Hungarian Grand Prix 2012

By Pete Vack
Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media

After what must have been a frustrating weekend for many teams, Lewis Hamilton and company came up with the best handling chassis/tire combination; the pole, and the race was his.

It didn’t help that the weatherman promised a 100 percent chance of rain for Sunday and failed miserably in the prediction. It turned out to be warm, dry with clear blue skies. The majority of the field started on soft yellows, Webber being an exception. But apparently the chassis were set up for rain, but had to run on dry tires, making things a bit difficult for the drivers.

Felipe Massa

And that included Alonso, who started from row three and eventually finished 5th, never in contention for a podium finish. Suddenly the Ferrari that was so good at Hockenhiem was miserable at Budapest. Still, he did better than Webber, who finished in 8th; Alsono stays in front of Webber in the points race. Massa helped the Ferrari constructor’s effort by finishing in the points at 9th. The Ferrari’s lack of speed may not have been due to chassis set up, but simply, a lack of velocity and Alsonso is hoping for a magic cure as the team has a month to make changes before the next race. Massa’s future still seems in doubt and the slower the Ferrari, the less chance he’ll have for a seat next year.

Fernando Alonso

By far the most frustrated driver of the weekend was Schumacher, who after qualifying well down on row 9, didn’t start. For some reason the starting lights failed to work properly and instant mayhem was avoided by getting the cars to go around for another lap. All, that is, aside from Schumacher; the Mercedes was not running. (Rumors say he accidentally killed the engine). He was pushed into the pits, got a restart, and began the race from the pits. Two laps or so later he came into the pits for a tire change after a puncture and got a speeding ticket on the way out; another lap into the pits for the penalty. He retired the car on lap 60, ending a race he’d rather forget.

Fernando Alonso

Pastro Maldonado slammed against Di Restas car; another race incident for the driver. Although it appeared that the shunt was intentional, it is more likely that Maldonado is not quite capable of handling the car under pressure.

Romain Grosjean had a good race for a change. He sat on row one and from that point on tucked in behind Hamilton where he stayed, often challenging Hamilton for the lead. On lap 30 Grosjean pitted for tires but stayed on the yellows, meaning he would have to make a second stop for the medium compound tires. Teammate Räikkönen then took second and retained that position for the rest of the race.

In fact Räikkönen might have one; with ten laps to go, Kimi was closing the gap on Hamilton, both drivers having to conserve their tires while maintaining positions. Räikkönennever got close enough to pass however, and Hamilton drove superbly to take the checkered flag.

As Hamilton more or less dominated the race (losing the lead once to Kimi during a pit stop) it was not a particularly memorable event. Lewis took his second win of the season and a huge sigh of relief was heard from Woking. Kimi and Grosjean, finishing second and third respectively, are both true contenders for a victory this year. Alonso and Massa did well but were no doubt hampered by the lack of speed. Vettel and Button struggled to keep the pace while Webber simply didn’t.

So we end round 11 of twenty and the winners so far are:
1. Australia…Jenson Button, McLaren
2. Malaysia…Alonso, Ferrari
3. China…Rosberg, Mercedes
4. Bahrain…Vettel, Red Bull Renault
5. Spain… Maldonado, Williams Renault
6. Monaco… Webber, Red Bull Renault
7. Canada…Hamilton, McLaren
8. Europe (Valencia)…Alonso, Ferrari
9. Great Britain…Webber, Red Bull Renault
10. Germany…Alonso, Ferrari
11. Hungary…Hamilton, McLaren

The circus takes a break for the month of August and returns with the Grand Prix of Belgium on September 2.

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Fernando Alonso, Stefano Domenicali, Felipe Massa

Race Results

1	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	1h41m05.503s
2	Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	+ 1.0s
3	GROSJEAN	Lotus-Renault	+ 10.5s
4	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	+ 11.6s
5	ALONSO	Ferrari	+ 26.6s
6	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 30.2s
7	SENNA	Williams-Renault	+ 33.8s
8	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	+ 34.4s
9	MASSA	Ferrari	+ 38.3s
10	ROSBERG	Mercedes	+ 51.2s
11	HULKENBERG	Force India-Mercedes	+ 57.2s
12	DI RESTA	Force India-Mercedes	+ 62.8s
13	MALDONADO	Williams-Renault	+ 63.6s
14	PEREZ	Sauber-Ferrari	+ 64.4s
15	RICCIARDO	STR-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
16	VERGNE	STR-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
17	KOVALAINEN	Caterham-Renault	+ 1 lap
18	KOBAYASHI	Sauber-Ferrari	+ 2 laps
19	PETROV	Caterham-Renault	+ 2 laps
20	PIC	Marussia-Cosworth	+ 2 laps
21	GLOCK	Marussia-Cosworth	+ 3 laps
22	DE LA ROSA	HRT-Cosworth	+ 3 laps
23	KARTHIKEYAN	HRT-Cosworth	+ 9 laps, steering
24	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes	+ 11 laps, technical
Fastest Lap	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	1m24.136s

Driver’s Championship Standings

1	ALONSO	Ferrari	164 Points
2	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	124 Points
3	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	122 Points
4	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	117 Points
5	Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	116 Points
6	ROSBERG	Mercedes	77 Points
7	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	76 Points
8	GROSJEAN	Lotus-Renault	76 Points
9	PEREZ	Sauber-Ferrari	47 Points
10	KOBAYASHI	Sauber-Ferrari	33 Points
11	MALDONADO	Williams-Renault	29 Points
12	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes	29 Points
13	DI RESTA	Force India-Mercedes	27 Points
14	MASSA	Ferrari	25 Points
15	SENNA	Williams-Renault	24 Points
16	HULKENBERG	Force India-Mercedes	19 Points
17	VERGNE	STR-Ferrari	4 Points
18	RICCIARDO	STR-Ferrari	2 Points

Constructor’s Championship Standings

1	RBR-RENAULT	246 Points
2	McCLAREN-MERCEDES	193 Points
3	LOTUS-RENAULT	192 Points
4	FERRARI	189 Points
5	MERCEDES	106 Points
6	SAUBER-FERRARI	80 Points
7	WILLIAMS-RENAULT	53 Points
8	FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES	46 Points
9	STR-FERRARI	6 Points