MOTOR SPORT:ON THE calendar of Formula One events there are tracks that evoke passion, drama, excitement. The Hungaroring is not usually one of them. The curving, bowl-shaped circuit outside Budapest has a less-than-fearsome reputation as one of the sport's low points. Tight and technical, it is not a circuit for heart-in-the-mouth passing moves.

Victory here is taken by number-crunching, by stealth and strategy.

Yesterday, Heikki Kovalainen proved the axiom wrong with a dramatic win, gifted him two laps from home by Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

For 68 of the 70 laps it seemed the Hungaroring would present its usual face. Once Massa had executed the afternoon's only moment of bravery in passing championship leader and pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton in a late-breaking move into turn one at the start, it seemed a sure thing the Brazilian would explode McLaren's recent dominance of the podium.

But for once, the circuit, often likened to Monaco because of the impossibility of overtaking, served up the kind of drama the Principality sometimes does. Two laps from the flag Massa's Ferrari suddenly threw out a vast plume of smoke and he ground to a halt beside the pit wall. The only explosion was the one that ruined his engine and his race.

That should have left the field clear for a third Hamilton win in a row. So dominant had the Briton been throughout the weekend the facile pole position he scored on Saturday seemed only to confirm the Hungarian race was another foregone conclusion.

But the Englishman had already suffered his own setbacks. Passed by Massa in turn one, he had clung on to the alarmingly quick Ferrari grimly through the first stint.

Then, on lap 41, the McLaren driver slowed and slid wide, his left-front tyre punctured. He was forced to limp to the pits for new rubber, and rejoined in 10th.

So it was left for his team-mate, Kovalainen, who had started third and sat in that position all afternoon, to surge to the front for a maiden victory gifted him by two blow-outs in 20 laps.

"Welcome to the world of winning, the first of many," the McLaren boss, Ron Dennis, told Kovalainen over the radio as the Finn crossed the line.

"It is fantastic. It is a great moment," said Kovalainen. "It has been a moment I have been targeting for many years now. Hopefully it is the first of many."

He admitted the win had been a bit fortunate and that Massa and Hamilton had been quicker.

"We have been in a position to fight for a victory but always something has gone wrong and hasn't functioned correctly. Today Lewis and Massa were fastest in the race. I tried to put pressure on Massa, hoping he would have a mechanical failure, and it seemed to work."

Massa was left disconsolate, and returned to the Ferrari motorhome without comment.

Hamilton, meanwhile, at least clawed his way back to fifth, a decent return from a troubled afternoon and a result that still leaves him solidly in control of the championship.

"I think I salvaged the best of the worst, I guess," he said. "What can I do when you have a puncture, you know?

"Last year I probably lost the championship on punctures, so it's nothing new to me," he added, referencing the blow-out he suffered in China, which robbed him of a win that would probably have been enough to secure the title.

Kovalainen's win was not the only unlikely story of the day. Behind him, sneaking onto the second step of the podium, was Toyota's Timo Glock.

The Japanese manufacturer has been steadily improving, but, even so, team-mate Jarno Trulli's third place in France was deemed to be a fluke. Glock gave the lie to that perception. The German qualified an excellent and merited fourth on Saturday, but the usual questions were asked about strategy and light fuel loads, most expecting him to stop early and drift out of contention.

It wasn't so; Glock matched the leaders' pace throughout to score a deserved result.

"It is just unbelievable," he said. "I could not believe it when I saw Felipe's engine go and I was P2. I was under pressure from Kimi, with soft tyres, and I was struggling quite a lot.

"We knew since Friday that the soft tyres would be difficult. I had a really good car. It was perfect until the final stint. Unbelievable, in my first year . . ."

The last place on the podium was taken by Kimi Raikkonen, the defending champion having another curiously uneven race.

In the first half the Finn was anonymous, trawling around in sixth seemingly incapable of finding the pace that would propel him toward the sharp edge of the fight. But when Glock's tyres began to fail as the race drew to a close, Raikkonen found an extra gear, instantly set the race's fastest lap and turned a five-second deficit to Glock into a tight battle for third in the laps just prior to Massa's engine failure.

But when the Brazilian's powerplant went pop, Raikkonen immediately gave up the fight, wisely choosing to bank points rather than risk a similar failure in full-tilt pursuit of the Toyota.

Raikkonen said he has been hampered by poor grid positions and vowed to improve: "We have the speed but if we cannot get qualifying right then we will have the same problems. We have to sort it out. If we can be in front we can fight for wins."