2008 Hungarian GP was not as dull as it often is. Unfortunately most of the excitement came in form of refueling fire and technical problems of the front runners. The only real racing for positions I could see (except the race start) was between Barrichello and Button in the very early stages of the race. Other than that all went according to usual Hungarian GP recipe, places were lost and gained in pitlane or to misfortune.

Heikki Kovalainen finaly scored his maiden win. I would not say it was the best race of his career. But unlike Massa and Hamilton he managed to bring the car to the finish line in one piece. At the end, that is what counts. If you want to finish first, first you have to finish … He did just that.

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F1Wolf

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It all went Massa’s way until 3 laps to go. After overtaking both McLarens at the start of the race Massa controlled the Hungarian GP. Hamilton’s tyre failure seemed to have sealed Massa’s win. The unusual Ferrari engine failure with 3 laps to however handed the race win to Heikki Kovalainen. Same as Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button in the recent past, Kovalainen became yet another driver to score his maiden win at the Hungaroring. Timo Glock fended off late challenge from Kimi Raikkonen and held on to fully deserved 2nd place and his own maiden F1 podium. Kimi Raikkonen spent most of the race stuck behind Fernando Alonso but managed to get ahead of him after the last pit stop. He closed down on Timo Glock but after Massa’s engine went in fumes Kimi backed down and cruised to the finish line in 3rd.

The talking point of the race however will likely be several fiery refueling incidents. Barrichello, Nakajima and Bourdais all had their pit stops spiced up by flames and even one of Glock’s pit stops was delayed because problems with the refueling rig …

2008 Hungarian GP Race Result:

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F1Wolf

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McLarens confirmed their strong form from free practice sessions and booked the front row all for themselves. Lewis Hamilton will start the Hungarian GP from pole position for the second time in a row, Heikki Kovalainen will line up next to him.

Felipe Massa blamed traffic on his outlap for the slower pace. But after rather week showing on Friday afternoon and this morning the Ferrari, at least Massa’s, seems to be on the pace. Robert Kubica was only about a tenth slower then Massa. Toyota’s package looks strong in Hungary, both their cars made it to top 10, Glock P5 and Trulli P9. Nelson Piquet was again outqualified by his team mate Alonso, but he made it to Q3 and I suspect he is rather heavily fueled. Mark Webber, te usual member of Q3 club, claimed P8.

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F1Wolf

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It had to be expected that there willl be lots of talk about the 2007 Hungaroring events ahead of this weekend race. So it is no surprise that this topic has been touched also during the press conference yesterday. And this is what Alonso had to say when asking about his feelings one year on:

Much happier this year for sure. Last year again it is true that I had a possibility to fight for the championship and it was okay. I knew that this year it was not possible any more. But if I was racing for McLaren now at this moment maybe I would be in the same position as I am now without the possibility to win. So at least I am happy to be with Renault with the full support of the team and knowing that everybody is working night and day to give me the best car possible. One day we will be seventh, one day we will be fifth and hopefully one day we will be on the podium and everybody on the podium will be there with some excitement.

This seems to me to be the strongest hint yet from Alonso on the “equal” treatment the McLaren drivers get. He has done a good job so far not talking about the details of his 1 year stint with McLaren but it looks like he may be ready to start leaking some bits and pieces .

I do not believe the claims that the drivers at McLaren are equal. I have no problems with any team having number one and number two, I have problems with being told all the time that it is not the case … We only need to look back to Hockenheim to see one example. And if that is not enough, then check the interview Felipe Massa gave to Autosport (Jonathan Noble) yesterday…

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F1Wolf

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My 2009 driver line up prediction is doing well. I expect not much to change and McLaren are the first to agree with me . Martin Whitmarsh to Autosport:

“We welcomed Heikki on board at the start of the year. He is under contract to Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, and will continue to race for us in the 2009 season.”

After having as many as 8 different drivers racing for them since 2004 season it looks like Ron Dennis and co. are finally happy with the line up they have.

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F1Wolf

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It looked way too easy when Hamilton passed his team mate after his second pit stop. The presenters at the Star TV studio were rather ironic after the race saying that there are “no team orders in F1″ , the whole bar where I was watching the race was full of boos. So were there team orders or is Hamilton that much better than Kovalainen that he simply made that look that easy ? At the end, it did not take him that long to overtake Felipe Massa …

So were there team orders or not ?

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Photo: Daimler Media

F1Wolf

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Heikki Kovalainen will start from pole position for the first time in his career. Mark Webber is another suprising name on the front row. Kimi Raikkonen and not too happy Lewis Hamilton will line up behind them. Great qualifying for Vettel - P8 !

The top 2 in drivers standings - Massa and Kubica will have to fight from back. Massa only managed P9, Kubica P10 after suffering some damage to his car during his first Q3 run. Looks like fun race tomorrow .

Both Honda and  Force India cars and Nico Rosberg were eliminated in Q1, both Toyotas, Coulthard, Nakajima and Bourdais ended their day in Q2.

2008 British GP Qualifying Results:

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F1Wolf

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The events of last weekend in France brought out suggestions someone is out there to get McLaren. On one hand string of penalties to Hamilton and Kovalainen on the other hand not even an investigation into Trulli’s defending 3rd position from Heikki, no action taken against unsafe Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.

So are McLaren hard done ? The following photos (inside the post) may provide some answer:

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F1Wolf

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McLaren Mercedes team are currently at worst the 2nd best team on the grid. The last French GP did nothing to make me feel otherwise. Heikki Kovalainen finished 4th after starting from 10th (following his 5 place grid penalty). Without the drive through penatly Lewis Hamilton would not have finished too far from podium either despite starting from P13…

But yet despite their strength the team lies at 3rd place in constructor standings, 16 points behind 2nd BMW Sauber and 33 points behind Ferrari. Their drivers are currently at 4th and 6th place. Compare it with their standings after 8 races last year. Top 2 drivers at the table, the team leading the constructors table by 25 points ahead of Ferrari…

The car is good, the car is reliable (only 2 retirements, both due to accidents, see the 2008 season stats here), so where is the problem ?

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F1Wolf

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Several things happened yesterday that could have changed the podium line up. While Hamilton’s drive through penalty is still one of the talks of the race the opinion of the majority is that the penalty was justified. From what I have seen I tend to agree with that. There were however 2 other incidents that I am not sure were handled correctly by the race control.

Incident one - Raikkonen’s exhaust pipe

If there is a car on track that may pose danger the stewards can call it back to the pits to get rid of the danger. There is even this nice black flag with orange circle for that purpose. When Raikkonen’s car suddenly lost some pace on lap 36, a piece of the loose exhaust pipe appeared to be bouncing arround chassis hanging there only on a piece of wire. It was only matter of time before that piece of car gets loose and flies away. Ferrari were aware of that and based on post race words from Domenicali chose to let it fly away itself rather than bringing the car to the pits and cutting it away. Even when Raikkonen came for his regular pit stop nothing was done with the pipe in order not to waste valuable seconds…

Question: Why was it not possible to remove the exhaust at the pit stop?

Domenicali: It had already fallen off. It was already flying away. There was the cable of the lamda and we decided not to cut that because we were maybe losing more seconds, and we had Trulli pushing behind so we took that into consideration, and I have to say that in terms of strategy, in terms of teamwork everything was done correctly.

So everybody was aware that piece Kimi’s car will eventually get loose and fly off and nobody found that to be a potential danger to other drivers or to spectators ? I am happy for Kimi to be able to finish the race and in 2nd place under such circumstances. But I do wonder why the race control did not take any action to make sure his car poses no danger. After listening to the French GP digest at Sidepodcast I see that I am not alone …

Incident two - Trulli vs. Kovalainen

One journalist suggested at the post race press conference that Trulli and Kovalainen touched the wheels while fighting for the 3rd place with a lap to go. I do not think their wheels touched although they came very very close. It however looked to me that Trulli did make a sudden movement in Kovalainen’s direction when the cars were almost side to side forcing Kovalainen off the track. Was this a display of excellent racing we all want to see or an example of dangerous defensive driving from Jarno Trulli ? After watching the replay several times I do wonder why Trulli’s maneuvre was not at least investigated by the stewards …

At the end no flag to Raikkonen no penalty to Trulli - Was that right ?

F1Wolf

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