Jenson Button wins Hungarian Grand Prix

Jenson Button of McLaren-Mercedes took first place in Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring, marking his 200th grand prix race in style. Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull-Renault came in second, extending his lead in the 2011 Driver's Championship to 85 points. Fernanado Alonso of Ferrari took the third place on the podium.

The race was affected by intermittent wet weather, with tyre choice playing a crucial role in the result. Button's teammate Lewis Hamilton held the lead at times, but suffered from mistimed tyre changes, as well as a spin on lap 47 and a drive through penalty. He was closely followed over the line by Mark Webber of Red Bull.

Felipe Massa took sixth place for Ferrari, followed by Force India's Paul di Resta scoring the highest placing of his career so far. Sébastien Buemi, Nico Rosberg and Jaime Alguersuari rounded out the top ten.

Four drivers did not finish the race, including Michael Schumacher whose car suffered a gearbox failure, and Nick Heidfeld. Heidfeld's Renault overheated during a longer than usual pit-stop, catching fire when emerging from the pit-lane. The driver escaped unhurt, though as marshals were tackling the fire an air bottle on the car exploded. The incident did not affect the rest of the race, with the safety car not being deployed.

In 2006, with similar weather conditions, the Hungarian circuit was the scene of Button's first F1 victory. Combining his triumph today with the celebrations of his 200th race, Button quipped that he was looking forward to the drivers' brief holiday before the next race.

"It’s great to have a couple of weeks break. It might take me that long to get over tonight."

Race results

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 70 1:46:42.337 3 25 2 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 70 +3.588 1 18 3 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 70 +19.819 5 15 4 3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 70 +48.338 2 12 5 2 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 70 +49.742 6 10 6 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 70 +1:23.176 4 8 7 15 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 69 +1 Lap 11 6 8 18 Sébastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 69 +1 Lap 23 4 9 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 69 +1 Lap 7 2 10 19 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 69 +1 Lap 16 1 11 16 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 69 +1 Lap 13 12 10 Vitaly Petrov Renault 69 +1 Lap 12 13 11 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 68 +2 Laps 15 14 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 68 +2 Laps 8 15 17 Sergio Pérez Sauber-Ferrari 68 +2 Laps 10 16 12 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 68 +2 Laps 17 17 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 66 +4 Laps 20 18 22 Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 66 +4 Laps 22 19 25 Jérôme d'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 65 +5 Laps 24 20 23 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 65 +5 Laps 21 Ret 20 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 55 Water leak 18 Ret 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 26 Gearbox 9 Ret 9 Nick Heidfeld Renault 23 Fire 14 Ret 21 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 17 Water leak 19