Button jubilant after ‘perfect’ triumph in 200th grand prix
To add to the poignancy of such a triumph, the Hungaroring was also the scene of Button’s maiden victory in 2006, remarkably in similarly changeable conditions given the grey skies and on-off light rain.
Button, though, has made his name taking the chequered flag when the weather is far from ideal, as he did in Canada last month, and also in Australia and China last year with McLaren.
“For some reason I like these conditions, don’t ask me why, but it worked out in the end,” said Button, who now has 11 career wins overall.
“To win this type of race means a lot because it wasn’t easy out there. So this is just pretty amazing, an amazing day, a wonderful race, and perfect for my 200th. This is where I first won in F1, so I’m going to enjoy this.
“I would say it was one of my most enjoyable races, but please, I would like to win one in the dry.”
The opening few laps, after drizzly rain had prevailed all the way through to the start, led to a tip-toe start by all the drivers as they danced across the circuit. The first key error came from pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel who ran wide at turn two on lap five to allow Lewis Hamilton to take the lead.
From that point the race was a relatively straightforward one as the first two pit stops came and went with little fuss. The one exception saw Nick Heidfeld’s Renault catch fire after his second stop, the German making a hasty exit as flames lapped around him.
But the race then turned with 22 laps remaining as another light sprinkling of rain coated the circuit, making it slippy in places once more, sending Hamilton into a spin.
The 26-year-old lost the lead to Button, and in straightening his car into oncoming traffic, forced Force India’s Paul di Resta to take evasive action by running off the track.
As the next few laps unfolded, Button and Hamilton duelled for the lead which changed hands on three occasions. That was before Hamilton made a crucial error in switching to intermediate tyres as the rain had grew slightly in intensity.
It was a bad move as Hamilton pitted two laps later — his fifth stop of the race — to take on soft tyres, followed swiftly by him serving a drive-through penalty for his ‘donut’ that forced Di Resta wide. From a race-winning position, Hamilton came home fourth behind both championship leader Vettel and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.
Hamilton, who blamed a dodgy radio for the poor call on switching to inters, magnanimously said: “First of all congratulations to Jenson who pushed me hard the whole race and the better man won.
“I then had a big mistake. I think it’s one of the first times I’ve spun, but I have to apologise to Paul di Resta as I didn’t see him. I had absolutely no clue. I apologise to him.”
Button is now 100 points adrift of Vettel, with Hamilton 88 down.
The 31-year-old knows his title hopes are threadbare.
“I’m a long way behind Seb. I’ve got to beat him at every race, and that is exactly what we are going to try and achieve after we’ve had a break,” added Button.
For Vettel, who is 85 points clear of team-mate Mark Webber who was fifth and 89 ahead of Alonso, back-to-back titles are starting to loom large. The 24-year-old is not getting carried away, however, as he said: “It was a good race for me with a lot of people finishing behind, except Jenson. But there is still a long way to go, and with races like this, we know how quickly things can change.”
Di Resta kept his nerve to conjure his best F1 result to date by finishing seventh, and the Scot now has eight points to his name.
