Jenson Button wins Hungarian Grand Prix

Topics:  Hungarian Grand Prix

Wikinews
August 2, 2011

Jenson Button of McLaren-Mercedes took first place in Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring, marking his 200th grand prix race in style. Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull-Renault came in second, extending his lead in the 2011 Driver's Championship to 85 points. Fernanado Alonso of Ferrari took the third place on the podium.

The race was affected by intermittent wet weather, with tyre choice playing a crucial role in the result. Button's teammate Lewis Hamilton held the lead at times, but suffered from mistimed tyre changes, as well as a spin on lap 47 and a drive through penalty. He was closely followed over the line by Mark Webber of Red Bull.

Felipe Massa took sixth place for Ferrari, followed by Force India's Paul di Resta scoring the highest placing of his career so far. Sébastien Buemi, Nico Rosberg and Jaime Alguersuari rounded out the top ten.

Four drivers did not finish the race, including Michael Schumacher whose car suffered a gearbox failure, and Nick Heidfeld. Heidfeld's Renault overheated during a longer than usual pit-stop, catching fire when emerging from the pit-lane. The driver escaped unhurt, though as marshals were tackling the fire an air bottle on the car exploded. The incident did not affect the rest of the race, with the safety car not being deployed.

In 2006, with similar weather conditions, the Hungarian circuit was the scene of Button's first F1 victory. Combining his triumph today with the celebrations of his 200th race, Button quipped that he was looking forward to the drivers' brief holiday before the next race.

"It’s great to have a couple of weeks break. It might take me that long to get over tonight."

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.