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F1 2013


Lewis Hamilton scores his first win for Mercedes AMG F1 Team at Hungary Grand Prix

Mercedes AMG driver Lewis Hamilton won the 2013 Hungarian Formula 1 Grand Prix, while Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen finished second, and Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel arrived on the last place of the podium.
British Mercedes AMG driver Lewis Hamilton would have never expected to win the Hungarian Grand Prix, given the fact, that he was supposed to struggle with tire wear in the predicted challenging 50 degrees C track temperatures. Instead of being influenced by the aforementioned obstacle, and in a fascinating race in which the adrenalin was on high revs throughout the race for both the competing drivers and watching spectators, he scored a marvelous victory to join Formula 1 stars like Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss as a Grand Prix winner for the three-pointed star.

The race began with AMG Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton catapulting from pole position as German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel suffered from a slow start from P2 and was busy fighting very hard to push French Lotus driver Romain Grosjean away thus preventing him from sneaking into second place. Simultaneously, German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel was also very busy at fending off German Mercedes AMG driver Nico Rosberg who was trying to pass the Red Bull from the right hand side. Spanish Scuderia Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso jumped up to fourth from his Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa, whose left front-wing endplate was face-lifted in a collision with the Mercedes AMG of Nico Rosberg, whose race was compromised after this incident.

German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel initially closed on British Mercedes AMG driver Lewis Hamilton, but it soon became evident that the Englishman was not running into the expected massive tire degradation that had been predicted, despite the high track temperature throughout the 70 laps.

British Mercedes AMG driver Lewis Hamilton was the first lead runner to enter the pits, switching from soft to medium Pirellis on lap number nine, followed by German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel on lap eleven, Spanish Scuderia Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso on the 12th and both Lotus driver Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen on the 13th lap. This first round of pit stops put Australian Red Bull driver Mark Webber into the lead after he had started his Red Bull on medium tires, but as British Mercedes AMG driver Lewis Hamilton regained second place, German Red Bull driver and Formula 1 championship leader Sebastian Vettel lost crucial time behind the McLaren Mercedes of British driver Jenson Button, which was equipped with medium tire compound.

When Australian Red Bull driver Mark Webber pitted on the 22nd lap, British Mercedes AMG driver Lewis Hamilton went back into the lead until the 31st lap, and regained it three laps later when German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel pitted again.

By half distance it was very clear that the Mercedes was not going to suffer as it had done in Germany, forcing two-stopping Finn Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen to appear into the spotlight, when Mercedes AMG driver Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel made their final stops on the 50th and 55th laps respectively. By then, Mercedes AMG driver Lewis Hamilton had advanced and was seven seconds clear of Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen, who had his hands full on aging tires fending off the attacking Red Bull of German driver Sebastian Vettel.

It got very close at some stages, but the Finn held on to second place with an iron fist. German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel had to be satisfied with third place, being angry with himself for damaging his front wing in the battle with McLaren Mercedes driver Jenson Button.

Australian Red Bull driver Mark Webber had to do a late stop to switch to the soft tires, and dropped back to an excellent fourth place after a strong run following his dramatic qualifying incidents. His pace was very fast after switching to the new tires, and if the race was going to take more than 70 laps, he would have easily snatched the third place form his German team mate.

Spanish Scuderia Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso arrived in fifth place after a typically resolute race in a less than competitive car, and for the last 32 laps he had French Lotus driver Grosjean within a second of him yet was never able to put the Ferrari driver under pressure to pass him. The Frenchman executed a courageous around-the-outside overtaking move on Brazilian Scuderia Ferrari driver Massa at Turn 4, but later clashed with the McLaren Mercedes of Jenson Button in one of the top chicanes while following German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel past it on the 24th lap. Both actions were heavily punished by the race stewards, and ruined the very promising race of the French Lotus driver.

French Lotus driver Romain Grosjean received a drive-through penalty for gaining an advantage by running off the race-track while passing Brazilian Scuderia Ferrari driver Felipe Massa, which ruined his chances of scoring a vital victory for his record, and to cement his presence at the Lotus team. In addition to this, he was also handed a 20-second post-race penalty for the incident with British McLaren Mercedes driver Jenson Button. Beacuse he held a 21.524 second advantage over the Briton at the finishing line, he retained his sixth place finish.

In one of McLaren Mercedes' strongest performances of the season Jenson Button held on for seventh ahead of Felipe Massa, with Sergio Perez in the other MP4-28 taking ninth as Pastor Maldonado’s 10th place finally gained a 2013 point for his Williams teams.

Behind the FW35, German Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg just held on for 11th after an earlier drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane, but he was only fractions ahead of the Toro Rossos of Jean-Eric Vergne, who had passed high-qualifying team mate Daniel Ricciardo within the final four laps.

Giedo van der Garde was 14th for Caterham, beating team mate Charles Pic, as Jules Bianchi headed Marussia team mate Max Chilton home in 16th. Both Caterham drivers again showed a delayed response in reacting to the blue flags.

Neither Force India cars made it to the finish line; German Force India driver Adrian Sutil stopped after 19 laps with a hydraulic leak, while his team mate Paul di Resta stopped only a couple of laps from the finish line. German Mercedes AMG driver Nico Rosberg appalling afternoon ended with a burning engine breakage in Turn 2 on the 65th lap. Valtteri Bottas’s Williams also faded, as did Esteban Gutierrez’s Sauber. The race marshals were puzzled and did not know what to do, which indicated a lack of clear instructions in removing Valtteri Bottas’s Williams. This almost caused a safety car period, which would have completely ruined the strategies of teams, and at the same time would have eliminated the hard earned advantage of the British Mercedes AMG driver Lewis Hamilton.

Ahead of the summer break, German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel still leads the drivers’ Formula 1 championship battle with 172 points as Kimi Raikkonen moves ahead of Fernando Alonso with 134 to 133. Lewis Hamilton is fourth with 124 to Mark Webber’s 105.
In the constructors’ standings, Red Bull have 277 to Mercedes’ 208, Ferrari’s 194 and Lotus’s 183.

AE
28.07.2013
Budapest - Abu Dhabi - Cairo

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