Tyre Poker

What you generally picture about a race in Hungary is a race held in bright sunshine, hot weather and very few overtakes. But as soon as you through in a rain shower and changeable conditions the race comes alive with thrills and spills all over the track to keep you glued to the television screens And that is exactly what happened this Sunday at Hungaroring.

Ever since the race last week at Nurburgring the fact that McLaren had upped their game was quite evident. Their good run also continued into the Hungarian GP with Hamilton and team-mate Button securing the 2^nd and 3^rd places on the grid. Vettel not surprisingly took the pole. At the start Vettel was able to hold off the challenge from both the McLaren for the first couple of laps. Ferrari was the biggest losers during the start with both the Mercedes drivers overtaking both Massa and Alonso. Meanwhile in the front, Hamilton was pushing Vettel in hope that he makes a mistake. The track was still slippery off the racing line owing to the rain shower just before the start, so Hamliton could not take too much of a risk in overtaking Vettel. On lap 5 Hamilton took a plunge down the inside of Vettel into the first corner and was able to keep his nose ahead through the next couple of corner to take the lead. Gradually Hamilton pulled away from Vettel who was then caught up and put under pressure by Button. As the track began to dry out Webber was among the first to pit for slicks and was immediately quicker. This prompted the rest of the field to change from the intermediates to slicks. Button and Webber were able to jump Vettel and Alonso respectively in the pits.

The positions stayed the same after the second round of stops. Alonso by then had caught up with Webber in 4^th place but could not find a way past him in the tight and twisty track. So he took a gamble of coming in for an early third stop and changed to super soft compound. Webber stayed out for a few more laps but then changed to soft compound which ensured that he could finish the race in that set of tyre if it stayed dry. Button and Vettel, like Webber shifted to the soft compound. But Hamilton took the gamble and pitted for another set of super softs. The super softs as demonstrated by Alonso were quicker for the first couple of laps but then their performances declined due to increased tyre wear.

Then on lap 47 the track was hit by a small shower which barely lasted a lap, but the asphalt immediately became slippery. On the exit of turn 8 chicane Hamilton, who had not put a wheel wrong till then, spun his McLaren almost taking out Paul Di Resta in the process. This enabled Button to take the lead. The McLaren pair fought for the lead over the next couple of laps. Then in a surprising decision which shook the whole outcome of the race McLaren called in Hamilton for a change of tyres from the worn out super-softs to intermediates. Hamilton struggled to keep the intermediates cool enough and thus lost a fair bit of time and position. Just a few laps later he had to come in for soft tyres as he was struggling to keep up on the intermediates. Then his race became even more disastrous as the stewards decided to give Hamilton a drive through penalty on the grounds of unsafe racing when he rejoined from his spin right in front of Di Resta forcing him to take evasive actions. This dropped Hamilton down to 6^th place behind Massa. By the end he climbed up to 4^th place passing Webber down the pit straight and Massa when he made his last pit stop. After 70 laps controlled and sensible driving Button took the chequered flag on the occasion of his 200^th Grand Prix start.

From the start it looked as if it was Hamilton’s race to throw away. But a mistake at the chicane and a bad call for tyre stop derailed his bid for his 3^rd victory of the season. Both the Red Bulls struggled to match the pace of their rivals. Webber though was able to bottle up Alonso in a faster Ferrari for most part of the race. Otherwise towards the end of the race Alonso could have challenged Vettel for 2^nd place. This race again showed that the Red Bull machines tend to struggle in cold and wet conditions (China, Canada, Britain, Germany, and Hungary). In the end it was evident that Button deserved this victory. He pushed when needed and was always in a comfortable position rarely challenged.