Flowing now into the second half of the season and another Qualifying session now completed over in Hungary throwing up some interesting results and some drivers returning to their form. The circuit does offer one of the unique challenges of the season effectively a wall-less street track with the single file nature and the dusty racing surface. Making the session very important in dictating the outcome of the race ahead - with the variation from one side of the grid to the other being a significant factor.
We saw differing fortunes for the Red Bull - Vettel recovering from the past two races while Webber fell to the bottom of division one. It also seems that the first division have begun to ease away from the rest of the field, there was a point during Q2 where they were a whole second ahead of the others. Mercedes have found a division all of their own behind the top three teams and in front of divisions 2 and 3. Renault Squadron have fallen into division two with Wingman Petrov leading the team ahead of the more experienced Squadron Leader Heidfeld.
But here's how this afternoon's session fell into place.
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| Credit to F1Fanatic for the image |
Qualifying
The practice sessions had shown a much closer time difference between the two different tyre compounds available this weekend - somewhere in the margin of 0.8s making strategy interesting for qualifying, and also making the first session easier for the division one cars. As fewer of the cars further back would be able to use the softer tyres to overhaul those in front on the harder of the two compounds.
As per normal the lights at the end of pit lane signified the opening of the session and permit the first vehicles onto the track. Who were those first takers to the Hungaroring and for a while nobody wanted to leave the comfort of the garage and go onto the windswept track. Rather reminiscent of the 1hr qualifying session of old where no-one would leave the pits as the track was too dusty and slow first off - and Hungary was one such venue where the drivers would be rather reluctant. But after a delay the HRT cars were the first to break the virtual picket line and set some times - 0.2s faster than the Blogmobiles' 1:28.2.
The floodgates now opened and cars came pouring out of the pit lane and the laps times were shredded, Red Bull were the first team to hit the front with Vettel and Webber claiming the first two positions on the time sheet comfortably the HRT and MVR cars that had already posted times. McLaren came next - Button managing to spilt the two Red Bull cars while Hamilton went to the front. All of the front runners stayed on the harder compound because they weren't under threat of relegation. At the other end of the spectrum, fighting to avoid being booted out of the session things were much closer.
Maldonado was warming up 18th place for most of the session as many of the division two teams were trying to stay off using the softer tyres knowing how important they'd be for the race. This reluctance brought Lotus racing very close to escaping the session as they capitalised on other's caution, only 0.5s off advancement. As the time was running perilously thin positions fluctuated on the fringe of relegation - Maldonado had escaped but times from Alguersuari and Barrichello put him back in there. With his last lap of the session Pastor managed to scrape through knocking out Buemi who was staying on the harder tyres considering his grid drop penalty would be a wasted use of the Softer compound. So he joined the division three drivers in relegation before Q2.
On to Q2 we went and the same procedure came into being again with the drivers hiding in the garages instead of coming out to play. A couple of minutes of inactivity passed, drivers sitting in their cars and twiddling their thumbs before the first cars escaped the confines of the pit lane. Vettel and Di Resta were the first to break cover - joined quickly by One-Stop Perez and Hamilton, There was less then a tenth separating the top two early lap times As more cars took to the circuit the division one runners had established themselves at the front a significant margin ahead of everyone else - with Rosberg holding station in 7th in a division all of his own. Both Mercedes drivers would be in the division 1.5 zone but Schumacher wasn't keeping up with Nico.
As Renault Squadron had fallen squarely in the midfield there were two places remaining in the top ten to be contested. With Force India, Sauber and Renault Squadron all being contenders for the final two qualification positions. Only a few minutes remained on the timer, One-Stop Perez and Wingman Petrov were clinging to the positions - Squadron Leader Heidfeld and Kobayashi failed to break into the final session. Both Force India cars made strong final laps knocking both Petrov and Michael Schumacher out with no time left on the clock. However Michael was still on track and going rather quickly qualifying into the final shoot-out at the expense of Paul Di Resta who was knocked out. To be joined in relegation be the Williams team, Jaime El Icognito who once again was missing from the screen, Kobayashi, and the Renault Squadron.
Now onto the third and final session of the day, and there was no pause before the track activity began with the division one contenders making their presence first. Alonso opened the scoring only to be beaten moments later by Hamilton's McLaren with the rest of the runners falling behind the Spaniard, until Sebastien Vettel's run. The German Bloke found some speed to beat the Ferrari but Hamilton remained on the top of the table.
Time to regroup and get ready for the second run for the division one runners and this time to be joined by the other four contenders in the top 10, who were only opting for a single run to conserve tyres as they were only fighting amongst themselves. The order of runs from the first effort was a little altered - Alonso remained the first car in the queue but Rosberg and Vettel were next in line. Fernando failed to improve and Rosberg claimed 7th - but Vettel found even more time to defeat the only other car standing in his way of pole position moving almost two tenths clear of Lewis Hamilton. The McLaren driver had noting in response and couldn't improve on second place - and almost lost that to Button who put in an impressive time less than a tenth down on his team-mate. In the other inter-team battles Massa was able to surpass his normally all dominant Ferrari rival, but Webber was a considerable margin down falling to the bottom of the division one standings.
Rosberg maintained his sole division 1.5 lead position in 7th while Sutil managed to once again out-perform the car in defeating one of the factory Mercedes entries in the hands of Michael Schumacher who was still under-performing as he did last year at the Hungaroring. Then there was One-Stop Perez who was seen leaving the pit lane with the other competitors on the final run of the session but never actually set a time just as Maldonado did in the second session. Obviously opting to save tyres but attempting to show willing in the process.
So the grid was set and yet another Red Bull pole position going to Sebastien Vettel ahead of McLaren and Ferrari. Webber and Rosberg line up behind them with Sutil and Schumacher next in line and One-Stop Perez in tenth without really doing anything - so that's a penalty point there.
The Official Bonus Points Championship points winners.
Here are the points winners for the first scoring session in Hungary
- Lotus Racing - for getting close to making Q2 as a team, and for fixing Trulli's power steering making his times competitive again
- Daniel Ricciardo - for not qualifying last on actual pace ahead of D'Ambrosio
- Felipe Massa - for beating Alonso on pace into 4th position
- Adrian Sutil - for beating one of the factory division 1.5 Mercedes
- Wingman Petrov - for out-performing Squadron Leader Heidfeld
The Still Official Dodgy Dealings Championship
While there were no official penalties - Buemi's 5 place drop was added last week when it was initially added to his account there were some penalty points handed out as follows.
- Pastor Maldonado - for not bothering to set a time in Q2
- One-Stop Perez - for not bothering to set a time in Q1
- Sky Television - I've avoided ranting, this is long enough as it is but they are getting a penalty point
Looking to Tomorrow
As you will likely be aware the Hungarian GP is not one famed for excitement and outstanding racing - even in 2010 a year of brilliant racing only three changes of position occurred outside the first lap so I am afraid that the same thing will take place tomorrow afternoon. The DRS might be able to help - maybe even bring that number to four or the dizzying heights of five position changes.
Looking at the opening GP2 race as a marker for things to come the start is very uneven between the different sides of the grid with the odd numbered positions on the outside of the track getting away much better. This being the lane which is effectively the racing line so doesn't accumulate the amount of sand and discarded rubber that an unused lane would. Their racing quality wasn't too bad but we had to wait until the tyres faded before things got rather entertaining.
And it is tyres that will be the most important feature of the race - high wear rates on the abrasive surface can make cars very vulnerable to being overtaken and not have the grip to defend their place. Holding the racing line can only help so much when the rubber is destroyed, so pit strategy becomes even more important as track postion bears more weight this time. Dropping in an alternate strategy isn't going to work if you get caught out of position behind slower cars and lose a lot of time struggling to get by. Running longer stints where holding up faster cars is part of the plan could be an successful route, something I'd imagine Sauber are looking at and especially One-Stop Perez.
Out front the times are very close between Vettel and the McLarens so the competition is going to be close with Ferrari's strong race pace thrown in there as well. The Hungarian GP may well turn out to be something worth watching this time around with the rarest of all things - unpredictability is on the cards and is certainly something to look forward too. So gather up the race snacks and flagons of tea tomorrows race may actually turn out to be interesting.
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