Kimi Raikkonen won this afternoon’s Hungarian Grand Prix ahead of Michael and Ralf Schumacher in second and third places respectively. Jarno Trulli was fourth followed by Jenson Button, Nick Heidfeld , Mark Webber and Takuma Sato, who secured his first point of the season.

Michael Schumacher led the cars away on an incident free parade lap and the crucial start got underway as scheduled. With overtaking virtually impossible here, it was imperative that Kimi Raikkonen had a good start and that he did, the Finn instantly moving into third place behind his teammate, getting past Jarno Trulli, as Michael Schuamcher streaked into the lead. The Red Bull of Christian Klien ha a big off into the first corner, rolling his RB1 after connecting with one of the Saubers, but thankfully the Austrian climbs from the car uninjured. Rubens Barrichello ran into the rear of Trulli’s Toyota, causing the Ferrari driver to pit for repairs. Fernando Alonso was also in pitlane after losing his front wing due to contract with the other Toyota of Ralf Schumacher, and unfortunately for David Coulthard, his Red Bull found the debris from the Renault on track and was forced to retire as a result, meaning that both Red Bull racers were out of the race before the end of the first lap.

Kimi Raikkonen made his way past teammate Juan Pablo Montoya for second place, the Finn slicing into Schumacher’s lead. Meanwhile, Alonso was all the way down in 17^th after his unscheduled stop.   Schuamcher and Raikkonen continued to exchange fastest laps with Raikkonen cutting the gap down to eight tenths of a second before coming in for a very early stop on lap 11. Many suspected Schumacher was running light, but instead it was Raikkonen, meaning that the Ferrari driver could have the advantage here after all.

Kimi emerged in P5, 25 seconds off the lead. Two laps later and its Jarno Trulli in for his first fuel stop. Rubens Barrichello almost collided with the Jordan of Narain Karthikeyan as he made his way past the Indian racer for P13. Lap fifteen and both Schumacher’s pit, Michael from the lead, Ralf from P3, leaving Juan Pablo Montoya in the lead of the Hungarian Grand Prix. Michael emerged just 14 seconds behind Montoya with Kimi Raikkonen a further three seconds back while Ralf managed to get past his teammate during the stops. Montoya’s lead increases as Schumacher fights with traffic and Raikkonen closes the gap as a result.

Lap 20 and Montoya records the fastest lap of the race, building the gap to Schuamcher before coming in for his first stop. Lap 21 and the McLaren mechanics emerged for Montoya. The race is on to see where the Colombian will emerge…..but it was a long stop and he fails to get past Raikkonen and settles back into third place, two seconds behind the Finn, who in turn was less than a second behind Schumacher.

Button and Fisichella pit, a crucial stop for Fisi who had been desperately trying to get past the Williams of Nick Heidfeld. The Renault was stationary for 11 seconds and emerged behind Barrichello in P13, however the Ferrari ran wide soon afterwards and allowed the Italian racer through. Lap 26 and Alonso pits, his chance of points here today almost non existent. Heidfeld finally had his stop and good news for the Williams racer as he rejoined the circuit in front of Fisichella. Mark Webber was the final driver to pit on lap 29 while Robert Doornbos pulled over and retired his Minardi, the Dutchman becoming the third retirement of the race.

Raikkonen kept the pressure on Schumacher but there was no way around the Ferrari. Problems for Massa as the Sauber slows but all eyes were on the Ferrari pits as Schumacher came in for his second stop on lap 36. It was then all down to Raikkonen who had the job of making the most of the free track to gain the precious seconds needed to get past the Ferrari in the pits. However, it was just one lap later and the Finn was in, a short stop from McLaren and he remerged ahead of the Ferrari! He will need to pit again, but when? Montoya moved into the lead but Raikkonen kept up the pressure, increasing the gap back to Schumacher before his teammate suddenly runs into problems the Colombian slowing dramatically before pitting in. He is told by his engineers to turn off the engine and his race is over.  McLaren needed all the points they could get especially as rivals at Renault were not even in the top eight, so this was not good news for the Woking based squad.

Fisichella made an error that allowed Mark Webber through for P8 and Felipe Massa pits in with a fire in his Sauber. Lap 48 and Raikkonen is in again for his third and final stop and he rejoins ahead of Schuamcher to keep the lead, with a pitstop up his sleeve! It seems as if the earlier slash and dash did the job perfectly!

Lap 56 and the cars on two stop strategies began to come in, Webber, Heidfeld, Barrichello, Alonso, but for Christijan Albers, it was a stop for fuel, it was straight into the garage and into retirement.

Up the front and Raikkonen was leading by 15 seconds before the Ferrari came in for its second stop. A very quick stop for the reigning world champion, just 19 litres of fuel, and he rejoined in P2, ahead of brother Ralf. Fisichella had his second off track excursion for the day. Lap 59 and Jacques Villeneuve pulls over to the side of the track and retires from 12^th place, smoke coming from his Ferrari powered C24. Teammate Felipe Massa rejoined earlier and was running seven laps down.

The laps ticked down and with just eight to go, Raikkonen’s lead was up to 33 seconds, the battle being between the two Schumacher brothers for second place. Albers rejoins in an attempt to secure a better place in the qualifying order for Turkey. Places remain the same with Michael keeping his younger brother behind him in third as they take the chequered flag. Kimi Raikkonen wins in Hungary and closes the gap to Alonso by ten points as the Renault driver finishes in eleventh and out of the points.