Comprehensive review of the Hungarian GP 2013

Romain Grosjean had an eventful Hungarian GP

McLaren seem to have turned things around after putting both their cars in the points today. Jenson Button finished in seventh and Sergio Perez finished ninth, with both stopping only twice and overtaking quite a lot of cars. Their immediate rivals Force India had a disastrous day as neither car managed to finish the race.

Adrian Sutil’s race was over on the 19th lap after a suspected hydraulics issue, ending his 100th Grand Prix early. Di Resta’s car was wheeled into the garage four laps before the end. This now moves the Mclaren team just two points behind Force India in the Constructors Championship.

Williams driver Pastor Maldonado scored for his team their first championship point this year after finishing in 10th. This is probably their worst start to a season and they can only hope to turn things around next year when they switch to Mercedes power.

Sauber had another bad day after failing to score points in the race. Their driver Nico Hulkenburg could manage only 11th whereas his team-mate Esteban Gutierrez’s race was over on lap 30. The team has managed to score points in only four of the 10 races so far.

Torro Rosso did not have a good day after neither driver finished in the top 10. Their drivers Jean Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo finished 12th and 13th respectively. Ricciardo impressed after qualifying in 8th but disappointed in the race.

Caterham’s Giedo Van Der Garde finished 14th to equal his team’s best performance this season, ahead of his team-mate Charles Pic in 15th.

Marussia’s Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton were the last two finishers 16th and 17th respectively.

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, who had a bad start after dropping back to 12th because of contact with Massa, ended his race early on lap 66 when fire and smoke started emanating from his engine. He was quick to park his car in the run off area down at turn 2 and escaped unhurt. This is his third retirement of the season.

Results:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	70	1:42:29.445	1	25
2	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	70	+10.938	6	18
3	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	70	+12.449	2	15
4	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	70	+18.044	10	12
5	3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	70	+31.411	5	10
6	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	70	+52.2951	3	8
7	5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	70	+53.819	13	6
8	4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	70	+56.447	7	4
9	6	Sergio Perez	McLaren-Mercedes	69	+1 Lap	9	2
10	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	69	+1 Lap	15	1
11	11	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	69	+1 Lap	12
12	19	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	69	+1 Lap	14
13	18	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	69	+1 Lap	8
14	21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	68	+2 Laps	20
15	20	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	68	+2 Laps	19
16	22	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	67	+3 Laps	21
17	23	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	67	+3 Laps	22
Ret	14	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	66	Hydraulics	18
Ret	9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	64	Engine	4
Ret	17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	42	Hydraulics	16
Ret	12	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	28	Transmission	17
Ret	15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	19	Hydraulics	11

After the race, Vettel increased his lead to 38 points over Raikkonen and 39 points over Ferrari’s Alonso. This margin seems quite a lot but in F1 anything is possible.

Next up is the legendary Belgian Grand Prix at the Circuit de Spa Francochamps in late August. There are four long weeks to go before the drivers return to the track. The teams will now return to their bases and take a well-deserved break.

As always though, the factories will shut down but not the engineering acumen.

Red Bull may announce who drives for them alongside Vettel next season. Will it be Raikkonen or Ricciardo or maybe even Alonso after recent developments? We will have to wait and find out.