Here’s your pictorial update from the Hungarian Grand Prix. It’s the last recap you’ll get for over a month, so we hope you enjoy the 80+ photos on offer.
Thankfully for McLaren fans, given Hamilton’s win, they’re back in the game with high-res images; just click on the pic you like to load a 2000px super image.
We bring you the transcript from last night’s Hungarian Grand Prix. Interestingly the text does not include the Placido Domingo podium interviews. With any luck the FIA will realise that approach needs some work.
With the benefit of hindsight a two-stop strategy was the quickest way, as Hamilton explains below. Meanwhile, Mark Webber was left to rue his decision to three-stop: “We were hoping people would be in a bit more trouble with their tyres at the end. We were in fifth place and had a nice cushion, but we’ve had plenty of times this year where the tyres had stopped working towards the end of the race,” he explained.
“Today it didn’t really work out that way and we lost places through trying something different. I was quicker in the closing stages, but it’s hard to overtake here and I couldn’t get the job done. Still, we moved up three places from the start, we have good points and it’s very open for the rest of the year.â€
According to Christian Horner, Webber developed a “differential issue” on lap 45.
Lewis Hamilton didn’t need to make excuses and this thoughts, along with the Lotus duo, can be read after the break, thanks to the FIA.
[Pic: Lotus F1 Team/LAT Photographic]
Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) has capped off a great weekend by winning the 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix. Starting from pole position, Hamilton secured his 19th career win without being seriously troubled, despite having Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) sniffing around his gearbox in the closing stages of the race.
Romain Grosjean ensured Lotus enjoyed two steps on the podium by finishing third. On another day Lotus may well have broken through for their first win of the year.
Hamilton’s victory adds to his win at the Canadian Grand Prix and makes him the season’s third multiple winner behind Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber.
Tonight’s race was reduced by one lap from the planned 70 laps after a somewhat confusing aborted start. In the wash up Michael Schumacher (Mercedes AMG) started from pit lane. It was a dirty day for the former champ; he qualified a lowly 17th and eventually retired from the race on lap 58.
Mark Webber (Red Bull) made a great start from P11 and was in P7 by the end of the opening lap. He’ll be a little disappointed that his three-stop strategy did not yield a better finishing position than P8. He remains second in the drivers’ championship, but dropped points to all those in the running for this year’s title.
Thanks to Webber’s relatively poor result, Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), who could only manage to cross the line in P5, can consider himself lucky to have increased his championship lead to 40 points. However, a pack is bunching up behind Webber (124pts). Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull, 122) and Hamilton (117) are sandwiched between Webber and Raikkonen (116), meaning just eight points separate positions two to five.
Further down the field Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) managed to overcome his lower starting position and finish ahead of his teammate, Jean-Eric Vergne. Although, as seems typical for these two, they finished one behind the other with not much daylight in between.
It’s worth noting Alonso’s championship gain has not been matched by his Ferrari team. Strong results for McLaren and Lotus sees them leap frog the red team in the constructors’ race. Updated tables and the final finishing order from Budapest can be seen after the break.
For the trivia buffs, we once again saw the post-race interview carried out on the podium. We can’t say we care too much for this arrangement, despite the pedigree of former interviewers Sir Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda at the British and German races respectively. But we were further taken aback to see Spanish tenor Placido Domingo behind the mic in Hungary tonight.
The F1 circus now enters a month long mid-season break and will return for the Belgian Grand Prix on 2 September.
In 2010 Lotus launched a five-model offensive that we shall call the Bahar bonanza. Then CEO, Dany Bahar, was the star of the Paris Motor Show with his ambitious strategy to spectacularly relaunch the Lotus marque, which included the return of iconic models such as the Elan and Esprit.
Since then Lotus’ parent company, Proton, has a new owner and early last month Dany Bahar was officially suspended from his role and ultimately sacked. The Bahar bonanza, then, is officially over.
It’s understood Lotus will rewrite Bahar’s vision which could include reducing it from five models to three. Speaking to The Star, a Malaysian-based website, RHB Research analyst Alexander Chia claims, “The revised plan is likely to be much more realistic.”
Further watering down the Bahar bonanza, it’s been suggested Lotus should rely more on its in-house knowledge. “DRB-Hicom should make greater use of the engineering expertise and skill sets at Lotus,” Chia explained. “That could help shorten the development time of new models, engines and drivetrains.”
The new owner, DRB-Hicom, has reportedly injected £200m into Lotus since their buyout of Proton and will increase that by another £100m if required.
RHB Research submitted a report to DRB-Hicom about renergising the Proton and Lotus brands. A new plan is expected to be finalised by early–mid 2013.
[Source: The Star]
Lewis Hamilton has dominated this weekend’s proceedings at the Hungarian Grand Prix, culminating with pole position after last night’s qualifying session. The resurgent McLaren driver wasn’t troubled in Q3 and finished four tenths quicker (1:20.953) than Romain Grosjean (Lotus, 1:21.366). Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull, 1:21.416) was close behind and rounded out the top three.
It was a bad night for the Australians with Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) narrowly missing progression through to Q2. Afterwards the 23-year-old said: “It’s frustrating and a bit disappointing not to have made the cut to Q2, as this is the first time I’ve been stuck in Q1 all season and it would have been nice to keep that sheet clean.”
Ricciardo added, “I’ll try and make up for this disappointment tomorrow.â€
It was a similar tale for Mark Webber (Red Bull) who was knocked out of Q3 at the death by 0.018 seconds thanks to Bruno Senna (Williams). It was a bitter blow for Webber who was the quickest man in Practice 3, and the only driver so far this weekend, to head Hamilton at the top of the timesheets.
“I was happy with the car this morning, I was quick in P3, but I didn’t feel happy on that last set of soft tyres in Q2 and struggled against my scrub time, which is a bit bizarre,” Webber bemoaned. “The field is tight at the moment and it’s disappointing to qualify in P11 obviously. Our race pace should be okay tomorrow.
Hamilton’s pole position is the 23rd of his career and the 150th for McLaren. You can read what Lewis, Grosjean and Vettel had to say after quali in the full transcript available below, thanks to the FIA.
[Pic: Vodafone McLaren Mercedes]
This morning we bring you around 90 images from the 2012 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. Let’s hope the F1 circus finds its way to a happier and more stable Nürburgring in 2013.
Until then, enjoy your lot from Hockenheim. Sadly for McLaren fans there’s no 2000px photos from the Woking crew this week, we’re not sure why, but something was up with their site and we have to make do with what we’ve got. For fans of all the other teams you can click away to your heart’s content and view wallpaper-friendly super images.
Here’s the press conference from last night’s German Grand Prix, won by Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. As you’ll see from the transcript a lot of the questions focus on the overtaking move of Sebastian Vettel on Jenson Button. The German Grand Prix stewards showed no favours to Vettel, handing down the local lad a 20 second penalty, enough to push him to fifth.
So the revised finishing order for the race is Alonso (Ferrari), Button (McLaren) and returning F1 star Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus). Seeing as Kimi didn’t get a chance to have his say in the official post-race press conference here’s a few words from the typically understated Finn after confirmation came through that he had won a Clatyons’ podium.
“Maybe if we had found a bit more pace in the wet yesterday we could have started higher and pushed the leaders, but it is what it is. For sure we were hoping for a bit better here, but the car worked well all through the race and we still brought home some good points for the team so there are some positives to take to the next race,†Raikkonen said.
It will be interesting when we get to season’s end to see what effect this loss of eight points has on Vettel’s title position.
One more thing before you start reading the text below; if anyone from the FIA happens to be reading this: Please, no more post-race interviews on the podium!
[Pic: Ferrari]
A couple of years ago Lotus surprised the motoring world when it ambushed the Paris Motor Show with ambitious plans for six new models: the Elan, Elise, Elite (pictured), Espirt, Eterne and finally the seemingly obligatory City Car concept. It really was quite something. Yet, now, in 2012, Lotus won’t even bother turning up to Paris when the bright lights are switched on in September, according to Car and Driver.
Since the glitz and glam of the 2010 bonanza celebrity CEO Dany Bahar has landed himself in something of a pickle, which ultimately turned out to be a dole queue. And Lotus continues to deny reports it is struggling following the buyout of parent company Proton by DRB-Hicom.
Those fearing the end of Lotus can take heart from their recent showing at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where their history and tradition was proudly on display, and see that all is not lost.
We trust their absence from Paris is merely to allow them to get their house in order, reshape Bahar’s world domination plans into something more palatable and that we will soon see Lotus back on the road promoting their hopefully ambitious, but realistic wares.
[Source: Car and Driver]
Mark Webber’s second British Grand Prix victory is still fresh in our minds. It’s probably one of the first races Webber has won where he has been able to strike when a win looked off the cards. In his own words he wasn’t sure he could pass Alonso until he was right on the Ferrari’s gearbox.
“It’s taking a while to sink in this one. I think it was the circumstances of the race—for most of it I was marking off second place,” explained Webber. “Fernando was not quite out of touch and after the last stop, my engineer Ciaron came on the radio saying that Fernando was not doing much on the option tyres. But I know Fernando is a wily old fox, I thought he was looking after the tyres and just waiting to pull the pin and go a little bit.
“But when I got within two seconds I thought maybe he’s in a little bit of trouble and it was real. It was completely game on when I knew the DRS was available, I made the move stick and our hard work paid off for the win. It was a cracking grand prix today; the spectators got to see a good race and I’m pleased for them.â€
After the break we have a large selection of images to help you recount Webber’s ninth GP win. We do wonder what Mark was saying to Sebastian and Fernando on the podium.
Fernando Alonso is fast becoming our favourite driver not going by the name of Mark Webber. His ability to continually put his car in a winning position—see Valencia and Malaysia—when the quality of his machinery has often not been deserving of such results is genuine Spanish grit. He has guts. We like that.
You may or may not share our view on Alonso, but we suspect you’ll enjoy the 100 photos of the European Grand Prix we have assembled on your behalf.
That’s quite a handy looking podium there, there’s a total of 10 world championships represented. Of course, in all the commotion last night Fernando Alonso’s win at the European Grand Prix makes him the first driver in 2012 to win two races.
Before you start reading the full transcript from the post-race press conferences there’s some housekeeping we need to address.
Stewards did find that Michael Schumacher used his DRS under yellow flag conditions, but telemetry and video evidence showed that he slowed down sufficiently and he has not been penalised; his third place stands.
However, Pastor Maldonado was deemed at fault in his incident with Lewis Hamilton. Maldonado was given a 20 second stop-go penalty which pushed him from P10 to P12. His Williams teammate, Bruno Senna, has moved up one spot and claims the final point.
Sebastian Vettel is still none the wise as to why his car lost power during the race and had this to say: “At the moment it’s not entirely clear what the problem was. I lost acceleration, the engine stalled and I couldn’t do anything; that was it. You can’t change it now.
“Up until that point it was clear we were strong, I was very happy in the car and had the pace. We were very quick today and it felt good. The initial re-start after the safety car was fine, but we’re not sure of the exact problem, we’ll need to look into it.â€
Cyril Dumont from Renault did shed some light into Vettel’s engine woes: “Today was a real disappointment as Sebastian was well ahead and seemed to have the race in his pocket. Then the alternator overheated, stopped supplying electrical power and the engine shut down. We’re not sure exactly why – it could be a number of things – but it’s definitely something we’ll look at when we get back to Viry. Congratulations to Mark though, from almost the back to fourth is a fantastic result.â€
The final finishing positions and drivers’ championship table have been updated in our post-race report to reflect the Maldonado penalty. Now all that’s left for you to do is read over the post-race press release, courtesy of the FIA. As usual, we’ll have a photo gallery from the race up soon.
Fernando Alonso has become a popular, albeit unlikely, winner at tonight’s European Grand Prix in Valencia. The Ferrari man started from P11 in front of a parochial Spanish crowd and made the most of a highly dramatic race that looked for all money as though it was safely in Sebastian Vettel’s pocket.
The race-defining drama took place after an incident between a clumsy Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) and Heikki Kovaleinen (Caterham), which brought out the Safety Car. Vettel, previously enjoying a lead of over 20 seconds, made a clean restart and looked as though he would drive on to an unchallenged victory.
Romain Grosjean had positioned his Lotus nicely in P2 after the restart with Alonso close behind. The dual world champion quickly gave Grosjean a masterclass in restarting from a Safety Car period and turned a half chance into what turned out to be a race winning overtake.
Not long after Alonso moved into P2 he was greeted by the sight of a slowing Red Bull and Vettel was powerless to defend his position, coasting to retirement. It would have been Vettel’s third win in a row at this event. The crowd couldn’t have cared less about that and went wild when Alonso took the lead, he was then able to stay ahead of the mayhem behind him and claim his 29th F1 win.
More chaos ensued with contact between several drivers and fading tyres responsible for sorting out the minor placings.
In the closing stages of the race Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) was in P2 but became vulnerable after his tyres lost their performance. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) was the first to speed past and Pastor Maldonado (Williams) soon had Hamilton in his sights. Maldonado just needed patience to complete the overtake. Turned out he didn’t have any and the two collided; a clearly agitated Hamilton finished his race in the wall, Maldonado struggled home to P10 without a front wing.
Michael Schumacher (Mercedes AMG) and Mark Webber (Red Bull) were making the most of their fresher tyres and completed late moves on the Force India duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta.
Unbeknown to him at the time, Schumacher finished the race in P3 and Webber, somehow, ended in P4. The Aussie started from P19, remember, and seemed to get his tyre strategy all wrong. In the end his need to come in relatively late for new tyres gave him a pretty tidy points haul.
After the post-race press conference we thought we were celebrating Schumacher’s 155th career podium, his first since China in 2006. However, it has since come to light that Michael may have used his DRS under yellow flag conditions. If so that will most likely push Webber into P3.
It was an amazing race and we won’t be at all surprised if you’re none the wiser as to what happened, even after reading this hastily cobbled together report.
What we do know is that Alonso now leads the drivers’ championship (111pts). Surprisingly, Webber (91pts) finds himself in second, ahead of Hamilton (88pts).
A provisional finishing order from Valencia is listed below, along with updated championship standings.
UPDATE: Schumacher’s third place stands; stewards found he did use his DRS under yellow flag conditions, but Schumacher slowed down sufficiently to make a penalty unwarranted. Maldonado has been given a 20 second penalty, which moves him down to P12, teammate Bruno Senna moves up to P10.