Hungarian GP

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro moved to within 19 points of Championship leaders McLaren Mercedes after Kimi Raikkonen scored eight points for Ferrari at the Hungarian Grand Prix yesterday and McLaren failed to score. This followed a stewards' ruling against McLaren after they were judged to have imposed orders which cost Lewis Hamilton the chance of a second qualifying run in the third session of qualifying. The team is appealing.

Fernando Alonso and Hamilton had set the two fastest times, but the Spaniard was penalised five places on the grid for his part in the affair. Hamilton went on to win, challenged all the way by Raikkonen, while Alonso scored a close fourth place behind Nick Heidfeld. Felipe Massa, destined to start 14th after a mistake by the team in the second session of qualifying, failed to scored points so that the Ferrari are pair are 20 points behind championship leader Hamilton.

As ever, on a circuit as difficult to overtake on as the Hungaroring, much was decided in qualifying - perhaps more than usual. Hamilton inherited Alonso's pole position with Heidfeld starting alongside. Raikkonen lined up third behind Hamilton with Nico Rosberg's Williams in fourth place. Ralf Schumacher was fifth from Alonso sixth. Then came Robert Kubica and Jarno Trulli.

The start was obviously one of the best opportunities for place changes and Raikkonen took full advantage, overtaking Heidfeld off the line and into the first corner. Rosberg remained fourth from Schumacher, then Kubica and Mark Webber and Alonso in eighth, having lost two places.

Hamilton drew away during the opening stint, having a 3.9s lead on lap 18 before the leading pair both made their pit stops. Heidfeld slowly dropped away before stopping first on lap 17, and Rosberg also dropped away. Schumacher, however, stayed close to the Williams driver, pushed throughout by Alonso who stopped, like Heidfeld and Rosberg, on lap 17.

Hamilton came out of the pits with a two second lead, and within eight laps, Raikkonen was on his tail, but there he would remain. The pair were now over 10s clear of the rest of the field, led by Heidfeld. Behind Rosberg, Kubica had leapfrogged ahead of the Schumacher-Alonso duel and when Rosberg made a second of three stops, he moved up to fourth.

The BMWs were also on three stops, making the second just after the forty lap mark. Raikkonen came in on lap 46 which was four laps ahead of leader Hamilton, and when the McLaren emerged from the pits, he was 4.4s ahead. But both drivers were now on the softer of Bridgestone's tyres, and the Ferrari seemed to be better suited to them, with Raikkonen now the quicker driver. Within six laps, the 4.4s gap had largely disappeared, and now Raikkonen was on Hamilton's tail.

But there, again, he would remain for the final 13 laps of the race, setting fastest lap on the very last of the 70 laps, and finishing 0.715s behind the McLaren. Heidfeld finished a distant third place, while Alonso got the better of Schumacher in their final pit stops and then closed on the BMW Sauber, shadowing it all the way to the chequered flag. Kubica finished fifth from Schumacher and Rosberg.

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