Heikki’s time has come

By James Disdale

04th August 2008

A shocked Heikki Kovalainen scored his maiden grand prix victory at the Hungaroring in Hungary on Sunday.

The McLaren ace inherited the win after the engine in long-time leader Felipe Massa’s Ferrari spectacularly exploded only three laps from the end. This allowed the young Finn to cruise to the flag ahead of Toyota’s Timo Glock, who stepped up on to the podium for the first time after a fine drive to second place, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari.

After brilliant back-to-back victories in Britain and Germany, Lewis Hamilton had a weekend to forget. The Brit secured pole position, but immediately lost the advantage at the start when Massa out-dragged him to the first corner. Lewis was then forced to follow the Ferrari until his McLaren suffered a punctured tyre, demoting him to fifth at the finish. His only consolation is that he’s still at the top of the title table, five points ahead of champion Raikkonen.

The best of the rest behind the top three was Fernando Alonso. The former champion put a disastrous German race behind him with a well earned fourth place.

But it was Kovalainen who had the most to cheer about. Speaking afterwards he said: “Today I am very, very happy. All the hard work that the whole team has put in has paid off. Through difficult times, we just kept pushing and I am very glad to score my first victory.” Now the teams travel to Valencia, Spain, on 22 August, where an all-new street circuit will make its debut on the F1 calendar for the European Grand Prix.