Category: McLaren

So the FIA persists with the post-race interviews on the podium. We’re not fans. To be fair Jacky Ickx did a reasonable job last night at the Belgian Grand Prix, but, please, stop this nonsense. Do you agree?

Anyway, on to Jenson Button’s apparently easy victory. The Brit hasn’t always done too well at Spa and he was happy to win on the famous circuit. “I just love Spa, I think we all do. Through Eau Rouge, I know it’s easy flat, but it’s still an experience, the g that we pull through there,” he said. “But it’s really nice to win on a circuit like this. I remember watching Formula One back in the day here—it was a little bit different then—and there’s so much history. It’s really good to be a part of that.”

Further explaining his great result at Spa, Button revealed an omen for the other teams heading in to the super fast Italian Grand Prix at Monza next weekend. “All weekend, to be fair, the car has felt reasonably good. And this is the first circuit we come to that is lower downforce, we pretty much run full downforce everywhere else we go, so it’s a nice change to try something different.”

You can read more from the first three drivers after the break with thanks to the FIA. There’s even a surprise f-bomb thrown by Sebastian Vettel!

[Pics: Red Bull/Getty Images]

Jenson Button (McLaren) led from start to finish to cap off a surprisingly dominant weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix. But it was a calamitous start which was the real story of the race.

The drama began when Romain Grosjean (Lotus) was defending a move from Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and in doing so the pair touched, sending Hamilton onto the grass and ultimately into the back of Grosjean. The two cars then went flying into the pack at La Source, the first corner hairpin, collecting Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and Sergio Perez (Sauber) on the way through.

Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) was also contacted quite heavily by Hamilton, but he somehow managed to finish the race; albeit in P13, well below the expectations generated by his front row start.

It really was total chaos for a brief moment and we’re thankful to report no drivers were hurt. Fernando Alonso was especially lucky to escape unharmed as Grosjean’s car flew over the front of the Ferrari’s nose, close to Alonso’s head.

A Safety Car period of around four laps followed and Button made a clean getaway from the restart and that was that. Indeed, so dominant was Button he was able to complete the race with only one pit stop, the gap back to P2 sufficient to ensure he was able to rejoin the race without surrendering his lead.

Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) drove well to work his way into P2 after starting from P10 and he came in for his first tyre stop on lap 21. The German was able to complete the race on those tyres to collect a well earned podium finish.

Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) promised a lot and while happy to finish the race in third place would have held higher ambitions.

After starting well down in P12, Australia’s Mark Webber (Red Bull) recovered well to collect the eight championship points offered for a sixth place finish. We’re not sure if a one-stop strategy was an option for him, but we saw from the first two drivers that it was the better option for the day.

With Alonso scoring no points the goal was to claim back as much of Fernando’s championship lead as possible. Mark managed to reclaim eight points back, but Vettel went better with 18 and in doing so leap frogged Webber into second place for the title hunt.

Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) was as high as fifth early on in the race but slipped back to finish in P9. That matches his best F1 finish achieved in Melbourne. Crucially for Daniel his teammate, Jean-Eric Vergne, was one place ahead in P8.

Race stewards have a few incidents to sign off on after the race, including a possible unsafe release from Webber’s second pit stop. There was no damage done as Felipe Massa (Ferrari) dived in for his stop, so let’s hope sanity prevails there and Mark’s result is unaffected.

A provisional finishing order can be seen below, along with updated championship tables. If the stewards intervene and upset the apple cart we’ll be sure to update the figures below.

Lewis Hamilton has dominated this weekend’s proceedings at the Hungarian Grand Prix, culminating with pole position after last night’s qualifying session. The resurgent McLaren driver wasn’t troubled in Q3 and finished four tenths quicker (1:20.953) than Romain Grosjean (Lotus, 1:21.366). Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull, 1:21.416) was close behind and rounded out the top three.

It was a bad night for the Australians with Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) narrowly missing progression through to Q2. Afterwards the 23-year-old said: “It’s frustrating and a bit disappointing not to have made the cut to Q2, as this is the first time I’ve been stuck in Q1 all season and it would have been nice to keep that sheet clean.”

Ricciardo added, “I’ll try and make up for this disappointment tomorrow.”

It was a similar tale for Mark Webber (Red Bull) who was knocked out of Q3 at the death by 0.018 seconds thanks to Bruno Senna (Williams). It was a bitter blow for Webber who was the quickest man in Practice 3, and the only driver so far this weekend, to head Hamilton at the top of the timesheets.

“I was happy with the car this morning, I was quick in P3, but I didn’t feel happy on that last set of soft tyres in Q2 and struggled against my scrub time, which is a bit bizarre,” Webber bemoaned. “The field is tight at the moment and it’s disappointing to qualify in P11 obviously. Our race pace should be okay tomorrow.

Hamilton’s pole position is the 23rd of his career and the 150th for McLaren. You can read what Lewis, Grosjean and Vettel had to say after quali in the full transcript available below, thanks to the FIA.

[Pic: Vodafone McLaren Mercedes]