BUDAPEST – Mark Webber stormed to victory at a thrilling Hungarian Grand Prix to take the lead in the drivers’ championship from Lewis Hamilton, who had to retire.
What was expected to be a procession for Red Bull burst into life thanks to a safety-car period and drive-through penalty for pole-man Sebastian Vettel.
That enabled Webber to leap-frog his team-mate as well as Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who held off Vettel for second, BBC News informs.
A gearbox problem ended Hamilton’s race on lap 24 when he was running fourth.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa took fourth, ahead of Renault’s Vitaly Petrov and Williams’ Nico Hulkenberg. Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa scored his first points of the season with seventh ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button.
The result means Webber goes into the mid-season three-week break with a four-point lead in the standings. Just 20 points separate the top five drivers – Webber, Hamilton, Vettel, Button and Alonso – while Red Bull also now lead the constructors’ championship.
That will rankle with McLaren and, especially, Hamilton, whose transmission problem ended what was promising to be another fine damage-limitation run from the Englishman, with his and team-mate Button’s cars once again well off the pace of Ferrari and the stunning Red Bull.
The McLaren drivers’ frustration were matched, if not surpassed, by Vettel’s, though, after what looked like being a processional victory for the German turned into a frustrating settle for third place.
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