Lewis Hamilton digs in to win in Hungary

With the Olympic Flame burning in London and a GB good luck sticker adorning his crash helmet, Lewis Hamilton reignited his own championship challenge with a fine win in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Hamilton's pole position was dominant but with high track temperatures imposing heavy demands on the tyres, he knew that he would have to work for his second race win of the season.

So it proved and Hamilton had his mirrors filled by black-and-gold Lotuses for almost the entire hour and 40 minutes. First it was fellow front-row starter Romain Grosjean and then, in the later stages, 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen.

There were a couple of anguished radio messages as backmarkers proved slow to move over, but Hamilton remained in control.

"These are the kind of races, under pressure the whole way from drivers like Romain and Kimi, where you have to be 100 per cent," Hamilton said. "The team didn't flinch and neither did I. It's good to go into the summer break knowing we've had a win. Mentally and physically, managing the summer break is important but it's always easier when you've just won.

"A pat on the back for a good job from everyone but we know we've got a big job on our hands to stay ahead. There's been lots of talk about me and my private life and hopefully this will answer lots of things. I'm 100 per cent focused this year and I've been on it all season.

"This weekend shows that the championship is still all to play for. We did not take enough points from Fernando today but, bit-by-bit, if we can continue with this type of performance we are still in it. We still need to improve the car in certain areas but usually we are doing the best pit stops now and we had our best start of the year today, which has been a weakness. It's great to be back!"

A lighter mood in the McLaren camp throughout the weekend betrayed the extra confidence that both he and Jenson Button, who finished sixth, had in their upgraded car after a difficult couple of months from May to early July.

Button ran third early on after bravely diving around the outside of reigning champion Sebastian Vettel in turn two on the opening lap. But it wasn't to be his day. It was a close call tactically between a two and a three-stop race and when McLaren switched to Plan B, the three stop, Button was unfortunate to emerge from the pits just behind Bruno Senna, having his best race for Williams on the way to seventh place.

"I lost a lot of time there," he said. "I got a radio message saying that I had to overtake, which is asking the impossible at Hungaroring! I think I could have stayed with Plan A and made the tyres last, so the strategy didn't work for me today. I don't know why we pitted so early each time, the second and third stop we pitted very early and the tyres were still in good condition.

"I guess the team thought it would jump the guys in front of me but each time I came out in traffic.

"We didn't look too good when it came to strategy today, especially on my car and hopefully we will learn from that."

At his final stop, Button pitted behind reigning champion Vettel and championship leader Fernando Alonso and his sixth place finish was not a true reflection of the pace in the McLaren.

The race's most dramatic point came when Raikkonen emerged from his final pit stop level with team-mate Grosjean and they almost collided with each other at turn one, the Finn snatching second place from the Frenchman.

"The team told me it was going to be close," Raikkonen explained. "I made a mistake with the speed limiter coming out of the pits and was still on the button five metres beyond the line. I should have been comfortably clear."

Raikkonen also drove the opening few laps without full use of his power-boosting Kers system but conceded that second place was still the maximum achievable on the day. "I had no chance to pass Lewis but we are close and hopefully the win will come soon," he said.

After Bahrain and Valencia it was the third time this year that Raikkonen has finished second. Alonso finished fifth. His consistency - he has scored in every race this year - gives him a 40-point lead at the top of the championship table but there are four drivers covered by only eight points in the battle for second place.

Lotus has a substantial upgrade scheduled for the high-speed tracks at Spa and Monza and currently lie third in the teams' championship, just a point behind McLaren. Red Bull remain 53 points ahead of their challengers.