Sunday 5th August 2007

Lewis Hamilton won the Hungarian Grand Prix for McLaren, his third win and tenth podium of the season. It was also memorable for an incident in the Saturday qualifying session, between McLaren teammates Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton went into the race with a 2-point advantage in World Championship points over Alonso and was 11 points ahead of 3rd place man Felipe Massa after a chaotic European Grand Prix, whilst McLaren held a 27-point lead in the Constructors’ Championship over their main rivals Ferrari. Ralf Schumacher scored his last ever World Championship points at this race.

Japanese former Super Aguri driver Sakon Yamamoto filled the second Spyker car, replacing European GP leader, German Markus Winkelhock. Sebastian Vettel, the youngest Grand Prix point scorer made his second Grand Prix start replacing Scott Speed at Scuderia Toro Rosso.

Controversy hit the qualifying sessions when Alonso held Hamilton up in the pit lane, denying Hamilton a chance to record a final lap time. Stewards later dropped Alonso five places down the starting grid of the race, putting him in sixth while Hamilton started in pole position. McLaren were also told they would not score any Constructor’s Championship points in the race and wouldn’t be presented with a winning constructor’s trophy on the podium if one of their drivers were to win the race. The team stated Hamilton’s hold-up was not Alonso’s fault (although Alonso gave the stewards a different explanation, that he was inquiring about his tyres), and that Hamilton had disobeyed team orders to let Alonso pass him, which put the two drivers out of sequence for their pit stops. McLaren had initially expressed their intent to appeal the Constructor’s points penalty but ultimately withdrew their appeal after subsequently losing all their Constructor’s points as penalty for the espionage scandal.