Talking points from the 2011 Hungarian Grand Prix

Jenson Button celebrates Hungaroring win

The Hungarian grand prix saw some great battles between the drivers from the front till the back. It all started in opening lap and carried on till Jenson Button crossed the chequered flag to mark his 200th grand prix start with a win.

The race ended with Sebastian Vettel in 2nd, Fernando Alonso in 3rd and Lewis Hamilton finishing 4th. Hamilton lead the pack for most of the race but a cock up by the McLaren driver dashed his hopes of winning his second consecutive GP. Jenson Button again proved to be the master in wet conditions.

The Hungaroring circuit, is normally known for its hot weather conditions. The circuit’s main features include a dusty, slippery surface. This puts grip at a premium, so Pirelli brought the PZero Yellow soft and PZero Red supersoft tyres to Hungary. The Hungaroring is renowned as a track where overtaking is often difficult, like Monaco, the teams were expected to make clever use of the tyres during their pit stop strategy.

Qualifying-

The conditions remained warm and dry during the qualifying session. Sebastian Vettel claimed his 8th pole position of the season as Red Bull remained untouched in qualifying with 11 poles in 11 races. The top 5 drivers – Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Massa and Alonso – were covered by less than half a second. Sergio Perez, Sauber F1 driver, claimed his best qualifying result of the year so far, with 10th place, though he did not set a time in Q3. He has previously entered Q3 in Monaco, but was not able to start the race following his accident.

Adrian Sutil qualified 8th on the grid separating the two Mercedes cars of Nico Rosberg (7th) and Michael Schumacher (9th), second successive Q3 entry, while team-mate Paul di Resta qualified in 11th place, who was hoping for a better result. Nick Heidfeld had yet another disappointing qualifying, finished in 14th place, while Vitaly Petrov who struggled with tyre warm-up during the session, finished in 12th position.

The start-

Vettel got a good start from pole and remained of Hamilton, but was soon came under pressure from Hamilton, who was faster in the wet conditions and took the lead in fifth lap as the Vettel went wide. Button overtook vettel in the 14th lap to make it a McLaren 1-2. As expected, the teams pit stop strategies played a major role in deciding the race on a wet track. Michael Schumacher had a great start in the race, as he jumped up to fifth from ninth. But later lost out in the 2nd lap to Alonso, who had passed Massa at the start.

Adrian Sutil’s – started in 8th place and his chances of finishing in the points ended on the first lap, when he locked up his rear brakes before diving into the chicane behind Di Resta to avoid contact. He went straight off the track and later rejoined the race, dropping to the back-pack.

The race-

Felipe Massa overtook Fernando Alonso in earlier stages of the race when Alonso went off the track to claim fifth, but lost the place in the following lap as Massa spun off the track with the rear of his car clipping the safety wall. The Ferrari received a minor damage to its rear wing, which cost Massa four places as he dropped to ninth.

Heidfeld makes a fiery exit

Button and Vettel had the best strategy towards the end of the race, when they chose hard tyres and stayed on them even as rain set in. The rain caused Hamilton to spin, he rejoined immediately, but got a drive-through penalty for pushing Di Resta off the track. Then he changed to intermediates tyres which ended all his hopes of a win. During 24th lap, after second pit stop, Nick Heidfeld escaped a burning Renault unharmed.

“The pitstop took longer than it should have. Probably something overheated. I was a bit scared. After I stopped I think the fire marshals were trying to put the fire out and then there was a small explosion on the left. I’ve never seen anything like that before,” said Heidfeld.

Force India’s Paul di Resta finished in his career best 7th place, after starting from 11th on the grid. Adrian Sutil finished in 14th place. Rubens Barrichello finished in 13th place from P15 on the grid ahead of teammate Pastor Maldonado who came in 16th having started in P17. Daniel Ricciardo proved to be a fast learner with 18th place as his best finish in F1 driving HRT F1 Team car.

Vettel retains the drivers’ championship lead with 234 points, followed by Mark Webber – 149, Hamilton on 146 and Fernando Alonso – 145 points. Red Bull continues to lead the constructors’ championship with 383, McLaren closing up with good race on 280 and Ferrari has 215.

Penalties-

• Sebastian Buemi had qualified 18th but dropped five places as penalty for collision with Nick Heidfeld at German grand prix.
• Pastor Maldonado was given a drive- through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
• Sergio Perez got a drive through penalty for overtaking under yellows
• Lewis Hamilton was given a drive-through penalty for dangerous rejoining during race when he spun and pushed Paul di resta off track.

Retirements-

• Jarno Trulli became the first to retire due to an oil leak, in lap 21.
• Nick Heidfeld retired after his second stop as the Renault engine appeared to blow, leading to his car catching fire, in lap 25.
• Michael Schumacher retired with a gear-box failure in lap 29.
• Heikki Kovalainen was instructed to shut engines due to water leak in lap 60.

Milestones-

• 200th grand prix start for Jenson Button.
• 100th grand prix start for Nico Rosberg.
• 100th grand prix entry for Toro Rosso team.
• 100th grand prix start for 2.4 litre V8 engine – which was introduced in 2006 season.