Well, we always come to this race and expect the worst, to find 70 laps of everyone holding position and following each other in one long processional line. Fortunately that was not the case, we saw cars going past other cars, something that is often so rare at the Hungaroring that the Stewards got all confused by it... but that is a rant for later on. The other thing that we learned from today is that everything we thought we had learned can be completely disproved in an instant, at the end of qualifying and looking at the weather we expected complaints of tyre melting into oblivion with a matter of laps and cars losing pace left right and centre. Yet very little of what happened today made a heap of sense - yes Lotus were as strong as we expected, and Red Bull remain the fastest car on the grid. But a no point in the race did anyone from Mercedes come on the radio explaining that they had no grip and things were falling apart, for some reason on the first race since the test they were not allowed to go to, Mercedes didn't lose pace. However the Hungaroring is a bit of an anomaly, when we move on to the next race, we expect things to be very different indeed.
I have seen better Hungarian GPs than this - mostly because of rain - but things have also been a lot less interesting especially in those years when a different German Bloke was winning all time... Today we saw a decent race, and most interestingly a lot of the overtaking didn't happen in the DRS zones, which in contrast to venues where every pass has been artificially introduced it was a nice touch. Agreeably for the vast majority of those it was tyre condition and strategy that gave the process a little helping hand - even if a few endplates were removed along the way. Turns out this trend that Giedo Van Der Garde started with Webber in Canada is catching on, lots of drivers have been wanting to shed wing endplates and elements now. But that was only a small part of todays Hungarian GP, of which the results are still under investigation on the basis of a potential Alonso penalty for incorrect DRS usage.
The Race
We had forecasts of temperatures reaching into the low 40's, yet that didn't really materialise, there was a slight increase from qualifying but nothing too significant, it was enough to cause cooling concerns up and down the grid however. The advice being to avoid spending too much time too close behind another car... right... on one of the tracks where being trapped behind another car is virtually a defining characteristic. So the only work-around there was to get out of the slipstream on the straights to cool things down... the irony of the solution to the temperatures is to lower the chances of getting past into clean air.
At start oddly it was Vettel who didn't quite get away quickly squeezing Grosjean into the grandstands while Rosberg was having a look to the other side. Hamilton was clear out front. At turn two Alonso tried to capitalise on Grosjean being held up by Vettel to pass the Frenchman round the outside, but Romain eased the Ferrari out wide. This meant that Rosberg tried to round the outside of Fernando in turn three - but he got eased out wide powersliding through the dust in the tarmac run-off space. To make things even more entertaining Raikkonen, Massa and the recovering Rosberg all seemed to be attempting to go round the outside of each other in turn four - resulting in Kimi going off in rally cross style through the dust. Rosberg was now on the outside of another Ferrari in turn five and got biffed out wide by Massa, costing Felipe and endplate and Nico was knocked down to 15th.
As is always the way in Hungary, the opening lap is the immediate highlight before everyone gets locked into their positions - Hamilton, Vettel and Grosjean lead a three car breakaway group while Alonso dropped back and Massa struggled with a damaged wing. Raikkonen was stuck behind the ailing Ferrari and would have plenty of time to memorise the rear wing of that Ferrari. A second group was forming featuring those cars starting on the medium tyre, lead by Webber from Button and Perez. So for the opening stint nothing much took place, everyone just waiting around for the first round of stops, and as Red Bull started positioning the team for a tyre change there seemed to be fewer photographers hanging around after Germany.
Hamilton pitted first and rejoined behind Jenson but was able to use a combination of fresh tyres, DRS and strong straight line speed to get past the McLaren on the next lap. A pass that seemed fairly easy and unspectacular turned out later on to be very, very important indeed. Vettel and Grosjean also pitted, rejoining behind Jenson- and there they stayed unable to pass the McLaren. It was a very similar story with Raikkonen, pitting seconds after Grosjean in a synchronised double stop for Lotus... only to find himself staring at the back of Felipe Massa's Ferrari.
Jenson spent a lot of time with the German Bloke filling his mirrors, with Grosjean right on the back of the queue - to sum up the time that they were all losing Fernando had managed to come from being 8 seconds down to join the line. Allowing Hamilton to vanish up the road, never to be seen again. Naturally this made Vettel rather displeased and tried to encourage Button out of the way, but because this is not touring car racing bumping the car infront mid-corner to forge a gap doesn't quite work so well. Jenson held position and all Sebastien gained for his efforts was a damaged front wing endplate. However he was doing it all wrong, as Webber proved all those weeks ago, the whole endplate has to come off before making the car faster... unless of course you're in a Ferrari. Massa wasn't able to catch the Jenson Button train in the same manner that Alonso had, and thus maintained holding Raikkonen up. Help was at hand however in the form of Adrian Sutil on an alternate strategy infront of Felipe, as Massa tried to pass the Force India and made some slight contact, a gap opened up for Raikkonen and was immediately through, and immediately faster.
Back with Jenson's friends, the McLaren was running out of tyres and was even more vulnerable - and after getting a better run through the first two corners Vettel took the place into turn four. Being out of position on old fading tyres allowed Grosjean up the inside before the chicane... but Grosjean being Grosjean eased himself wide under braking forgetting that Jenson still existed. They bumped wheels and Romain cut across the chicane, fortunately without damage to either car - contact that would earn the Lotus driver a 20s post race time penalty. It was an incident similar to the one that span Hamilton into the wall in Spa after forgetting to account for Kobayashi's car. The contact also slowed Jenson enough to allow Alonso to make a pass on the exit of the chicane.
The next round of stops mixed up the different strategies all over the place, Hamilton ended up behind Webber and Alonso, while Grojean found himself racing with Massa's damaged Ferrari on older tyres. Staying with the Grosjean battle the Lotus driver had a clear pace advantage, but Felipe was able to defend in where you'd expect to be passed, so Romain tried something a little different. With the inside line up the hill out of turn three covered, Grosjean went to the outside of the corner and crafted a brilliant overtaking manoeuvre in turn four. But there was a problem, in order to leave each other room Grosjean left the track by a matter of centimetres, and was out of bounds for a fraction of a tenth of a second. The pass was deemed illegal and Grosjean was handed a drive-through penalty. Here lies the problem, there is a constant problem of drivers not leaving enough racing room, or passing - but as soon as someone does both things, they get a penalty for it...
Alonso towards the end of his stint was also causing a bit of a problem for those behind holding up Webber and then Hamilton added himself to the train after his stop. Then it appeared someone had been watching the GP2 series - learning that if a car is held up in turn two by a slower one ahead of it, it is possible to pass round the outside. So that's what Hamilton did to Webber, and before he got stuck behind Alonso the Ferrari pitted, everything was just falling into place, and those Mercedes tyres had still not disintegrated. In comparison, his formerly closest challenger, Vettel, pitted and rejoined behind Jenson Button again... this time however it was only two laps the German bloke spent examining the diffuser of the McLaren instead of 12. An application of DRS, and a little bit of KERs and Vettel was down the inside of turn two - this time without bumping the McLaren out of the way.
While no-one was really paying to much attention Raikkonen and Lotus were plotting, and after escaping the rear wing of Felipe Massa, had been marching forward exploiting the pace of the car and how easy it is on tyres. After pitting on lap 42, it was decided that they weren't coming in anymore - which made Red Bull a little concerned and hampered their hopes of a double podium. Speaking roughly of Finnish contenders, their 100% finishing rate was dashed as mechanical problems brought Bottas to a halt on the exit of the final corner. There was a mild threat of an enticing safety car but the Marshals were able to move the car safely out of the way. So as the lead cars were making their final series of stops Raikkonen edged sightly further forward.
Hamilton's final stop brought him out beside Webber in turn one - the Australian held off the initial attack but in turn two it was a case of de-ja vu as Hamilton went round the outside - as both cars went round the outside of Hulkenberg being lapped at the time. It was momentarily three wide before turn three, until Hamilton ran Webber out wide into the dusty run-off area, while Webber had yet to make his final stop to finally used the softer tyres. Grosjean and Button found themselves on the same piece of track again, this time the race was problem free and Romain took the spot safely in turn two - and was not penalised for the pleasure.
When the Red Bull team pitted their drivers they found that Raikkonen was not ahead and up into second place, while Grosjean's comeback charge was brought to a halt as the Lotus became trapped behind Alonso's Ferrari. So with Hamilton vanishing off into the distance it was only the battle for second that remained alive as Vettel trying to wrestle it from Kimi Raikkonen stretching out his tyre life aiming for a 28 lap stint. Although further back Button was running his car even longer, but wasn't battling anyone at the time. Making the Raikkonen, Vettel battle the only position looking likely to change, but Kimi resisted everything the German Bloke could throw at him. Vettel tried round the outside of turn four, but again Raikkonen fended it off, if he had made the pass it probably would have been declared illegal anyway.
Due avoiding the Button train, Hamilton went on to claim an uncontested victory, without any tyre disintegration or failures - despite the final five laps being very worrying following an engine failure for Nico Rosberg. Interestingly Nico's retirement moved Maldonado into 10th scoring the first point for the Williams team in 2013 - so Williams may owe Rosberg a beer tonight. Kimi held off Vettel to secure his position on the podium while Webber recovered from a poor grid position to finish in 4th. Alonso and Grosjean followed each other across the line in 5th and 6th. Jenson survived been biffed and pushed by several people during the race, to score more points for McLaren in 7th, ahead of what remained of Massa's damaged Ferrari in 8th. The points scoring positions were rounded off by Perez in 9th and a first point this season for Williams and Pastor Maldonado.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
In a race where the majority of the field were deemed insignificant by the TV footage, as far as they were concerned the mid-field could have fallen into a sink hole in the middle of the main straight and no one would ever know, keeping track of everyone had been difficult. For example Di Resta retired with hydraulic issues and we never found out until the race was over and the standings published... but here are the points for todays race.
- 25pts - Kimi Raikkonen - For being subtly brilliant without biffing anyone, and powersliding through turn the exit of turn three
- 18pts - Romain Grosjean - For being brilliant, especially that pass on Massa
- 15pts - Mark Webber - For almost making the podium from 10th on the grid
- 12pts - Lewis Hamilton - For winning without destroying tyres in the process
- 10pts - Pastor Maldonado - For getting Williams first point
- 8pts - Nico Rosberg - For giving Williams team its first point
- 6pts - Van Der Garde - For winning the lowest division in the Caterham
- 4pts - Adrian Sutil - For helping Raikkonen escape from behind Massa
- 2pts - Jenson Button - Survived a bit of a beating today
- 1pt - Felipe Massa - Proving that front wing endplates are a little more necessary than Red Bull think
The Penalties Championship
Over the last break the stewards must have been a little bored, and came back and issued some penalties:
- Romain Grosjean - Drive through penalty - For passing Massa
- Romain Grosjean - 20s time penalty - For biffing Button
- Nico Hulkenberg - Drive through penalty - For speeding in the pitlane
- Ferrari - 15,000EUR fine for having a dodgy DRS system on Alonso's car
The Penalty points series
Time for some of those other things that need penalising
- The Stewards - For being a little bit silly
- Sebastien Vettel - For immediately complaining about the first defence Raikkonen made
- Fernando Alonso - For complaining about Grosjean then doing the same thing to Rosberg a corner later
Looking forward to Belgium
Lots of tracks are classified as dull, some as only making sense in some dark design office in the middle of some city miles away from where they are going to be built, but there are others that are a little bit different those like Hungary or Interlagos which are genuine and fun. But then there is a whole different league of race track, and very close to the top of that exclusive club is the Belgian GP of Spa Francorchamps the greatest circuit on the calendar in the middle of the Ardennes where rain, mayhem and grandeur are in abundance. When racing drivers go to their happy places, Spa is where that is because it is brilliant, if there is a track there worth waiting for across this summer break - this is one of the few worth waiting for as we plunge headlong in the second half of the season. Featuring the final two races of the European season, started with the one of the greatest of all - Spa Francorchamps.
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