It was a case of 'after the Lord Mayor's show' in Budapest on Sunday as the Hungarian Grand Prix again provided a race to forget, particularly after the controversy of qualifying.
With
Fernando Alonso demoted to sixth on the grid, and
McLaren stripped of the right to score team points, after the 'blocking' issue that prevented
Lewis Hamilton from completing a second flying lap on Saturday, it was left to
Kimi Raikkonen and
Nick Heidfeld to provide the opposition to the British hero, who inherited top spot on the grid from his team-mate.
In the event, only Raikkonen managed to offer any challenge to Hamilton, the
Ferrari proving a better prospect in race trim than it did in qualifying. Heidfeld remained in touch for a while, before the relentless pace up front took its toll, leaving Alonso's battle to progress through the field to hold much of the attention.
The Spaniard make things hard for himself, however. As Hamilton made the perfect getaway from pole, and Raikkonen took advantage of lining up on the clean side of the grid to pass the wheel-spinning Heidfeld, Alonso found himself similarly affected by starting off-line. A look down the inside into turn one was thwarted by a defensive
Nico Rosberg and the world champion then found himself swallowed up by
Robert Kubica, dropping to seventh. A mistake at the final turn also allowed
Mark Webber through, leaving the McLaren eighth and already nearly ten seconds off the lead.
Rosberg held his fourth place, ahead of
Ralf Schumacher and Kubica, while
Heikki Kovalainen and
David Coulthard completed the initial top ten, benefiting from a poor opening lap from
Jarno Trulli. Further back,
Felipe Massa had also conceded a couple of places, dropping to 16th as he struggled to get his heavily-fuelled Ferrari off the line.
