Round 11 sees Formula One arrive in Hungary with an in-form McLaren looking like being the team to beat Lewis Hamilton s pole position is the team s third pole position in a row. Timo Glock was one of the big surprises of qualifying, bringing his Toyota home in fifth place, his career best starting position. Heidfeld was also a big surprise the German was knocked out after the first qualifying session thanks to being blocked by Sebastien Bourdais on his final hot lap, a move which sees Bourdais penalised. Heidfeld starts back in P15.
The Hungaroring is 4.381 km (2.722 miles) long and features 16 corners. Due to the nature of the twisty track, overtaking is notoriously difficult in the dry despite the changes made to the track in 2003. None of the corners are classed as high-speed therefore teams will run with high levels of downforce. This also means it is not a particularly taxing race for engines with the longest period spent all full throttle at only around ten seconds, and around 56 percent of the lap spent at full throttle. Assuming dry conditions, teams will be running on both soft and super-soft tyre compounds.
Parade Lap – All the drivers get away cleanly on the parade lap. The humidity and heat are high. It looks like everyone bar David Coulthard has opted to start the race on the softer of the two tyre compounds.
Lap 1 It s a good start for Hamilton but the Ferrari of Massa gets an even better start. Massa overtakes Hamilton at the first corner and now leads the race. Raikkonen has been passed by Alonso. Kovalainen is third, Glock is up to fourth ahead of Kubica. Piquet runs wide and Webber overtakes. Button has a poor start and is down in P14. Everyone makes it through the first lap cleanly.
Lap 3 The top two are starting to eke out a lead at the front Hamilton is just under a second behind Massa, and three seconds ahead of team-mate Kovalainen. Hamilton is currently the fastest man on the track.
Lap 5 Massa is starting to pull away slowly from Hamilton. The question now is how much fuel do the pair have, and who is running with the lighter car?
Lap 10 Massa is continuing to put in fastest lap after fastest lap and his lead at the front is slowly extending. It currently stands at just under three seconds. Glock radios his team and asks them to look at tyre pressures. The team say that everything is fine and his pace is around the same as Kovalainen in front of him. The Toyota driver is currently three and a half seconds behind the McLaren, and six seconds ahead of Robert Kubica.
Lap 18 Raikkonen is starting to close on Fernando Alonso the Finn is just half a second behind. Massa pits and he puts on a used set of the harder Bridgestone tyres. Kubica also pits from P7, as does Webber from P9. Massa rejoins in front of Alonso, who is still ahead of his team-mate, Raikkonen.
Lap 19 Hamilton pits from the lead. His stop is 9.4 seconds, 1.2 seconds longer than Massa s stop. It indicates that Hamilton will probably have a longer middle stint than Massa. Hamilton rejoins behind Raikkonen probably not the position McLaren would have hoped for. Kovalainen now leads from Glock, Massa, Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton.
Lap 20 Glock pits from P2. It s a long stop at 13.5 seconds. He takes on another set of hard tyres.
Lap 21 Kovalainen and Vettel pit. Kovalainen stays on the harder tyre with a 9.9 second stop. Massa now leads from Alonso, who has yet to stop.
Lap 22 Raikkonen and Alonso pit together. They rejoin in the same order having both taken on a set of hard tyres. Raikkonen is now all over the back of the Renault.
Lap 24 The current top 8 are Massa, Hamilton, Piquet, Kovalainen, Glock, Coulthard, Alonso and Raikkonen. Out of these, Piquet and Coulthard have yet to stop.
Lap 25 Vettel s car is pulled into the pits. It looks like his Hungarian Grand Prix is over. Piquet pits from third. He rejoins in P8, just behind Raikkonen.
Lap 28 Massa s lead over Hamilton is still at three seconds. Vettel says that they messed up the pit stop, his engine overheated and some parts were burnt meaning he had to retire from the race.
Lap 29 Coulthard pits from P5 and swaps onto the harder tyre. He rejoins just in front of Rubens Barrichello. Barrichello tries to overtake but fails.
Lap 30 – Fisichella pits from P18.
Lap 31 Rosberg and Sutil both pit.
Lap 32 Button makes his first pit stop from P12. Bourdais is also in. A small fuel leak causes flames on Bourdais car. Extinguisher foam is quickly poured on the car and Bourdais is able to continue on with his race.
Lap 33 Barrichello and Nakajima pit. Barrichello looks to have a fuelling rig problem. A replay shows that both Nakajima and Barrichello also end up with small fires during the refuelling of their cars there is sure to be an enquiry about the fires after the race.
Lap 38 Massa s lead is now up to 4.3 seconds over Hamilton, who is a further 16.7 seconds ahead of his team-mate, Kovalainen. Raikkonen is still stuck behind Alonso.
Lap 39 Heidfeld is the only man who has yet to stop he is obviously on a one-stop strategy.
Lap 40 Hamilton runs off the road. It appears he has a left front puncture. Hamilton gingerly runs around the track as Kovalainen and Glock overtake him on the track. McLaren look to have brought Hamilton s stop forward as he takes on a set of super-soft tyres. Hamilton now has to use the super-soft for 30 laps. He rejoins just ahead of Coulthard in P12.
Lap 42 Heidfeld pits for his one and only stop and swaps onto the softer tyre.
Lap 44 Massa pits from the lead. He takes on enough fuel to take him to the end of the race and he swaps onto a softer set of tyres.
Lap 45 Glock is currently the quickest car on-track. The current top eight are: Kovalainen, Massa, Glock, Alonso, Raikkonen, Piquet, Trulli, Kubica.
Lap 48 Kovalainen pits from the lead. Glock also pits. Kovalainen rejoins behind the scrap between Alonso and Raikkonen. Bourdais pits for the third time.
Lap 50 Raikkonen catches a big slide which sees him run off the road briefly. Alonso pits from P2 and Kubica pits from P8.
Lap 51 Raikkonen pits and takes on the softer tyre as expected. He rejoins ahead of Alonso. Rosberg overtakes both Fisichella and Nakajima as the two battle and lightly tap.
Lap 53 Fisichella fights back and repasses Rosberg. Trulli makes his final pit-stop as does Coulthard.
Lap 54 Piquet pits. Piquet fights hard to keep Trulli behind him as he rejoins. Raikkonen is currently the quickest man on the track. Barrichello pits.
Lap 57 Massa is still leading with nearly 12 seconds on Kovalainen. Glock is third, Raikkonen fourth, followed by Alonso, Hamilton, Piquet and Trulli. Raikkonen is the only man who is still lapping in the 1:21s and the Finn is catching Glock quickly.
Lap 59 Raikkonen puts in the quickest lap of the race so far with a 1:21.267.
Lap 60 One of the tightest battles currently on track is between Heidfeld and Coulthard who are fighting for P11 Coulthard is half a second behind Heidfeld. Sutil looks to have brake failure on the last corner. Luckily there is a big run-off area.
Lap 61 Raikkonen is continuing his late charge as he puts in another quickest lap of 1:21.195. He is now just 2.8 seconds behind Glock and catching the Toyota fast. Massa has eased off at the front as he has a lead of nine and a half seconds over second placed man, Kovalainen.
Lap 64 Sutil makes it back to the pits and rejoins the race after a stop of 12.7 seconds. Raikkonen is now less than 1.5 seconds behind Glock.
Lap 65 Raikkonen had a bit of a slide on the final corner and loses half a second. Sutil pits for the fourth time. He looks to be the second retirement of the race.
Lap 67 Massa s engine starts to smoke badly and the Brazilian s car comes to a stop on the start-finish straight. Terrible luck for Massa. Kovalainen looks all set to take his first ever F1 victory. Raikkonen starts to slow have Ferrari told him to turn the engine down?
Final Lap Kovalainen takes his maiden victory. Glock has his best ever F1 finish in second with Raikkonen securing the last podium place. Alonso takes fourth, ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Piquet, Trulli and Kubica round out the top 8.
The result sees Hamilton remain at the top of the drivers championship with 62 points, just ahead of Raikkonen on 57 and Massa on 54.
Ferrari lead the constructors championship with 111 points but McLaren are now just 11 points behind with 100 points. BMW Sauber are third with 90 points.
