Less than a second behind midway through the Hungarian Grand Prix, Kimi Raikkonen took the lead from Michael Schumacher and then blew away the field for his fourth victory of the season.
Schumacher, who was on the pole, ended up second Sunday, more than 35 seconds back. Ralf Schumacher was third.
Raikkonen's sixth career Formula One victory gave him 61 points this season, second to Formula One points leader Fernando Alonso.
PHOTO: AP
Alonso finished out of the points but still holds a commanding lead with 87 and six races to go. He was forced into the pits after the first lap and finished 11th.
"For sure it looks better now than the last race," said Raikkonen, referring to the German GP, where he dropped out while leading. "It seems we throw away 10 points and then he gives it back. It goes backwards and forwards."
On a hot day in the Hungarian hills, with track temperatures approaching 45?C, Raikkonen finished 35.5 seconds ahead of Schumacher, who started from his first pole position of the season. Ralf Schumacher was 36.1 behind.
Bad luck
Raikkonen last won in Canada on June 12, but since then he has been plagued with bad luck. He sat out the United States Grand Prix, was twice penalized 10 spots on the starting grid for engine changes, and then dropped out of the German GP a week ago with hydraulic problems while leading.
He also led the San Marino GP and European GP before his car broke down.
"It seems to be always that when we have a bad race we ... we seem to win the next race," Raikkonen said.
At the start, Schumacher went away untouched followed closely by Raikkonen and teammate Juan Pablo Montoya.
Alonso was squeezed to the curb by Ralf Schumacher and lost a front wing. He came into the pits after the first lap and was more than 30 seconds behind after two laps. He has won six times this season, but his chances were over early.
"I think I was unlucky today. I was very surprised by how many movements Ralf was making into the first corner and he just didn't give me any room at all and hit the front wing," Alonso said. "When the wing came off that did quite a lot of damage to the car."
Schumacher and Raikkonen moved away and were separated by about a second through the first half of the race with Montoya in third.
Turning point
The turning point came after the second pit stop. Schumacher pitted on lap 36 and Raikkonen a lap later.
However, it was a short stop for Raikkonen, who added only a little fuel and was then able to lap faster -- a lot faster than Schumacher.
"It was really the pit stops that decided it," Schumacher said.
Raikkonen came out of the pits just ahead of Schumacher but immediately started padding the lead by nearly two seconds a lap.
"Luckily we chose different tactics and the team did a great job. We changed it -- it was the best time to stop the second time," Raikkonen said.
By lap 38, Raikkonen was seven seconds ahead of Schumacher. By lap 40, the lead was more than 12 seconds.
Montoya's collapse
Meanwhile, race-leader Montoya slowed and stopped on the 41st lap with a broken driveshaft.
"It was a race I definitely could have won and a 1-2 for the team would have been a great reward to us all," Montoya said.
Montoya's dropout gave Raikkonen about a 15-second lead over Schumacher. They both pitted again and by lap 57 Raikkonen had a 32.6-second lead and cruised to the victory.
Schumacher had his brother to worry about on the final laps. Ralf came within 0.6 seconds with four laps to go, but could not find a way to pass. He finished third, his first podium of the season.
Michael knew it would be tough for his brother to pass.
"It is almost impossible. You need to be a lot quicker," Michael said. "I just went as quick as I had to. Ralf was quick but not quick enough to pass."
Behind them, Toyota's Jarno Trulli came in fourth. Jenson Button of BAR-Honda was fifth ahead of both Williams drivers, Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber, and the other BAR driver, Takuma Sato, was eighth.
Alonso finished 11th more than a lap behind. Two years ago in Hungary, he lapped Michael Schumacher on his way to becoming the youngest winner in Formula One.
Renault went scoreless as Giancarlo Fisichella came in ninth, but it still leads the constructor's standings, 117-105 over McLaren,
"This was just not our weekend," Fisichella said.
The next race is the Turkish GP in Istanbul on Aug. 21, the first Formula One race in that country.
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