i have a question i forgot to ask,
so mercedes mclaren qualified 1 and 2, massa 3 at hungary, how did massa keep pulling so far ahead during each lap? maybe 5 laps in hamilton wouldnt even be on the same shot of the track as massa, could they have tweaked the computer post qualifying/pre race? which also could have leant a hand to the engine giving out?
This site has very good write ups after each race.
http://planet-f1.com/story/0,18954,3265_3907021,00.html
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HUNGARIAN GP: WINNERS AND LOSERS
Sunday 3rd August 2008
Timo Glock and Nelson Piquet Junior cemented their team positions, while Felipe Massa delivered a virtuoso performance that ended in misery. Ferrari's tyres may be good in hot conditions, but their engines...
STAR OF THE RACE
Timo Glock, Toyota, 2nd
Glock was a sensation in the Hungarian GP. At one stage of the race he put in three purple (fastest) times for Sector 3 in successive laps and he totally outdrove team-mate Jarno Trulli on a track that Trulli should have excelled at.
There are still wobbles in his performance as we witnessed towards the end when he realised that Kimi Raikkonen was bearing down on him. And for sheer metronomic excellence you couldn't beat Felipe Massa's opening stint of the race where he edged the Fastest Lap down and down and down.
But for someone who looked like he was leaning heavily on the Toyota OUT door, this was a great result. Even if Hamilton and Massa hadn't had their problems he would have been 4th - as it was he scored Toyota's most impressive result to date.
He also managed to extend the fine run of Unexpected Bloke on Podium results. First it was DC, then Rubens in Britain, then Nelson Piquet Junior in Germany and now Timo in Hungary
OVERTAKING MOVE OF THE RACE
Felipe Massa, Ferrari, DNF
Winners and Losers diehards will appreciate that OMoTR is rarely if ever given for a move off the line, but such was the absence of overtaking (Button on Barrichello - perhaps) and such was the excellence of Massa's pass that you'd have to be pretty churlish not to give it to Felipe.
Hamilton made a mistake in going too defensive and left himself with such a tight line into Turn 1 that Massa's momentum round the outside was enough. It was a move from Massa that was aggressive, fair, neat and bordered on poetry. This is how F1 should be and Hamilton was gracious in acknowledging it.
As for the race, again Felipe was brilliant, setting a Swiss-watch-like accuracy to his first stint, rarely deviating more than two-tenths off his previous sector time and edging out a gap with nine Fastest Laps out of the first 16.
It's difficult to know if the strategy would have panned out for him had Lewis failed to get his puncture - in the early laps it looked like Lewis backed off to save fuel - but it would have been mighty close. As it was he was left mulling over the fact that he had a 6.7 lead over Kovalainen with three laps left to go and could have turned his Ferrari engine down more than he did. had he known...
A heartbreaking afternoon and one that should have ended with him parking his car a bit closer to the barriers than he did.
WINNERS
Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren, 1st
For those that think that Kovalainen was gifted a win, think on this. You're wrong. Kovalainen inherited a win, but he did do some of the work. When Hamilton limped off for a new tyre on Lap 41 Massa had a gap of 23.7 seconds to the new second place man. He had 28 laps left and could afford to lose three-quarters of a second a lap. By Lap 56 Kovalainen had got the gap down to just 12.6 seconds. By Lap 63 the gap was only 7.9 seconds. Kovalainen's pace provoked Mass into a spurt and on Lap 66 the gap had fallen to 6.7 seconds. At the beginning of Lap 68 Massa's engine blew.
Heikki was due some good luck after suffering some unfortunate twists of fate early in the season and this was it. As Mark Blundell so eloquently put it - "he drove the race."
Most interesting moment of the race was actually watching Raikkonen and Kovalainen interacting in the lobby to the podium - two Finns in first and third. (That was certainly going to be on the Helsinki Tonight news programme.) Would they throw their arms round each other the way Felipe and Lewis did? Or Lewis and Nico did (Lewis is such a slut)? No. A grin and a handshake. Raikkonen is not getting any more Italian.
Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 3rd
The fickle hand of fate is actually evening a few things out at the moment. Raikkonen got third place when really he should have been fifth. In France he should have won, but his exhaust fell off unexpectedly.
It was an amazing transformation in the latter stages of the race to see the Raikkonen without Alonso in front of him compared to the one that followed him for 50 laps. After he lost control and went straight on at Turn 2 it looked like he was destined to spend the whole afternoon behind the Spaniard. Seeing as they both ducked in for their second pit-stops soon after it seems almost miraculous that Raikkonen managed to jump Alonso in the stops. When he started pursuing Glock it was like another driver had taken over.
Fernando Alonso, Renault 4th
Nelson Piquet Junior, 6th
We're still not sure why it wasn't Alonso on the podium instead of Raikkonen. Piquet put in another confidence boosting performance to make it a straight fight for fourth in the Constructors' Championship between Toyota and Renault.
Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 5th
At the time of writing Bridgestone were of the opinion that Lewis's tyre gave way thanks to debris on the track and not driver abuse. At the time it happened, it reminded us of Kovalainen's wheel rim failure at the Spanish GP. Hamilton was particularly unlucky to get it so early in the lap but at least it didn't toss him into the gravel. That'll teach him to keep his fellow drivers waiting for the drivers' parade...
Though there was still the chance of winning the race before he picked up the puncture, the Hungarian GP will serve as a suitable lesson in humility for the man most likely to.
Robert Kubica, BMW, 8th
BMW are clearly too busy finding new ways to torture their mechanics through the KERS system than develop the 2008 car. Robert Kubica had few tricks to show his loyal 30,000 Polish fans who had come to the Magyar Nagydij 2008 with high expectations. He got a point, but only thanks to Massa parking the Ferrari.
Ron Dennis, McLaren
One of the most interesting asides of the entire weekend came out of the lips of Ron Dennis when he was being interviewed by ITV's Steve Rider post-qualifying. Steve said something on the lines of "quite a contrast to this race last year, Ron..." referencing the incredible scenes when Fernando Alonso has deliberately sabotaged his team-mate's final qualifying run.
Ron muttered that the full facts of that incident had still to be revealed - which makes you wonder what there is left to be told. Because we subsequently found out that Fernando Alonso effectively tried to blackmail Ron into giving him No.1 status in the team, otherwise he was going to go to the FIA with evidence of e.mails and Stepneygate.
Ron called his bluff by going to Max Mosley himself and saying that there was more to it - for which his team was ultimately fined $100m. Recently Alonso has been getting a bit snippy with some of his comments about the McLaren team and how unfairly he was treated yada yada yada, but let us not forget what a complete and utter**** he was at the time.
If Ron says there are still more details to come out, then it's fairly safe to assume they paint the Lynx Dry advert guy an even darker shade of brown.
LOSERS
FIA Race Stewards
So what was Sebastien Bourdais supposed to do as he approached the final corner about to start his qualifying lap in Q1? He can't stop his car so late in the lap because he needs the momentum out of the final corner to start his own lap. He's just let another car through which has slowed him already, how could he possibly get out of the way of Nick Heidfeld as well?
The decision to drop Bourdais down the grid for the widely televised incident in Q1 was just another all-too-familiar case of the stewards tremulous grip on racing practicalities. We have to ask: were they studying the right video, or had Tim Barnes sent them some of his latest exploits?
Sebastian Vettel, Toro Rosso, DNF
Interviewed on the grid Sebastian Vettel revealed that he had a lucky coin stuffed into his left racing shoe. Given his first lap performances this year, he might try something else.
Mark - Git orf me barra, wot is underneath me - Blundell
In Hungary we found out some good solid racing information. No fancy stuff. Just the nuts and bolts what was needed.
If you wondered what kind of circuit it was. Mark was ready with: "It is very alike a street circuit."
If you wondered why Kimi Raikkonen had a late surge in the race: "It was almost like he was trying to get together with his car."
And if you wanted to hear a sentence with various key words cut out, try Mark's analysis of the next three weeks: "It's very difficult because their testing ban. None of the teams and cars can go out and putting more miles in.
Andrew Davies
