Sunday: Hamilton clinches his second victory of the year

Lewis Hamilton – Winner

« Well, what can I say? I am more than thrilled! The team did a fantastic job! Truly brilliant! It was a great race – but it wasn’t easy. In fact, I acknowledge that it has been one of the hardest races I’ve had to run in – but, guess what, I enjoyed it even more because of that.

I was really under pressure throughout the 69 laps. First with Romain (Grosjean) then with Kimi (Räikkönen) who were right behind me throughout the race, and I had to save my tires without losing pace, which was quite tricky at times.

This is not a static situation when the race unfolds like that. The feeling with the car is constantly changing. You get different feedback from the tires every lap. But they held up – I managed to make them last. It was a matter of managing the gap with those behind me throughout the lap, every lap. I especially had to ensure that each lap, I had enough of a gap at the last corner not to be overtaken in the DRS zone on the pit straight. And I succeeded every time.

As I said, the team did an absolutely incredible job – and the support we’ve had here in Budapest, not just from British fans but also from Hungarian fans, has been phenomenal.

And being able to win a Grand Prix on the weekend when the Olympic Games started in the UK, well, that makes me feel like we contributed to bringing even more success to the UK during this Olympic period. Someone told me we clinched the first British gold medal of 2012. Well, that’s not really true, is it? But it’s the first British victory in this Olympic period, which is pretty cool.

Regarding this season as a whole, it is clear that after the mid-season break, we will have a lot of work to do. But for now, we are going to celebrate (this victory) – all of us, family, friends, and fans -, put on our red Vodafone t-shirts, and enjoy this moment. No one celebrates (their victories) like we do. »

Jenson Button – 6th

« First of all, I’d like to say a big ‘Well done!’ to Lewis and the entire Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team. You guys did a fantastic job!

For me, I think it was a more frustrating day than Lewis’s. That being said, I was really thrilled to be ahead of Seb (Vettel) on the first lap, overtaking him on the outside at turn 2, and being able to hold onto that third place solidly at that moment. I was keeping up with the leaders as well, even after the first pit stop, I could still see the leaders – so we were very close.

Next, we decided to switch to a three-stop strategy – but after my second and third stops, I unfortunately had to deal with traffic, which made things more complicated because due to the traffic, I was stuck and was lapping slower than I could actually do if I had a clear track.

But there are many positive points to take away from this weekend: our car is obviously fast, as I was able to demonstrate at Hockenheim and as Lewis was able to confirm here, and in the second half of the season, I know that everyone within the team will work very hard to maintain and continue this development curve.

From now on, with the arrival of this summer break, I am going to take a vacation and rest. I am actually looking forward to it.