Jenson Button wins Hungarian Grand Prix

Tuesday, 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.

Layout of the Hungaroring circuit

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."

Race results

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	70	1:46:42.337	3	25
2	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	70	+3.588	1	18
3	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	70	+19.819	5	15
4	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	70	+48.338	2	12
5	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	70	+49.742	6	10
6	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	70	+1:23.176	4	8
7	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	69	+1 Lap	11	6
8	18	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	69	+1 Lap	23	4
9	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	69	+1 Lap	7	2
10	19	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	69	+1 Lap	16	1
11	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	69	+1 Lap	13
12	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	69	+1 Lap	12
13	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	68	+2 Laps	15
14	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	68	+2 Laps	8
15	17	Sergio Pérez	Sauber-Ferrari	68	+2 Laps	10
16	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	68	+2 Laps	17
17	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	66	+4 Laps	20
18	22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	66	+4 Laps	22
19	25	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	65	+5 Laps	24
20	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	65	+5 Laps	21
Ret	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	55	Water leak	18
Ret	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	26	Gearbox	9
Ret	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	23	Fire	14
Ret	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	17	Water leak	19

Sources

• Tom Cary. "Hungarian Grand Prix 2011: McLaren's Jenson Button wins landmark race at Hungaroring" — The Telegraph, July 31, 2011
• Sarah Holt. "Jenson Button wins in Hungary as Lewis Hamilton falters" — BBC Sport, July 31, 2011
• "2011 Hungary Race Results" — Formula 1, July 31, 2011