Thoughts on the Hungarian Grand Prix

[Tim]

Kimi Raikkonen won his 4th race of the season after starting from 4th on the grid and getting ahead of Michael Schumacher via a good strategy. Kimi also reduced the gap to Alonso in the Championship by 10 points to 26 points after Alonso failed to score any points.
Raikkonen's team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya appeared to have a good chance of winning but had to retire while in the lead. It seems that the McLaren drivers take turns!
Michael Schumacher finished second. He was on a light fuel load and during the race couldn't match the pace of the McLarens and later in the race he appeared to struggle with his tyres allowing Ralf Schumacher to close right up. Still a good performance from the Ferrari but is it just this track or have they closed the gap ?
Ralf Schumacher had a strong race finishing 3rd and beating his team-mate Jarno Trulli in the race.
Jenson Button managed 5th while the Williams pair of Heidfeld and Webber ended up 6th and 7th which is a good sign for Williams but again is this because of the nature of the track (they were strong in Monaco too).
Takuma Sato finally scores a point this season. Still not a great performance to be so much behind your team-mate.
Fisichella only managed 9th only 2 places ahead of Alonso who had to pit for a front wing at the start of the race. The Renaults lost 10 points in the championship today but it could have been worse!
Barrichello like Alonso had to pit on the first lap and managed 10th.

Coulthard was unlucky to hit the flying front wing of Alonso and Klien was lucky to escape unharmed after his car flipped on the first lap! It's been a while since we last saw a car flip in Formula 1!

Both Championships are now closer but if McLaren are to win either they have to be more reliable than this!

Thoughts ?

[Byron Forbes]

I'll bet Raikonen could hear every tiny little squeak and clunk for the last 20 laps. He must have been ecstatic to get that thing over the line knowing his team mate had shown once again that the McLaren is still far from bulletproof!

It must be said that Michael Schumacher and Ferrari did an outstanding job to finish 2nd - they seem to be happy to be a factor for the first half of races with the softer compound tyres knowing the pace will diminish as the lap count rises - the alternative harder compound must be embarrassing.

So the super reliable and consistent Renault get NO points? Is this a swing in bad luck from Raikonen to Alonso? Toyota are becoming a serious factor, BAR did about what was expected and Williams had a decent and moderately encouraging race.

With Renault seeming to come back to the field a little, Raikonen must be quietly confident. If he and Montoya finish 1,2 for the last 6 races, then Alonso must be 3rd in 5 and no worse than 5th in another race OR 3rd in 4 and no worse than 4th in the other 2 races.

The IFs -
IF McLaren can be that reliable (unlikely)
IF Montoya would be willing to hand some victories to Kimi (?unlikely?)
IF Kimi stays lucky (unlikely)
IF Alonso finishes 6th or worse in 1 race (likely)

3 very big IFs there

[JayVee]

It was a good race, even better than a few we have seen. Of course I am not happy about The Cute having to pit (thanks to Ralf Schumacher ) but you can't win them all and no one will ever have the luck of Bambino Driver

Raikkonen had a good race and got his way past Michael via a clever pit strategy.
Yes it was Montoya's turn to retire this time. The McLaren isn't reliable

Michael's pole was on low fuel and in the end he was caught by Ralf. They are still way behind!

I also agree on Williams, this was like Monaco but good to see them score a few points!
Heidfeld out-qualified and out-raced Webber, what's the story ?

Not good for my score in 8 'n' Pole but hey I may not be leading the Idiots for a change

[Julian Mayo]

BMW are looking after Nick, 'cos he will be using their engines next season

[JayVee]

BMW are looking after Nick, 'cos he will be using their engines next season

You'll come up with a good excuse everytime

[Julian Mayo]

BMW are looking after Nick, 'cos he will be using their engines next season

You'll come up with a good excuse everytime

I am happy that you thought it was good

[Bundy]

Heidfeld out-qualified and out-raced Webber, what's the story ?

Nick started the race 4 places ahead of Mark!!!
Out-Raced is a bit rich.........

[Julian Mayo]

I wonder if montoya's retirement was initiated by the fact that he hit a generator on the way to the grid.!!

[F1greyhound]

MCLAREN is the fastest car since 7 or 8 GPs but still no increased reliability. As long as the car will fail in each second race FERNANDO can keep finishing in lower point positions and still become WDC.

KIMI drove an aggressive and almost faultless race, a question mark might be asked as to why he pushed the car for so long? Certainly that was a bit of a reliability test...

MICHAEL drove a perfect race, to finish second was the absolute maximum. At the start of the season BRIDGESTONE managed to produce a tyre which was slow in qualifying and faster as the race progressed, then they produced a tyre that was dangerous for Bahrain, then they were like nowhere followed by their superior tyre for Indy and now they have a quick tyre in qualifying and for the first 20 laps. RUBENS results show pretty much what these tyres are worth...

RALF drove really well too and to blame him for FERNANDOs fault is but a serious joke. TOYOTA is thereabouts with the car and their top 4 finish in the manufacturers will be well earned.

JARNO was unspectacular in the race but maybe that was down to his meeting with RUBENS at the first corner.

JENSON similar, the BAR is fast but not quite fast enough. Strategy a question mark.

NICK deserves a better car, where is WILLIAMS heading at?

MARK?


The RENAULTs didnt have a good day in Hungary, this way MCLAREN will definitely beat them in the constructors but FERNANDO wont be caught in the WDC albeit I can see him winning by a margin much closer than the current 26 points...

[Lloyd]

Where does all this Nick is better than Mark rubbish come from???
Could it be Mario ( the engine ran well) Theissen ??
BMW are preening the guy to go to Sauber but you would be wrong if you thought that he was a superior driver to webber or many other drivers on the track. He has done an OK job in a slow car, had more luck than Webber and BMW want to sell him to the media as a winner, its big business so why wouldnt they, but as I stand here on my soapbox I feel it needs to be said. He is not better than webber.
There. that feels better now I got that off my chest

[JayVee]

Heidfeld out-qualified and out-raced Webber, what's the story ?

Nick started the race 4 places ahead of Mark!!!
Out-Raced is a bit rich.........

Both had similar fuel loads yet Webber was more than a second slower in qualifying. We all know how good Webber is in qualifying yet on Saturday he struggled.
In the race Webber was lapped, Heidfeld wasn't, the fastest lap of Heidfeld was 4 tenths faster than Webber. Those starting between Heidfeld and Webber all retired.

Clearly Webber in Hungary was out-raced by his team-mate

[JayVee]

Where does all this Nick is better than Mark rubbish come from???
Could it be Mario ( the engine ran well) Theissen ??
BMW are preening the guy to go to Sauber but you would be wrong if you thought that he was a superior driver to webber or many other drivers on the track. He has done an OK job in a slow car, had more luck than Webber and BMW want to sell him to the media as a winner, its big business so why wouldnt they, but as I stand here on my soapbox I feel it needs to be said. He is not better than webber.
There. that feels better now I got that off my chest

Lloyd, not sure if you are hinting at my comments but I am not saying Heidfeld is better than Webber, what I am saying is that Heidfeld did a better job in Hungary and that was clear. Even in qualifying on similar fuel loads, Webber was nowhere.
As for who is better, I still think overall Webber is better but lately he's been struggling with his starts and in Hungary with his race. I don't blame him, he thought he'll be winning races yet now he is facing the prospect of spending a few seasons 'rebuilding' at Williams!

Using julian's excuse is a good one though

[Byron Forbes]

Heidfeld out-qualified and out-raced Webber, what's the story ?

Nick started the race 4 places ahead of Mark!!!
Out-Raced is a bit rich.........

I wouldn't be surprised if a little tension is building between Webber and Frank or someone else on the team - Webber's remarks about the car were pretty blunt after Friday. Maybe Frank had a bit of a go at him about his last start and general ordinary season to date - I got the impression Webber wasn't a happy camper at all last weekend. Hopefully a bit of a shakeup will do him and the team some good - bit of an ice breaker perhaps.

From what I saw, Webber had a solid, mistake free race even if unspectacular - a good race to build on.

[F1greyhound]

IMO NICK is slightly better overall than MARK, just like KIMI is better than JUAN etc..

I have nothing against MARK though and all the best for him, he certainly expected to be in more of a top team...WILLIAMS is one of the great disappointments of the season. Not sure who did worse WILLIAMS or BAR?

[JayVee]

The way Williams are going, BAR will easily beat them in the championship. I don't think they will catch Toyota but they are faster than them. Sato is their handicap though