Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso
By Pete Vack
Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media
Pirelli Wins
Like most of the F1 events this year, Hungary was a race of tires, or choices thereof. Give a team enough choices and fifty percent of the time they will screw it up. For McLaren, it was German GP winner Hamilton whose handlers opted for the wrong options. Also for McLaren, it was Jenson Button’s team who got the combination right and went on to win. Simple as that. Hamilton had to settle for fourth after a drive-through penalty.
Fernando Alonso
There was a team called Red Bull that only a few races ago was unstoppable. There was, as we vaguely recall, some sort of diffuser issue which after Valencia was diffused, so whether or not this is still affecting RB performance is hard to determine amid the sex, lies and lack of videotapes. Whatever, they are atop no more. To be honest, Vettel took the pole and did try hard for his second place and is still well ahead in the points. Webber, following suit and trailing at a respectful distance wound up fifth.
Felipe Massa
And it didn’t help that RB also made the wrong tire choice but applied the mistake to both drivers. Said Christian Horner, “We’d elected to take a different strategic route by going on the prime tire and then it rained. For probably two or three laps the slick was the wrong tire to be on and 50% of the grid came in for the intermediate. Arguably, for those two laps it was the right thing to do but then the rain stopped. An additional stop for Mark unfortunately cost a podium because he would have run to the end as well.”
Felipe Massa
Then there was Ferrari, and there was SpeedTV’s Steve Matchett excitedly telling the Scuderia, “…you’ve got the wrong tires, what a mistake!…” or words to that effect, several times. Alonso finished third and was probably very lucky to do so. Ah yes, a podium, and last week we noted, as all of our faithful readers may recall, that Alonso was reduced to muttering inanities like “If we can get another podium finish in Hungary, it would be an almost perfect month for us” . Well, gee, he got his podium finish again, so things must be right on track. But did someone forget about actually winning? The mood in Italy after the Hungarian race was distinctly more distinct and came from above: now di Montezemolo says he expects that Ferrari will be a “key player” during the second half of the F1 season.
Well, that’s almost as good as another podium finish. Di Montezemolo went on with great politics. “I can see the right spirit in the team after a very difficult start to the season. Domenicali and his crew seem very determined, concentrating fully on their tasks for the second part of the year which I am sure will feature Ferrari in the role of a key player. I expect we will pick up wins to add to the important and historically very significant victory achieved at Silverstone.” Yes, sir!
Where was everyone else? Schumacher, (who signed the Ferrari print, recalling his heyday in 2005, that you can win this week in VT), retired after a typically embattled race—he has been ‘embattled’ ever since his return to racing—with gearbox failure and Nico was fighting off Kobayashi until the young Japanese fell off the pace, no doubt due to tires but don’t quote me on that. Kobayashi will stay with the Sauber team in 2012, in my humble opinion a mistake. But time will tell. Another up and comer, Sutil was way down, finishing 14th and no one really had an outstanding race aside from the winner.
Happy Birthday Fernando!
Finally, as I’m eased of the speaker’s podium, (hey a podium is a podium right?) we noted that there was a fire. Fire, more dreaded than anything else by a race driver. Fire, which was once part and parcel of the risks driver’s took every time they installed themselves behind, in front of, or surrounded by full tanks of gas and/or alcohol. Heidfeld’s Renault caught fire as he pulled out of the pits, and the ensuing blaze pretty well evaporated the car. The driver quickly sprinted out of the cockpit. There was also a small explosion just after Nick climbed out. “I’ve never seen that happen before with a Formula One car, but luckily, no one was injured,” said Heidfeld. Thankfully, fire is a rare occurrence in F1 today, thanks to many different safety measures. But it happens.
Race Results
| 1 | BUTTON | McLaren-Mercedes | 1h46m42.337s |
| 2 | VETTEL | RBR-Renault | + 3.5s |
| 3 | ALONSO | Ferrari | + 19.8s |
| 4 | HAMILTON |
McLaren-Mercedes | + 48.3s |
| 5 | WEBBER | RBR-Renault | + 49.7s |
| 6 | MASSA | Ferrari | + 83.1s |
| 7 | DI RESTA | Force India-Mercedes | + 1 lap |
| 8 | BUEMI | STR-Ferrari | + 1 lap |
| 9 | ROSBERG | Mercedes | + 1 lap |
| 10 | ALGUERSUARI | STR-Ferrari | + 1 lap |
| 11 | KOBAYASHI | Sauber-Ferrari | + 1 lap |
| 12 | PETROV | Renault | + 1 lap |
| 13 | BARRICHELLO | Williams-Cosworth | + 2 laps |
| 14 | SUTIL | Force India-Mercedes | + 2 laps |
| 15 | PEREZ | Sauber-Ferrari | + 2 laps |
| 16 | MALDONADO | Williams-Cosworth | + 2 laps |
| 17 | GLOCK | Virgin-Cosworth | + 4 laps |
| 18 | RICCIARDO | HRT-Cosworth | + 4 laps |
| 19 | D‘AMBROSIO | Virgin-Cosworth | + 5 laps |
| 20 | LIUZZI | HRT-Cosworth | + 5 laps |
| 21 | KOVALAINEN | Lotus-Renault | + 15 laps, water leak |
| 22 | SCHUMACHER | Mercedes | + 44 laps, gearbox |
| 23 | HEIDFELD | Renault | + 47 laps, fire |
| 24 | TRULLI | Lotus-Renault | + 53 laps, water leak |
| Fastest Lap | MASSA | Ferrari | 1m23.415s |
NOTE: Buemi qualified 18th but dropped five places as penalty for collision with Heidfeld at previous race.
Driver’s Championship Standings
| 1 | VETTEL | RBR-Renault | 234 Points |
| 2 | WEBBER | RBR-Renault | 149 Points |
| 3 | HAMILTON | McLaren-Mercedes | 146 Points |
| 4 | ALONSO | Ferrari | 145 Points |
| 5 | BUTTON | McLaren-Mercedes | 134 Points |
| 6 | MASSA | Ferrari | 70 Points |
| 7 | ROSBERG | Mercedes | 48 Points |
| 8 | HEIDFELD | Renault | 34 Points |
| 9 | PETROV | Renault | 32 Points |
| 10 | SCHUMACHER | Mercedes | 32 Points |
| 11 | KOBAYASHI | Sauber-Ferrari | 27 Points |
| 12 | SUTIL | Force India-Mercedes | 18 Points |
| 13 | BUEMI | STR-Ferrari | 12 Points |
| 14 | ALGUERSUARI | STR-Ferrari | 10 Points |
| 15 | PEREZ | Sauber-Ferrari | 8 Points |
| 16 | DI RESTA | Force India-Mercedes | 8 Points |
| 17 | BARRICHELLO | Williams-Cosworth | 4 Points |
Constructor’s Championship Standings
| 1 | RBR-RENAULT | 383 Points |
| 2 | McLAREN-MERCEDES | 280 Points |
| 3 | FERRARI | 215 Points |
| 4 | MERCEDES | 80 Points |
| 5 | RENAULT | 66 Points |
| 6 | SAUBER-FERRARI | 35 Points |
| 7 | FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES | 26 Points |
| 8 | STR-FERRARI | 22 Points |
| 9 | WILLIAMS-COSWORTH | 4 Points |