Patronise F1

It is said that the Hungarian Grand Prix is won and lost at the start, and that seemed to be the case here, with Felipe Massa making a bombastic getaway from 3rd on the grid to outmuscle Heikki Kovalainen, who was on the dreaded "dirty side" of the track for second place off the line, and then power past Lewis Hamilton through the first corner, locking his front wheels as he did so, to bag the lead. McLaren's anticipated comfortable 1-2 lasted all of a few yards.

But, despite Massa showing some mercurial pace to stay clear of Hamilton, and despite him ending up with a 25 second lead over Kovalainen when Hamilton dropped back after a puncture just after mid race distance, the knack of anyones chosen sport to be a cruel mistress raised it's ugly head with three laps to go, as Massa's F1 2008 machine ground to a halt on the start-finish straight, smoke billowing out of the rear of the car. From potential championship leader to embarrassed zero-pointer in the blink of a Ferrari V8.

Kovalainen was left to cruise to the chequered flag and pick up his first ever Grand Prix win at "only" the 28th time of asking, scoring what was just his second podium finish for McLaren in the process after his luckless year. In that light, it is hard to begrudge Heikki his win, given the amount of points he has seen frittered away this year, usually through no fault of his own.

He ran third for most of the race after his slow, grid place-affected start, while the other "dirty side" runners struggled too, and as Massa led from Hamilton and Kovalainen, Timo Glock jumped past 4th place Robert Kubica from 5th, and Fernando Alonso eased past 6th placed Kimi Raikkonen down to the tight first turn.

That was generally how the field ran for the first stint, as the dusty, unloved, and frankly rubbish Budapest track proved as dutifully incompatible with overtaking as ever. An internecine squabble between Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello was pretty much it for action in the early stages, which was largely lit up by Massa's surprising pace, comfortably holding a three second lead over Hamilton. Slightly oddly, the field spilt down the middle on pace, with the top 10 all running lighter on fuel thanks to the qualifying rules, and lapping in the 1:22s, while the rest of the field, unencumbered by the post-quali lockdown on fuel tanks, were significantly heavier, and ran in the 1:24s and below. Not as their long first stints helped any of them to improve their lot in ay real way, with even the only genuine one stopper, Nick Heidfeld, only improving to 10th by the end of the race, having started 15th.

As the first stops came and went, the main loser was Robert Kubica, who dropped from 5th to 9th in a BMW Sauber again struggling for outright pace. Elsewhere, the main squabble on track between Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen remained in favour of Alonso, after Raikkonen was baulked by Sebastian Vettel's Toro Rosso, again letting slip that STR's plan to get some screen time this year revolves around mucking up other people's weekends. The Alonso/Raikkonen scrap was taking place some distance behind the impressive Glock, who contrary to opinion, turned out to have a fair chunk of fuel onboard, and despite dropping time in his first stop after a dodgy fuel rig issue, he ran in fourth after the stops, behind only the front three of Massa, Hamilton and Kovalainen.

Dodgy fuel rigs were the name of the game as the heavier cars made their stops, with flames chargrilling the sides of the cars of Sebastien Bourdais, Rubens Barrichello and Kazuki Nakajima in a short space of time. The teams seemed slightly befuddled at the dangerus problems, which did not seem to return for the rest of the race, but it is likely we'll hear more about that in the coming days, seeing as the fuel rigs are supposedly designed to minimise any of these dangers.

As the second stints progressed, so there seemed to be disaster for Hamilton, who ran off the track and was passed by Kovalainen and Glock, as the onboard footage clearly showed a front left puncture for the Brit, not the first time he's had tyre problems at an abrasive race track, and a sign that he still has more than one area of his overall racing package to sort out.

Having made a stop to take on new tyres and take fuel to the end, he rejoined in 10th place, and then simply had the task of not crashing, and waiting for the rest of the field to pit, in order to reclaim some points. Not quite the exciting "fightback" that ITV woud have had you believe, but nevertheless important damage limitation for the championship leader. Felipe Massa meanwhile, was now clear in the lead, and to highlight his level of dominance, resumed after his final pit stop still in second place ahead of Glock, who was now heading for the podium.

Finally, just before the final stops, Kimi Raikkonen woke up, having spent a dreary afternoon to that point watching Alonso's rear wing toddling along in the middle distance. He managed to leapfrog Alonso at the final stops, despite having a very leery moment a couple of laps before, as he went wide on the track following a sideways moment, and having climbed to 4th place, Kimi set about putting in some decent laps for a change, becoming the fastest man on track as he hunted down the impotent Toyota of Glock. Thankfully for the German, Kimi predictably failed to find a way past him once he caught the Toyota, though he was to gain an extra place when Massa met his smokey end.

As Massa retired, and stalked inconsolably back to the pits (at least he didn't have far to walk), Heikki won from Glock, Raikkonen and Alonso. Hamilton's "recovery" garnered him 5th place, points which enable him to keep the championship lead he had looked set to lose, while the impressive Nelson Piquet ended 6th. A quiet race from the Brazilian, who only qualified 10th for this race, but was the heaviest of the top ten, and this was an altogether more convincing drive than his more showy, but far more fortuitious, podium two weeks ago. He finished ahead of Jarno Trulli and Robert Kubica, who completed the points places.

Further back, Mark Webber's dull race saw him nil point for the third race in a row, and Red Bull's constructors position is beginning to flounder. The one-stopping Heidfeld finished 10th, ahead of the second Red Bull of David Coulthard and former Hungary winner (and indeed just a Hungary winner) Jenson Button, who botched his start badly and rarely looked like doing much for the rest of the day.

The Williams pair finished 13th and 14th, a dismal return for a track that the team had highlighted as a potential strong point for the rest of the season. If this was a strong race, then you really fear for Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg for the rest of the year. They did get a bit of overtaking in, with the Force India of Giancarlo Fisichella nerfing Nakas out the way and allowing Nico past as well, but that was pretty much all there was to talk about. Fisi ended just behind them, and ahead of the flamesome pairing of Barrichello and Bourdais, who completed the 17 finishers.

Aside from Massa, only Adrian Sutil and Sebasitan Vettel retired, both with technical gremlins. It really was a "nothing much happening" sort of race. The only real entertainment was the "Dumb and Dumber" act in the ITV commentary box, with Damon Hill's guest role revealing that he struggles to tell Red Bulls and Toro Rossos apart, he can't help but talk over pit radios, and he really isn't very interesting, though his affirmation after the start that Massa leading was "just what we needed" was pleasingly frank, given the overriding desire for them to go waffling on in anger about Hamilton not leading.

Meanwhile, James Allen inexplicably spent most of a lap talking about how Trulli's pitting Toyota was actually Timo Glock "pitting for the third time", despite the wealth of evidence available to the contrary through the onscreen graphics, live timing screen and the fact that, you know, it was Trulli's helmet. A very bad commentary indeed from the kings of sub-standard F1 commentating.

Still, it may have been dull, but championship wise it could have been a lot worse. Granted, Hamilton extended his lead out to five points (now from Kimi rather than Massa), but Massa's pace will bring hope to the Italian team, who had looked all at sea throughout this weekend, as they had done in the previous two races. With seven races still to go, the title race could still be a close run thing, particularly as we now head to the virginal tarmac of the Valencia street circuit for what could prove to be an unpredictable weekend.

Sadly for Felipe Massa, he won't be going there as championship leader, but as a man desperately needing a way back into the title race.

Drivers Championship Standings -
1 Hamilton 62pts, 2 Raikkonen 57pts, 3 Massa 54pts, 4 Kubica 49pts, 5 Heidfeld 41pts, 6 Kovalainen 38pts, 7 Trulli 22pts, 8 Alonso, Webber 18pts, 10 Glock, Piquet Jr 13pts, 12 Barrichello 11pts, 13 Rosberg, Nakajima 8pts, 15 Coulthard, Vettel 6pts, 17 Button 3pts, 18 Bourdais 2pts.

Constructors Championship Standings -
1 Ferrari 111pts, 2 Mclaren 100pts, 3 BMW Sauber 90pts, 4 Toyota 35pts, 5 Renault 31pts, 6 Red Bull 24pts, 7 Williams 16pts, 8 Honda 14pts, 9 Toro Rosso 8pts.