Tag: Hungarian GP

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Lewis Hamilton wins 2013 Hungarian GP

Lewis Hamilton wins 2013 Hungarian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton said he couldn’t win the Hungarian Grand Prix, despite starting from pole position. But he made a quick start off the line to hold P1 and managed to hang on for a well deserved win—his first for Mercedes AMG.

We were also told that the Hungaroring is notoriously difficult to pass on but we saw some great overtaking moves during this race right through the field.

The closing laps saw a great scrap between Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) and Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) for the minor podium positions. Kimi was able to hold Sebastian at bay to finish the race in P2.

Making his second great start in a row Mark Webber (Red Bull) started from P10 and improved to P7 by the end of the first lap. He bagn the race on new medium compound tyres, while all those in front were on used softs. Fresh tyres allowed Mark to stay out much longer on his opening stint and he led the race for several laps before making his first of three tyre stops.

With 10 laps to go, while in second place, Webber pitted for the final time taking on a brand new set of soft tyres. He rejoined the track in P4 some 12 seconds behind the Raikkonen–Vettel scrap but was unable to close enough ground to fight for a podium finish. Still, after his qualifying woes he should be happy with fourth.

Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) had a non-descript race and was never really in the hunt, in that context he may be happy with P5 today. However, we’re certain he won’t be happy with Ferrari’s current form.

In P6 was Romain Grosjean (Lotus) who, we think, was a little unlucky to be penalised for a great overtaking move on Jenson Button (McLaren). To complete the move Grosjean had all four wheels off the race track, ever so slightly, and was given a drive through penalty for his sins. He had shown good pace all race and had the package to fight for more.

Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) was barely sighted on the television feed all race and dropped from his starting position of eighth down to thirteenth. Crucially, he finished one place behind teammate Jean-Eric Vergne.

Formula 1 now heads into its mid-season break and will return for the Belgian Grand Prix in the last weekend of August.

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Formula 1 Lotus Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

2013 Hungarian GP: Qualifying report

2013 Hungarian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes AMG) collected his third pole position in succession after setting the fastest time in qualifying for the 2013 Hungarian Grand Prix. Hamilton (1:19.388) was genuinely surprised to have edged out Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull, 1:19.426), who had been the benchmark all weekend.

Romain Grosjean (Lotus, 1:19.595) qualified third and in doing so reminded us that, when switched on, he has the talent to mix it with the best in the sport. If he can rid himself of his brain fades he could forge an enviable F1 career. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG, 1:19.720) will start form P4 alongside Grosjean.

Fernando Alonso (Ferrari, 1:19.791) and Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus, 1:19.851) occupy the third row of the grid.

For Australian fans their hopes will be pinned on Daniel Riccardo (Toro Rosso, 1:20.641) who will start from P8, once again making it into Q3 while his teammate, Jean-Eric Vergne, was left behind in Q2 and will line up on P14.

“It was good to get into Q3 again. We seem to make a habit of finding a little bit extra for qualifying,” Ricciardo said after qualifying. “Athough ideally, I’d like to be on the pace right from Friday and chip away at the lap times within the top ten. We made some set-up changes overnight and they seem to have worked, although we had a bit of work to do to get to Q3 today.”

Meanwhile, Mark Webber (Red Bull) did well to get himself into Q3 with a car that had ever present issues, namely a KERS failure and hampered performance from his gearbox. He elected not to go out at all in Q3 and will start from P10 and has the luxury to choose the tyres he wants to start with. Although, that’s not much of a compensation for Mark who was clearly frustrated after hopping out of his car while Q3 was still underway.

“Massively frustrating. We look stupid, it’s embarrassing and it’s a brutal circuit to be out of position on,” Webber said. “We should be challenging for the front row and we’re 10th.”

Expectations for the race are that Mercedes, again, won’t have the pace to challenge for the win, which leaves the likely result another win for Sebastian Vettel. The Hungaoring is notoriously difficult to overtake on and while Webber might have the car able to challenge for a podium it will be a mighty result if he can achieve that.

[Pic: Mercedes AMG]

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Formula 1

Pirelli previews 2013 Hungarian GP

Pirelli P Zero F1 tyre

Since the exploding tyre dramas of the British Grand Prix we’ve been told teams had mounted tyres the wrong way around, that the teams are too paranoid and threats of a driver boycott prior to the German Grand Prix.

That culminated in hastily arranged test of newly created tyres (2012 carcass, using 2013 compounds) spliced into the recent young driver testing at Silverstone.

So, in their official video preview (available below) of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix you’d reckon Pirelli would mention something about the new tyres. Even if these videos were produced months ago you’d reckon they’d be able to edit the voiceover. Apparently not.

In the pre-race press release, though, we do get some acknowledgement.

“Hungary marks the first event for our latest specification P Zero tyres, which consist of the 2012 construction matched to the 2013 compounds,” confirmed Paul Hembery. “These tyres were tried out by the teams at Silverstone during the young driver test, who benefitted from the opportunity to adapt the set-up of their cars to best suit the new tyres.”

Hembery goes on to discuss some of the features of the Hungaroring circuit. “Now they get to use them in competition for the first time, and with qualifying particularly important at the Hungaroring, the work done in free practice will be very important,” he added. “Overtaking at this circuit is never an easy task, so the teams will be looking to use strategy to maximise their opportunities to gain track position.

“The selection of medium and soft tyres should provide plenty of chances to help them do that, based on the data that all the teams gain with different fuel loads in free practice. Temperatures in Hungary can be very high, and this is the other factor on which the levels of wear and degradation experienced will depend.

“Traction and braking are two critical aspects of tyre performance in Hungary, with the teams running a set-up designed to emphasise these key areas. With levels of lateral energy relatively low, tyre performance rather than durability will be the limiting factor and this will form the basis of the strategy selected—with the teams aiming to keep the tyres within the peak window of operating performance for as long as possible.

“The design of our latest tyres should help them to do this.”

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Ferrari Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing Renault

2010 Hungarian Grand Prix in pictures

2010 Hungarian GP

The 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix; Red Bull Racing’s 100th GP, Mark Webber’s 150th GP and his 6th career victory. The Aussie now leads the drivers championship and Red Bull have finally reached the top of the constructors tree. There’s seven races left in 2010, can Mark and RBR maintain the rage?

Elsewhere, Michael drove his old pal Rubens up the wall. Sebastian had a mid-race nap and Robert drove into Adrian. Here’s a surprise, too; think of the six drivers from the new teams (Lotus, Virgin and HRT), if they were running their own mini-championship who do you think would be leading the charge? A gold star for you if you picked out the name Karun Chandhok.

[Thanks to Micky for the Chandhok tip]

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Formula 1 Red Bull Racing

Mark Webber wins Hungarian GP

2010 Hunagrian GP

Mark Webber has just won an extraordinary Hungarian Grand Prix, in doing so he has reclaimed the lead of the 2010 world drivers championship. It was a fortunate turn of events that, in the end, delivered Webber a comfortable win from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and his Red Bull Racing teammate Sebastian Vettel.

Vettel started the race on pole, with Webber in P2 and Alonso P3. The Ferrari man jumped Webber off the line and very nearly took the lead from Vettel into Turn 1. Vettel was able to fend off Alonso’s challenge and the notoriously difficult to pass Hungaroring looked like providing another boring procession.

However, on lap 15, before teams were planning to bring in their drivers for scheduled pit stops some debris from one of the Force India cars was positioned precariously in the middle of the track. The Safety Car was deployed and the entire field took advantage to make their compulsory tyre change; with the exception of Webber, Rubens Barichello (Williams) and Jarno Trulli (Virgin Racing). Chaos reigned in pit lane, too, with a crash between Robert Kubica (Renault) and Vintonio Liuzzi (Force India), a loose wheel from Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes bouncing down the lane among the teams and cars everywhere.

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