Hungarian GP - Rain adds spice as Alonso takes another podium
Hungaroring, 31 July – Everyone expected the unexpected in the Hungarian Grand Prix, with talk of up to four pit stops over the course of the 70 laps and today, the rain further complicated matters, on a day when Fernando Alonso was one of several drivers to spin out and back into contention before taking third place on the podium, two places up on his grid position. From fourth on the grid, Felipe Massa also had an eventful afternoon, coming home sixth. The win went to McLaren’s Jenson Button, who was celebrating his 200th Grand Prix this weekend ahead of the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel.
The Hungaroring had been damp more or less all day leading up to race start time. Even though there was just a light drizzle, it was enough for all 24 cars to line up on intermediate rain tyres. Vettel got away cleanly from pole, then the two McLarens of Button and Hamilton held themselves up, which helped in allowing both Mercedes to jink past the two Ferraris with Fernando also passing Felipe but by the end of the lap Fernando had passed Schumacher to lie fifth again, although behind Rosberg, with Felipe down to seventh behind Schumacher.
For the next two laps Hamilton was all over Vettel’s gearbox and on lap 3, Fernando passed Rosberg and Felipe passed Schumacher so the Ferraris were now fourth and sixth. At the start of lap 4, Fernando ran wide allowing Rosberg past again, so the two Ferraris were now nose to tail in fifth and sixth places. One lap later and pressure from Hamilton forced Vettel to run wide at Turn 2 giving the McLaren the lead. Meanwhile Fernando ran wide again, letting Felipe go ahead but on lap 7 the order between them switched again. At the start of lap 8, the treacherous Turn 2 caught out Felipe who touched the barriers with the back of his 150º Italia but still kept going with damage to the left rear wing endplate. Lap 9 and Fernando finally found a way past Rosberg to go fourth, but Felipe’s incident had dropped the Brazilian to ninth as the track began to dry.
With 10 laps completed the order was Hamilton, Vettel, Button, Alonso, Rosberg, Webber, although the Australian pitted on this lap, the first to switch to slick tyres. Felipe did the same, as did Petrov and Barrichello. Button changed to slicks on lap 11, followed down pit lane by Di Resta in the Force India. Maldonaldo and Heidfeld also came in. Leader Hamilton came in on lap 12 with Vettel and Alonso and Rosberg doing the same.
With the leaders all on dry tyres the order at the front was Hamilton, followed by Vettel but not for long because Button also passed the Red Bull to make it a McLaren one-two, while Webber got the better of Fernando to move up to fourth. Meanwhile, Felipe was much quicker than those ahead and closed right up to eighth placed Schumacher on lap 19. Out in front, Hamilton led his McLaren team-mate Button by over 9 seconds, with Vettel and Webber next up for Red Bull, with Fernando just half a second off the Australian. As the Brazilian had predicted, even with DRS, passing was no easy matter here and whereas a week ago in Germany he found himself lap after lap staring at the back of Rosberg’s car, this time it was a view of the other Mercedes, that of Schumacher, that kept him occupied.
On lap 25 Webber and Alonso made their second stops together, followed by Felipe, Petrov and Buemi and leader Hamilton at the start of lap 26 and Button on 27, with Fernando setting a race fastest lap at this point. Meanwhile Felipe got past Schumacher, who spun and stopped on track, as Vettel made his second tyre change, with the Brazilian Ferrari driver now finding himself in seventh place after a great passing move on Rosberg. Around the 30 lap mark, Fernando was lapping half a second quicker than Webber with less than a second separating them in their fight for fourth. Lap 34 saw Felipe move up to sixth as he slid past Kobayashi in the Sauber.
Lap 36 and Fernando was the first of the leaders to make a third tyre change, again for Super Softs and three laps later Webber came in so that Fernando moved ahead of him. Hamilton made his third stop on lap 40, rejoining third behind Button and Vettel while Felipe also came in for fresh rubber. Next it was Vettel to come in followed by Button on lap 42 and as the run of pit stops played out, it became clear that Fernando got the edge over Vettel to go third behind the two McLarens. However, on lap 45, Vettel managed to brush past the Spaniard to regain third, while Felipe was now seventh.
As a few drops of rain began to fall on lap 47, Button made the most of coming up to backmarkers to get past his team-mate to relegate Hamilton, who spun on the slippery track, to second, as Fernando made a fourth stop, again taking on slick tyres, dropping him to fifth behind Webber again. The two McLarens were duelling hard for the lead, until Button ran wide on lap 51 to hand the lead to Hamilton, but it was not over there as the two McLarens passed one another a further two times in the next lap so that Hamilton was in the lead once again before pitting next time round. The Englishman fitted intermediate tyres while Fernando moved up to fourth again as Webber pitted for his fourth change, also taking on rain tyres. Felipe was now sixth, having made three stops so far.
Lap 54 saw Fernando drive round Hamilton to put the 150º Italia up to third, while the Mclaren man, evidently needing to go back to slicks, came in for stop number 5. As Webber had also made a fifth stop to go back to slicks, Felipe was now fifth. Fernando was lapping much faster than second placed Vettel. When Hamilton had to take a drive-through penalty for speeding in pit lane, the Brazilian Ferrari man was up to fourth behind his team-mate and a very fast Webber who got past at the start of lap 57 so Felipe now had his mirrors full of Hamilton and indeed a few corners later, the McLaren got by. Felipe chose to change tyres for a fourth time on lap 59, as his team-mate survived a big slide still hanging onto third spot. There were battles throughout the field, including one for eighth place as Kobayashi in the Sauber led the two Toro Rossos of Buemi and Alguersuari. With four laps remaining, as backmarkers got in the way, Hamilton got past Webber to take fourth place. Behind Felipe in sixth, the rest of the points went to Di Resta, seventh, Buemi eighth, having started from 23rd, Rosberg and Alguersuari tenth.
Formula 1 now takes its compulsory summer break, returning for action at the challenging Spa-Francorchamps circuit, for the Belgian Grand Prix on 28 August.
Credit: Ferrari S.p.A. (www.ferrari.com)
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