The Complete 2007 Hungarian GP Review

The Hungarian Grand Prix should have provided McLaren with some sweet respite from their besieged position at the epicentre of arguably the biggest political storm ever to develop in Formula One.

Instead they were overwhelmed by a new controversy, as the season-long tension between Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton reached a dramatic new high in qualifying.

The team's plan called for Alonso to head Hamilton during the Q3 fuel burn. But Hamilton arrived at the end of the pitlane first, then refused to cede. He subsequently set a provisional pole time, then returned to the pits for new tyres only to find Alonso still stationery in the box 10 seconds after he had been given the signal to depart. That 10 second delay cost Hamilton the chance to make a second run - and he was therefore unable to respond when Alonso knocked him off pole position.

An evening of tension followed, with both drivers arguing their respective cases in the official press conference and a subsequent McLaren media briefing. More forthright conversations doubtless took place behind closed doors.

For McLaren boss Ron Dennis, there was deep frustration that a front row sweep had been tarnished by the incident.

"Okay, we are first and second, but we didn't do what we should have done as a team," he said after qualifying. "It wasn't the clean operation that I would have liked it to be, because it didn't unfold the way we meant it to unfold."

But he remained confident that the issue was a breach of internal discipline, and therefore an in-house McLaren matter.

"There are definite pressures within the team," Dennis said. "We make no secret of it. They are both very competitive (drivers), and they both want to win, and we are trying our very hardest to balance those pressures.

"Today we were part of a process where it didn't work, and the end result is more pressure on the team.

"But what you hear is the exact truth of what happened, and we will manage it inside the team through the balance of the season."

Even as he spoke, Dennis' hopes of keeping the argument as an internal McLaren conversation were in the process of being dashed, as the stewards prepared to announce that Alonso was being put back to sixth on the grid, and that McLaren would be barred from scoring constructors' championship point. The subsequent decision not to permit a team member to collect McLaren's trophy after Hamilton's win added to the torment.

At a critical juncture in a very tight title battle, McLaren clearly had the fastest package in Hungary. They should have scored an easy one-two, and dealt a major blow to Ferrari's hopes.

Even with the penalties and controversies, their lead driver remains 20 points clear of Ferrari's top scorer. They have a 19-point advantage in the teams' standings, and would be 34 ahead should they appeal successfully.

Their driver line-up contains the pre-eminent talent of the current era, and arguably the most impressive rookie in Formula One history. Their position should be an enviable one.

Yet by the end of what should have been a weekend of unbridled triumph, Dennis was "so drained, it's difficult to have any emotion left."

And there are still six more races to go, with Alonso and Hamilton going head to head for the title with their relationship more strained than ever, plus the spy case hearing looming ominously. Winning can rarely have been such a depressing experience.

Practice

Practice one - Friday am

For only the second time in 2007 - and the first time in dry conditions - a driver outside the McLaren/Ferrari quartet led the way in the opening Friday practice session, as BMW's Robert Kubica used a late run on the super-soft tyres to set the pace.

Behind Kubica, the usually dominant foursome were covered by 0.135 seconds, with Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen ahead of the McLarens. Nick Heidfeld put the second BMW into fifth.

In a session of little incident, Rubens Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher both made it into the top ten despite quick spins at Turn 1, while Mark Webber and Alex Wurz were respectively stranded trackside and delayed in the garage by electrical problems.

Practice two - Friday pm

BMW's dash for super-softs in first practice had been prompted by the threat of rain in the afternoon, but in the event the only weather-disruption was a light shower in the final half-hour of the Friday running.

Before the precipitation, Fernando Alonso set the 1:20.919 lap that would prove to be the best of the day, putting him a comfortable 0.364 seconds clear of surprise challenger Heikki Kovalainen, who made good use of what he described as an "unusual programme" of practice running.

Third-placed Hamilton ended the session in the gravel, having spun at Turn 9 in his eagerness to get past Spyker newcomer Sakon Yamamoto. The Japanese returnee had earlier rotated at the first corner, and ended the day 2.6 seconds slower than teammate Adrian Sutil, and 5.4 seconds adrift of the leaders.

The Ferraris fell back to sixth and seventh - behind the impressive Nico Rosberg and Heidfeld - with Raikkonen in particular unhappy with the car's handling.

Practice three - Saturday am

Just as it began to look like the advantage lay with McLaren, Massa put Ferrari ahead by nearly three tenths of a second in the final practice session.

Alonso and Hamilton were second and third, with Heidfeld intruding on the frontrunners again in fourth and pushing Raikkonen back to fifth.

But the most significant aspect of the session was the poor performance of the super-soft tyres. When the main contenders switched compounds for their final runs, they all set new fastest sector times in the first third of the lap, until for the Bridgestones to wilt further around the lap.

Practice round up

Sorted by total laps from all three sessions

Qualifying

Part one

Honda had little expectation of marking the first anniversary of their sole win with a return to the podium, but neither did they imagine that the Hungaroring would see their worst qualifying performance of an invariably dreadful season.

There was a brief glimmer of hope as Jenson Button squeezed up to 16th with his last lap of Q1, but then Vitantonio Liuzzi swiftly pushed him back outside the cut-off point, and ensured an all-Honda ninth row.

"The car felt reasonably good today which shows that the balance is there so we didn't expect to be in this position," Button said.

"It's strange to have a car which is feeling so consistent and to still not make it out of the first qualifying session. It seems to be a lack of efficient downforce which is affecting our pace."

Toro Rosso and Super Aguri got one car apiece into Q2, with Anthony Davidson joining Liuzzi in the next session while Takuma Sato and Sebastian Vettel missed out. Delayed first by a weighbridge call, Sato then luridly wide at the final corner on what should have been his best lap, and ended up a second slower than his teammate.

Vettel made a lesser error in the same sector, but felt the four tenth deficit to teammate Liuzzi was mainly a sign of his inexperience with the STR-02.

"I suppose it might not have been realistic to expect much more as the time I have had to get used to the car and the team has been quite short," he said.

Spyker took up their habitual back row positions, with Adrian Sutil a second clear of new partner Sakon Yamamoto. But the team believed that margin should have been a lot smaller had Giancarlo Fisichella not refused to allow Yamamoto past when on an out-lap.

"It's a shame that a young driver has been held up by such an experienced driver," said technical boss Mike Gascoyne.

Part two

What was already turning into a weekend of damage limitation for Ferrari became even more difficult when Felipe Massa was eliminated in Q2 due to what Luca Baldisserri summarised as "a serious mistake in our management of the second qualifying session".

The first error was Massa's, as a slip on his first flying lap left him outside the top ten. Then the team neglected to fuel him sufficiently for his second run - forcing the Brazilian to stop in the pit lane and wait to be wheeled back to the pit box. His tyres cooled during this confusion, and when Massa eventually did attempt a proper lap, it was only sufficient for 14th.

"Tomorrow, I expect a very difficult race, as this is one of the worst places to start from a long way back," he said.

Robert Kubica nearly joined Massa in the eliminated sextet. Hamstrung by a BMW that was "not accelerating how it should", the Pole languished in 12th until squeezing into the top ten with his final lap.

That cost David Coulthard a Q3 place, with the Red Bull driver joining a very perplexed Heikki Kovalainen on row six. The Finnish rookie was bemused as changes to the Renault's balance saw him fall from second in Q1 to 12th in Q2.

Williams' Alex Wurz struggled with his handling and took 13th, with Davidson and Liuzzi filling the eighth row.

Part three

While others scrabbled to avoid elimination, Lewis Hamilton had been making imperious progress through qualifying.

His first flying lap of Q1 had been 1.2 seconds clear of the field, and he remained seven tenths ahead even after others improved.

He followed that up with another fastest time in Q2, and then remained on top after the first flying laps of Q3.

But by that time an incident had taken place that would prove to be the catalyst for the most dramatic chapter yet in the unfolding story of the McLaren inter-team rivalry.

To the outside world there seemed little amiss with the manner in which Hamilton led Alonso out of the pit lane and disappeared into the distance when Q3 began. But on the pit wall, it was the start of a remarkable sequence of controversies that would irrevocably mar McLaren's weekend.

The team's standard Q3 strategy was for one driver to lead on to the track and burn off more fuel than the other. On this occasion it was Alonso's turn to follow this preferential plan, but Hamilton's car arrived at the end of the pit lane first, and the Briton then disregarded the team's instruction to swap positions when they took to the track.

Irked by this, and a delay caused by an unco-operative tyre blanket at his first stop for fresh rubber, Alonso (following instructions from his engineer) dawdled in his pit box for an additional 10 seconds before setting out for his final flying lap.

His hesitance would have been entirely innocuous but for the fact that Hamilton was queuing behind him - and that the time spent waiting to enter his pit meant that the championship leader ran out of time for a second flying lap.

While Hamilton made a fruitless attempt to sprint around his out-lap before the chequered flag, Alonso calmly set out on his second qualifying run - and beat his teammate to pole by 0.107 seconds. With no chance to respond, Hamilton had to settle for second.

But within moments of the session ending, the stewards announced that they would investigate the incident - summoning Dennis and demanding access to the team's radio transmissions from qualifying.

Late into the evening, they announced that Alonso had "unnecessarily impeded another competitor" and would be demoted to sixth on the grid, and that McLaren would not be allowed to score any constructors' championship points in the race.

"The actions of the team in the final minutes of qualifying are considered prejudicial to the interests of the competition and to the interests of motor sport generally," said the officials' statement.

McLaren vehemently disagreed with the verdict, and vowed to appeal.

"We do not believe that the findings of the stewards and the severe penalty imposed on the team are appropriate, and that our strenuous efforts to maintain the spirit of fair play and equality within the team have been misunderstood," they said in a statement.

Alonso was left rueful and baffled.

"The penalty is not related to any specific rules," he said. "It's just one of those strange things that happen."

Inevitably the other events of Q3 were utterly overshadowed by the McLaren controversy. There had to be sympathy for Nick Heidfeld, who equalled his season-best qualifying in third (prior to the Alonso penalty), then sat virtually silent through the press conference as the McLaren duo were barraged with questions.

Heidfeld's pace pushed Kimi Raikkonen down to fourth. The Finn admitted that the eight tenths of a second deficit to pole was a realistic gap - at least over a single lap.

"To be honest, we were not quick enough today to think about beating our closest rivals, but I think we have a good race pace, which means we can be more competitive than we looked in qualifying," he said.

The McLaren furore eventually elevated Nico Rosberg to a season-best fourth - but even his original fifth place had left the German "pleasantly surprised."

Toyota's run of respectable performances continued with a pre-penalty sixth and ninth for Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli. They were half a second apart, a difference that reflected their relative happiness with their chassis.

Kubica remained puzzled by his BMW's acceleration and up-change issues as he took seventh. He would become the only man in the top ten to actually start in the position that he had qualified in, as eighth-placed Fisichella was ultimately put back to 13th as a punishment for blocking Yamamoto in Q1.

Mark Webber reached Q3 for Red Bull again, but in hindsight he was envious of his teammate's row six spot.

"It's not ideal to be tenth on the grid here," he said. "Actually it's one of the worst positions to be in as it's so hard to overtake! I'd prefer to be 11th.

"With the qualifying rules we now have, you can end up going through all of Q3 but finishing tenth means you don't really gain anything, as you can't adjust your fuel ahead of the race as the other cars behind you can."

Qualifying results

The final grid

Pos  Driver              Team
 1.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren/Mercedes  
 2.  Nick Heidfeld       BMW Sauber/BMW    

 3.  Kimi Raikkonen      Ferrari           
 4.  Nico Rosberg        Williams/Toyota   

 5.  Ralf Schumacher     Toyota            
 6.  Fernando Alonso     McLaren/Mercedes     Demoted from 1

 7.  Robert Kubica       BMW Sauber/BMW    
 8.  Jarno Trulli        Toyota            

 9.  Mark Webber         Red Bull/Renault  
10.  David Coulthard     Red Bull/Renault  

11.  H.Kovalainen        Renault           
12.  Alexander Wurz      Williams/Toyota   

13.  G.Fisichella        Renault             Demoted from 8
14.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari             

15.  Anthony Davidson    Super Aguri/Honda 
16.  Vitantonio Liuzzi   Toro Rosso/Ferrari

17.  Jenson Button       Honda             
18.  Rubens Barrichello  Honda             

19.  Takuma Sato         Super Aguri/Honda 
20.  Sebastian Vettel    Toro Rosso/Ferrari

21.  Adrian Sutil        Spyker/Ferrari    
22.  Sakon Yamamoto      Spyker/Ferrari    

The Race

With his three main rivals further back on the grid, and with the advantage of being on the distinctly cleaner left hand side of the track, there was little doubt that Lewis Hamilton would lead the first lap.

Sure enough, he already had a 1.6 second advantage as he crossed the line, with Kimi Raikkonen having immediately accelerated past Nick Heidfeld into second as the BMW demonstrated just how little grip the off-line side of the grid offered.

The first lap was going to be crucial for the out of position Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, but it worked out badly for both.

Alonso took a tentative look down the inside of the pack into Turn 1, then ran out of space and had to brake early - allowing Robert Kubica to go around the outside and push him back to seventh.

Eager to get a run on the BMW down the pits straight next time around, he then had a major slide through the final corner, ending up being passed by Mark Webber and having to determinedly defend against Heikki Kovalainen at the first corner.

Felipe Massa also failed to make progress, and fell to 15th after running wide at Turn 5. As he completed the opening lap staring at the back of Takuma Sato's Super Aguri, Massa's hopes of salvaging any points already looked remote.

Alonso wasted little time in slicing past Webber and Kubica with identical moves at Turn 1. But those passes simply brought him back up to where he had started, and he then spent the rest of the opening stint unproductively chasing fifth-placed Ralf Schumacher.

At the front, Hamilton quickly established a four second lead over Raikkonen, with third-placed Heidfeld falling 10 seconds adrift, while dropping Nico Rosberg, Schumacher, Alonso and Kubica.

But as the stint wore on, Raikkonen began creeping closer to the McLaren, and by taking on a smaller fuel load when both made their first stops on lap 19, the Finn rejoined just a second behind Hamilton, who then began to struggle with his car.

"I had a problem with my steering," he explained. "I don't really know what that it was but it made it quite difficult to keep the pace.

"As you could see, I dropped off a little bit and I was a bit nervous that something was going to break, but thank God it didn't."

There was little reason for Hamilton to be pensive, for as close as Raikkonen got, the Finn was always pessimistic about his chances of getting past.

"The problem here is, especially when two cars are very close, the other guy in front really has to make a big mistake to give you any chance to get past, so it was a kind of a boring race just driving behind and waiting for something to happen," he said.

Safely ensconced in second, Raikkonen had the luxury of being bored - whereas for Alonso and Massa the dearth of passing opportunities was a desperate frustration.

Alonso again had the penalty of starting down the order with a fuel load designed for a front row start, and he temporarily fell to ninth when he came in for the first time on lap 17. He was also consigned to another stint behind Schumacher - and both were jumped by Kubica as the Pole ran two laps further than Alonso.

With most of those around him on three stops (and Schumacher making his second and final stop before the McLaren), there remained hope for the two-stopping Alonso.

Sure enough, when he rejoined after his last pit visit on lap 50, the champion was fourth and comfortably ahead of Kubica, Schumacher and Rosberg, whose shorter first two stints had proved costly as his primary rivals ran further on low fuel.

But the many laps spent in traffic had stymied his chances of beating Heidfeld to third, as the BMW regained the track 2.4 seconds clear of Alonso.

That gap was soon reduced to nothing, but Heidfeld had few concerns.

"Obviously he had better pace than I had, but we all know that it's difficult to overtake here in Hungary," he said.

"When I came out of my last stop, he was a few seconds behind, so I decided to take it easy on option tyres, not to kill them, in order to keep them alive and keep Fernando behind.

"He pushed pretty hard for a couple of laps, then backed off and then tried again for the last one or two laps but I managed to stay ahead."

A few trips over the kerbs proved how hard Alonso was trying in his fruitless quest to at least rescue a podium finish. By contrast, Raikkonen preferred to maintain a watching brief at the front, staying close behind Hamilton without ever making a concerted bid to pass.

Consequently the final laps were tense rather than spine-tingling, as Hamilton simply had to maintain his pace, take care in traffic, and cruise home to secure his third win and extend his championship lead back to seven points.

As Hamilton headed for the chequered flag, there was another painful twist for McLaren, as the stewards decreed that the winning constructor should not be represented on the podium as the team had appealed against the ruling not to award them championship points. So Hamilton celebrated alone on the rostrum, while his squad pondered how what should have been a consummate and potentially vital one-two finish turned so sour.

By the end of the race the top two had pulled 43 seconds away from the competition, led by the Heidfeld-Alonso battle. Kubica and Schumacher finished close behind them - to the satisfaction of both men. A year on from his wayward but promising Formula One debut, Kubica was relieved to overcome his troubled qualifying and take another top five finish, while Schumacher was extremely pleased with his first top six of 2007.

Considering the pace he had shown in practice, qualifying and the early stages, seventh was a slightly underwhelming result for Rosberg.

"In the end, I have to be pleased with this result, even if I had hoped to have done better than seventh. That's just the way it turned out and there wasn't much more we could have done," he mused.

The final point went to Kovalainen, who had moved up to 11th at the start, then maintained an impressive pace through two long opening stints on the unpopular super-soft tyres. He ran outside the top eight for most of the distance, but benefited from Webber's mid-race switch from a two to a three stop strategy. The Red Bull could not pull out a sufficient gap over the Renault before its final pit appearance, and finished eight seconds behind.

Jarno Trulli had not been on teammate Schumacher's pace for most of the weekend, but a poor start gave him an additional disadvantage, as he fell to 12th by the first corner. A long 30-lap middle stint vaulted the Toyota past David Coulthard and Giancarlo Fisichella, meaning that he at least broke into the top ten, just ahead of the Red Bull.

Fisichella had a moderately eventful race that included a wheel-banging moment with Anthony Davidson at Turn 1 as the Renault rejoined after its second pit stop. The impact was sufficient to break the Super Aguri's rear suspension and send it spinning into retirement on the approach to Turn 2 - a shame for Davidson after he had run competitively amongst the midfield works cars.

In the final stint Fisichella then had to cope with pressure from the exasperated Massa. Running until lap 35 might have paid off for Massa had that been his sole stop, but instead he had to return to the pits 15 laps later to ensure he completed the mandatory stint on the unfavourable softer Bridgestones.

He made it past Alex Wurz when the Williams went off the road briefly after a misunderstanding with the lapped Adrian Sutil, but moving up from 14th to 13th was of little use to Massa as Hamilton racked up another win and re-established a 21-point championship advantage over the Brazilian, who dropped back to fourth in the standings.

Sato took a lonely 15th - 14 seconds behind the Fisichella-Massa-Wurz train and half a minute clear of Sebastian Vettel, who had a quiet debut race for Toro Rosso. The German ran behind teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi until the latter had electrical problems and retired.

After the anomalous rain and excitement of 2006, the Hungarian GP reverted to type this year. The contrast was particularly galling for last season's winners, as Honda's dismal weekend reached a new low in the race.

Jenson Button was on course to beat the Toro Rossos and Spykers, but few others, until an engine failure saved him from the ignominy of finishing 16th on the track where he had celebrated a heroic win twelve months earlier.

His teammate Rubens Barrichello was elbowed to the back of the field on the first lap, managed to pass Sakon Yamamoto, then spent the rest of the afternoon slowing edging closer to Adrian Sutil but ultimately finishing 18th and last.

"Today we just didn't have any pace and despite the fact that I was pushing as much as possible, there was nothing coming from the car," Barrichello said.

Honda's misery was matched by Spyker's delight, as the Anglo-Dutch squad greeted Sutil's achievement in beating Barrichello as a significant turning point.

"Adrian had a great showing, demonstrating we can beat other teams on race pace," said team boss Colin Kolles. "It's hopeful, as with the improved speed of the new car in Turkey, we should be able to take the fight to a few more people."

Yamamoto could not add to Spyker's celebration. Last year he only made it to the first corner before spinning his Super Aguri into retirement. In 2007, he managed five laps before depositing his Spyker in the tyre wall.

Race results

70 laps; 306.663km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1h35:52.991
 2.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  +     0.715
 3.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  +    43.129
 4.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  +    44.858
 5.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  +    47.616
 6.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  +    50.669
 7.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  +    59.139
 8.  Kovalainen    Renault              (B)  +  1:08.104
 9.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  +  1:16.331
10.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  +    1 lap
11.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  +    1 lap
12.  Fisichella    Renault              (B)  +    1 lap
13.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  +    1 lap
14.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota      (B)  +    1 lap
15.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +    1 lap
16.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  +    1 lap
17.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari       (B)  +    2 laps
18.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  +    2 laps

Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:20.047

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)    43
Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)    42
Button        Honda                (B)    36
Yamamoto      Spyker-Ferrari       (B)     7


World Championship standings, round 11:

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Hamilton      80        1.  McLaren-Mercedes     138
 2.  Alonso        73        2.  Ferrari              119
 3.  Raikkonen     60        3.  BMW Sauber            71
 4.  Massa         59        4.  Renault               33
 5.  Heidfeld      42        5.  Williams-Toyota       20
 6.  Kubica        28        6.  Red Bull-Renault      16
 7.  Fisichella    17        7.  Toyota                12
 8.  Kovalainen    16        8.  Super Aguri-Honda      4
 9.  Wurz          13        9.  Honda                  1
10.  Coulthard      8
11.  Webber         8
12.  Rosberg        7
13.  Trulli         7
14.  R.Schumacher   5
15.  Sato           4
16.  Vettel         1
17.  Button         1

Team-by-Team

MCLAREN-MERCEDES

Consistent speed throughout practice suggests that this will be an excellent weekend for McLaren. Then it all goes awry as Hamilton disregards the team's strategy and stays ahead of Alonso in Q3.

Alonso then waits an additional 10 seconds in his pit box prior to the final flying laps and delays Hamilton sufficiently to ensure that he misses his last run - and then proceeds to snatch pole from his teammate, who is powerless to respond.

The stewards are unimpressed and demote Alonso to sixth. He falls to eighth with a scruffy first lap, but eventually makes it back to fourth, gaining ground by making one less stop than most of the other points scorers. Hamilton leads from start to finish, resisting pressure from Raikkonen to score his third win.

RENAULT

Kovalainen's second places in second practice and Q1 bode well - so he is perplexed when the car's balance disappears in Q2 and he only manages 12th. Fisichella makes it to eighth on the grid then is demoted five places as a punishment for obstructing Yamamoto while on an out-lap in Q1. While Kovalainen uses a good start, strong pace on super-soft tyres, and a productive two-stop strategy to progress to eighth, Fisichella spends all day trapped in the traffic and finishes only 12th.

FERRARI

Raikkonen is unhappy with the car on Friday and only qualifies fourth, 0.8 seconds behind the McLarens. He gains one position from Alonso's penalty, then passes Heidfeld off the line. Left standing by Hamilton at first, he closes in during the middle stint and spends most of the race within a second of the leader - but never has a chance to pass. Massa is quickest in final practice, then has a disaster in Q2.

An error on his first lap, the need to be pulled back to the garage after the team belated realise he has insufficient fuel for a second run, and then a poor final flying lap on cooled tyres combine to leave him 14th on the grid. He spends the race yearning for clear air and comes home a frustrated 13th.

The return to the scene of their superb 2006 victory coincides with a massive step backwards for Honda. Button and Barrichello start only 17th and 18th, and the Briton retires with an engine problem while on course to finish a lonely 16th. Barrichello is edged down to last at the start, and finishes there, beaten by Sutil.

Kubica uses the softer tyres to go fastest in the opening practice session, but struggles in qualifying as a technical problem impedes his car's acceleration and gearchanges. He still manages seventh on the grid, while Heidfeld qualifies a strong third then is elevated to the front row once Alonso receives his punishment.

That proves to be a mixed blessing for the German, as he flounders on the dusty side of the grid at the start and falls to third. He stays there for most of the race, but manages to make a three-stop plan work better than most and denies Alonso the final podium place. Kubica gains ground in the pits and takes fifth.

Another double top ten start for Toyota, with Schumacher taking sixth and Trulli ninth prior to the penalties - and the German significantly more comfortable with his car. Their fortunes remain the same in the race, as Schumacher runs competitively to take sixth, and Trulli drops to 12th on the first lap and can only recover to 10th, although a long middle stint helps him make some progress at least.

Webber loses practice time to an electrical problem, but continues his habit of breaking into the top ten in qualifying. However after ending up 10th, he casts envious glances at teammate Coulthard's 11th place and free strategy choice. Ultimately it's Webber mid-race switch from a two to a three stop strategy that costs him a point, as he is unable to pull out sufficient distance over two-stopper Kovalainen and falls to ninth. Coulthard has 'little to report' after chasing Trulli home in 11th.

Rosberg again shines throughout practice and is a firm fixture in the top seven. He qualifies fifth, and gains another place when Alonso is demoted. The German maintains that position in the first stint, but loses ground by pitting slightly earlier than the other three stoppers.

He is passed by Alonso, Kubica and Schumacher during pit stop sequences and finishes a moderately frustrated seventh. Wurz qualifies only 13th, spends the afternoon in a queue of cars, and takes the flag in 14th after going off the road while trying to lap Sutil late on.

Speed's dramatic post-Nurburgring dismissal allows Vettel to rejoin the F1 field. But he finds it hard to impress in an unfamiliar Toro Rosso, and qualifies 20th to teammate Liuzzi's 16th. They run a similar pace in the race, with Vettel finishing 16th after Liuzzi retires with electrical problems.

Like Vettel, Spyker's new recruit Yamamoto has to acclimatise to a new car and being back in F1 during the course of practice. He finds it predictably hard to get on terms with Sutil, but would have qualified within a second had he not been baulked by Fisichella. Both Spykers get ahead of Barrichello at the start, but Yamamoto is soon overtaken and then crashes after five laps. Sutil keeps the Honda at bay and finishes 17th.

Davidson easily reaches Q2 and is very pleased with 15th on the grid, while an error on his final Q1 lap ends Sato's chances of a similarly achievement. Both run competitively amongst the upper midfield queues in the race, but while Sato takes 15th, Davidson's race ends when he bangs wheels with Fisichella as the Renault rejoins after a pit stop. The contact breaks the Super Aguri's suspension and he spins into retirement.

Lap-by-Lap

Lap 1: Pole position starter Lewis Hamilton makes a solid start to lead the field into the first corner. He stretches his lead to 1.6 seconds over the lap. Nick Heidfeld loses second to Kimi Raikkonen on the drag to Turn One as Nico Rosberg, Ralf Schumacher and Robert Kubica annexe fourth to sixth.

Fernando Alonso had a poor start and spent the early lap in traffic © LAT

Initially seventh, Fernando Alonso gets onto the dirt at the final corner and slips to eighth, behind Mark Webber. Heikki Kovalainen is ninth from David Coulthard, Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trulli, Anthony Davidson, Alexander Wurz, Takuma Sato, Felipe Massa, Tonio Liuzzi, Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Adrian Sutil, Rubens Barrichello and Sakon Yamamoto.

Lap 2: Hamilton extends his lead to 2.4 seconds.

Lap 3: Alonso passes Webber.

Lap 4: Hamilton posts a 121.529 to lead by 3.3 seconds. Alonso passes Kubica.

Lap 5: Yamamoto spins into the tyres - and retirement - at Turn 11.

Lap 6: Personal bests for the top two: Hamilton 121.444, Raikkonen 121.307.

Lap 8: A 121.191 for Raikkonen: the gap is 3.1 seconds.

Lap 9: Hamilton ups his pace: 120.859.

Lap 11: Trulli passes Fisichella for 11th.

Lap 12: Raikkonen posts a 120.625.

Lap 13: Hamilton responds: 120.171.

Lap 16: Hamilton leads by 4.5 seconds.

Lap 17: Heidfeld, Rosberg, Alonso and Barrichello pit.

Lap 18: Schumacher pits.

Lap 19: Hamilton, Raikkonen, Kubica and Fisichella pit. Hamilton retains the lead.

Kimi Raikkonen kept a close eye on Lewis Hamilton throughout the race © Reuters

Lap 20: Hamilton leads by 2.0 seconds. Webber, Trulli and Liuzzi pit.

Lap 22: Raikkonen cuts his arrears to 1.9 seconds. Heidfeld lies third, from the yet-to-stop Kovalainen, Rosberg, Coulthard (also still to stop), Kubica, Schumacher, Alonso and Webber.

Lap 24: Raikkonen closes to within 1.6 seconds...

Lap 25: ...and 1.5 seconds.

Lap 26: The Finn chips away again. Hamilton leads by 1.2 seconds. Coulthard pits.

Lap 27: Raikkonen closes by another tenth. Kovalainen pits, as does Sutil.

Lap 28: Hamilton's lead shrinks to 0.8 seconds.

Lap 29: Hamilton gains 0.3 seconds. Wurz pits.

Lap 30: Hamilton goes 1.5 seconds clear. Davidson and Button pit. Davidson loses a place to Wurz at Turn One as he rejoins.

Lap 31: Vettel pits.

Lap 32: Rosberg makes his second stop, Sato his first. The Japanese driver almost trips up Hamilton at Turn One as he rejoins.

Lap 33: Barrichello passes Button.

Lap 35: Half-distance. Massa and Barrichello pit. Hamilton leads Raikkonen, Heidfeld, Kubica, Schumacher, Alonso, Webber, Rosberg, Kovalainen and Coulthard.

Lap 36: Button pulls off to retire.

Lap 37: The leaders are separated by 0.9 seconds.

Felipe Massa moves over to let through race leaders Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen © LAT

Lap 40: Webber pits.

Lap 41: Heidfeld and Fisichella pit.

Lap 42: Kubica pits. Davidson spins into retirement at Turn Two after brushing wheels with Fisichella. Vettel passes Liuzzi.

Lap 43: Coulthard and Liuzzi pit. The latter retires.

Lap 45: Sutil pits.

Lap 46: Raikkonen pits.

Lap 48: Schumacher pits.

Lap 49: Kovalainen and Vettel pit.

Lap 50: Hamilton, Alonso and Massa pit. Hamilton emerges more than four seconds clear of Raikkonen.

Lap 51: Trulli and Wurz pit.

Lap 53: Raikkonen closes the gap to 3.1 seconds.

Lap 54: Heidfeld makes his third stop.

Lap 55: Raikkonen cuts his arrears to 2.2 seconds. Rosberg and Sato make their final scheduled stops.

Lap 56: Raikkonen trails by 1.2 seconds. Kubica pits.

Lap 57: The two leaders are 0.5 seconds apart. Alonso is pushing Heidfeld for third. Kubica, Schumacher, Rosberg and Kovalainen complete the top eight.

Lap 58: Webber pits. Massa passes Wurz.

Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, and Nick Heidfeld on the podium © Reuters

Lap 61: The gap at the front is 0.7 seconds.

Lap 65: Five laps to go and Raikkonen is 0.9 seconds adrift.

Lap 68: Hamilton leads by 1.2 seconds - his biggest margin for a wile.

Lap 70: Hamilton takes the third win of his Formula One career, 0.7 seconds clear of Raikkonen who posts a 120.047 on the final lap. Heidfeld is third from Alonso, Kubica, Schumacher, Rosberg, Kovalainen and Webber.

Trulli, Coulthard, Fisichella, Massa, Wurz, Sato, Vettel, Sutil and Barrichello finish more than a lap behind the leaders.