F1: McLaren win as teams KERS the tech.

Ferrari and McLaren stuck with KERS when other teams gave up. They had worked something out: if they could get their cars up the grid to the third row, on most tracks, they could use the KERS to make up two or even three cars' lengths. For the first have of the season, they could not get up the grid.

But in recent races, they have been there or thereabouts - and yesterday it came good for them. Off the line, Hamilton waited for the additional power generated by KERS to kick in - and then shot off down the road after pole-sitter Alonso.

But this time was different: he did not need to use the KERS button to stay out of trouble: this time, the car worked and KERS was a bonus. For the first time this season, Hamilton had a car that did as it was told.

Hamilton closed in on Alonso who, flying light, had raced away at the beginning: Hamilton used the KERS button for one thing only: to maximise his speed on the short straights. He used no extra fuel. Asking his team if he should chase and overtake Alonso, Hamilton got a laconic "it's up to you. You are catching him anyway."

Alonso came in for an early stop - and in a masterly display of ineptitude, the lollipop man told him to go while the front right wheel mechanic was struggling to fit the wheel. At the first corner, Alonso almost went straight on, then the aero-disk began to unscrew itself, flying off and down the track, shattering into pieces. Alonso slowed right down - but then the wheel fell off, bouncing along the track which, fortunately, was empty at that moment.

After that, the race for the lead was over. Hamilton was almost boring to watch as he seemed to saunter off into the distance. Half-way through the race, he asked his team if he should back off to save the engine.

Kimi Raikkonen's launch was horrendous: far more aggressive than that of Mark Webber in the preceding race for which Webber received a drive-through penalty. At Hungaroring, the stewards immediately announced that they would review Raikkonen's behaviour - but only after the race. Surely this is not another Ferrari favouritism? As of today, there is no news of their decision.

Back down the field, the real racing was taking place. Button found his car to be evil handling on the hard tyres in practice - but after the first stint, the soft tyres didn't work either - although his times were only one-tenth worse whilst he complained of desperately bad handling than when he didn't. Then, in the last stint, with the hard "prime" tyre fitted, he found new speed. It seems that the Achilles Heel of the Brawn is that it is designed to work within a very small window. The cooler European races have, simply, not been in that window. Button eventually finished seventh with is team mate out of the points. Button said that McLaren and Ferrari have improved but "our car is not what it was two or three races ago. After four laps, my tyres were destroyed."

Webber's third place - entirely on merit and without KERS emphasises the strength of the Red Bull team, although Vettel dropped out with technical problems.