Hamilton’s win was more than a Band Aid for Formula One. It was a shot in the
arm. With the sport now entering its summer recess, not to convene again
until the Belgian Grand Prix at the end of August, the Briton’s success was
a huge boost for those who had woken fully expecting to see Red Bull’s
Sebastian Vettel stretch his lead in the title race before heading off on
his holidays. The autumn is shaping up to be far more competitive now – and
against all the odds, too.
Hamilton’s victory, by more than 10 sec from Germany’s triple world champion,
was all the more wondrous precisely because it was so unexpected. After
taking a third successive pole on Saturday, the 28-year-old had told us he
would require “a miracle” to convert that advantage in Hungary’s punishing
35C heat due to Mercedes’ tyre wear issues and the fact that the team had
been banned from the tyre test at Silverstone and were therefore playing
catch-up.
“Did I really say that?” Hamilton asked afterwards. “I don’t know what to say.
I really wasn’t expecting it. I think this is probably one of the most
important grand prix wins of my career.”
Hamilton may not have been expecting it, but perhaps he had an inkling when he
woke on Sunday that he was to play a starring role in the day’s drama,
choosing to post a picture of himself to his
1.6 million Twitter followers accompanied by the famous line from
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night: “Some are born great, some achieve greatness,
and some have greatness thrust upon them.”
It was unclear into which category he was putting himself but there has been
no shortage of debate recently about Hamilton’s claims to greatness. The
Briton’s raw speed has never been in question but his lifestyle – the
private jets, the trips to Los Angeles, the company he chooses to keep – has
raised plenty of eyebrows, despite Hamilton’s insistence that it has no
bearing upon his driving.
He certainly did not lack for focus yesterday. Making a brilliant start from
pole, Hamilton never looked in trouble. As track temperatures soared to 50C,
everyone kept expecting his tyres to drop off a cliff. They never did. True,
Hamilton pitted first after nine laps, but Vettel, who was just 1.4 seconds
behind him at that stage, could last just two more before he, too, had to
pit for new rubber. Significantly, the German was not able to eat into
Hamilton’s lead, coming out behind McLaren’s Jenson Button.
While Hamilton had wasted no time in passing his former team-mate, Vettel
could find no way past, damaging his front wing during one failed attempt
and spending the next 13 laps behind the McLaren, laps in which he had to
defend furiously against the onrushing Lotus of Romain Grosjean. By the time
Vettel was clear of Button, Hamilton had a huge advantage over the world
champion that he would not lose. Twice more he pitted, twice more he made
brilliant passes – both times on Vettel’s Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber –
to keep his momentum going.
Niki Lauda, the Mercedes chairman, described Hamilton’s overtaking as the best
he had ever seen, while Alex Zanardi, who lost both his legs in a Champ Car
race, paid an even greater accolade. “If I say I’d love to have two feet no
one would be surprised,” the Italian wrote on Twitter, “but between a normal
couple and just one like Hamilton’s I’d take the trade!”
“I think you could tell I was hungry for it today,” Hamilton said. “I was
going all out. I needed to get past those people, usually I get stuck. Today
I wasn’t having it, I was going for every move I had.”
While his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg fell back after a disastrous start
before retiring when his engine blew up, Hamilton was on fire in a different
sense, taking his career record to 22 wins. It was his fourth win in seven
trips to Budapest.
Not that he was completely ecstatic, the pain of his split with Scherzinger
proving impossible to rid totally from his mind. “I am still working on
getting those puzzles [in my life] in place and there is a big part of the
puzzle out of place at the moment,” Hamilton said before departing for his
flight. “At some stage, maybe it will come back together.” The course of
true love never did run smooth.
Hungarian GP results:
1. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes 1:42:29.445
2. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Lotus – Renault +00:10.938
3. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) RedBull – Renault 00:12.459
4. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull – Renault 00:18.044
5. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari 00:31.411
6. Romain Grosjean (France) Lotus – Renault 00:32.295
7. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 00:53.819
8. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 00:56.447
9. Sergio Perez (Mexico) McLaren 1 lap
10. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) Williams – Renault 1 lap
11. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Sauber – Ferrari 1 lap
12. Jean-Eric Vergne (France) Toro Rosso – Ferrari 1 lap
13. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) Toro Rosso – Ferrari 1 lap
14. Giedo van der Garde (Netherlands) Caterham – Renault 2 laps
15. Charles Pic (France) Caterham – Renault 2 laps
16. Jules Bianchi (France) Marussia – Cosworth 3 laps
17. Max Chilton (Britain) Marussia – Cosworth 3 laps
18r. Paul Di Resta (Britain) Force India – Mercedes 4 laps
19r. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes 6 laps
r. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Williams – Renault 28 laps
r. Esteban Gutierrez (Mexico) Sauber – Ferrari 42 laps
r. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India – Mercedes 51 laps
(rank: r = retired, nc = not classified)