2010 HUNGARIAN GP PREVIEW AND ANALYSIS

[Sundar.f1]

Looks like a Red Bull walkover. Unless they make a biblically stupid mistake at the start, I think the Red Bulls have this one in the bag. Reliability and driver error seem to be the only things that can stop RBR this weekend. With overtaking all but impossible at the Hungaroring, Alonso's best chance is at the start. After that he has stay content with what he has. Hamilton could well ruin Massa's day if the Brazilian doesn't make a good start from the dirty side. Apart from that, I think we're all set to watch yet another procession at this circuit.

Pity, because I like the circuit design and it's nice to drive in the game. They should consider mounting a sprinkler system to spice up things a bit.

[Sundar.f1]

What a race! Not much happening on the track but it was a tense and unpredictable race for most of the time. Once again Vettel throws away a great opportunity to win. Considering the way he was scampering away from Alonso that was such a waste of a brilliant pole lap. Impetuous, easily frustrated, and careless at times, these are signs of a driver who's been thrown in at the deep end a bit too early. Too much of expectation and thus an equal amount of scathing criticism when things go wrong. I mean he's only done 50 odd races and many of them have been wasted by Red Bull's strategic mistakes or mechanical fragility. Besides, the team should've been paying attention to his distance to Mark at the restart and checked in with him. To everyone else in the outside world, it seemed as though Vettel was providing some space for Webber to make his pitstop. And you know what? I think it may well be the case, only Vettel could've overdone it a bit. Of course it could be entirely an inexperienced driver's error, but it could also be the team game play tactic of the season. If Vettel hadn't had the drive through, I'm sure that would've been a master stroke in strategy.

But credit to Mark Webber. Qualifying lap after qualifying lap on tyres that weren't supposed to last that long. The only reason it worked was because the car was head and shoulders above the rest this weekend. But he still had to dig deep to build that lead and it was a great drive by the Aussie who now leads the Drivers' Championship. At last! I thought these guys were never going to catch up to Mclaren and their drivers. It was high time Lewis had some reliability issues, seeing that everyone else in the title fight has had worse luck. That's good for the fans anyways, it brings Ferrari and Fernando back into contention and we'll have a fantastic shootout for both World Championships from now on, although I suspect Red Bull will need a mountain of bad luck/ bad driving to lose this one.

I wonder what it is with the Renault team and their pitstop-for-their-lead-driver at Hungary. We had Alonso with the loose wheel in '06, a loose wheel again in '09, and now this. That was awful work from the lollipop man at Renault. The chaos caused by Rosberg's loose wheel notwithstanding, it was a serious mistake by the Renault man, and it could've had some dire consequences. Sutil's race was well and truly ruined by the Renault pit crew. And I suspect Mercedes are going to have an awful lot to explain for, with Rosberg's wheel and then Schumi's utterly daft move on Rubens. For someone who was doing a brilliant job of defending 10th place, and who is the second most experienced driver in F1 history, that was poor driving. For someone who's got phenomenal racing skills, Michael's antics are such a let-down. His explanations are hard to accept. Rubens will be fully justified in asking for Michael to be punished properly. Squeezing someone through a tight chicane is one thing, nearly shoving a driver into the pitwall at 300kmph is entirely another. Michael was never one to observe the 'spirit' of the regulations anyway.

Vitaly Petrov was impressive all weekend, out-qualifying his more fancied team mate and then getting himself a great 5th place at the flag behind the Red Bulls and Ferraris. So too was Rubens, Kobayashi, de la Rosa, Hulkenberg, the two midfield teams putting up a good show. Drama at the Hungaroring this time, though not where one would want it, namely, on the track. Oh well, we expected a boring race and we got a pretty dramatic one, which is good. And now the unendurable three weeks until Belgium. But that should be worth the wait. Roll on Spa!

[Sundar.f1]

Race Results :

[Sundar.f1]

For his tangle with Rubens Barrichello, Schumacher has been given a 10 place penalty on the grid in the next race at Spa. Although Schumacher thought there was nothing wrong with his driving, since they did not touch and Barrichello managed to overtake him, the stewards thought otherwise.

[SCHUMI Lord of F1]

Schumi's move was purely F1 ...... I atleast don't intend to waste my weekend for 'processions', I mean it ....... what Schimi did was absolute promptness which we have only seen from Schumacher lately, else it was quite evident until Senna, Prost, Piquet etc ..... Schumi fortunately or unfortunately is the last of that lot who are/were real "f1-sports-MEN" unlike todays' good for nothing "procession-maestros"; strategic-winners or radio-winners ...

Why the hell Vettel pulled this much difference between him and SC ..... that was ridiculous, Webber didn't need that at all

[SCHUMI Lord of F1]

[Sundar.f1]

what Schimi did was absolute promptness which we have only seen from Schumacher lately, else it was quite evident until Senna, Prost, Piquet etc .....

In those days if a fatality occurred, people had a mindset to accept the fact that racing is dangerous and it was inevitable that someday or the other, an accident would claim a life. Now the sport has evolved, and whether we think it is for the better or not, it doesn't matter, public perception is different these days, and a fatality will receive extreme reactions from all quarters. Therefore, the drivers have been reined in a bit, and penalties are issued to discourage foolish driving.

Imagine if Schumacher had crashed into Barrichello, tyres flew and injured someone critically in the pitlane or on the pit wall. After Henry Surtees's fatal accident, you can bet people are paranoid about wheels flying off a car in a crash. I love the way drivers in the 60's and 70's threw their cars around a circuit without any thought for their own safety. I love the way it was completely Man&Machine Vs Man&Machine. Flat out, no quarter taken or given, and yet the racers were gentlemen in the truest sense of the word. In today's world, gentlemen are hard to find, and the the loss of a life for the sake of better racing is not accepted. Its a gradual change in perception that has vilified Schumacher's way of driving .

[Nin13]

Red Bull had both their cars on the front row for the sixth time this year, but once again they weren’t able to translate that into a one-two finish.

Despite that there was plenty for them to celebrate in their 100th Grand Prix start as they took the lead in the constructors’ championship and Mark Webber returned to the top of the drivers’ rankings.

Sebastian Vettel extended his run of consecutive pole positions to four. It was his seventh of the season and 12th of his career, giving him as many as Gerhard Berger and David Coulthard.

For Red Bull it was their sixth front row lock-out in 12 races.

Vettel’s pole position lap was one of the quickest around the Hungaroring since it was re-configured in 2003. His 1′18.773 lap was slightly slower than that set by Rubens Barrichello in his Ferrari in first qualifiyng in 2004, 1′18.436.

Vettel also logged the sixth fastest lap of his career. But there would be no race win for him once again.

That went to Webber, claiming his fourth victory of the year and sixth of his career in his 150th start.

Webber has now won as many races as Tony Brooks, John Surtees, Jochen Rindt, Gilles Villeneuve, Jacques Laffite, Riccardo Patrese and Ralf Schumacher.

This was Red Bull’s 100th Grand Prix start (but their 101st appearance – they did not start at Indianapolis in 2005) and 12th victory.

Two drivers scored the best result of their careers so far: Vitaly Petrov (fifth) and Nico Hülkenberg (sixth). Petrov also had his best qualifying position, seventh.

Pedro de la Rosa scored his first points since the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix, when he was eighth.

Mercedes failed to score a point in a race for the first time this year. That leaves Red Bull and McLaren the only teams to score in every round so far.

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2010/08/02/h ... d-stats-2/