VOL.2006.99
Date : 06 Aug 2K6

The Hungarian Grand Prix was a veritable goulash of a race, and it finally brought Jenson Button redemption. On his 113th attempt he took his first-ever Grand Prix victory in style, and in a race in which fortunes changed faster than the weather.

It began with McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen stamping his authority in the damp conditions. Honda’s Rubens Barrichello and Pedro de la Rosa in the other McLaren were soon chasing Raikkonen, with Renault’s Fernando Alonso scything up from 15th after a tight battle with Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari, whose choice of full-wet Bridgestones proved incorrect as the intermediate-shod Michelin runners ruled the game.

After five laps Raikkonen led De la Rosa and Alonso after Barrichello had made an early stop to switch from full-wet tyres to intermediates. Honda’s Jenson Button was also on the move, taking a car a lap until he was running fourth as it began to rain a little.

When De la Rosa pitted on lap 16 and Raikkonen on lap 17, Alonso took the lead. After all his practice dramas the Spaniard now had the race in his hands as he pulled away from the McLarens. And his chances improved even more as Raikkonen unaccountably drove into the back of Vitantonio Liuzzi’s Toro Rosso while lapping it in Turn 8 on the 26th lap. The Italian was trying to keep out of the way of faster cars, but there was a misunderstanding between them. It was a big shunt, that eliminated both cars, and De la Rosa was very lucky to avoid getting involved.

That left Alonso in the lead from Button, with De la Rosa and Barrichello chasing the final podium place as BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld moved up to fifth ahead of David Coulthard and Michael Schumacher, who was doing wonders on his increasingly inappropriate intermediate tyres. In the middle stint of the race Alonso and Button slogged it out, setting fastest laps as the gap between them stayed around four to five seconds. Further back, as the line began to dry and his wets became closer to the old type of slicks, Schumacher was on the move again, albeit well behind them.

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