In glorious Hungarian sunshine, Red Bull Racing celebrated their 100th grand prix with a win for Mark Webber on his 150th race start and a podium place for Sebastian Vettel.
The drivers’ results at the Hungaroring mean the team looks forward to the summer break leading the Constructors’ Championship with the Australian at the top of the drivers' table.
But it was some battle in the heat of Budapest.
The Safety Car came out on Lap 15 to allow some debris to be cleared off the track, the team split its strategies with Webber lying third going long on the option tyre and Vettel pitting from the lead. The German rejoined in front of Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari due to the lead he’d built up after a great start from pole. That left Webber leading the race but still to pit.
While Webber built up a bigger and bigger gap between himself and the rest of the pack, Vettel was hit with a drive-through penalty for not keeping within 10 car lengths of his team-mate during the Safety Car session.
From there it was a – relatively – simple matter of ensuring Mark built up enough of a gap to allow him to pit and retain his position while Vettel attacked Alonso. But while Sebastian never let go of the Ferrari driver, he was never able to get close enough to the Spaniard to take him.
Earlier, the pitstop round during the Safety Car session had descended into farce. But dangerous farce. Renault's Robert Kubica exited his box but ran into the incoming Tonio Liuzzi and Nico Rosberg’s rear right wheel came off as he drove down the pitlane bouncing through the boxes before flying up and into the garage of his former team, Williams.
And in the latter stages Rubens Barrichello very nearly ended up in the pit wall while overtaking his former team-mate Michael Schumacher who pushed him wide and very close to the concrete.
But it was a great day for Webber and for Red Bull Racing. Strategy, car, pit stops all came together to produce a dominant weekend and just one podium step shy of a perfect Sunday.
Keep up with Sebastian at the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend.
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