F1 News
Date: 29/July/2012
Lewis Hamilton held off a feisty Kimi Raikkonen to record his second win of the 2012 F1 season at Hungary on Sunday.
Barring pit stops, the McLaren driver led from start to finish, completing a near perfect weekend for the Englishman.
Yet it was Raikkonen who arguably stole the show, the Finn overcoming a bad start and KERS problems to spend the final 15 laps tucked under Hamilton’s rear wing.
Raikkonen’s first victory since his F1 comeback, and first for the Lotus brand since Ayrton Senna in 1987, looked firmly on the cards. But Hamilton wasn’t to be denied and held firm to the finish.
A delighted Hamilton said: “The races you win like this - where you’re under intense pressure from great drivers like Romain and Kimi - feel great, because you have to have your mind 100 per cent focussed.
“The team didn’t flinch and neither did I.”
Hamilton revealed that he actually let Raikkonen close up in some corners in the hope that the ‘dirty air’ would accelerate the Finn’s tyre wear.
“Kimi was never really close enough to pass. I purposely allowed him to close up in certain corners, so that he may have problems with his tyres,” he said. “But I made sure I drew a big enough gap in the last three corners to try and keep clear of the DRS.”
Hamilton also had warm words for former McLaren driver Raikkonen, who sat out the 2010 and 2011 seasons.
“It's great to see Kimi up here with me. I've got a huge amount of respect for him. I remember watching him on TV before I even got to Formula One and when I used to play the computer games I would always play as him,” said Hamilton.
Victory was also the perfect response to criticism that Hamilton’s sometimes high-profile private life is a distraction.
“There always seems to be a lot of talk about me and my private life. Hopefully this will answer lots of the things that have been said. I am 100 percent focused this year, regardless of what people think.
“I've been on it all year, I've never been so committed but of course, I'm still in my twenties, I do want to enjoy my last bit of my twenties, because I've heard it's downhill from then on. I've got to strike a nice balance and I think I am.”
Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion for Ferrari at Hamilton’s expense, had spent the early part of the race in sixth place, but delivered excellent pace between pit stops to squeeze ahead of team-mate Romain Grosjean after his final tyre change.
The 32-year-old then quickly bridged the four-second gap to Hamilton, but confessed his only chance of a victory pass was if Hamilton’s tyres went over the edge.
“My only chance was that they would run out of the tyres - but that never happened, so we probably should have had 20 more laps,” he smiled.
“I didn’t win, so there’s no point to worry about it.
“Yeah, you would rather win than come second but it's a long season and I think we're improving all the time. If the win comes it's great, if not, we keep trying. I've been in the business long enough that I don't really worry about things too much.”
Raikkonen was joined on the podium by rookie Grosjean, underlining the race-winning potential of the former Renault team.
Hungary marked Raikkonen’s third podium of the year and he is now being linked to a possible Ferrari return alongside Fernando Alonso, who extended his title advantage despite a fifth place in Budapest.
Asked if he would consider a Ferrari comeback, Raikkonen replied: “I always said that I didn't have bad feelings against [Ferrari]. I had a good time with the team. I won my championship there but things probably could have gone a nicer way in the end.
“Life goes on and you never know what happens in the future but I'm happy where I am now and things are going pretty nicely. I don't come up with the rumours, so perhaps you have to ask the people who write them.”
Raikkonen is fifth in the championship, eleven places ahead of Alonso’s current team-mate Felipe Massa.
The Spaniard heads for the summer break with a sizable 40-point lead over Red Bull’s Mark Webber, who could only manage eighth place after a diff problem.
Hamilton is 47-points behind Alonso in fourth, but insists his title hopes are far from over.
Hamilton said: “This weekend shows that it's all to play for still. Bit by bit, if we can continue with this kind of performance then we can slowly catch him, but we know we need consistency and we need to improve the car.
“The team is doing a fantastic job. We've now usually got the quickest pit stops and today I got the best start I've had all year, I was really surprised by it.
“This is a really good stepping stone for us, especially after the last three tough races. It's great to come and end the summer on this high.”
Round 12 of 20 will begin at Spa, Belgium on August 31.
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