Hamilton resists Lotus charge for Hungarian GP win

Lewis Hamilton has recorded his second victory of the 2012 Formula 1 season by holding a charging Kimi Raikkonen at bay in the closing stages of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Just one second separated the pair at the chequered flag after Raikkonen shot into contention with a series of quick laps at the end of an extended second stint.

The Finn jumped from fifth to second ahead of the final run to the flag, but could not find a way around Hamilton despite enjoying tyres that were five laps fresher than the McLaren’s.

Raikkonen’s Lotus team-mate Romain Grosjean held onto the tail of pole-sitter Hamilton in the first two stints before taking his third podium of the season.

The Frenchman looked particularly strong in the middle phase of the race while running a second set of option tyres against a now prime-shod Hamilton, but drifted away during the final stint after being muscled wide at Turn 1 when his team-mate emerged from his final stop.

The Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber appeared set to score fourth and fifth respectively before both drivers made third pitstops in the final 15 laps. Webber, who had been struggling with a differential issue, dropped to his eventual finishing position of eighth with his stop, while Vettel resumed still placed fourth.

Fernando Alonso ran a similar two-stop strategy to the podium-getters to take fifth and a marginally extended points lead from a largely mediocre weekend for Ferrari.

Jenson Button spent the final laps stalking Alonso in sixth. The defending Hungarian Grand Prix winner ran third in the early stages after overtaking Vettel at the first corner, but lost out midrace when a switch to the three-stop option saw him spend the first seven laps of his third stint stuck behind Bruno Senna’s Williams.

Senna held out Webber in the run to the flag to record an impressive seventh, with Felipe Massa and Nico Rosberg rounding out the top 10 in ninth and 10th respectively.

Michael Schumacher endured a miserable afternoon in the second Mercedes, which began with the seven-time World Champion becoming stranded on the gird, forcing the start to be aborted.

Schumacher started from pitlane, but was soon dealt a drive-through penalty for speeding on his way to the exit. The team eventually elected to retire the German’s car while running 18th with 11 laps remaining.

Narain Karthikeyan was the only driver not to be classified as a finisher – the Indian pulling his HRT off the circuit with nine to go after suffering mechanical issues.

Pastor Maldonado again found himself in the path of the stewards during the race. The Venezuelan was dealt a drive-through penalty for barging 12th placed Paul di Resta out of the way at Turn 12 in the final stint. Maldonado recovered to be just 0.8s behind the Scot in 13th at the end of the race.

See below for the full Hungarian Grand Prix result

See below for the updated championship points standings

Here is the Foxsports News report