After the bookies doubts and even more controversy in a very intense weekend for Lewis Hamilton, he still managed to snatch victory from the jaws of doom and come through the flames to win his third victory this year at the Hungarian GP.

Although his main rival Alsonso was left neutered by the FIA, the loss of his pole position was appropriate, and

Hamilton led from start to chequered flag with Kimi Räikkönen his only real challenge, losing to Hamilton by 0.7 seconds.What was possibly less appropriate was Mclarens team being informed that it would not be able to collect Constructors’ Championship points for the race. The controversy came when Alonso deliberately blocked him in the final moments of qualifying, in order to make sure that he would get pole position.

Alonso is beginning to look like the spoilt child of F1, he has been seen waving his arm at every driver on the track even at his own team. It was underhand and decidedly unsporting, but the FIA was closely watching and after a 9 hour conference on the matter Alonso was moved to start sixth on the grid. The wilder decision to exclude the Mclaren team from collecting points however, may have been due to a very colourful exchange between Ron Dennis and Hamilton that had followed. 

Hamilton has also admitted that he had initially made a mistake on Saturday, when he disobeyed team orders and did not let Alonso go ahead of him in the early laps of the final qualifying stages.

Hamilton however is still openly and aggressively critical of Alonso stopping him getting pole, remarking:

“I wouldn’t have thought Fernando would do something like that but I have reasons to believe otherwise.”

The stewards at the FIA deemed Alonso’s actions as “prejudicial to the interests of the competition and to the interests of motor sport generally”.

So as Sunday came, the clouds had already set over the Mclaren team and Lewis may have felt the world was on his shoulders.

“I think going into the race it felt like a big cloud over my mind and it was difficult to stay focused because obviously you had this feeling in the team. The team weren’t getting any points, so you didn’t know whether the team hated you or just hated the situation or who they blamed,” Lewis commented.

He also revealed that in the build-up to the race, he had gone to speak to everyone in the team, with the exception of Alonso, to talk to them and explain what had gone on. Earlier, he had sat down with his own race engineer, Phil Prew, with the McLaren chief executive, Martin Whitmarsh, and with Alonso and his race engineer to try to thrash out the issues.  

As the race began, Hamilton jumped into an immediate lead as the the dirty side of the track had its usual effect with most of those on the left getting the jump on those on the right. Everything then settled down to the usual queue of cars that one gets at the Hungaroring. Alonso’s sixth-place penalty also worked against Nick Heidfeld, who had qualified third and was then shifted to second place on the grid – which was the dusty side of the road so Raikkonen got the jump on the BMW driver.

To begin with Hamilton sprinted clear, opening a gap of 4.6s over Raikkonen by lap 13, and then the Finn lost 1.6s in one lap when he had two offs.The middle of the race gave Raikkonen his best chance of success as he closed right up on Lewis. Kimi’s car was in top form and he had a lighter fuel load, but Hamilton knew it would be in his favour if he held on when Kimi had to run with more fuel when he would be running light. Hamilton kept his head, and separated by a second or so the two worked their way in and out of traffic. The pressure was intense.

The final laps were gripping as they duelled but there was never much hope that Raikkonen would get ahead, unless Lewis made a mistake.”I would have tried if we’d had the chance,” he said, “but there was no point to be stupid.”They finished together, but the 10 points went to Hamilton.

After the controversy of the Hungaroring, Dennis admits he has work to do to improve the team atmosphere ahead of the Turkish Grand Prix, adding: “We’re a close-knit family with some difficult times behind us and some difficult times ahead of us. 

“We will stay together and stay true to our values. Between now and the next grand prix we will definitely try and put some calmness in the team, and arrive in Turkey in a more tranquil environment than we experienced this weekend.”