Hungarian Grand Prix Review

So after the disapointment that the BBC will relax their coverage over the next few years as they couldn't comprehend spending £50m on F1. We will have to appreciate and saviour every race that they do over the rest of the season.

From 2013 we will only see 10 full races on the BBC. When the coverage started on Sunday the presenters were very sub-dued compared to normal. The big shock was no Martin Brundle on the grid walk, were they trying to adjust to the relaxed coverage and expecting Martin Brundle to go to Sky? With the DRS over the last corner and home straight everyone was wondering whether there would be a last gasp overtake on the last corner of the last lap, how dramatic would that have been. Maybe the Hungarians were thinking how they can make their track top the rest this season. We had to wait for the last lap for this to be fulfilled.

Vettel resumed normal service this weekend by being on pole position like normal & Hamilton continuing his good form by completing the front row. The big shock was Massa out qualifying Alonso for the first time this season. Also Daniel Riccardo not starting from last on the grid. That was taken up by D'ambrosio, and Buemi who had a 5 place penalty from last races incident with Heidfeld. The race looked wet from the start with most teams starting on the intermediate compound.

The race started intensely with both MClaren drivers next to each other and when Button tried to pass Hamilton, they actually made contact, but not enough contact to send one careering off the track. Hamilton managing to hold his team mate off.

Vettel this season has always struggled when pressured, we knew he had to show what a champion he is, by being able to soak up the pressure from Hamilton. Hamilton was trying to overtake the World Champion on several occasions over the first few laps. By lap four he had attempted 3 overtakes but ran out of track or Vettel managed to get his defensive strategy right to hold of the quick fire Brit. Hamilton's pressure paid off on lap 5 Vettel slipped out wide letting Hamilton to glide past him.

The weather was playing havoc early on with both Alonso, Vettel & Massa slipping off the track. Due to the wet track the teams decided to pit on the 13th lap, it all started to happen on lap 14 with Button overtaking Vettel & then Webber overtaking Alonso. Vettel shortly went off the track again in lap 15, for a guy who won his first grand prix in the rain & is deemed a wet race specialist he looked like he was struggling with the conditions.

Nick Hiedlfeld pit stop was horrific, came out of the pits on fire. He made an impressive star jump escape from his vehicle.

We really saw tyre wear to the extreme, drivers not being able to get grip and the tyres wearing out very quickly. You knew that this was going to be a race that Sauber would excel in with their two drivers who look after their tyres with the best of them but their progress failed to materialise. All the top drivers pitted for the second time around the 40 lap mark. There was suggestion that if you can make your tyres last the remaining 30 laps it will reap huge dividends.

Jenson Button is another one who can look after his tyres very well. He was in 2nd place behind Hamilton after 40 laps. As the rain started pouring down on lap 47 Button managed to pass Hamilton as Hamilton got stuck behind a Force India. Hamilton effectively lost his chance of winning when he spun his car around on lap 48 nearly hitting Di Resta in the process.

Hamilton proved everyone wrong when Button went off the track wide and his team mate happily snatching the lead from him. It was too much to concentrate on the two Mclaren's fighting over 1st position, just immediately after Button lost his position he came back at Hamilton and succesfully regained first place. It was like watching a boxing match with too many counter punches for the judges to count.

Hamilton got given a drive through penalty for the spin out on lap 48 ending Lewis's chances of a podium. Jenson Button was able to cruise around the last 15 laps to close out his second win of the season.

2011 Hungarian GP: Formula One Race Results

1 Jenson Button

2 Sebastian Vettel

3 Fernando Alonso

4 Lewis Hamilton

5 Mark Webber

6 Felipe Massa

7 Paul Di Resta

8 Sebastien Buemi

9 Nico Rosberg

10 Jaime Alguersuari

11 Kamui Kobayashi

12 Vitaly Petrov

13 Rubens Barrichello

14 Adrian Sutil

15 Sergio Perez

16 Pastor Maldonado

17 Timo Glock

18 Daniel Ricciardo

19 Jerome DAmbrosio

20 Vitantonio Liuzzi

Ret Heikki Kovalainen

Ret Michael Schumacher

Ret Nick Heidfeld

Ret Jarno Trulli

Driver of the day - Sebastian buemi (Jenson Button a close second)

Bad day at the office - Jérôme d'Ambosio (The spin out in the pit lane confirmed it)

German Grand Prix 2011 Review

It appeared to be all smiles for Mark Webber as he was sat on pole, with Hamilton in 2nd leaving Vettel unsure where he was starting, as it was the first time this season that he hasnt started on the front row. Someone probably had to show Vettel where position 3 on the grid actually was. The race started with a slight chance of rain, teams trying to call whether to start on wet or dry tyres. The rain wasn't heavy enough for any panic and all the teams starting on soft dry tyres. So all 24 drivers raring to go on the softest & quickest tyres, which left everyone to predict that Hamilton would overtake Mark Webber before turn 1, Hamilton didnt disapoint coming up the outside of the Australian. It was a mighty fight on turn 1 with Alonso & Massa overtaking Vettel too.

I do belive that the races are more exciting when Vettel is not in the lead as he just forges ahead when he is in the lead & nothing interfers him. Seeing Hamilton was in front with Alonso & Webber behind we knew we were going to be treated to plenty of hustling & bustling. Alonso was the first to make a mistake by sliding too wide on a corner & going onto the wet grass, luckily it didnt cost him a place. Paul Di Resta clashed into Heidfeld which was deemed as a fault from the German & then decided to try and come up the outside of Buemi, with Buemi not seeing him and edging him off the road to crash into a advertising board. Heidfeld doing an impressive jump through the air, so impressive I think his team-mate Petrov would have been proud. Heidfeld later got given a penalty which he couldnt accept as he was out of the race.

It was a race full of errors with Vettel next to spin off the track leaving him sat there looking dismayed. It didnt end his race due to the wide run off areas around the track. It was another mechanical error for Jenson Button, the hydraulics broke down as he went over the apex of a corner, with his mechanics notifiying him to pull up in the pit lane. That was Jenson Button's first non-finish in Germany in 14 races. The real disapointment was Chandhock who finished last even behind Riccardo by more than 1 minute, he said before the race that this would be his first race using DRS, I think his credibility went considerabily down after todays showing. Nice guy but doesnt have enough to make it in the big time. Along with Chandhok the Germans had a nightmare too out there at their home track. Sutil did well to claim 6th place from a starting position of 8th, a very good race from the usually careless German.

With track temperature being so cold that the tyres didnt perform to their usual capabilities & the drivers couldnt get them warm enough to fully function at their potential. This meant that the strategies simply didn't come off by pitting early. Vettel was stuck down in 5th position & showed again he really struggled to overtake anybody who isnt a back-lapper. Massa & Vettel came into the pits on the penultimate lap together, with Red Bull giving Vettel a quick stop in order to leap frog Massa, who's Ferrari mechanics took a bit too long to get the Brazilian out of the pit lane. That effectively sealed Vettel fourth place. (Maybe Red Bull should pit Vettel whenever the driver in front pits giving him a chance to overtake as he cannot overtake at his own accord). Whilst Vettel came out of the pit lane Hamilton crossed the line to claim his second win of the season.

Alonso only just finished the race before his car broke down and had to hitch a lift with Webber to recreate Senna/Mansell moment with Alonso riding on Webber's car back to the pit lane!

Driver of the Day - Lewis Hamilton (Adrian Sutil was a close 2nd)

Bad day at the office - Sebastian Vettel (I suppose he's allowed to have one!)

Overtake of the day - Hamilton on Webber

Results

1 Lewis Hamilton

2 Fernando Alonso

3 Mark Webber

4 Sebastian Vettel

5 Felipe Massa

6 Adrian Sutil

7 Nico Rosberg

8 Michael Schumacher

9 Kamui Kobayashi

10 Vitaly Petrov

11 Sergio Perez

12 Jaime Alguersuari

13 Paul di Resta

14 Pastor Maldonado

15 Sebastien Buemi

16 Heikki Kovalainen

17 Timo Glock

18 Jerome d'Ambrosio

19 Daniel Ricciardo

20 Karun Chandhok

Ret Vitantonio Liuzzi

Ret Jenson Button

Ret Rubens Barrichello

Ret Nick Heidfeld

Silverstone GP Review

For the first time this season people weren't talking about Red Bull dominating the race, the pre-race build up was overshadowed by the diffuser row, in which all the teams had to attend and agree on a solution around the reduction in use of the controversial part. Ferrari were the licking their lips in anticipation as any reduction in the use of diffusers would help thme enomously as they do not use the part in their races. Red Bull & Renault were the teams to loose out the most. This made everyone think that maybe Red Bull could be beaten this weekend as they were going to loose half a second a lap due to the outcome of the meeting.

For the second time this season Sebastian Vettel was not on Pole, it was his team mate Mark Webber, with the Australian turning out to win 12 Months ago he was optimistic ahead of the race. Red Bull continued their 100% record of locking out the front row, Ferrari were right behind them. Hamilton had a shocking qualifying sesion to end up in 10th abeit it wasnt his fault but rather his mechanics for putting old tyres on, instead of new ones. You could say this will fuel his desire to leave even more as his team arent doing him any favours. Paul Di Resta was really the star of qualifying & he sat on the grid in 6th place looking for a slim chance of a podium finish.

As the red lights went out I sort of predicted as I do every week that Mark Webber will loose atleast one position before the first corner. He didnt disapoint with Vettel getting a better start that his team mate to overtake and claim the lead. Hamilton & Schumacher doing well off the grid to move up three places each, Hamilton 10th to 7th and Schumacher 13th to 10th. From the word go Hamilton looked really up for it after a few disasterous weeks. He moved up the field supremely well even without crashing into people. The same cannot be said for Paul Di Resta who although gained his best position this season decided he would go backwards, he may as well have put his car in reverse straight away. Loosing positions to Rosberg & Kobayashi quickly and then deicded to crash into Schumacher to knock his wing off. Schumacher was deemed at fault for the accident and he was given a 10 second drive through penalty meaning he had to not only drive through the pits without having any work done he had to sit in his pit for 10 seconds. This meant he lost a third of a lap on his rivals.

If it wasnt for Hamilton Silverstone would have been pretty dull for the first 30 laps. However we have to thanks the pit-lane machnaics for brightening up the race. First of all for letting Kobayashi go when traffic was coming down the pit-lane leading him to nearly crash, in which he paid a penalty for a 10 second drive through penalty similar to Schumacher. Red Bull made the next error when both Vettel & Alonso coming into the pits at the same time, with the Red Bull Mechanics taking ages to send Vettel back out meaning Alonso overtook the German in the pit lane. Force India decided to catch the contageous bug as well and try to put Sutil's tyres on Di Resta's car. The final cock-up of the day was MClaren & it was the biggest of the lot as it costs Jenson Button his race. The Mechanic needed to change bolt guns in order to get the front right tyre to stay on, however when he put his gun down the lollipop man gave the green light & Jenson obliged driving out of his pit with his wheel not on properly. Button noticed the error and pulled up just out of the pit lane ending his race.

At this point Hamilton had made it up to 3rd Place behind Alonso & Vettel. Then on his radio he got the news no driver wants to hear, "Lewis you need to maintain your fuel in order to finish the race". Meaning he had to slow down in order to be able to last out the race. On public radio's this is always a bad thing to state to your driver, Webber & Massa hearing over the radio that they should attack Hamilton as he has to slow down. The MClaren driver allowing Webber to overtake him as he had no choice. It came down to the last 2 laps and the engineers told Hamilton he could now race at full pace again. Massa was right behind him at this point, it was a last lap shootout between Hamilton & Massa. It wasnt too long ago in Monaco that thesse two drivers had been side by side with each other (that one ended up with Massa going into the wall). This one ended up with Hamilton nudging Massa off the road luckily there was no wall for the Brazilian to crash into this time. Hamilton finished 0.0283 ahead of the Ferrari driver to claim a good 4th place.

Here are the race results:

1 Fernando Alonso Ferrari Winner
2 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull +16.5 secs
3 Mark Webber Red Bull +16.9 secs
4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren +28.9 secs
5 Felipe Massa Ferrari +29.0 secs
6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP +60.6 secs
7 Sergio Perez Sauber +65.5 secs
8 Nick Heidfeld Renault +75.5 secs
9 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP +77.9 secs
10 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso +79.1 secs
11 Adrian Sutil Force India +79.7 secs
12 Vitaly Petrov Renault +80.6 secs
13 Rubens Barrichello Williams +1 Lap
14 Pastor Maldonado Williams +1 Lap
15 Paul di Resta Force India +1 Lap
16 Timo Glock Virgin Racing +2 Laps
17 Jerome d’Ambrosio Virgin Racing +2 Laps
18 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT +2 Laps
19 Daniel Ricciardo HRT +3 Laps
Ret Jenson Button McLaren +13 Laps
Ret Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso +27 Laps
Ret Kamui Kobayashi Sauber +29 Laps
Ret Jarno Trulli Lotus Oil leak
Ret Heikki Kovalainen Lotus Gearbox


Driver of the day - Lewis Hamilton

Rookie of the day - Sergio Perez

Chumps of the day - Pit Stop Mechanics

Bad day at the office- Paul Di Resta