Kimi, hanging on to third.
Not The Results We Were Expecting
By Erik Nielsen
The Hungaroring is not a track that is known for great passes or exciting chases, but one thing that it does have going for it is that there are usually several surprises come race day and the most recent round held there was no different. For the tifosi, it seemed as things were going Massa’s way. The Brazilian made a great charge from the start and looked like he was going to wrap up a wire to wire lead and retake the championship from Hamilton. But with just 5 laps to go, there was a rare engine failure for the Ferrari and his hopes were dashed. The rare DNF handed the race lead to Heikki Kovalainen and allowed the Finn to win his first F1 race. While McLaren claim that their drivers can compete against each other, the cards have seem to be stacked in Lewis Hamilton’s favor lately. This win should bring balance back to the Woking based team if there are favorites being played in the workshop.
Massa, upset.
The second great surprise of the weekend was Toyota’s second place and first podium for Timo Glock. The youngster actually put together a race weekend that made Toyota look like a top team for the first time that they’ve been in the sport. We’ll have to wait for the next race to see if this is a real trend or if the Cologne based team is just a one hit wonder. They did well at Le Mans for years but never pulled off a victory, this team has to win one of these races sooner or later to keep the investment going.
It was almost Massa’s day, and we were hoping….
The Ferrari faithful did not go home empty handed. The other Finn, Raikkonen, managed to keep the pace and ended up in third place. The finish was sufficient to keep Ferrari’s lead in the constructor’s championship while the McLaren result moved them into second, ahead of BMW. It wasn’t an inspiring run for the World Champion, but points are points.
Fernando Alonso was trying to talk up his weekend with a finish in fourth place, but only his immediate family and sponsors were listening to him. Renault is still struggling to not be relegated to also ran status and in the battle of the egos, the Spaniard is still a small fish within the circus. Pretty soon he’ll be competing along the likes of Jacques Villeneuve (who was an also ran at Le Mans this year for those not paying attention).
Massa in the pits.
Lewis Hamilton managed to be the lightning rod for McLaren this weekend and had the bad luck of a shredded tire while he was pressuring Massa. The Brit was happy with the points he received for his fifth place finish which kept him at the top of the leader board in the championship hunt. If Ferrari manages to fix the reliability issue, this one will probably go down to the season finale in Brazil. At least that’s what Bernie is counting on.
Nelson Piquet junior drove an uneventful race again in a substandard car. The kid has some of his dad’s talent and would be a title contender in the right ride. Too late he’s not a decade older and could have been given the chance to drive the Williams in the mid 90’s. Before they really started sucking.
Kimi in the pits.
Jarno Trulli did his best to keep Toyota’s reputation as an also ran intact, the earth may have stopped spinning if there were two Toyotas on the podium. The much more seasoned driver’s result in the chassis still indicates that his team mate’s finish was more likely an outlier performance than a foreshadowing of things to come.
The last points paying position of the weekend went to Robert Kubica in the BMW. The German team announced the day after the race weekend that profits took a considerable drop after weakening in the USA’s economy. Let’s hope that the Pole doesn’t take it as a drop in his performance this weekend because finding the pace seemed to be impossible for the ex-Sauber team.
The long walk.
The racing will take the typical summer holiday off for most of August and return in three weeks for the European Grand Prix to be held at Valencia. The championship protagonists seem to be the old rivals of McLaren and Ferrari, but we’re going to go a lot further into the season before the bets are any better than even money on either team. Stay tuned.
Race Results
| 1 | KOVALAINEN | McLaren-Mercedes | 1h37m27.067s |
| 2 | GLOCK | Toyota | + 11.0s |
| 3 | RÄIKKÖNEN | Ferrari | + 16.8s |
| 4 | ALONSO | Renault | + 21.6s |
| 5 | HAMILTON | McLaren-Mercedes | + 23.0s |
| 6 | PIQUET | Renault | + 32.2s |
| 7 | TRULLI | Toyota | + 36.4s |
| 8 | KUBICA | BMW-Sauber | + 48.3s |
| 9 | WEBBER | Red Bull-Renault | + 58.8s |
| 10 | HEIDFELD | BMW Sauber | + 67.7s |
| 11 | COULTHARD | Red Bull-Renault | + 70.4s |
| 12 | BUTTON | Honda | + 1 lap |
| 13 | NAKAJIMA | Williams-Toyota | + 1 lap |
| 14 | ROSBERG | Williams-Toyota | + 1 lap |
| 15 | FISICHELLA | Force India-Ferrari | + 1 lap |
| 16 | BARRICHELLO | Honda | + 2 laps |
| 17 | MASSA | Ferrari | + 3 laps, engine |
| 18 | BOURDAIS | STR-Ferrari | + 3 laps |
| 19 | SUTIL | Force India-Ferrari | + 8 laps, brakes |
| 20 | VETTEL | STR-Ferrari | + 48 laps, overheating |
| FastestLap | RÄIKKÖNEN | Ferrari | 1m21.195s |
Driver’s Championship Standings
| 1 | HAMILTON | McLaren-Mercedes | 62 Points |
| 2 | RÄIKKÖNEN | Ferrari | 57 Points |
| 3 | MASSA | Ferrari | 54 Points |
| 4 | KUBICA | BMW Sauber | 49 Points |
| 5 | HEIDFELD | BMW Sauber | 41 Points |
| 6 | KOVALAINEN | McLaren-Mercedes | 38 Points |
| 7 | TRULLI | Toyota | 22 Points |
| 8 | ALONSO | Renault | 18 Points |
| 9 | WEBBER | Red Bull-Renault | 18 Points |
| 10 | GLOCK | Toyota | 13 Points |
| 11 | PIQUET | Renault | 13 Points |
| 12 | BARRICHELLO | Honda | 11 Points |
| 13 | ROSBERG | Williams-Toyota | 8 Points |
| 14 | NAKAJIMA | Williams-Toyota | 8 Points |
| 15 | COULTHARD | Red Bull-Renault | 6 Points |
| 16 | VETTEL | STR-Ferrari | 6 Points |
| 17 | BUTTON | Honda | 3 Points |
| 18 | BOURDAIS | STR-Ferrari | 2 Points |
NOTE: Super Aguri withdrew from the championship after round four.Constructor’s Championship Standings
| 1 | FERRARI | 111 Points |
| 2 | MCLAREN-MERCEDES | 100 Points |
| 3 | BMW-SAUBER | 90 Points |
| 4 | TOYOTA | 35 Points |
| 5 | RENAULT | 31 Points |
| 6 | RED BULL-RENAULT | 24 Points |
| 7 | WILLIAMS-TOYOTA | 16 Points |
| 8 | HONDA | 14 Points |
| 9 | STR-FERRARI | 8 Points |
NOTE: Super Aguri withdrew from the championship after round four.