A solid Mark Webber coming from 3rd position managed to return on the top of F1 World Championship after 12 races when he won the Hungarian Grand Prix in Hungaroring. Yet, Webber's success is in fact his team-mate's misfortune who appeared to had victory in his hand after starting from the pole position and keeping Alonso behind.
Initially the race looked for another close Redbull team-mate battle until Vettel's chances of victory faded when safety car suddenly entered the circuit due to debris on the track. As a result the German ace served a drive through penalty for exceeding ten car lengths behind the safety car. Webber took full risk not to pit to change his tyres and while he was driving his car with extra soft tyres for more than 40 laps he managed to create a time margin against Alonso and Vettel that was enough to keep him in front.
Webber commented:
"I knew that Seb had some difficulties on the restart for whatever reason and it was a bit of a gift today for me. But I haven't had many of them [gifts] so I'll take today's. Tough luck to Seb, obviously he lost a couple of spots at under the safety car."
After serving his penalty Vettel was found behind Alonso and was unable to find the pace and even more a way to pass slower Alonso.
As he promised, solid Alonso managed to split the Red Bulls on the start and threaten their domination in the circuit called "Monaco without barriers" and finished 2nd. His team-mate Massa had an indifferent race and finished in his starting position 4rth. 5th was Vitaly Petrov, Hulkenberg was 6th. Pedro De la Rosa was 7th celebrating Sauber's 300 Grand Prix and Switzerland's National Day.
All of them took advantage of Hamilton's retirement on lap 24 with transmission problems and pit stop chaos.
Robert Kubica, had a rough day for Renault as he was released from the pits directly into the path of the incoming Force India of Adrian Sutil during the rash of stops, the resultant contact leading both on the retirement list. That list also contained Nico Rosberg, who was fighting for sixth until the right-rear wheel fell off his Mercedes as he left the pits on the 15th lap.
The errant wheel bounced down the pit lane and eventually struck Williams mechanic Nigel Hope in the back. He was attended to in the medical centre, but was well enough to rejoin colleagues in the pits before the end of the race. Renault and Mercedes were fined $50,000 fine each for the incidents by the stewards.
Jenson Button salvaged some points for McLaren after a rough race, the world champion finished back in 8th ahead of Kamui Kobayashi and Rubens Barrichello.
The Brazilian was involved in the most dangerous incident in his 17 years F1 career after his ex team-mate Michael Schumacher nearly pushed him into the concrete pit wall during the final laps of the race.
Defending his position for 10th but being out of pace, Michael Schumacher actually turned his Mercedes against the Brazilian and pushed Barrichello's Williams wide down the inside and squeezed it between him and the wall while driving at around 220 kmph. The Hungarian race stewards found Schumacher guilty for "illegitimately impeded car 9 during an overtaking manoeuvre" but penalised him softly with just a 10 positions penalty for the grid of the following grand prix.
Rubens Barrichelo commented about the incident at BBC Sport:
"Horrible! That should be a black flag.
On a track that is so difficult to overtake, you should choose a line and that is it. It was close, close, close, close and luckily the wall finished there and I was able to go a bit more to the right.
There is not a rule for that but between ourselves we should take a line, stick to it and that's it. He is taking something from the past to the future or the present and I don't think it is needed. There has been a lot of controversy already over the last week so there was no need for that."
Schumacher defended the latest and most lethal of his infamous non-sporting actions, stating with arrogance that he left Barrichello enough space to go the other side but that he opted against it.
"There is not much to say other than he obviously had fresher tyres. My job was to get the last corner spot on and I had a line of about five centimetres I had to hit and in that lap I ran a little wide and started sliding so my exit speed was compromised. I was moving over to the inside to make it very obvious and clear to him to go on the other side, there is more space for you. He didn't choose to, so it got a bit tight. We know certain drivers have certain views and there is Rubens."
The result of the race means that Mark Webber retakes advantage for the championship against Hamilton, Vettel, Button and Alosno after 12 races scoring 4 grand prix victories more than any other driver.
