“There’s been lots of talk about me and my private life and hopefully this
will answer lots of things. I’m 100 per cent focused this year and I’ve been
on it all season.
“This weekend shows that the championship is still all to play for. We did not
take enough points from Fernando today but, bit-by-bit, if we can continue
with this type of performance we are still in it.
“We still need to improve the car in certain areas but usually we are doing
the best pit stops now and we had our best start of the year today, which
has been a weakness. That’s good and it’s great to come back!”
A lighter mood in the McLaren
camp throughout the weekend betrayed the extra confidence that both
he and Jenson
Button, who finished sixth, had in their upgraded car after a
difficult couple of months from May to early July.
Button ran third early on after bravely diving around the outside of reigning
champion Sebastian Vettel in turn two on the opening lap. But it wasn’t to
be his day. It was a close call tactically between a two and a three-stop
race and when McLaren switched to Plan B, the three stop, Button was
unfortunate to emerge from the pits just behind Bruno Senna, having his best
race for Williams on the way to seventh place.
“I lost a lot of time there,” he said. “I got a radio message saying that I
had to overtake, which is asking the impossible at Hungaroring! I think I
could have stayed with Plan A and made the tyres last, so the strategy
didn’t work for me today.
“I don’t know why we pitted so early each time, the second and third stop we
pitted very early and the tyres were still in good condition.
“I guess the team thought it would jump the guys in front of me but each time
I came out in traffic.
“We didn’t look too good when it came to strategy today, especially on my car
and hopefully we will learn from that.”
At his final stop, Button pitted out behind reigning champion Vettel and
championship leader Fernando Alonso and his sixth place finish was not a
true reflection of the pace in the McLaren.
The race’s most dramatic point came when Raikkonen emerged from his final pit
stop level with team mate Grosjean and they almost collected each other at
turn one, the Finn snatching second place from the Frenchman.
“The team told me it was going to be close,” Raikkonen explained. “I made a
mistake with the speed limiter coming out of the pits and was still on the
button five metres beyond the line. I should have been comfortably clear.”
Raikkonen also drove the opening few laps without full use of his
power-boosting KERS system but conceded that second place was still the
maximum achievable on the day.
“I had no chance to pass Lewis but we are close and hopefully the win will
come soon.”
After Bahrain and Valencia it was the third time this year that Raikkonen has
finished second, the result cementing his serious participation in the world
championship fight.
Alonso finished fifth. His consistency — he has scored in every round this
year — gives him a 40-point lead at the top of the championship table but
there are four drivers covered by just eight points in the battle for second
place.
Lotus have a substantial upgrade scheduled for the following high-speed tracks
at Spa and Monza and currently lie third in the teams’ championship, just a
single point behind McLaren, with Red
Bull enjoying a 53-point lead. But in one of the most competitive
championships on record, it would be a brave man who placed money on the
eventual outcome.