Greetings Internet
Here we are now, a day after the
race but there was a small mitigating circumstance of the blog going to the
Olympics instead, I'm sure the people of the internet can forgive such a delay.
Not that too many people really rely on this as a source of information, but
hopefully more as a form of light entertainment, that said of course my
rantings do go on for a while and the concept of 'light' reading tends to fail.
Anyway it was a brilliant event at the stadium so well worth heading out for
seeing a win for Japan over Morocco and the surprise of the day in the form of Honduras
beating apparent favourites Spain. In a match which did get a little angry
towards the end, with the Hondurans exploiting every form of time-wasting under
the sun, infuriating Spain in the process. The crowd almost deserved the same
amount of points as the competitors, legions of Japanese people turned up and
impressively a decent quantity of Hondurans from 5,200 miles away in the Caribbean.
Aside from the games in Newcastle it
is time to turn our attentions back a little further to the 70ish laps of the
Hungarian GP, and because the rain didn't decided to fall - it was a long shot
to begin with. The event did rather revert back to its processional nature,
with high amounts of marbles laying offline constricting the amount of
overtaking that was possible. Exacerbated by the fact that the DRS zone was
close to being useless in Hungary due to the track configuration not containing
a long enough straight to influence passing. As a result the race came down to
strategy not pace, were passing was a product of the pit lane or blue flags, we
saw cars with significantly better pace being trapped behind slower ones. Even
the battle for the lead was reduced to a high speed procession due to the
inability for a car to get past on roughly equal terms. We also saw some rather
confusing strategy calls, teams expecting tyres to drop off dramatically at the
end which never really materialised, costing drivers some valuable championship
points. Even though we all know that it is the bonus point’s championship which
is all that really matters, so let’s recap on how events played out yesterday.
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| Credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk |
The Race
Time to dig deep in the recesses of
my memory for the race because it was a while ago now, and most of it really
wasn't that inspiring or memorable. At the start of the event there were hopes
of some precipitation, something, anything to breathe life into what promised
to be a tiresome event, but the skies were clear and blue...curses. Previous
forecasts had speculated anything from a complete and utter deluge to baking
heat, unfortunately from a spectacle point of view we were in for the latter.
On the grid as the cars completed their formation lap the tarmac was glazed in
a reflective heat haze, temperatures mirroring conditions in Valencia. A faint
hope was building that a similar turn of events was in prospect - an expected
dull race miraculously converted into madness and contact in the heat.
So all was poised for the start of
70 laps of the Hungaroring, and the lights turned red, and then yellow for some
apparent reason, signalling an aborted start. The field was sent round again
for another formation lap, leaving Michael Schumacher sitting on the grid in
his stationary Mercedes. As his car was pushed away to be restarted in the
pit-lane, he came over the radio saying he turned the car off as a result of
the start-lights changing colour, therefore was not the blog assumes the cause
of the aborted start.
*Some research later and fan phone footage shows it was indeed Michael's fault pulling up in the wrong grid slot on the first formation lap, stealing Heikki's 19th grid space.
The Race - Attempt 2
Here we go again, and the grid lined
up this time with 69 laps on the counter, and only 23 cars in position due to
Michael waiting to start from the pit lane as the team managed to get the car
going again. There were theories regarding who would get of the line better
based on which side of the track they lined up on, as the racing line passed
through the outside grid hatchings and was much cleaner. When the lights went
out finally announcing the start of the race it was Lewis who got off the line
best while Grosjean had Vettel for company on the run down to turn one. A
little further back Alonso got the better of Raikkonen who was without KERs
power for the start so couldn't defend against the fast stating Ferrari.
Through the first corner, Romain ran Vettel out wide on the exit, allowing
Jenson Button to get a run round the outside of turn two to drive up into the
podium positions.
It was single file for the remainder
of the opening lap with Hamilton pulling out a considerable gap on the cars
behind, and a similar margin behind Grosjean in 2nd. Button and Vettel had
spaced themselves out in the early going, but a queue was subtly starting to
form behind Alonso in 5th gaining the attentions of Raikkonen and Webber. Yet
the nature of the track played to Fernando preventing the Lotus showing the
true pace of the car and making a pass. Down at the back of the field Timo
Glock was clearly bored of the race and decided to go for a little spin in turn
12 to liven up his afternoon a little in the Marussia. Things were also going
from bad to worse for Michael Schumacher as after he had pitted for the harder
option in an effort to counter the start issue there was an announcement. It
turned out as he was driving to the end of the pit-lane to start the race he
went a little too quickly and gained a drive through penalty - placing him 53s
behind the Hamilton within 5 laps.
The DRS had now been activated, so
did that mean there would be a chance of some overtaking, well perhaps not -
Webber's team were on the radio claiming the Alonso train was due to the
Ferrari saving tyres, but no-one could get past. We had to look a little
further back, in fact a long way back to the end of the field to see some cars
going past each other with the help of the magic wing. It was Kamui Kobayashi
who from the television pictures seemed to make the first overtaking manoeuvre
outside the first lap. An early stop for Kamui put him behind the HRTs and the
sum total overtaking of the first ten laps was the Sauber going past the two
tail end runners. Just a few laps later on the amount of passing doubled when
Schumacher caught up to the back of the grid and had to cruise gently past the
HRTs.
I think it was time for some pit
stops to sort some of this out, and duly following an inevitable two stop
strategy cars began to filter in, initiated by Jenson Button who out braked
himself in turn four having a little off track adventure. One by one the rest
of the front runners headed for the pits, leaving Raikkonen and Webber running
the longest opening stints of the race amongst the leading cars. Outside the
points contenders it was One-stop Perez who was also running long finding
himself in the middle of the pack when others re-joined the race. Initially
being pursued by Fernando Alonso on a set of fresher tyres. The Sauber couldn’t
defend against Fernando for long resulting in Alonso making an actual pass up
the hill towards turn four. That left us with some unspoken data, to complete a
pass you need to be on much fresher tyres against a car on used set and a much
lower base pace. Didn't look too promising for the remainder of the race on
that note.
Even though Fernando was only caught
up behind Perez for a lap or so, it had cost him enough time in relation to the
cars around him. Meaning that Raikkonen after making his stop was released from
behind the Ferrari and free to make a challenge towards the Red Bull of Vettel
in 4th. On the softer of the two compounds the balance of power began to shift
slightly away from the McLaren drivers. Both Button and Hamilton were having
the advantage over the cars behind dramatically cut into, lap on lap. Grosjean
had eroded a 2.6s deficit down to being within the DRS window in a matter of
2-3 laps bringing the Lotus right up onto the back of the McLaren. Jenson was
experiencing a similar problem, instead of seeing a black and gold shape
growing in the mirrors it was the Red Bull of Sebastien Vettel who was piling
on the pressure. However because the track played to the defending driver, it
was impossible to make a pass without punting the other car off, which is
apparently not allowed. I would even forget to apply penalty points for a
little bit of pushing and shoving.
We enter now that middle phase of
the race where very little happens, it is generally the middle stint where the
field settles down and assesses where they are going to place when it comes to
the final phase of the race. However here in Hungary that pattern is the
general pace of events for the vast quantity of the race, because everyone is
trapped more-or-less in the place in the train. Noticing this some people decided
to start introducing some alternative strategies, starting with Jenson, moving
onto a three stop plan. But this plan rather fell apart at the seams really
when he exited the pits behind the Williams of Bruno Senna, and behind the
Williams he would stay until Senna took to the pits several laps later.
Sebastien Vettel also chose to pit during this phase, aiming to cover Button in
case he passed Bruno. Instead Jenson was losing so much time behind the Brazilian
that Vettel re-joined ahead of both of them and up onto the podium.
It was the time of the leader
Hamilton to pit and the pit-crew encountered more difficulties in the lane,
after setting the world-record pit stop in Germany, the team produced a slower
than normal stop opening a chance for Romain to take the lead. This was a race
where the pit crews were virtually more crucial than the drivers where all the
passing was done on the other side of the pit-wall, and it was up to Lotus to
take advantage of a McLaren error. But it was not to be as Grosjean's stop was
0.7s slower than Hamilton’s quickly erasing the opportunity and passing it back
to the McLaren driver heading into the final stint. However a little further
back another challenge was making a charge...
All these cars pitting left a large
quantity of open track in front of Kimi Raikkonen who had been trapped behind
someone most of the day, and struggling with KERs problems. Now however there
was space to demonstrate the pace the Lotus had, and it had a lot of pace to
give. Racking up fastest lap after fastest lap Kimi was flying unleashing
unassailable speed, matched with decent tyre wear, as other cars pitted - Grosjean
and Hamilton, Kimi stayed out. Cycling through into the lead, where there was
plenty of clear open space to go quickly, the Finn's pace became a problem for
Button and Vettel as he was on course to jump both of them. A couple of laps
later a call came through on the radio to second placed Grosjean in the other
Lotus warning him that he was now racing Kimi for the position. As the lap
times continued to fall and his temporary lead increased, the gap between him
and Hamilton came under suspicion, as Raikkonen was within 4s seconds of being
able to re-join in the lead of the race such was the spontaneous burst of
speed.
The charge of the Lotus couldn't go
on forever as the tyres were giving up their grip towards the end of the sting
forcing him to pit before losing any of the advantage. Predictions saw the
Lotus re-joining 4s seconds behind Hamilton, which conveniently was the same piece
of tarmac that the other black car was holding. The estimations and assumptions
were very accurate as Raikkonen re-appeared alongside his French team-mate in
the breaking zone for turn one. Not wanting to give way to anyone, even if they
happen to share the same garage space, Kimi left Romain less than no room on
the exit of the corner to forcefully deny any attempt on the outside. Once his
team-mate was defeated Raikkonen set his targets firmly on the car ahead, and
there was only one car remaining ahead of him now - Hamilton.
It had been noted we had spent an
entire race without people running into each other, so it would be a decent
time to alter that statistic... hmm who can we find to do some hitting...ah the
perfect candidate Pastor Maldonado. The Venezuelan was sitting in behind Paul
Di Resta's Force India, and just like everyone else today was finding it
difficult to make it past the car in front, something that clearly doesn't sit
too well with Pastor. The pair were fighting over 12th position outside the
points and Maldonado threw on down the inside of turn 12, for such a late move
it almost looked as if it would pay off. An actual competitive pass, in
Hungary... Alas it was not to be, the Williams got a heap of oversteer on the
apex, instinctively Maldonado corrected the slide, into the side of the Force
India knocking Di Resta off the track and claiming the position. The move
didn't go down to well with the officials and a drive through penalty was
handed to Pastor, which without checking the tables now makes him the leader in
the penalties series. There should be a ceremonial passing of the stewards
season ticket from Hamilton to Maldonado this year.
After several laps of watching
Raikkonen close in on the leader, some strange strategies started to be put
into place, namely by Red Bull. For some reason they decided to pit once more,
jumping into a three stop strategy, in overall time that is the fastest way to
complete a race avoiding the degradation in the tyres towards the end we've
seen a lot this season. There is one problem with this plan, and that was in
order for a three stop strategy is to pay off you need to be able to pass some
cars to make up some track position. We have already seen how difficult that
has worked out with Jenson being trapped behind Senna for ages, so the plan
seemed doomed from the start as even on worn tyres drivers can defend their position.
So, on that note it seemed most odd to see Red Bull bring Webber in from 5th
and ahead of his main championship rival Fernando Alonso, but pit they did
dropping mark down into 8th. Putting Alonso, Button and Senna between him and
where he was running.
Given how badly that turned out for
Webber you'd have thought that they might re-consider with a car they had in a
better position, only a couple of seconds off the podium. The only point
favouring a third stop for the other Red Bull car was there was a large enough
gap behind to possible sneak out ahead of the nearest contenders. Vettel pitted
from 4th and re-joined just ahead of Alonso in 5th, Fernando tried to take the
position round the outside in turn two, but the German bloke closed the door on
the exit and retained the position. In terms of track position it didn't hurt
Vettel, but it could easily have done so had Alonso and possibly Button close
behind got through.
With only ten laps left we still had
all 24 competitors still running demonstrating how reliable cars have become
this season, and also the fact that more often than not, drivers (except
Maldonado) tend not to hit each other. But that pattern was about to come
undone as the race was granted its first retirement, it wasn't due to
mechanical failure or through the loss of wheels in contact, the opening retirement
from the Hungarian GP can only be put down to boredom. After having a rather
challenging race Michael Schumacher decided the race wasn't entertaining enough
well down outside the points and gave up for the day... I sense a penalty point
coming along for you Mr Schumacher.
Back at the very front of the field
and Raikkonen had now caught right up behind the lead car of Hamilton, sitting
within the DRS zone. However that was as close as he was going to get as the
turbulent air flowing off the back of Hamilton's car was hurting Kimi's charge,
preventing him from getting close enough and wearing his tyres in the process.
To make matters worse for the Finn he still didn't have the full capacity and
reliability out of the KERs system, being instructed to rest the system before
using all the power accumulated. On paper a couple of places further back
Vettel's strategy was going rather well, in the sense that the times he was
putting in were exceptionally quick compared to the cars he was chasing. But
catching Grosjean was inevitability, he was behind the Frenchman before the
stop, but passing the Lotus was rather unlikely, meaning the only benefit of
making the extra stop was claiming the fastest lap.
When we thought all the oddities
were over, there was more to come, for a race with as much content as my
dwindling social life it was making up for it in small strange moments. The
latest one fell to HRT driver Narain Karthekeyan who was pictured pulling the
car over at the side of the road before turn 4, with rather damaged suspension.
It was rather perplexing as to what the Indian driver hit on effectively what
is a straight, no-one else pitted for damage ruling out another car, and an
impact with the barrier in the nearest corner would see the car stop much
earlier. So where on earth the problem occured is anyone's guess, maybe if I
had done some research before writing this I might have some answers but at
this point I don't
Despite the attentions of the Lotus,
Hamilton was able to maintain the lead to claim his second win of the season in
Hungary, followed closely home by Raikkonen. Completing another double podium
finish for Lotus was Romain Grosjean in 3rd, illustrating that Vettel's stop
made no difference to his finishing position as the German Bloke came 4th.
Extending his championship out to 40 points Fernando Alonso came over the line
to round out the top five, ahead of Button who fortunately for him finished
ahead of his friend for the day Bruno Senna. The points positions were
completed by a confusing strategy for Webber in 8th, Massa under contractual
pressure in 9th and the only remaining Mercedes salvaging a single point in
10th.
The bonus points championship points
winners
It can be argued that this was the
least eventful race of the season, yet throughout there were points of interest
at varying stages mixed with some very bizarre decisions on strategy. Trying to
find some people to hand points to in that has been challenging but here they
are.
· 25pts - Kimi Raikkonen - An immense middle stint, and had passing been possible would have taken the win
· 18pts - Lewis Hamilton - A dominate performance all weekend and a controlled win
· 15pts - Romain Grosjean - Solid and consistently quick, the team could have cost him the win
· 12pts - Kamui Kobayashi - For the first on track pass outside lap one
· 10pts - Fernando Alonso - For probably the only pass outside DRS for position on camera
· 8pts - Timo Glock - For doing something interesting
· 6pts -Jenson Button - A Nice pass round the outside on the first lap
· 4pts - Lotus - For having both cars up for the win at one point in the race, and not being crazy on strategy
· 2pts - Honduras - For somehow beating Spain at the Olympic football
· 1pt - HRT - For not being last for a large portion of the race
Only two additions to the table can
be submitted following the Hungarian GP:
· Michael Schumacher: Drive through
penalty - speeding in pit lane
· Pastor Maldonado: Drive through
penalty - hitting Paul Di Resta
The penalty points championship
There will some additions to this
table as well following the weekend
· Michael Schumacher (again): This
point for retiring for no apparent reason
· McLaren - for supporting sky sports
coverage, gone to the dark side you have
· Hungaroring - in the end you were
rather dull sorry about that.
Looking ahead to Belgium
The teams and drivers head into the
summer break, conveniently timed with the majority of the Olympics so the blog
can sit and watch those for a while awarding hypothetical bonus points to
countries for their performances. There may be a table depending on if I record
any of it and how many people reading this corner of the internet would be
particularly bothered about that sort of thing.
But once the break is over something
immense is waiting, the single greatest racing venue on the current calendar by
a country mile in terms of scale and challenge. One of the most traditionally
exceptional tracks of the season, nestled with the green canopy of the Ardennes
is a ribbon of brilliant tarmac cascading between the trees and forming the
ultimate track in current circulation in the form of the epic Spa Francorchamps
the home of the highly anticipated Belgian GP. We have had a lot of rain
interrupted sessions this season and now we plough headlong into the maddest
micro-climate of the year, where rain is traditionally guaranteed at some
point.
We have already had some of the other highlights of the
season, in Monaco and Canada and this is a race well worth waiting over the
summer break for, so until next time this is farewell from a belated blog.
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