their engine torque mapping, had no significant effect on performance. Vettel felt his car had pace but he lost time behind Jenson Button early in the race. Webber, starting from 11th, made a good start but could not make further progress.
MCLAREN (Lewis Hamilton 1, Jenson Button 6).

An outstanding weekend for Hamilton as he took pole position on Saturday and led from start to finish for his second win of the season. Button, having started fourth, was less happy as he felt the decision to make him stop three times for tyre changes ended his chances of challenging for a higher position.

LOTUS (Kimi Raikkonen 2, Romain Grosjean 3).
Both drivers were on the podium together for the second time this season although they are still chasing their first win.
FERRARI (Fernando Alonso 5, Felipe Massa 9).

A firm reminder that, even though Alonso may lead the drivers’ championship by 40 points, Ferrari do not have the fastest car. Massa lost two places at the start.
MERCEDES (Nico Rosberg 10, Michael Schumacher retired).

Schumacher had a race to forget as he switched the engine off on the starting grid, incurred a drive-through penalty and eventually retired. Rosberg at least finished in 10th, having started in 13th.

SAUBER (Sergio Perez 14, Kamui Kobayashi 18).
Having failed to score at Silverstone, then finished fourth and sixth at Hockenheim, they endured another race with no points, performing poorly in qualifying.
WILLIAMS (Bruno Senna 7, Pastor Maldonado 13).

Senna had a good race, starting ninth and finishing seventh to score points for the sixth time this season. Maldonado started poorly and incurred a drive-through penalty for colliding with Paul Di Resta as he passed the Force India.

FORCE INDIA (Nico Hulkenberg 11, Paul Di Resta 12).
Hulkenberg struggled with the balance and said his rear tyre degradation was very high but was happy with the two-stop tyre change strategy. Di Resta was compromised by a poor start on a circuit where overtaking is difficult. 

TORO ROSSO (Daniel Ricciardo 15, Jean-Eric Vergne 16)
Having finished 13th and 14th in each of their last two outings, the team slipped slightly this week. They have not scored points since the second race of the season.
CATERHAM (Heikki Kovalainen 17, Vitaly Petrov 19).

A marginally worse performance than at Hockenheim for a team who seem to have been sliding slowly backwards after managing 13th and 14th at the European Grand Prix. Still no points.

MARUSSIA (Charles Pic 20, Timo Glock 21).
A familiar story as they finished at the tail, behind Caterham and ahead of back markers HRT. Also without points.
HRT (Pedro De la Rosa 22, Narain Karthikeyan retired).

De la Rosa was involved in a tussle with Glock but could not get past. Karthikeyan’s steering broke five laps from the end.