Before the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix, five drivers were in contention for the Championship and the point's gap between first place driver, Hamilton and fifth place, Alonso was just 34 points.

A win in Hungary for either of the McLaren drivers and poor results for the other top three contenders would have created a McLaren momentum that would put great pressure on Ferrari and perhaps intolerable pressure on Red Bull. At the end of the race, the pack had been shuffled, and critically the point's gap between the top five drivers had narrowed to a mere twenty. The momentum had shifted away from McLaren towards the resurgent Ferrari. Consequently the Championship result is still impossible to call, and remarkably after 12 races a strong argument for ultimate victory could be made for any of the five top drivers; Alonso, Button, Hamilton,Vettel or Webber.

The fall-out from the team orders of the week before was still much evident in discussions in the paddock and media. In Afterabc's view, most was hypocritical nonsense, Ferrari's action was that of a winning team fighting for the championship, it was not an act of collusion with another team, and did not result in any other team being denied the points they would have otherwise gained. Ferrari and Alonso are racing for victory, and as Massa has no chance of winning the championship he and the team should do all to help the double world champion Alonso, providing such acts are not intentioned to prejudice other drivers.
 
Speculation and rumour also surrounded the 'legality' of the front wing of the Red Bull. The Red Bull wing flexes more than the wings on the other championship competing teams, and the 'allegation' seems to be that the wing creates a ground force effect that accounts for the dramatic pace differential between Red Bull and McLaren and Ferrari. Much of the noise is just the normal mind games of the paddock, the wing has passed the scrutineers and was deemed legal, however, it seems certain that the other teams will redevelop wings with more flex and also continue to try to put pressure on Red Bull by playing mind games.    



The Hungaroring track is described as Monaco without the houses; it is notoriously difficult to overtake, and consequently qualifying position is fundamental to the result on Sunday.  The start is also some distance from the first corner, and it is possible for cars on the dirty side of the grid to beaten off the line by those behind but on the clean side. So it appeared that the race would be settled by Saturday's qualifying and the first few seconds of the race.

In practice the Red Bulls looked extremely fast, and indeed, once again in qualifying Vettel was supreme to claim pole, Webber took a close second place. Alonso and Massa qualified third and fourth illustrating the results of the continuing development of the Red car. Lewis Hamilton was magnificent in fifth when compared to the somewhat lacklustre performance of his compatriot Jenson Button who only managed an eleventh place start. Petrov's seventh place performance was note worthy. Once again, Michael Schumacher was disappointing in qualifying fourteenth, and Rosberg impressive in sixth.

Vettel had struggled in previous races to capitalise on his pole positions, but in Hungary, he had a faultless start, quickly accelerating away from the very impressive Alonso who had overtaken Webber off the start. By lap 16, Vettel had established a 12-second lead, when debris on the track resulted in the deployment of the safety car.

The entire grid, with the exception of Webber, Rubens Barrichello and Jarno Trulli - immediately pitted for a tyre change. It seemed that Red Bull were once again favouring Vettel over Webber and that Webber's only chance of a podium  would be if Vettel, who was running in second behind the un-pitted Webber, was able to hold back the chasing pack, to give Webber chance to build-up a lead great enough to pit and re-emerge in front of Alonso.

Incredibly, Vettel allowed the safety car and Webber to pull a long way in front, and as the safety car pitted Webber had a considerable advantage as racing resumed, however, it was surly impossible for Webber to beat Vettel as he would lose at least twenty seconds in his pit stop. Once again, the race Stewards would play a role, Vettel had broken the rules in allowing a more than ten car gap to build between himself and the car in front and was penalised with a drive though penalty. Alonso moved into second place, and Webber was to score a very fortunate victory. Vettel was in shock after the race with a very disappointing third.
 
The pre-race championship leader Lewis Hamilton had to retire from fourth place on lap 24 with a gear-box problem, and his team mate Jenson Button was a dismal seventh - a very poor weekend for the McLaren team. Massa helped Ferrari pick up more points finishing fourth ahead of Renault's Vitaly Petrov and Williams' Nico Hulkenberg.



The drama of the result and indeed the whole weekend could have been over-shadowed by a potentially cataclysmic pit lane incident: As noted above when the safety car was deployed most of the cars dashed to the pits and in the resulting rush the lollipop man released Robert Kubica's Renault into the pitting Force India's car of Adrian Sutil. The pit crew were incredibly lucky not to be seriously hurt or worse as the two cars collided. Further pit lane drama followed as Nico Rosberg's 'lost' the right rear wheel of his Mercedes and as the tyre bounced at speed in along the pit lane crews had to jump clear. These incidents were potentially serious and the race officials will have thanked the Gods for such good fortune. The $50,000 fines for Renault and Mercedes seem to be very modest.

Michael Schumacher has a great habit of always being part of the story, and this weekend he demonstrated that he has lost none of his competitive spirit and desire to win. On lap 68, he was resolute in defending his tenth place as the clearly faster Rubens Barrichello was passing on the straight, Schumacher defended by 'squeezing' Barrichello close to the concrete side wall. Barrichello is never slow to criticise his former teammate and seven-time world champion, and in this instance the stewards agreed with the winging Brazilian and issued Schumacher a 10-place grid penalty for the next grand prix in Belgium. (In Afterabc's view, a very harsh punishment for a racing incident).



The Hungaroring track is notoriously difficult to overtake, so the performance of the incredible Kamui Kobayashi in finishing in ninth place from starting from 23rd is remarkable. Surely, this guy is the most exciting driver in F1 today and will be given a chance in a truly fast car.

Regular readers will know that in the past Afterabc were not Mark Webber's greatest fans, but we are happy to admit that the Australian is taking his chances and opportunities well. We are surprised that he is leading the championship, we thought that if the Red Bull conquered their reliability issues Vettel would be the leading driver, at season end he may very well be so, but regardless of the end result Webber has justified his drive in Red Bull next year. Hamilton and particularly Button will regard Hungary as a wasted opportunity, they know that both Ferrari and Red Bull are planning further upgrades and cannot afford to have another off weekend.



Fernando Alonso proved his many ill informed critics wrong, his second place was fabulous on a track where the Red Bull's should have had a one two, he demonstrated he is able to concentrate in defending for a long time against a clearly quicker car. With the gap between him and championship leader down to just twenty points he will know he has a real chance of claiming his third title. SO WILL THE OTHER FOUR CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDERS!

Leave a comment