Hun GP - Race weekend recap - Hamilton

Hamilton dominated the weekend in Hungary to win his second Grand Prix of the 2012 F1 World Championship.

In Germany, the McLaren team brought a great deal of updates to the car, with a brand new side-pod design the most noticeable visually, but speed wise the McLaren had also shown a great deal of improvement.

Jenson Button drove a great race to finish on the podium, while a puncture ended Hamilton's hopes early on.

But despite being a lap down and driving a damaged car, Hamilton still managed to demonstrate the cars pace and that continued going into the Free Practice sessions on Friday and Saturday.

Hamilton and Button topped the timing sheets during Free Practice 1, while Hamilton remained fastest in FP2.

In FP3 on Saturday morning Hamilton was pipped to the top spot by the Red Bull of Mark Webber, the Australian setting a time just 0.093 seconds faster than Hamilton.

But the 2008 F1 title holder came back to show his pace in qualifying, managing to top the fastest time out of everyone to claim pole position and even managed to save a set of tyres in the process.

After dominating qualifying and really showing the progress that McLaren have made over the past couple of race weekends, Hamilton told formula1.com: 'I’m told that today’s pole position is the 150th in McLaren’s history. That’s a truly fantastic achievement. I’m extremely proud to be able to contribute to the ongoing success of such a great team, especially as I first met Ron (Dennis, Executive Chairman, McLaren Group and McLaren Automotive) when I was just 10 years old. I remember the occasion really well. I told Ron that one day I wanted to be driving for his team. And here we are today. I can’t wait for tomorrow’s race!”

Hamilton had reason to be excited his McLaren was the class of the field and while his team made the wrong tyre strategy for team-mate Jenson Button, they didn't make the same mistake for Hamilton.

Although it could have been very different. Just moments after the radio message went out to Button to switch to 'Plan B', Hamilton received the same radio message, with the Brit tentatively replying 'Okay'.

In the end those few extra laps enabled Hamilton to remain on a two-stop strategy instead of a three and while the Lotus duo attempted to chase him down, Hamilton wasn't about to hand over the race victory.

After the race he said: I’m over the moon! The team did a fantastic job! Absolutely brilliant! It was a really enjoyable race - but it wasn’t at all easy. In fact, I reckon that it was one of the toughest races I’ve ever driven - but, guess what, I’ll savour it all the more for that. I was under a lot of pressure throughout all 69 laps. First, Romain Grosjean and then Kimi Raikkonen were right behind me, all the way through, and I had to look after my tyres without letting my pace drop, which was pretty tricky at times. It isn’t a static situation when a race goes like that. The feel of the car is changing all the time. You get different messages from the tyres with every lap. But they lasted - I managed to make them last. It was a case of managing the gap behind me, over the whole lap, every lap. In particular, I had to make sure that, every lap, I always had a big enough gap at the last corner, so that I wouldn’t be overtaken in the DRS zone on the pit straight. And I managed to do that every time. As I say, the team did an absolutely incredible job - and the support we’ve had here in Budapest, not only from the visiting British fans but also from the local Hungarian fans, has been phenomenal.

Hamilton's victory moves him back up to fourth in the Formula One World Drivers Championship, just five points behind Sebastian Vettel and seven points behind second placed Mark Webber.

Championship leader Fernando Alonso holds a 40 point lead over Webber.