2007 Hungarian GP: Hamilton wins after the pit lane row

Lewis Hamilton won the 2007 Hungarian GP at the Hungaroring from lights to flag. It was his third win of the season for McLaren. Kimi Räikkönen in the Ferrari and Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber completed the podium. At the flag, Räikkönen was just 0.715 seconds behind Hamilton. The headlines, however, had already been written on Saturday: after a row in the pit lane, Hamilton's teammate Fernando Alonso was dropped from pole to sixth on the grid.

Tensions within McLaren had been running high even before the race weekend. In the third part of qualifying, the row finally boiled over. According to the team, Hamilton had not stuck to the agreement to let Alonso past at the start of the session so he could burn off fuel. As a result, the order of the two cars for the final pit stops no longer worked. At that stop, Alonso stayed put on fresh tyres even though the mechanics signalled for him to go. Hamilton had to wait behind him and left too late to complete one last fast lap. Alonso told the stewards he had still been asking about his tyres.

The stewards dropped Alonso five places on the grid, and Hamilton inherited pole. In addition, McLaren were not allowed to score any constructors' championship points in this race. Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault) was also given a five-place grid penalty for impeding Sakon Yamamoto in the first part of qualifying. He therefore started 13th.

Ferrari also endured a chaotic qualifying. In the second part, Felipe Massa was sent out of the pits without fuel and had to be called back in. His tyres cooled down in the process, and he was eliminated. That meant 14th on the grid.

Hamilton made a good start and kept the lead. Starting from the clean side of the track, Räikkönen immediately got past Heidfeld, whose wheels were spinning. Over the opening laps, Hamilton pulled out a few seconds. After lap 15, according to grandprix.com, he was 4.5 seconds ahead of the Finn. Behind them, Heidfeld was already a good ten seconds adrift. The win was therefore a straight fight between the two front-runners.

Räikkönen then kept closing in. After the first stops, only around a second separated the two in the middle phase of the race. According to crash.net, Hamilton reported a steering problem over the radio but still drove on without a mistake. Räikkönen, again according to crash.net, came in earlier for his second stop but was stationary for longer, so Hamilton stayed in front after his own stop. In the closing laps Räikkönen was often less than a second behind him, but an attack was barely possible on the tight Hungaroring.

Hamilton led every lap. No driver had managed that in 2007 until then. Räikkönen set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap, at least claiming that record for himself.

Alonso's start went badly. He got away from his grid slot at an angle and was held up at the first corner by Nico Rosberg (Williams). He was then also passed by Robert Kubica and Mark Webber (Red Bull), dropping to eighth. He re-passed Webber and Kubica in the opening laps but then spent a long time stuck behind the Toyota of Ralf Schumacher. At his first stop, according to crash.net, Alonso was stationary for 9.9 seconds. Schumacher pitted a lap later and stayed ahead of him afterwards.

Alonso only got past Schumacher at the second stop. After that, he benefited from Rosberg and Kubica having to stop a third time. In the end he caught Heidfeld but could not find a way past. Fourth place meant five points.

One eye-catcher in the midfield was Heikki Kovalainen. He ran a long first stint and did not pit until lap 27. Before that, he had briefly been running fourth. In the end he finished eighth and scored a point. Ralf Schumacher finished sixth on a two-stop strategy, ahead of Rosberg and Kovalainen, who had both stopped three times. *Context:* These were to be his last championship points in Formula 1.

Four drivers failed to finish:

• Sakon Yamamoto (Spyker) was contesting his first race for the team and retired after four laps following an accident. He had spun and slid into the tyre barrier.
• Jenson Button (Honda) had won this race the previous year. This time he parked his car after 35 laps with a throttle failure.
• Anthony Davidson (Super Aguri) collided after 41 laps with Fisichella, who was just exiting the pits. The rear suspension was damaged, and Davidson had to retire.
• Vitantonio Liuzzi (Toro Rosso) retired after 42 laps with an electrical failure.

There was no need for a Safety Car. The remaining 18 drivers made it to the finish.

The biggest gains in the field came from Takuma Sato (Super Aguri, 15th), Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso, 16th) and Adrian Sutil (Spyker, 17th): four places each. Hungary was Vettel's first race for Toro Rosso. The team had announced the move only a few days earlier. Rosberg was among the losers: he started fourth and finished seventh. For Massa, the weekend was a setback. He could only finish 13th, a lap down.

In the 2007 standings, Hamilton extended his lead. He now had 80 points to Alonso's 73. A two-point lead before the race had become seven. Räikkönen moved on to 60 points and overtook Massa (59) for third place. Heidfeld followed with 42 points. In the constructors' championship, Ferrari led with 119 points ahead of BMW Sauber on 71. McLaren have no points in our data. *Context:* Later in the season, the team was excluded from the 2007 constructors' championship over the espionage affair.

The race showed that, even as a rookie, Hamilton could drive flawlessly under immense pressure. At the same time, it revealed how deep the rift between him and Alonso had become.