Hungarian Grand Prix 2009

Image By John1954Moi Flickr

Pole-sitter Fernando Alonso made a good start, while Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, who started alongside the Spaniard, dropped back, ending the first lap in seventh place. Hamilton got away cleanly, almost making second place before falling back to third behind Mark Webber. Hamilton then overtook Webber around the outside at turn 2 on the 4th lap. Race leader Alonso pitted on lap 12 and was released with his front right wheel incorrectly attached. The wheel came off half-way round the lap, bouncing along the side of the track for a few hundred metres. Alonso continued to the pits, where the missing wheel was replaced, enabling him to continue in the race. He retired from the race on lap 15 because of a suspected fuel pump problem. This incident was investigated after the race and resulted in Renault being suspended for the next race in Valencia, the European GP. After the pit stops Lewis was in the lead, ahead of similarly fast Kimi Räikkönen in the Ferrari, both benefiting from their KERS systems. Vettel went a lap down with an unscheduled top; he then retired on lap 30 with a suspension failure. F1-Debutant Jaime Alguersuari finished ahead of his Toro Rosso team-mate Sébastien Buemi.

Hamilton was left unchallenged for most of the race and came home to win his first race as World Champion. This was his first victory since the 2008 Chinese Grand Prix. This was also the first occasion on which a KERS car had won a Grand Prix; Räikkönen (in another KERS car) came in second. Webber was placed third, with championship leader Jenson Button only able to finish seventh, thus cutting his lead in the championship over Webber to 18.5 points .

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