Well, if we could have set up a grid to combat the potential processional nature of the Hungaroring - what we have should do, a bit. Yes a Caterham front row would certainly mix it up a bit and then having Vettel start from the Austrian border would make for an interesting race, but what we have been dealt shall have to do. There are a couple of cars which are slightly out of position so will have to force their way through, one of those being Mr Di Resta who most of the time may as well not bother leaving the house on Saturdays. But Paul has made the most positions of all drivers this season, so hopefully the form that has earned so many bonus points thus far, can make the middle of the grid very interesting. The heat is not causing the extreme difficulties that had been potentially threatened... unless you happen to be an Australian in the main Red Bull team, in a car which seems to encounter every technical drama possible... none of which ever seem to transfer across to the other car... interesting.
The form guide from the first two practice sessions suggested that Red Bull would be so far ahead, off into the distance, I'd get lapped here at Blog HQ again, Lotus were the closest challengers and Hamilton claimed that the Mercedes pace was woeful. How things change from one day to the next, as the temperature increases, 34 degrees at the start of the session and a track temperature of over 50 degrees. But then again the temperature sensor here claimed that it was 39.6 degrees outside of blog HQ, but I imagine that it is lying, by a long margin. Back in Hungary they are claiming forecasts of 42 degrees air temperature, which is probably enough heat to warm the living room through the TV. We've often seen that masses of rain can completely rearrange a race, but how will the hottest race of all time, beating the previous record unsurprisingly set in the desert of Bahrain. But all that is for tomorrow today was qualifying.
Qualifying
Getting people to leave the garage at the start of the Hungarian GP qualifying is traditionally an arduous process, because after morning practice and support series sessions the track is thoroughly messed up with debris and rubber. In the past the bigger teams would wait until the likes of Minardi, Tyrell and Stewart teams to go out first and clear the track, nowadays there isn't the time for that. We had been informed that the track had been swept and cleaned before qualifying to allow everyone an equal playing field, at least in the track conditions anyway...
While the likes of Alonso, Webber and Hamilton were sitting around doing bugger all as Q1 got underway Esteban Gutierrez left the inner sanctum of the pit lane to head out onto the track and record an uncontested fastest lap. The Mexican held the lead for a while, probably the longest time the Sauber driver has been anywhere respectable for a long time, since those few laps in the lead in China due to an alternate strategy. But it was all for nought as Williams started their laps on the softer tyres, which have a considerable time advantage over the medium compound - and took themselves to the front, joined momentarily by the Torro Rosso of Vergne on the faster tyres.
The main contenders didn't need to bother with the medium compound, or so we thought until Ferrari left the garage and were on the soft tyres, which triggered the rest of the grid to follow suit to avoid been shuffled down and into relegation. Mercedes found some pace, and went 1-2 at the front of the field... while at the the back, early leader Gutierrez was now in relegation along with Force India's Paul Di Resta - but he put on a new set of soft tyres to escape, looking to relegate Perez out of Q1. However there was a problem, Di Resta's tyres did not agree with him or the car, and a lap of sliding round the track kept the Scot in 18th and in relegation.
Q2 was a Red Bull show for very different reasons, started off with that German Bloke setting a rather quick time in the high 1m 19s range, no surprises there frankly given the Friday pace, but Mercedes and their special qualifying pace were still there. It wasn't long before the silver cars were 1-2 with Rosberg the faster of the pair. But back with Red Bull and the other side of the garage things were not quite so rosy, as Mark Webber's car once more encountered technical dramas, first the quickshift system in the gearbox broke, only to be followed up with a KERs failure. The car was still drivable and could complete the session but was down on pace, falling into the relegation zone.
It was very close on the cusp of making into the top ten as teams and drivers started throwing new soft tyres at the car to find that extra few tenths. In this flurry of activity Williams had both cars in the top ten in 7th and 9th... the first time they've seen a place in single figures for a long time too, only to be demoted as Sutil, Perez and Hulkenberg improved. Yet more change was afoot as the latest batch of temporary qualifiers for Q3 were knocked down into relegation this time at the hands firstly of Daniel Ricciardo still vying for that seat at Red Bull, and then by Mark Webber hauling the ill car round the track into 7th place. One of the casulties of this process was the other McLaren of Jenson Button who was shuffled down to 13th place, a quarter of a second from safety.
Off into the final session of the day, and it was Webber who went out first, still without KERs on the car, and a less than pleased Australian behind the wheel, conveniently followed by a second Australian with an unnaturally sunny disposition spying on his potential 2014 car. Mark only completed a sighter lap to validate that the car was still ruined, oddly Ricciardo also pitted, not taking his eyes of that Red Bull drive. Instead it was left to Raikkonen to set the first time of the session, in the 20s, which so far that would seem like a solid time especially on used tyres. That German Bloke however had nice new tyres and Vettel completely and utterly demolished the times already set to create a monstrous 0.8s lead.
We headed into the mid session break accepting it might well have all been decided very early on, but there was an array of purple first sector times, because if the Red Bull had any vulnerability it was in the first sector. First Grosjean knocked three tenths off Vettel's seemingly unattainable time, but through the rest of the lap steadily fell back and behind the German, an identical story for Raikkonen in the sister Lotus. Rosberg had almost half a second up on the Red Bull but couldn't hold it through the final two sectors, but then there was Hamilton in what he had described as a 'shocking' car in practice held onto a sector one advantage throughout the lap, to go ever so slightly faster. Vettel responded with a very strong challenge, closing the gap in the middle of the lap, and at the end of the final sector lost out on taking pole by 0.038s. Grosjean held onto 3rd alongside Rosberg in the second Mercedes. Alonso and Raikkonen held control of the third row, ahead of Massa in 7th, the top seven covered by just over half a second. 1.2s back were Riccardo and Perez, while Webber did not set a time in his ruined Red Bull.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
Today has not necessarily been a day of drivers outperforming their cars and being massively out of position... not forwards anyway, but there were a lot people making cars that are already really fast maximising that potential.
- 10pts - Romain Grosjean - Actually managed to find the pace in the Lotus that we expected the heat to deliver for them
- 8pts - Lewis Hamilton - After Vettel unleashed that lap to go out and then beat it
- 6pts - Sebastien Vettel - That seemed like a very good lap at the time...
- 5pts - Daniel Riccardo - Still going well looking for that new drive in 2014
- 4pts - Sergio Perez - Dragged a McLaren into the final part of qualifying
- 3pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Wins some power sliding points for drifting the car on several occaions
- 2pts - Charles Pic - For winning the bottom division of cars
- 1pt - Williams - Were inside the top ten for a little while at least.
The Penalties Championship
Only a single fine was issued on Friday to Valtteri Bottas for speeding in the pit-lane and received a 1,000EUR fine for the achievement.
The Penalty Points Championship
There is also only one penalty point that needs to be added today, and although it seems a little unfair and things, but there is a precedent for this sort of business and that is to Webber for not setting a time in Q3.
Looking to Tomorrow
We all know that the Hungarian GP is not the most inspiring race of the season, famed for absolutely nothing happening for the duration, and everyone holding position for 90 minutes. Looking at the GP2 race this afternoon it is going to take a significant car advantage to complete a pass, made even worse by the sheer volume of discarded rubber that collected offline. On the exit of turn 11 for example the entire track was covered in rubber, because the racing line is out over the curbing, Oddly there was more passing (of the ones without contact) round the outside of turn 2, where the second DRS zone will be in the race tomorrow. With all this rubber, it does make you think there will be some tyre degradation issues tomorrow, naturally for some more than others.
Examining the grid the stereotype of a dull race could be countered by the fact there is a Mercedes on pole, if anyone is going to have tyre issues it is going to be them, creating a large queue of angry drivers lining up to capitalise on that. We'd assume that the actual race it would be between Vettel and immediately Grosjean and maybe Raikkonen and Alonso later on in the race. Further back we have Webber, Button and Di Resta hoping to make up for another poor Saturday afternoon. So until tomorrow this is farewell from me here at Blog HQ.
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