Another package of upgrades for the Hungarian Grand Prix, including front and rear wings and other bodywork changes, enabled the AT&T Williams team to maintain competitive form throughout the weekend. Both cars ran within the top five during Friday’s practice sessions, giving the team reasonable confidence about prospects for Saturday’s qualifying session.

In the event, both cars progressed comfortably into Q2 and Kazuki recorded the third quickest low fuel time, putting him through to the final ten for the third time this year and marking a notable improvement in his qualifying performance. Q3 provided both drivers with only four laps of opportunity to claim an optimum grid slot, in the event Nico achieved his target of P5, but Kazuki was unable to derive the maximum potential from his car.

However, both cars had secured grid positions on the clean side of the track. The team followed a conventional two stop strategy with both cars for the race and ran option-option prime tyre selections, consistent with most of the grid. Of considerable tactical importance on Sunday was Nico’s ability to stay ahead of the KERS powered car of Kovalainen. His strategy was predicated on keeping the sixth placed Finn, who was carrying one extra lap of fuel and likely to be slower in the first stint, behind him.

In the event, the McLaren had the stronger start but Nico continued his strong run of opening lap form and was able to re-pass Kovalainen into turn one, bringing his race prospects to life. A short delay of around 1.5 seconds in Nico’s first pitstop was costly, but he still exited the pits in front of Mark Webber. Nico did not hold the position, but he was not threatened thereafter in a clean and confident run through his three stints to fourth place, claiming the third fastest lap of the day in the process.

Nico’s points tally has promoted him to fifth place in the Drivers’ Championship.

Teammate Kazuki Nakajima had more limited opportunities given his start position. A more fruitful race outcome might have been possible if he had been able to hold Jenson Button after overtaking him at the start. With Button back in front of him and holding him up during the first stint, the range of opportunity to improve on his P9 start position was limited, and he ran to the flag without incident and just outside the points.