Jenson Button marked his 200th Grand Prix with a reminder of his class on Sunday when he drove his McLaren to a stirring victory in a chaotic and incident-filled Hungarian Grand Prix. The 31-year-old Briton, who started third on the grid, made the most of some wretched ill-fortune for his team-mate and compatriot Lewis Hamilton in changing wet-dry-wet-dry conditions to record his second win of the year and the 11th of his career.
“It’s a great moment, all round a major weekend. For some reason I like these conditions,” said Button of the slippery track. Championship leader Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull was second with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in third. In spite of his second place, Vettel increased his lead in the drivers’ title race. He now has 234 points, 85 ahead of Webber with Hamilton, Alonso and Button bunched up behind. Red Bull lead the constructors’ table with 383 points ahead of in-form McLaren on 280.
Back on the circuit where he claimed his first F1 win in 2006, for Honda, Button revelled in the demanding circumstances which saw a record 88 pits stops. Given a celebratory cake before the race on Saturday, he ate it with relish. “It was a great call by all of us not to go to the ‘inters’ (intermediate tyres) and a great weekend for the team,” said Button. “We’re going into the break on a nice high, but every day we will be thinking about the next race in Spa.