Grand Prix 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

After just 7 days the F1 circus rolls on to Hungary after an entertaining Grand Prix in Germany where Fernando Alonso won his third grand prix of the season to extend his lead at the top of the championship over the Red Bull duo.

From being a midfield clogger in Melbourne, Fernando Alonso finds himself in one of if not the quickest cars following a stunning turn around from the Italian team in the European season and now he has a considerable lead at the top of the standings. Despite a 20 second penalty for Sebastian Vettel, he still lies comfortably in third place in the standings and just behind team mate Mark Webber. It's nearly the halfway point in the championship and not many people would have predicted Webber to be above Vettel in the standings or maybe that Kimi Raikkonen would be ahead of Lewis Hamilton who was the only retirement in Germany after picking up an early puncture.

McLaren made the biggest gain in Germany as they rediscovered the form they had at the start of the season and if Saturday had been dry and Hamilton not have a puncture they could well have had 2 drivers on the podium or at the least one of their drivers at the top of the podium. Not so long ago I wrote a thread on their mid season development problems but they seem to have responded in the best possible way as Jenson Button finished third (later second after Vettel's penalty). Hamilton showed that despite problems after the puncture he had pace after matching the leaders pace and unlapping himself on Vettel and keeping up with Alonso before the stops, this didn't go down well with Vettel who was critical of this in the post race interview.

Sauber enjoyed an extremely fruitful weekend with Kobayashi finishing 4th and Perez finishing 6th and I think that's Kobayashi's best finish in F1 to date and it means that both Sauber drivers are now in the top 10 of the Championship which is a great result for the team and hopefully they can build on that. The interesting thing to note is the form (or lack of) of Torro Rosso, last season they scored 41 points with Alguersuari scoring 25 with Buemi scoring 15. Right now they have scored just the 6 points. While the loss of form surely can't completely be down to the drivers, but I wonder if they are regretting booting both out over the winter. While they argue that they are there to blood in young drivers, are they doing it at a cost to themselves? Last season they finished ahead of Williams in the constructors and just behind Sauber. Right now they are 41 points behind Williams and 74 behind Sauber, that's a pretty big turnaround. Either way, surely questions need to be asked there about what's going on as today both drivers were nowhere near the points and of the 'established' teams they only finished ahead of Senna, another driver who is under threat for his seat.

Looking ahead to Hungary it's a track which traditionally was one of the more duller tracks on the calendar but in recent years and mainly since the tightening of turn 1 it has produced some classic races and has also had the occasional sprinkling of rain such as in 2006 and 2011 where Jenson Button persevered to win both races. It's a track that has been good to both McLaren drivers with both Button and Hamilton winning there twice in previous years and after the updates working in Germany they will hope that one of them can make it 3 wins next weekend.

Galahad's track report - http://cliptheapex.com/pages/hungaroring/

 

[Speshal]

He'll be the favourite for Belgium in my opinion

Hmmm, if it's traditional Spa weather, I wouldn't bet against Fernando and Lewis.

 

[Jos the Boss]

I'll check it out on BBC iplayer, but if he was 1 place out of position, surely everyone else was?!

 

[The Pits]

Just watching the repeat on BBC, it would seem that a poor pit stop may have stopped Jenson getting in front of Alonso and Vettel after his third pit stop. Oh well.

 

[Galahad]

Well, two great races from the top two finishers, good to see Lotus finally capitalise with a decent qualifying. Red Bull certainly seemed out of sorts, and the need for the extra pit stops will worry them. They were still quicker than Ferrari though, and Alonso is either a master of damage limitation, or is the lucky driver this year.

Sauber were strangely anonymous in a race that might have been expected to suit them, Kobayashi being hung out to dry at the start and never making progress from an early pit stop. Senna drove consistently and quickly for his seventh place.

I don't know what was happening at Marussia, but Pic was faster than Glock throughout and finished up almost a minute ahead. He's starting to gather momentum and may not be as disposable as his predecessors, come the end of the season.

 

[sushifiesta]

Alonso is either a master of damage limitation, or is the lucky driver this year.

He's both!

 

[Il_leone]

A typical Hungarian GP where it was a procession and no one could pass despite DRs

 

[The Pits]

Posts regarding Michael and the pit lane speeding moved here:

http://cliptheapex.com/threads/when-is-a-race-not-a-race.5324/

 

[Brogan]

I don't know what was happening at Marussia, but Pic was faster than Glock throughout and finished up almost a minute ahead. He's starting to gather momentum and may not be as disposable as his predecessors, come the end of the season.

It sounds as if there's a bit of needle between those two, or at least as far as Glock is concerned.

It is believed that Glock, who was out-qualified by Pic on Saturday for the fourth time this season, has been delayed by his team-mate on-track more than once.

“Maybe he doesn’t understand the English over the radio,” Glock is quoted as telling a group of reporters including German news agency SID.

When asked if he had spoken with Pic, Glock irritably replied:

“It’s pointless. This has now happened two or three times, so it’s something the team needs to solve.”

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/282238/tension-suspected-between-marussia-team-mates/

 

[tooncheese]

Glock had a new chassis this race that he wasn't entirely comfortable with.

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

Well not the greatest of GP's i'll give you that but working out everyone's strategy was fun though. When I heard a lot of plan A's and B's i was like ok what are Mclaren going to do. Anyways here's my thought's on the top 10's performances this race:

Lewis Hamilton:
He looked so cool out in front albeit strong challenges from the Lotus pair. But he looked so comfortable and anything the Lotus pair could do he could do aswell. Looked well on form aswell and bar Alonso he's possibly the one driver who can stay out front that doesn't get bothered by attacks from behind these days. DRIVER OF THE DAY no question about it.

Kimi Raikkonen:
Made his strategy work perfectly, had he not had a terrible start and got stuck behind Alonso for much of the first stint i believe 100% that Kimi could have won this race. But second is a good result none the less for him.

Romain Grosjean:
He just keeps growing in confidence and is really starting to look very close to becoming the real deal. Just needs to work with his team a little bit more to get strategy right but yesterday showed me that Grosjean will be a winner in F1 if not this season then definately the next.

Sebastain Vettel:
Had something of a mixed day, he was in contention for a podium throughout the race but didn't seem to maximise his strategy well at all, think if he'd stayed on a two stopper he might have had Grosjean. But still he did manage to bring some big points home i guess.

Fernando Alonso:
The ever dependable Alonso was in damage limitation mode and still managed to bag some decent points aswell as extending his championship lead.

Jenson Button:
Well Plan b ended Jenson's chances of getting on the podium, but what i'm left wondering is why the team did this when quite clearly Hamilton managed perfectly fine for 29 laps on the medium tyre's. Mclaren shot Jenson and themselves in the foot here and could so well have bagged some mega points in the construtors championship.

Bruno Senna:
A man under a hell of a lot of pressure performs when he needed too. Another fine points scoring day for Senna brings him closer to his teammate in the standings and helps Williams extend their slinder lead over Force India in their little sqauble for 7th place.

Mark Webber:
Opportunity missed here. He started on the medium tyre and should have gone far more longer into the race than he did. A good start made him able to choose a longer strategy however somehow he ended up stopping three times. If i was him I would have had two long opening stints on the medium tyres and a short 9 lap stint on the softs, feel he missed out on closing the gap to Alonso here well and truly.

Felipe Massa:
Not a bad day for the Brazilian, think he had a solid race that didn't promise much from the way his teams car was performing at this track. Points are points at the end of the day.

Nico Rosberg:
Well he scored a point but not a great deal was seen of him all afternoon.

Thought the race was good strategy wise, but DRS failed to spice the racing up.

Also apologise for another long piece, just had lots to say.

 

[Fenderman]

Another superbly factual and straightforward upsum from HammydiRestarules. I'm tempted to steal it for a Rootersport Guest Writer slot

 

[Brogan]

Pirelli's inforgraphic after the Hungarian GP.

http://www.pirelli.com/mediaObject/...ngaroring_big/original/ig_hungaroring_big.jpg

 

[ZakspeedYakspeed]

A bit more a procession than I expected (or RBR too by the late tyre changes...) ... on a circuit with some passing opportunities we might have seen LH on the second step...

Solid race from LH...took some heat from the slick Lotii (am grasping for the plural here...)... Alonso... Capt. Consistent... always delivers...JB... got screwed out of a potential podium by being the crash test dummy for LH as to whether new softs could beat old mediums... proved the point... give him half the chocolates for the win assist...Bruno... nice drive son... let's have another Belgium...MW... drove a sensational first lap coming from 11th to 7th... and looked comfortable in fifth until he "needed" a new set of tyres... RBR dropped the ball with strategy... tellingly MW claimed the 3 stop was the wrong way to go and lo and behold it is followed by the team stating "we had an <insert problem> here" reason for it... MW doesn't beat around the bush and would tell you straight up if there was something hampering the car...Massa... to finish +8 seconds to FA was a quality result... Nico... chipped away and got a point...

What to fill in the next four weeks with...

Semi yawn.... Olympics...
I guess there is a some football starting in August...
NFL football pre-season.... double yawn...


You might find me here re-living some past events...

http://www.youtube.com/user/roundsinthechamber?feature=watch

 

[Il_leone]

rubbish race typical Hungaroring get rid of it

I would be mad if I was Jenson at the guy who decided to call him when Vettel was getting absolutely hysterical...

Jenson could have held him up and destroyed his tyres but instead the team pulled him and was a God send as they say for Sebastien

The team undid Jenson's good work muscling past him on lap 1

 

[f1fansp]

Video I'd seen of Schumacher stopping in the wrong grid slot via F1Fanatic:

#!

(The aborted start build up at 3:00 ish, with the huge gap). I wonder what Kovalainen was thinking (other than you dumbass) and which grid slot he tried to fill.

 

[Slyboogy]

Well, I for some reason enjoyed this race more than the last two. It wasn't great by any means, not much overtaking, not many incidents etc. But watching the strategies play out is what kept me hooked, the first 15 laps where uninspiring to say the least, but it picked up from there, plus Lewis Hamilton didn't run away with the race as predicted.

Well Hamilton was faultless all weekend. Quite surprised that he didn't pull out much of a gap despite in clear air, track position was crucial for the McLaren driver in this race. Great pole lap, beat his team mate quite comfortably, looked untroubled all weekend.

Another lost oppurtunity for Lotus and Kimi Raikkonen? Well Kimi thinks so, as do I. One must wonder where the team and Kimi would be in the championship if they didn't make it hard for themselves. Qualifying has been their downfall all year, but this time round they looked good, but Raikkonen despite looking strong, qualified 5th, did a lap that was two tenths slower than his Q2 time, and was apparently looking good for at least a front row start in the first two sectors of his last Q3 lap. It wasn't to be, a bad first lap again cost him time and valuable points as his KERS was malfunctioning. How he finished ahead of his team mate and 1s behind Hamilton after being 15s down is beyond me. A great second stint put him right in the mix, and showed his team-mate who was the boss. When will the teams and Raikkonen's first one come this season?

Grosjean started very well, but near the second half of the race, he kind of fizzled out. Of course the bad pitstops didn't help, Hamilton may have had a poor stop himself, but Grosjean's was worse. Despite being faster than Hamilton he just could not get passed, with Hamilton getting great traction out of the last corner, passing was nigh on impossible. Another podium for the lad, who's 26 (a year older than Vettel! ). Great first season he is having, has a great chance of winning for Lotus in the up and coming races, as qualifying seems to be his strength, and with the team sorting qualifying out, he could be the one to lead the team to it's first victory since Japan 2008.

A mixed day for Sebastian Vettel, really should have been on the podium, but Button getting passed him on the first lap, effectively ruined his race. He knew he could go much faster when he was behind Button, urging his team to try something different. Eventually got ahead of Button and started to set about Romain Grosjean. Pitting for a third time might have been his undoing of being on the podium, as he was 9 tenths behind before he pitted but then finished 1 second behind. Not much of a difference in the end, but he certainly would have had more time to attack if he stayed on a 2 stopper. Despite all that, his pace was in clear air was pretty great, politics off track could be affecting the team, but now with that July phase over where Vettel's never won an F1 race in, expect him to be strong.

Lady luck strikes again for Alonso? Driving his socks off indeed, but what looked like a certain 7th, turned into a respectable 5th after late stops by Jenson Button and Mark Webber his main title rival promoting him further up the field. Did the best job he could do really, hassled Vettel out of the pits all the way into Turn 4. With McLaren coming strong, and Lotus looking better in qualifying, Ferrari will have to start getting the upgrades out quickly, otherwise Alonso's lead could get chopped in a few races time if this continues, they've already slipped down to 4th in the constructors, and are lucky that Mercedes have dropped back rapidly, otherwise it could have looked likely to be 5th. Their drivers delivering the best he can, it's now up to the team. But with a 4 week break, surely upgrades will come.

6th for Button, while his team-mate had a near perfect weekend. Doesn't look that good does it? Did not have the pace in the race at all, and the three stop strategy looked as if it was of desperation. 5th was probably the best he was going to manage in the race, as the top 4 where all faster than him. Did he and both Red Bulls really need to do 3 stops? Not really, but it can be said now as we know what the better option was. Tried something different in the strategy side, only one position really lost compared to a two stopper, in the end, it doesn't look too bad for Button, but when you compare him to his team-mate, it does.

B.Senna like Hamilton was on it all weekend. Qualified in the top 10 for the first time this season, had a great start and nearly got up into 6th, but then was demoted to 7th after a cheeky move by Webber. Raced well, didn't make contact with another car for once, and ended up with solid points. Most important of all, finally, out-raced his team-mate on out-right pace.

For once, Mark Webber has a great start. But instead of that transforming into a good race result, it was the opposite. Got into 7th on the first lap after starting 11th on the primes was impressive. From then on, he was in the race where he should have been. Was into 5th, only to pit an extra time as his team feared the worst for tyre wear when his differential had problems. Could have nibbled away some of the deficeit from Alonso, but instead, the lead for the championship has increased.

Mark Webber was Mr.Anonymous in the last race, this time around it goes to Felipe Massa and Nico Rosberg.

Massa unusually had a poor get away, this effectively ruined his chance of fighting for good points. Passed by Webber and Senna at the start, he was down to 9th, and stuck behind B.spec Senna for the first two stints, and like all, he could not find away past. A quiet race might have been what the lad needed, let's hope he improves on it.

10th was the best Rosberg was going to achieve after starting 13th. Clearly didn't have the pace of the front runners, and the first time this season that a Mercedes car hasn't reached Q3 this season. Should be a wake up call for them, since Valencia from being podium contenders and looking for strong points finishes, they've been languishing at the bottom half of the points. Not a great sign, the team needs to get their act together.

Nico Hulkenberg out-qualifying and out-racing Paul Di Resta for three races in a row is worth mentioning, as is Charles Pic out-racing Timo Glock and being a lap up twice in a row now.

A quick note on the current racing situation. Looks as if it's gone back to the refuelling era, despite being faster there's no way past, that's what it's looked like the past three races. The driver in clean air clearly has an advantage, the driver chasing down tyres wear out quickly and their advantage is gone, DRS doesn't seem to be doing anything either recently, especially for the lead cars. Strategy has been back for the past few races.

 

[Slyboogy]