Well, well, well - I'm going to start challenging races to be entertaining more often it worked a whole lot in Canada and now the dull and traditionally single file Hungaroring stepped up to the plate, and was ready to deliver. The key ingredient in that recipe for entertainment is the rain, one of the simplest and abundant of substances on the surface of the planet can cause so much confusion and disarray. The rain that decided not to turn up one week ago in Germany decided to pay a visit this afternoon - which to be honest it would have been far more effective. The Nurburgring can enjoy a decent race without the help - Hungary....not so much and could do with a little moisture.
The race fell into place with almost cinematic precision, just like Kubica winning in Canada a year after his enormous accident in 2007. Several numbers were thrown about in the pre-amble to the race weekend and several cakes had been provided as Jenson Button reached his 200th race start, at the same track he scored his first win five years before. And then you turn on the television at the beginning of the program to see identical conditions to that race, as pieces of the cosmic puzzle were sliding into position. Has Button through his mythical status gained special powers of weather control, and cake conjuring. As it turns out Jenson rather likes sugary confectionery - and is already two cakes up, which is more than I have. But a number which is going grow over the next few hours - Jenson if you don't mind sending your cake here there will be some bonus points in it for you.
But here is how an uncharacteristically entertaining Hungarian GP worked out as the battle of the elements both water and fire raged.
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| Credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk for the image |
The Race
The stage was set for what was perceivably going to be a straight forward battle of strategy where the fastest car would win and not much else would happen in between. But upon activating the television that extra ingredient garnished the ground in a blanket of surprise - I don't believe that any of the teams saw it coming, I certainly didn't but they have a lot more data than I do here. Unveiling an enthralling title sequence to a race of cinematic proportions with several protagonists taking leading roles, ready for the big action sequence when the lights went out.
With the track in a very slippery state, not dry enough for slicks and not really wet enough to fully exploit the potential of the intermediate tyres - traction was extremely low. The drivers were in position on the grid despite a couple exploring the track limits before arriving - the time was upon them to open the curtain and start the show. It was an even start off the front two rows - with Mercedes making significant ground passing both over-cautious Ferarris and a slow starting Webber. The first lap was a series of dancing cars gliding across the damp surface, sliding perilously close to disaster, a rather balletic opening number to a powerful performance.
Everyone was treading carefully, ensuring not to step on the toes of the other performers, before a event of un-televised significance took place at the chicane. Where One-stop Perez, Adrian Sutil and Squadron Leader Heidfeld were dropped down the order without any obvious contact or debris remaining on the track, some mythical encounter had occurred but there's a possibility that Sky had already bought the cameramen so it didn't make the pictures. The battle for the lead however was making the screens and it was brilliant, Hamilton spent laps pinned to the rear of Sebastien Vettel's Red Bull - the McLaren's superior mechanical grip making him much faster.
Alonso was in the same position trying to recover the ground he lost to both Mercedes cars off the line, after a significant amount of perseverance he'd fought back up to fourth - but has a little excursion which allowed Massa and Rosberg back in front. Vettel too decided that the tarmac the other side of the white line was more interesting - the adage that the track is always drier on the other side didn't work out and he ceded position to Hamilton. That wasn't the end of the early drama in this opening scene as Massa took the balletic atmosphere too far by pirouetting off gently into the barriers in turn two - bending the rear wing endplate just a little.
Gradually the track had begun to dry out with no more rain falling the dry line was being carved amongst the swathes of damp - who was going to be the first to exchange the wearing intermediate tyres for some new slick rubber. On lap 13 Webber and Massa were the first of the division one cars to visit the pit lane along with a flotilla of mid field runners including Wingman Petrov, Jaime El Incognito and Sutil. Soon enough it was slick tyres all round as the race slipped into the second phase. In the round of stops Two-Cakes-up Button had jumped Vettel to form a Mclaren 1-2 over the German Bloke and Webber. As the race settled, the calm before the storm, the rain clouds started to gather and a storm was on the horizon.
Trulli's Lotus returned to pit lane with an oil leak as the action was building once more. Mark Webber started setting fastest laps a reflection of switching tyres first - Buemi from his grid penalty was now in the points from 23rd on the grid racing with Kobayashi who's opted to run the harder slicks in this stint, both behind Di Resta and an out of position Massa. Then it all erupted for Squadron Leader Heidfeld - leaving the pit lane ejecting smoke, sparks and flames from his car. He pulled it over after the pit-lane exit when it became apparent it wasn't going out of it's own accord, a second blaze in that car this season - this time a little more animated. The Renault Squadron machine was rapidly abandoned by it's pilot as the flames intensified, the marshals descended on the fallen craft to douse the fuselage with extinguishing foam. But it wasn't done erupting quite yet, as the fire was being attended to the sidepod of the car exploded showering a fire marshal with bits of Renault. He limped away as the situation was contained - but the big question was where was the safety car, no-one wanted to deploy it here was a detonating car with marshals on the side of the fastest straight trying to contain a rather unusual scenario.
Many teams anticipated that the safety car would be released and headed for the pits having to negotiated through the innards of Squadron Leader's car and extinguisher on the exit. Still no safety car just plenty of waved yellows which was sufficient but odd considering the health and safety nature of the sport shown in Canada. The yellows under which One-stop Perez was caught passing Kovalainen and issued with a drive through penalty. During this interchange of pit stops Michael Schumacher decided he wanted to hide and pulled off the track after a half spin looking down the inside of Massa - gearbox failure reported after the race on his car. When it was time for Vettel's stop he had a little more to contend with when escaping pit lane - there was a recovery vehicle towing what remained of the burned Renault towards time so he had to take evasive manoeuvres to avoid contact. Losing time to the two McLarens in the tyre change rotations.
Massa was trying to recover from the early problems with spinning off and a slow pitstop dropping him deep in the points with Kobayashi who was on the traditional Sauber strategy of as few tyres as humanly possible running on the same set he replaced the inters with in the early stages. Kamui had no tyre life left and was an easy pass for the Ferrari driver and fell down to 7th ahead of Rosberg and Di Resta, Rubens Barrichello rounded out the points.
Once the remains of the cremated Renault had been cleared there was another period of calm - the gap stabilised out front Hamilton ahead of Button followed by the two Red Bull cars with Alonso, Rosberg and Massa behind. The latter two were involved in a significant battle of their own but the single dry line made the single file Hungaroring even more challenging to pass on than normal. Felipe couldn't find a way past the Mercedes which used it's speed advantage to hold off the Ferrari in the DRS zone, losing more time to the cars in front - undoing the success of the qualifying session.
The time came for some more pit stops - the lane proved to be a popular place to be during the race after all a total of 88 stops were made. This time was to decide the strategy for the final phase of the race and the run to the line. Fernando and Hamilton went for another set of the softer compound tyres while Button and the Red Bull cars went for the harder of the two options aiming to finish on those tyres. Lewis and Alonso made initial gains Hamilton's lead grew while Fernando caught and passed Webber for fourth.
But then that storm that was brewing when Heidfeld combusted decided it was time to unleash it's wrath - in fairness it was not much of a wrath but just enough to make things very interesting indeed. A small sprinkling of rain on the top of the circuit near the chicane caught out Hamilton the leader, as he looped it round on the second part of the chicane. Hamilton immediately span the car back round - almost robbing Barrichello of a rear wheel and forcing Di Resta out across the grass to avoid clattering into the rotating McLaren. This allowed Button into the lead and brought Vettel right into play - which doomed Lewis' race as he had to stop again and the two cars around him didn't.
The rain was only a short shower but made life on the slick tyres very difficult, Button and Hamilton duelled brilliantly for the lead after Vettel behind took another look at the run-off in turn 2. Swapping positions over a course of a couple of laps without banging wheels or shedding carbon fibre parts, Webber gambled on the rain continuing and pitted for intermediates shortly followed by Hamilton. Jerome D'Ambrosio hadn't been on television for a while and decided to perform a not so accurate handbrake turn in the pit lane - almost ending in the garage not the pit-box. But the rain stopped which ruined the plans of Webber, Hamilton and Rosberg on the intermediates but places leader Two-cakes-up Button in a really good position.
And to make matters that much worse for Hamilton the stewards determined that his rejoining spin was dangerous - which to be fair it was, almost hitting Rubens and forcing Paul to the grass, to go along with his wrong tyres. As a result he was dropped down to 6th behind Massa and Webber when the Australian had to return to the slick tyres when the rain was no more. It wasn't long before the intermediate refugees caught up with Massa on his ailing soft tyres which had no life left in them - Felipe had no defence for the two charging drivers and relinquished the positions.
Speaking of ailing tyres Sauber were once again stretching the tyre life to new unfathomable limits on Kamui Kobayashi's car as a consequence his pace was painfully show with no grip left on the over-used circles of rubber. This caused a train to form behind him - a rather extensive and angry train in the most expensive traffic jam on the planet. Trapped behind the Sauber was Di Resta, both Torro Rosso's, Sutil. One-Stop Perez and Rosberg, Paul managed to escape the train and build a gap leaving Buemi next in line to attack the Japanese driver. Kamui remained defiant - making his last stand against a wave of faster cars, they fanned out on the straight it started to look like a junior formula race. Buemi went to the inside in T1 but Jaime El Incognito misjudged his visibility, just because the cameras could actually see him this time didn't mean Kamui would as he went for a closing gap. Jaime clipped the Sauber and span the car on the apex, allowing the rest of the queue through.
The top three were settled in their positions and that wasn't going to change, Two-cakes-up Button was leading Vettel and Alonso. Webber holding off Hamilton for 4th but they came up to the end of the Kamui train which had mainly disintegrated leaving only the two Saubers on their own, their battle had now absorbed Barrichello making them rather distracted to the Red Bull and McLaren coming up to do some lapping. Webber struggled to get by as the cars in front were two wide leaving no room as Kamui was certainly stirring up some entertainment in the final few laps. In the melee of negotiating the lapped cars Hamilton was able to take advantage of the situation stealing the place from the Australian on the exit of turn 11, a place he was never was able to reclaim settling a further portion of the order.
With everything now in place, and all the positions locked into place the chequered flag fell on the race calling the Hungarian GP to a close Button and his Two cakes claimed a brilliant victory on the 5th anniversary of his first win and on the 200th race. As the numbers fell in to place and the credits rolled on a spectacular and entertaining race in a place where processional races often dominate the proceeding, Button exercised his skill in the changing conditions to add another win to his tally - all of which for McLaren have come in similar climatic conditions. Vettel and Alonso filled out the podium with Hamilton and Webber completing the top five.
The Official Bonus Points Championship points winners
In a race of uncertainty and confusion - peppered with strategy calls which failed to pay off and others that were rather confusing. There were performances and drives that certainly deserve some points and here are the winners for the Hungarian GP
- 10pts - Two-cakes-up Button: Has to get the maximum score for the performance in the changeable conditions when everyone else made errors Button was unphased and took the flag.
- 8pts - Sebastien Buemi: For finishing 8th after starting 23rd in the challenging conditions
- 6pts - Paul Di Resta: For claiming the first division two place beating the factory Mercedes team
- 5pts - Rain: oh the fun it causes
- 4pts - Hungary: For not being a boring tedious event and being rather good indeed
- 3pts - Jaime El Incognito: Another point without being on TV too often except hitting Kamui a bit
- 2pts - Hungarian Marshals: Putting out a exploding, burning car by the side of the faster part of the track certainly gets some points
- 1pt - D'Ambrosio: I have to award a point for his spin in the pit lane would have been more if he had made the pit box as well
The Also Official Penalties Championship
- One-Stop Perez: Drive Through Penalty - Passing under yellow flags
- Lewis Hamilton: Drive Through Penalty - Forcing Di Resta onto the grass
- Heikki Kovalainen: Drive Through Penalty - Unsafe pit release
The Still Official Dodgy Dealings Championship
Ah where and who to award the penalty points to this weekend and well, there are not many candidates for them. Hamilton was going to get some but the stewards took care of him on that one so who gets them this time.
- Sauber: Seem to be rationing tyres to the extreme - yes the car can make them last a little longer than the others but stretching them to last for an eternity is a little daft. They are not immortal and can't last forever, despite what they think. Compromising strategies just for the sake of prolonging the inevitable.
- Sky Television: I still hate you
Looking on to Belgium
Moving now into the summer break the teams have some time off to relax and for Button to eat both of those two cakes and any others that have come his way since...none have turned up here Jenson you seriously can't need all of them.... I have points for you.
Anyway what lies on the other side of the break is something of epic proportions, the single greatest track on the calender, the brilliant, outstanding Spa Francorchamps. The circuit in which all the others pale into mediocrity, with it's ferocious corners and the world famous Eau Rouge - albeit made easier by modern downforce the rain could easily see to that. And rain is one of the major features of the area hanging in the trees of the Ardennes forest. It is certainly a track worth waiting for by a long way.
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