HUNGARORING - BUDAPEST - HUNGARY Grand Prix 2009 - Race 10/17

mjt said:
my word what an uneventful race.

still, nice to see mclaren back in it again :)
i wonder how it would have played out if Massa had been running..
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sigh.

massa wouldnt have made any real difference at a guess i think lewis had the race completely under control.
 
Not too bad a race I thought. Sure there was a complete lack of overtaking but nothing unexpected in that regards.

Surprising first 2 and good to see Webber get 3rd. Really think Red Bull should focus on him in the Championship now even though the gap between him and Vettel isn't that great.
 
Going to send a few people on here into spasms with what I'm about to say....

Great race by Lewis Hamilton. He was utterly faultless - great start, unlucky not to retain second after Webber came back at him, strategy worked out well and he'd probably have gotten by Alonso even without the Spaniard's problems. He always seemed to have pace in reserve, and drove like the champion that he is.

*waits for the clean-up crew to sweep away all the exploded brains*

Another better showing for Ferrari as well, though they won't exactly be jumping for joy as they leave Budapest. Doubt we'll see Massa back in the car this season, the days of being administered the last rites and still taking the championship down to the wire à la Niki Lauda are long gone. Besides which, both Massa and Ferrari are pretty much out of the running for either title so there's bog all point rushing his recovery.

Brawn looked completely out of sorts, RBR weren't exactly stellar (pitlane stuff-ups and Vettel hitting trouble) and as for Renault - going to cause even more raised eyebrows here but I was rooting for Alonso at the start of the race. And to see it all get ruined by a wheelnut....*sigh*

Some other thoughts:

1) Question - Sébastien Bourdais has 2 points this season, Nelson Piquet Jr. has none. So why does Piquet still have a race seat?
2) Jaime Alguersuari didn't disgrace himself. Finishing ahead of your team-mate is always a good way to start your career.
3) I've changed my mind about this track. It should stay on the calendar, but they need to get some drivers with balls back on the grid. Mansell showed that you can overtake around here - all we need are some drivers who have testicular fortitude like Mansell does. The precedent was set back in '89 - you can go from 12th to win if you quit moaning about dirty air and tyre graining and just get stuck in :)
4) Looks like Heikki Kovaleinen is starting to remember that he's a Grand Prix driver. There were times today when he looked pretty quick!
5) Bring on the refuelling ban. It might finish off the job of livening up the action. Today was pretty reasonable all told, but it just needs a bit more work still. Getting the drivers back on really heavy tanks at the start of the race should accomplish that.
 
JRS said:
3) I've changed my mind about this track. It should stay on the calendar, but they need to get some drivers with balls back on the grid. Mansell showed that you can overtake around here - all we need are some drivers who have testicular fortitude like Mansell does. The precedent was set back in '89 - you can go from 12th to win if you quit moaning about dirty air and tyre graining and just get stuck in :).
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Its not 1989 anymore, you can see for yourself how upset the cars get within 20 metres of each other and how fast the tyres get destroyed. Also the braking distance and window of opportunity is much smaller than in 89.

You could only hope to pass one or two cars per sets of tyre because they get destroyed following cars. Again showing how ridiculous the one tyre manufacturer and running cars on the wrong tyre is. I'd actually prefer them to set one compound in september, pass it on to the teams and say this is what you have for the whole of 2010. Build a car for it.
 
JENSON BUTTON
“We felt positive that we could get a good result today but unfortunately it turned into damage limitation for our championship challenge. I was heavily fuelled after qualifying and our plan was to get a good start, stay with the cars in front and then I was going longer at the first stop. My rear tyres grained massively in the first few laps which took away any chance that I had of keeping pace with the front-runners. We don’t know what the problem is right now as our pace on the option tyre on Friday was pretty good and we were able to manage the rear end much better than some of the others. The car just doesn’t feel like it did a few races ago but we’ll work hard to identify the problems before Valencia. It’s disappointing as we had high hopes for this race but we were fortunate to come away with two points.”

RUBENS BARRICHELLO
“There was some good action out there but my race was really compromised from the start which is a shame as the potential was definitely there for a points finish. I had some contact from another car when I turned into the second corner which dropped me to the back of the field. It was always going to be difficult to make progress from there but there were flashes of pace, particularly during the last stint when I was able to close up to the cars ahead. It’s been a very difficult weekend and one to forget really. We know that we have a lot of hard work ahead of us to find out what is affecting our performance.”

ROSS BRAWN
“Hungary has proved to be a very challenging weekend for the team which has left us with a number of questions to answer regarding the performance of the car. After a positive start on Friday where we felt that we had a good understanding of the tyres, they proved to be our main area of concern in the race today. Both drivers tried different strategies with their tyre choices but we were unable to prevent the graining which affected their pace at crucial stages of the race. We have four weeks until the next race and after our factory shutdown we will be working extremely hard to identify the cause of our recent issues and make the improvements required to return to our early season form. Finally congratulations to Mercedes-Benz on a very well-deserved win today for what is their seventh victory of the season.”
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Straight from the Horses mouth today @ 16.22
 
"and after our factory shutdown we will be working extremely hard to identify the cause of our recent issues and make the improvements required to return to our early season form"

Is the summer break mandatory? Not a good time to be closing the doors of the factory.
 
Think JRS summed most things up there.

Nice to see McLaren and Ferrari doing well again. Going to be an interesting second half to the season...
 
I did wonder about that at the time, that I thought the regs had been changed regards running with wheels missing?

Didn't someone get black flagged for running with a unsafe car?
 
driving with a car falling apart is very heavily frowned upon, didnt used to be the case a few years ago but its the safety and debris issue that has been made so prevalent in the past days.

still have to say that iam surprised that they didnt just get a telling off/fine.

still anything that annoys briatore is good by me.

edit- just remembered no alonso at his home gp,thats not going to go down well with some.
 
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Renault suspended from European GP

By Jonathan Noble Sunday, July 26th 2009, 16:39 GMT

Renault has been suspended from the European Grand Prix for the events that led to a wheel coming off Fernando Alonso's car in Hungary today.

Following a post-race discussion with the stewards, it was deemed that the team had breached the regulations enough for it to be suspended from the next event.

It means Alonso will miss his home event that takes place in Valencia next month, unless he moves to another team.

Alonso had been leading the race up until his stop, but his efforts came to nothing after his right front wheel was not fitted properly. It worked its way loose and flew off the car later that lap, ending up against the crash barriers.

A statement issued by the stewards on Sunday night said that there had been multiple breaches of the regulations by the Renault team.

Stewards talked to Renault representatives twice after the race.

The statement said that Renault "knowingly released car no. 7 from the pitstop position without one of the retaining devices for the wheel-nuts being securely in position, this being an indication that the wheel itself may not have been properly secured."

It added that Renault, "being aware of this, failed to take any action to prevent the car from leaving the pitlane....failed to inform the driver of this problem or to advise him to take appropriate action given the circumstances, even though the driver contacted the team by radio believing he had a puncture."

It said that the team's actions had compromised safety in breach of Article 3.2 of the Sporting Regulations, and in breach of Article 23.1.i had released the car from the pits before it was safe to do so.

Renault has been reminded of its right to appeal the decision.
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FOM explains qualifying timing problem

By Pablo Elizalde Sunday, July 26th 2009, 16:27 GMT

Formula One Management and F1's official timekeeper LG have explained the reasons for the timing failure at the end of qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Live timing stopped working at the end of the session, and even drivers were unsure about their positions when they climbed out of their cars.

FOM said on Sunday after the race that the finish line sensor had failed as a consequence of a broken cable, but that no data had been lost.

"In the closing minutes of the third part of the Formula 1 qualifying session yesterday the finish line sensor suffered a mechanical failure in the form of a damaged cable," said FOM in statement said.

"Standard procedures were followed and the back-up sensor used. Once the verification procedures were complete the full results were published.

"At no time was any timing data lost."
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