Schumacher charged into the lead from pole position, but Raikkonen soon overtook team mate Juan Pablo Montoya to seriously chase Schumacher and challenge for the lead. Everybody suspected that the Ferrari had qualified with a light fuel load, no one seemed to consider what the Finn had done, (he was obliged to start first in the qualifying session because of his Hockenheim failure).
The Finn was the first man to refuel as he swept into the pits on lap 11 which dropped him back to fifth behind Schumacher, Montoya and the Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher. Schumacher's Ferrari pitted on lap 15, which meant that Montoya inherited the lead, after the usual slick Ferrari pit work Schumacher just got back out ahead of Raikkonen, so battle resumed.
By lap 23 Raikkonen had the gap down to less than a second, just after Montoya had refuelled on lap 22 and dropped back to third again. Now it was a matter of who stopped first second time around, as the Ferrari and the McLaren were just half a second apart. This time it was Schumacher who came in first, on lap 36. Raikkonen came in a lap later, and managed to get back out ahead of the Ferrari.
After this second fuel stop Raikkonen was lapping in the 1m 21s bracket, and Schumacher appeared to be struggling in the 1m 23s. The reason for the difference in lap times became apparent when on lap 48 Raikkonen refuelled for the final time, having taken on much less fuel in the first pit stop to enable him to build a lead of 24s. It was more than sufficient, and he came back out five seconds ahead of Schumacher. Schumacher stopped on lap 57, but by then Raikkonen was home and dry, more than 30s in the lead.
All of this action and Kimis win was helped enormously by the demise of Juan Pablo Montoya. The McLaren MP4-20 is certainly the fastest car it is still not fully reliable. Montoya had taken the lead after the pit stop reshuffling but on lap 40, as Raikkonen was closing fast, he suddenly slowed before pitting with a broken driveshaft, the very same problem that affected Kimi last week. For McLaren it meant that a further eight valuable points, which would have brought their total within four of Renault's, were lost.
Towards the end Michael Schumacher was being chased hard by brother Ralph in his Toyota but as has been proved many times, it's one thing catching a F1 car but another to overtake it, Ralph went on to take his first Toyota podium. Jarno Trulli was fourth giving Toyota a good solid team result.
The first corner carnage saw Rubens Barrichello hit the back of Trulli, while Schumacher Jnr knocked off Alonso's front wing as he forced the Renault driver up the inner kerb, while further back Jacques Villeneuve helped Christian Klien into a spectacular barrel-roll. At the approach to the top chicane Alonso's wing fell off altogether and lay on the track, everyone avoided it apart from David Coulthard who was right behind Mark Webber's Williams and was thus unsighted. He hit the wing at full speed, tearing a wheel off his RB1 and to the horror of his Red Bull team effectively finished their afternoon's racing on the first lap.
This was a great strategic race for Williams, whose two-stop plan succeeded nicely as Webber, the last to stop initially, came through to take seventh place ahead of Takuma Sato in the second BAR, who took his first point of 2005. Jensen Button in the other BAR managed to take 5th spot and add to his growing tally of championship points.
Renault had a miserable weekend which all started with Alonso's mistake at the end of his qualifying lap, their lowly grid positions meant that they became involved in all the antics at the start which prevented either Renaults getting points. Fisichella was 9th with Alonso 11th.
Felipe Massa's car briefly caught fire in the pits due to a faulty coil, this was put out and he continued in the race albeit several laps down. Team mate Villeneuve suffered an identical problem but his was on the track and the fire damaged other components which finished his chances.
The F1 world championship series produced yet another dramatic twist in the chase for the F1 title here in the Hungarian Grand Prix today. Even if the actual racing is not particularly exciting, with few overtaking manoeuvers the pit stop strategies and mechanical breakages have kept everyone on the edge of their seats this year. There was much speculation about Ferrari's dominance in qualifying and Michael Schumacher's pole position, everyone wanted to know his fuel load and whether he could match his qualifying to his race pace.
