McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen clinched his first F1 victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday after car problems cost Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton the leadership in the title race.

Massa looked on course for his fourth victory of the year until his car's engine blew up with three laps remaining, while Hamilton had an earlier tire puncture.

"I have spent a lot of time to achieve this goal so to finally achieve it is very pleasing," the 26-year-old Kovalainen said. "Today we had a little bit of luck on our side but it certainly won't do any harm for anyone in our team and not for myself either."

Kovalainen's victory along with Massa's dropout allowed Hamilton to stretch his lead in the overall standings to five points over Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who finished third behind Timo Glock of Toyota.

Hamilton, who won from the pole last year, settled for fifth to lead Raikkonen by five points after a tire puncture dropped him halfway down the field in the midst of chasing Massa.

F1's defending champion Raikkonen recovered from qualifying sixth to finish ahead of Renault's Fernando Alonso.

The teams and drivers have three weeks before the next race on Aug. 24, the inaugural European GP at Valencia.

(Xinhua News Agency August 4, 2008)