Heikki Kovalainen on his way to his first ever F1 win

Race leader Felipe Massa's Ferrari engine blew up with 3 laps to go while comfortably in the lead and McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen came through to score his first ever F1 win.  Massa took the lead in the first turn at the start and controlled the race until his engine expired.

Timo Glock in the Toyota scored his first ever podium, finishing 11.0 seconds behind in second place. Kimi Raikkonen finished in third in his Ferrari, 16.8 seconds behind.

Fernando Alonso in his Renault was fourth, followed by Lewis Hamilton, who recovered from a punctured tire to finish fifth in his McLaren-Mercedes. Nelson Piquet in the second Renault was sixth, Jarno Trulli in the Toyota was seventh, and Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber was eighth.

Heikki Kovalainen hoists his first place trophy

Massa seemed set to take a well-earned victory and regain the world championship lead, but his Ferrari engine erupted in a cloud of smoke as he passed the pits with just three laps to go.

The dejected Brazilian, who drove a superb race, came to a halt near the pit exit and was walking back to the garage as Kovalainen swept past to inherit a lucky first win - making him the 100th driver to take an F1 victory.

Just two weeks after being hospitalized following his Hockenheim accident, Glock proved his practice and qualifying achievements were no fluke by taking 2nd place.

Lewis Hamilton on Sunday was ruing a tire puncture but also counting a dose of fortune as he prepared to leave Hungary still with the lead of the world championship.

Prior to the start of the 70-lap race, the pole sitter looked set to dominate, until Ferrari's Felipe Massa leapt from third on the grid to take the lead in the first corner.

From there, 23-year-old Hamilton never seemed ready to challenge the Brazilian, who would have cruised to the top of the drivers' charts if not for an engine failure within laps of the checkered flag.

Without Massa's disaster, the hit was to be even more damaging to Hamilton's championship charge, after the Briton slipped down the order because of a tire failure.

"I think I salvaged the best of the worst," said Hamilton afterwards.

"What can I do when I have a puncture? Last year I probably lost the championship on punctures."

Hamilton, whose teammate Heikki Kovalainen inherited his debut win, admitted to "surprise" about Massa's pace in the race, and also disappointment at letting the Ferrari through on lap one.

"I was a little bit disappointed with the fact I let Felipe past. But it's nowhere near as bad as it could have been," he added.

The result means Ferrari retains its lead in the Constructors' Championship, eleven points clear of McLaren-Mercedes who have now moved ahead of BMW-Sauber. Lewis Hamilton heads the Drivers' classification on 62 points; five points clear of Kimi with Felipe third, three points adrift of his team-mate.

Race Recap

The heat wave continued on race day, with the air temperature passing the thirty mark as the cars lined up on the grid, with Massa in third place behind pole man Hamilton and Raikkonen sixth. As the lights went out, Felipe made a blinding start, getting ahead of Kovalainen and pulling alongside Hamilton's McLaren going into Turn 1 to emerge as leader, driving around the outside of the Englishman. Glock was up from fifth to fourth in the Toyota and Kimi dropped a place to be seventh at the end of the opening lap. With four laps completed the order was Massa, Hamilton, Kovalainen, Glock, Kubica, Alonso, Raikkonen, Webber, Trulli, Piquet, Coulthard, Heidfeld, Button, Barrichello, Vettel, Bourdais, Rosberg, Nakajima, Fisichella and Sutil twentieth and last. Massa's lead over his pursuers was 1.5 seconds, while Raikkonen was 11.9" behind his Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team mate.

Still in seventh, Kimi was lapping quicker than sixth placed Alonso in the Renault and on lap 9 of 70, the Finn had closed to within 0.7 of the Spaniard, as Felipe extended his lead to 2.2. Kimi's pursuit was relentless and by lap 17, he was only 0.5 behind Alonso. Lap 18 saw Felipe lead the first run of pit stops, stationary for 8.2 seconds and taking on a second set of the Prime tire. Kubica in the BMW and Webber in the Red Bull also came in on the same lap, while Hamilton came in one lap later (9.4s.) Glock brought the Toyota in from fourth, followed by Kovalainen in the McLaren on lap 21.

Alonso and Raikkonen came in together on lap 22 and left nose to tail in the same order. By this point, Felipe was back in the lead, 3.1s ahead of Hamilton, with Piquet yet to stop in third place, until the Renault man pitted on lap 25. This left the order much as it had been since the early stages, with Kovalainen third, ahead of Glock, Coulthard, who had still not pitted, Alonso and Raikkonen back in seventh, 1.1 behind the Renault. Coulthard finally came in on lap 29, having been the only driver to start on the Option tire. Unusually, three cars, Bourdais' Toro Rosso, Barrichello's Honda and Nakajima's Williams all suffered minor fires at their pit stops but were able to continue. Lap 38 saw Felipe extend his lead to 4.3s, while in sixth place, Kimi was 1.4 behind Alonso. Two laps later the Brazilian had 5 seconds in hand over the Englishman who suddenly slowed with a left front puncture. He pitted and rejoined ninth, which meant Felipe now led second placed Kovalainen by almost 24 seconds, with Glock in the final podium position a further 4 seconds behind. This promoted Alonso and Kimi to fourth and fifth. Felipe made his final pit stop on lap 44, stopping for 7.5 seconds and fitting the Option tire, rejoining in second place.

When Kovalainen made his final refueling stop on lap 48, Felipe was back in the lead, heading Alonso and Raikkonen who had only stopped once so far, by 13 seconds. Kovalainen was fourth, followed by Glock, Piquet, Trulli, Kubica, Hamilton with Coulthard completing the top ten. Alonso pitted on lap 50, which promoted Kimi to second for one lap until he made his final stop next time round. With the front runners having completed their stops, this meant Felipe still led, with Kovalainen 15.4 seconds adrift with eighteen laps remaining. In the closing stages, Felipe sensibly slowed the pace so that Kovalainen was only 9.6 behind with eight laps remaining, as Kimi began setting some race fastest laps in fourth place, finally ahead of Alonso.

Then, with three laps to go disaster struck, as Felipe's Ferrari emitted a large cloud of smoke and he came to a complete stop alongside the pit wall on the start-finish line to retire. This meant that at the flag after seventy laps, Kimi finished third, behind Kovalainen taking his first ever F1 win and Glock recording his first ever F1 podium. The remaining points positions were filled by Alonso, Hamilton, Piquet, Trulli and Kubica.

Team-by-team summary:

MCLAREN-MERCEDES
Sunday in Hungary did not follow Lewis Hamilton's script, as he was passed in the first corner by Felipe Massa and thereafter consigned to chasing the Ferrari driver's inspired drive.  Massa's charge met its own untimely end and means Hamilton retains his championship lead, but the Briton was also unlucky when his second place became just fifth at the flag due to a puncture.  Heikki Kovalainen drove through the chaos to record his first win.

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TOYOTA
With Hamilton and Massa out of the frame, Timo Glock's commendable pace this weekend was rewarded with the first podium of his career.  Nearly half a minute and five positions behind, Jarno Trulli finished 7th.  "I was quick but in traffic all the race," the Italian driver said.

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FERRARI
Sheer cruel heartbreak for the bitterly disappointed Felipe Massa, who brilliantly turned the tables on the McLarens by passing them at the first corner and seemed able to then resist the Hamilton challenge.  Three laps from the end, the cruising race leader's smoky engine failed without warning on the pit straight.  "Felipe drove possibly the best race of his career," said the similarly gutted team boss Stefano Domenicali.  On the brighter side, Kimi Raikkonen salvaged third from his latest lackluster weekend, and proved the F2008 is still very quick by setting the fastest lap in the closing stages before he had to halt his pursuit of Glock to protect a failing car.

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RENAULT
A good result for the French team, with Fernando Alonso less than five seconds from the rear wing of Raikkonen's podium finish after a race-long battle, and Nelson Piquet sixth.

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BMW-SAUBER
The usual McLarens and Ferraris aside, Robert Kubica was also beaten in Hungary by both Toyotas and both Renaults, scooping just the final point on offer.  "We were very slow and now we have to go and find out why," said the 23-year-old, a crowd favorite at the race which is closest to his native Poland.  Nick Heidfeld finished tenth.

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RED BULL-RENAULT
A lackluster outing for Red Bull; Mark Webber leading the charge but lagging the race for the final point by 10 seconds.  "Let's hope it was just this track and we can bounce back in Valencia," he said.

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HONDA
Jenson Button finished 12th, the first of the lapped cars, while Rubens Barrichello was among the stragglers following a fiery moment in the pits.

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WILLIAMS-TOYOTA
Nothing to shout about in the Williams garage, as Kazuki Nakajima - one of three drivers at three separate teams to encounter small fuel rig fires during pitstops - led his similarly-lapped teammate Nico Rosberg to the flag.

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FORCE INDIA-FERRARI
Adrian Sutil raced with a brake problem that punctured his tire and eventually ended his race.  Giancarlo Fisichella finished 15th but he at least beat home Barrichello's Honda.  "We need a step forward," said the Roman.

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TORO ROSSO-FERRARI
Sebastian Vettel's nightmare weekend, which began with reliability dramas on Friday, resumed as he ran wide on lap one and later retired when a bad pitstop cooked his engine.  Sebastien Bourdais fared little better, when two small fuel rig fires left the Frenchman needing another pitstop to clear the fire extinguisher foam from the inside of his visor.  "There can be no excuses, this was a bad weekend for the whole team," said boss Franz Tost.

Results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time/Behind
1.	Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	1h37:27.067
2.	Glock	Toyota	+11.061
3.	Raikkonen	Ferrari	+16.856
4.	Alonso	Renault	+21.614
5.	Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	+23.048
6.	Piquet	Renault	+32.298
7.	Trulli	Toyota	+36.449
8.	Kubica	BMW Sauber	+48.321
9.	Webber	Red Bull-Renault	+58.834
10.	Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	+1:07.709
11.	Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	+1:10.407
12.	Button	Honda	+ 1 lap
13.	Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	+ 1 lap
14.	Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	+ 1 lap
15.	Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
16.	Barrichello	Honda	+2 laps
17.	Bourdais	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	+3 laps
18.	Massa	Ferrari	+3 laps
	DNF
	Driver	Team	On lap
	Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	63
	Vettel	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	23