Formula 1 2013 - Round 10: Hungary

Hungary has never been spoken of in hallowed tones within Formula 1 circles. The Hungaroring, sticking with classic design, hasn’t provided many classic races, but it has provided some classic and significant moments.

Hill nearly winning in an Arrows comes to mind, along with Massa’s horrifying accident, Button’s first win after a series of chaos and most of the wet races here, there’s been plenty of interesting moments but never enough to string into a race because the track is so difficult to pass on.

That’s not to say it’s bad, it’s a good show of driver skill and how good a car is and with the latest rendition of the 2013 Pirelli tyres, things could certainly be interesting.

Circuit: Hungaroring

2012 Winner: Lewis Hamilton

2012 Pole: Lewis Hamilton

2013 Tyre Compounds: Soft and Medium

Yes, I know, this one’s ‘late’ too. I had originally been aiming to get these out on a Monday after the race and actually write other entries on this thing, but the real world insists on intervening in various ways (no, bloggers don’t just exist in the Phantom Zone when they’re not writing new articles). I might just start aiming for Wednesdays instead.

Anyway, while I was away at a Fireworks Championship (which inadvertently celebrated the end of the UK’s recent heat wave as it rained throughout) the Hungarian grand prix took place. While the UK’s heat wave was ending, Hungary still had theirs in full swing and with the summer break fast approaching; everyone wanted to go on holiday on a high note.

As soon as practice started, things looked bad for everyone who wasn’t in a Red Bull. Vettel was looking imperiously fast with Webber snapping at his heels, the next cars down the Lotus’ who couldn’t match the Red Bull’s race pace. Mercedes and Ferrari weren’t looking very good while Force India seemed to be really struggling.

Red Bull dominated Friday, but Saturday saw a change as Grosjean was fastest in practice, the McLarens also looking stronger than usual but not getting much higher up the order. While their Friday was poor, the Mercedes were also improving but it would take a mighty effort from Rosberg and Hamilton to overthrow the Red Bulls.

Force India’s bad weekend continued as Di Resta went out in Qualifying one for the third time in four races, this time on genuine pace rather than botched strategy along with the usual suspects of Gutierrez, the Caterhams and Marussias. Mercedes took a risk by sending their drivers out on a single flying lap at the end to save some tyres. Even so, they were massively quick with Rosberg piping Hamilton.

As Qualifying two started, problems started to crop up at Red Bull on Webber’s car (were you really expecting it to happen to Vettel?) when his KERS started to fail, though he was still able to get into Qualifying three. The Ferraris were quick but not looking even vaguely perfect while Vettel continued to look imperious before the Mercedes piped him again. Sutil and Button both looked close to getting into the top ten before getting pushed out at the last moment by Webber and Perez.

Webber didn’t take part in Qualifying three while his mechanics worked to fix the KERS. On track, Raikkonen was bringing some rallying skills to Formula 1 as he power slid around the last corner before eventually finishing sixth. Hamilton set the first marker time early on before Vettel obliterated it, laying down the gauntlet to everyone. Alonso wasn’t able to reach it while Grosjean, continuing his improving streak, got himself into forth. Rosberg wasn’t able to top Vettel, but Hamilton was and even a last fast run didn’t help Vettel overturn the Mercedes.

The race got underway on a fine day, Hamilton getting away fine while Vettel struggled off the dirty side of the grid, nearly getting jumped by Grosjean who he pushed as far up against the grass as he could get away with. Rosberg didn’t make a great start as Alonso flew around the outside of the Mercedes and nearly past Grosjean through turn three. Rosberg tried the same at turn six on Massa, but turned in too early and clipped the Brazilian’s front wing, forcing him wide and leaving Massa with damage.

Vettel’s terrifying speed didn’t quite show as Hamilton pulled a gap, a gap that shrunk for a few laps before expanding again. Grosjean, for the second race in a row, was tailing Vettel but couldn’t find a way past.

While the Mercedes was treating it’s tyres better than they had, Hamilton still pitted first and came out behind Button, who’d made a good start himself and was running longer on his first stint on medium tyres. Getting stuck behind a slower car in Hungary spells disaster, so Hamilton passed the McLaren who tried to retake the position but ultimately failed, being on older tyres.

Vettel pitted soon after, but either he really was losing speed or Button was simply acting wiser, the reigning world champion couldn’t find a way past. Likely because of his speed on Friday, he and the team expected to get on pole and vanish so set the car up to work in clear air, backed up by the team asking Vettel and Webber to try and cool their cars as much as possible and now it wasn’t there they were struggling.

The Lotus’, meanwhile, were running for longer than Hamilton and Vettel, but Grosjean’s gamble didn’t work out as he ended up staying behind Vettel. With the Frenchman piling on the pressure, Vettel attempted a move on Button that didn’t work, backing out just too late to avoid minor front wing damage which didn’t have much effect on the car. Massa, also suffering wing damage, was running fine and didn’t change it when he pitted. Vettel, still very much on the back foot, had to fend off Grosjean by pushing him towards the grass fairly regularly.

Force India’s bad weekend continued when Sutil was pulled in to retire with a hydraulic issue. Di Resta was still running down the order and not looking like he could improve while Webber ran for the longest on his first stint. Hamilton eventually caught the Australian before he finally pitted.

Vettel eventually found his way past Button as his tyres went off, but Grosjean’s clumsy streak returned as the Frenchman turned in on Button before the chicane at the top of the circuit. Both drivers go away without damage, but considering Grosjean had been driving so well it was disappointing he was starting to slip up again and the Stewards were now watching.

Now clear of Button, Vettel started lapping a bit quicker than Hamilton, a surprise considering his wing damage but then Massa was doing fine minus the front wing end plate on his Ferrari, so the front wing details infront of the wheels must be less critical than first thought. However, being stuck behind Button for so long left Vettel over twelve seconds behind so he’d have to do something very special to catch up.

Continuing his adventures in Hungary, Grosjean found himself behind Massa after his next pit stop. With Massa struggling on his older tyres, Grosjean went to dive around the outside of the Brazilian at turn six, going slightly off the track in a move that was technically illegal but entirely awesome.

However, his escapades didn’t please the stewards who gave Grosjean a drive through penalty for his incident with Button, while he’d have to wait until after the race to find out what he did wrong against Massa.

As his stint came to an end, Vettel hadn’t eroded Hamilton’s lead as much as he would have hoped and after his pit stop came out back behind Button again, which likely resulted in a lot of swearing in German, but this time he got past much quicker and continued to try and catch back up to Hamilton, but it was increasingly looking like an unlikely proposition.

During Massa/Grosjean move, Gutierrez had pulled into the pits to retire with a gearbox problem before Bottas ground to a halt in a cloud of smoke off the last corner. His car was removed without a safety car.

Hamilton in his Mercedes was still quick, quicker than the still recovering Rosberg who was at the other end of the top ten. He and Grosjean, who was now stuck behind Alonso, pitted a few laps apart and came out behind Webber and Button and Massa respectively (which probably worried the hell out of McLaren and Ferrari). In dire need of not getting held up, Hamilton dived past Webber as Hulkenburg attempted to get out of the way.

Raikkonen, who hadn’t featured much on the live feeds, was still going strongly and after pitting for what turned out to be the last time was in danger of getting ahead of Vettel. The danger was realized when Vettel pitted and came out well behind the Finn, though Webber got himself ahead of Alonso after his pitstop.

As Raikkonen had pitted well before Vettel, the German caught up with the Finn but much like his first encounter with Button wasn’t able to get by, spinning up his wheels and sliding slightly in the Lotus’ dirty air but still able to find enough traction to potentially attack. However, the wise old head of Raikkonen kept the faster Vettel at bay while Hamilton measured himself.

Everything wasn’t absolutely perfect for Mercedes however as Rosberg’s engine went up in smoke and flames. Luckily, he was near an opening in the barriers and got off track quickly, as well as the graphics quickly informing us it was actually Rosberg as it’s difficult to tell them apart at a glance with such similar helmets.

Vettel continued to push, even as Red Bull told both drivers of some sort of ‘failure’. Whatever it was wasn’t hurting performance as Vettel continued to press and get fended off while Di Resta pulled into the pits to retire with hydraulic issues like his team mate and put an end to Force India’s wretched weekend.

Hamilton took his first victory for Mercedes, his fourth victory at the Hungaroring with Raikkonen just ahead of Vettel. Webber made a great recoverey while Alonso fended off Grosjean, who also gained a twenty second time penalty for passing Massa off track, but remained in sixth ahead of Button, Massa and Perez. Further back, Rosberg’s exit had promoted Maldonado to tenth after a quiet run to score Williams’ first point of the year.

This wasn’t a classic race by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a typical Hungaroring race with whoever took their opportunities when presented coming out on top. Vettel had the fastest car, even with wing damage, but being stuck behind the reasonably paced Button destroyed his chances of winning.

Now though, the teams go on their official summer holiday after several grand prixs with lengthy breaks in-between. I’ll be back at some point with a mid-season review of the teams and drivers, but for now I’m off to play Pikmin 3.

Race Results:

	Driver	Constructor	Race Time	Grid
1st	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:42:29.445	1
2nd	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	+10.938	6
3rd	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	+12.459	2
4th	Mark Webber	Red Bull	+18.044	10
5th	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	+32.411	5
6th	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	+52.295	3
7th	Jenson Button	McLaren	+53.819	13
8th	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	+56.447	7
9th	Sergio Perez	McLaren	+1 lap	9
10th	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	+1 lap	15
11th	Nico Hulkenburg	Sauber	+1 lap	12
12th	Jean Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	+1 lap	14
13th	Daniel Riccardo	Toro Rosso	+1 lap	8
14th	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham	+2 laps	20
15th	Charles Pic	Caterham	+2 laps	19
16th	Jules Bianchi	Marussia	+3 laps	21
17th	Max Chilton	Marussia	+3 laps	22
18th	Paul Di Resta	Force India	DNF (Hydraulics)	18
19th	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	DNF (Engine)	4
20th	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	DNF (Hydraulics)	16
21st	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber	DNF (Gearbox)	17
22nd	Adrian Sutil	Force India	DNF (Hydraulics)	11

Driver’s Championship:

	Driver	Score
1st	Sebastian Vettel	172
2nd	Kimi Raikkonen	134 (-38)
3rd	Fernando Alonso	133 (-39)
4th	Lewis Hamilton	124 (-48)
5th	Mark Webber	105 (-67)
6th	Nico Rosberg	84 (-88)
7th	Felipe Massa	61 (-111)
8th	Romain Grosjean	49 (-123)
9th	Jenson Button	39 (-133)
10th	Paul Di Resta	36 (-136)
11th	Adrian Sutil	23 (-149)
12th	Sergio Perez	18 (-154)
13th	Jean-Eric Vergne	13 (-159)
14th	Daniel Riccardo	11 (-161)
15th	Nico Hulkenburg	7 (-165)
16th	Pastor Maldonado	1 (-171)

Constructor’s Championship:

	Constructor	Score
1st	Red Bull	277
2nd	Mercedes	208 (-69)
3rd	Ferrari	194 (-83)
4th	Lotus	183 (-94)
5th	Force India	59 (-218)
6th	McLaren	57 (-220)
7th	Toro Rosso	24 (-253)
8th	Sauber	7 (-277)
9th	Williams	1 (-276)