2011 Hungarian Grand Prix
- Rate the race result: 2011 Hungarian Grand Prix
- 2011 Hungarian GP: complete race weekend review
- Vote for your 2011 Hungarian GP driver of the weekend
- McLaren: Button made call to stay out during rain
- Red Bull: Vettel says he had the pace to win
- Ferrari: Alonso salvages podium after Webber delay
- Force India: Di Resta claims best result so far
- Toro Rosso: Buemi races to eighth from 23rd
- Renault: No points for first time since 2010
- Sauber: Two-stop gamble fails for Kobayashi
Luis
31st July 2011, 14:57
OMG hamilton have no luck a drive through lol
Rob2
31st July 2011, 14:58
Very exciting. Glad Alonso made it to the podium after such a rough day.
David-A (@david-a)
31st July 2011, 15:02
Yeah, he did rather well throughout.
Eggry (@eggry)
31st July 2011, 15:20
No mistake = Button, Vettel
Wrong tyre choice = Alonso, Hamilton
Wrong tyre choice 2 = Webber, Hamilton
Crucial Penalty = Hamilton
so, less mistake upper position :)
frazbox (@frazbox)
31st July 2011, 15:00
worse race ever!!!! lewis leading then choosing the wrong tyres!!!
Eggry (@eggry)
31st July 2011, 15:32
twice!
Baron
31st July 2011, 16:49
How can you say worst race ever? A sideways exploding Renault – how exciting! That Marshall was lucky not to lose his family bits…..
Harada
31st July 2011, 18:39
How You can say “worse race ever!” I have never seen so many in race overtakings in Hungary.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
31st July 2011, 20:42
Worst race for Lewis you mean? The rest of it was pretty good!
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
31st July 2011, 15:00
I don’t believe the stewards have it in for Lewis Hamilton, as I’m sure many people will claim within the next few hours. The rules are pretty clear on this one – you cannot force another driver off the track. And Hamilton clearly forced di Resta to take evasive action. If he had waited a few more seconds, he would have been able to spin around safely. It may have meant that he would not be in the lead when he made the call to come in, which in turn may have meant a race win, or at least a podium.
Rob2
31st July 2011, 15:05
Yup. Rules are the rules. You cant just do a burn out on the racing line when a train is about to go around you.
electrolite (@electrolite)
31st July 2011, 21:08
Rules don’t even come into what happened today, it was just common sense that you don’t spin your car around into 3 or 4 oncoming cars travelling about 100 mph! Crazy!
MuzzleFlash
31st July 2011, 15:06
Tend to agree with this, anytime I’ve seen someone end up pointing the wrong way, and in any online racing that I do, the rule is you stand on the brake until you can rotate the car safely.
I think a drive through is the most lenient actual penalty they can apply.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
31st July 2011, 15:20
What I don’t understand is why people seem to think there should be one set of rules for Lewis Hamilton, and one set of rules for everyone else. Michael Schumacher forced Kamui Kobayashi off the track at Silverstone, and got a penalty for it. Nobody comaplined. Sebastien Buemi forced Nick Heidfeld off the circuit at the Nurburgring, and also got a penalty for it. Nobody complained. But when Lewis Hamilton forces Paul di Resta off the track at the Hungaroring, or puts Pastor Maldonado out of the race at Monaco and gets a penalty for each incident, it’s a grave injustice.
It just doesn’t make sense to me. Lewis Hamilton is an exciting driver, yes – but that doesn’t give him a licence to ignore the rules at will. If you look at the numbers, he’s probably been involved in more on-track incidents than the rest of the drivers combined this year alone (and the only reason why half of them are even in incidents in the first place is because of Lewis Hamilton). I can understand people questioning a penalty if the incident just looks like racing (like the time he and Sebastian Vettel had an impromptu drag race down pit lane in China, though Hamilton escaped that time), but Hamilton wasn’t racing anyone in today’s episode of Lewis Hamilton and the Racing Stewards.
sebsronnie (@sebsronnie)
31st July 2011, 15:54
I’m a Lewis fan but the first thing I thought as soon as I saw him doing that spin to rejoin was that’s a definite penalty. And I’m sure all right thinking Lewis/Mclaren fans agreed with it.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
31st July 2011, 20:47
A lot of it is down to bias. A lot of it is down to the fact the people don’t understand the sport or the etiquette it tries to enforce on track.
Like any sport, people will always defend their chosen one to the ends of the Earth. Personally, that approach annoys me. The sport seems wasted on many people when they tend to focus on one driver come hell or high water. I don’t have an issue with fans supporting particular drivers but it is a bit of a ‘head in hands’ moment when people just can’t be gracious in defeat.
OnTheOtherHand (@robcacox)
31st July 2011, 20:14
If Lewis had just stood on the brake where he spun then Di-Resta and the two cars in front of him would all have had to drive around Lewis and off the track.
Well at least that what I saw. No I do not need glasses.
And it was good to see a public apology on the BBC even if we did not get to hear it.
Great race though…
Mike
1st August 2011, 1:45
That part of PM’s rant was a bit silly. But he is right in that you just can’t spin the car round like that.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
31st July 2011, 15:17
Agree. I think it was a fair call.
Lewis was told to push hard to get in front of Jenson after his next pit stop, so he was obviously eager to get the car round very quickly. But if people are coming the other way, it’s not too good to do it. He was in the middle of the road.
BasCB (@bascb)
31st July 2011, 15:26
Why always state these things about other people getting it wrong PM? Just to provoke them to react?
I think they got it right, and Hamilton himself seems to feel so as well, after the race. End of affair.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
31st July 2011, 15:38
Because then the subject is Lewis Hamilton and penalties, they usually are wrong. A lot of people seem to think that Lewis Hamilton should be allowed to get away with blue murder simply because he’s Lewis Hamilton.
mwoerne (@mwoerne)
1st August 2011, 6:22
PM, every single comment I’ve ever seen you make has been related to you complaining about Lewis Hamilton and his fans. Give me a break, seriously. I’m a HUGE Hamilton fan (and I’m American), and I would imagine that most Mclaren/Lewis fans would agree, that this call was, in the end, fair and deserving. Hamilton made a mistake, got a penalty (which, to be fair, was not quite as black and white as you make it sound), accepted it, and is ready to move on. As BasCB says, “End of affair.” Just take a chill pill, ok?
Oliver
31st July 2011, 15:04
Hamilton needs a new race engineer. Obviously his current one doesn’t seem to have accurate information. Why go for the super softs when they don’t last. The intermediate wasn’t what caused the race loss.
andrewf1 (@andrewf1)
31st July 2011, 15:15
That’s exactly what i was thinking too, he was in the lead comfortably and his strategist decided to put on the super-softs, meaning he wouldve stopped 1 more time, with or without rain. Why on Earth do that? Alonso did that too in order to jump Webber, he was being aggressive but he wasnt in the lead!
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
31st July 2011, 15:19
Maybe it was the other way around, and Button called in for Softs instead.
TomD11 (@tomd11)
31st July 2011, 15:51
I don’t know, it seemed quite sensible as it looked unlikely that Lewis would be able to eke out the softs for however long was left. Another stint on the quicker super-softs before putting on the softs appeared to be a reasonable strategy. The problem was that for some reason Lewis was slower that Jenson when he should have been quicker. That’s what cost Lewis the race and that’s the thing that doesn’t make sense to me.
DaveW
31st July 2011, 16:38
I think that when Hamilton realized that he had been had—the everyone else was on the softs–he was forced to try to nurse the S-S until a possible rain shower. So he was slow.
Stefanauss (@stefanauss)
31st July 2011, 16:38
That’s not what happend. The problem was not the wear of S-soft, but rather the almost non existent gap in performance to the prime tires, only 0.3s rather than the full second seen on Friday and Sunday.
That would have cost the race, not the obviously more wear of the option tire. Inters was what cost LH the podium, not the race win.
The funny thing is that drizzle that happend 4-5 laps after the round of pit stop (just after the spin) actually was playing into Lewis hands, because the supersoft were retaining heat the better, hiding the inability to overperform soft tires. And then the reckless inters call.
Alexi
31st July 2011, 15:04
Yeah Hamilton was pretty careless. Imagine if he got hit sideways in his rushed try to get back into track. Most dangerous move I’ve seen on a race in a while IMO.
dmcobern
31st July 2011, 15:05
Seems like Daniel is starting to find some pace.
Looking forward to see how he performs after the break and in the dressy of the season.
karl
31st July 2011, 15:14
yes, a good result for Daniel, now a chance to go away, do some work and come back and continue the learning experience. I hope this kid goes well.
Ady
31st July 2011, 15:19
sorry, who?
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
31st July 2011, 15:21
Daniel Ricciardo in car #22.
Eggry (@eggry)
31st July 2011, 15:27
Bad news for Luizzi
Fixy (@)
31st July 2011, 16:59
I don’t know what happened to him, he was 20 seconds behind D’Ambrosio, then I saw an HRT pit and thought: “That’s why Liuzzi is behind, D’Ambrosio still needs to pit”, but it actually was Liuzzi pitting. Maybe his faulty front wing cost him some time.
flowerdew (@flowerdew)
31st July 2011, 15:45
I’m hoping they’ll catch him for an interview but if they have, I missed it.
David-A (@david-a)
31st July 2011, 15:15
Very mature, professional interview from Lewis.
Eggry (@eggry)
31st July 2011, 15:18
for sure Hamilton is the fastest driver of the weekend. but he was hit 3 disaster. poor tyre choice, poor tyre choice 2, penalty…yeah, in this kind of tricky condition who don’t make less mistake wins and they are Button and Vettel. also Mclaren was definitely faster than Red Bull. even Alonso could match to Red Bull’s pace. so, Red Bull in danger. Seriously.
Eggry (@eggry)
31st July 2011, 15:28
“who makes less mistake” I should say :D
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
31st July 2011, 15:21
Funny how the Renaults went from being close to Ferrari in terms of pace to dropping behind not only Mercedes and Sauber, but also Force India and Toro Rosso.
No matter the situation, they’ve been pretty rubbish for a couple of races now.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
31st July 2011, 15:28
It makes you wonder if they’re really pushing the development of the R31. Without Robert Kubica, they might have decided to write 2011 off and concentrate on 2012.
Eggry (@eggry)
31st July 2011, 15:29
It should be one of the most logical comment from you. I agree.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
31st July 2011, 16:17
Good point.
electrolite (@electrolite)
31st July 2011, 21:12
Absolutely, a lot of people have been saying it’s Heidfeld and Petrov who’s performances are slipping, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case PM!
electrolite (@electrolite)
31st July 2011, 21:14
In addition to that however, they’ll obviously want to fend off that 5th place WCC position from Sauber, who you can bet will be pushing for that for a little longer this season.
BasCB (@bascb)
31st July 2011, 15:29
Lack of funds for development? And maybe Heidfeld proving not to be that much af a development driver as hoped for them?
Ous Ted
31st July 2011, 16:53
Interesting thought and one that could get them ahead next season if they follow the precedent set by Brawn GP.
F1 98
31st July 2011, 15:35
Kobayashi should have finished higher.
Button good job but he could not have won without hamiltons spin
Eggry (@eggry)
31st July 2011, 15:38
Wrong strategy screwed Kobayashi. sometimes Sauber is too conservative on tyre strategy.
Cyclops_PL (@cyclops_pl)
31st July 2011, 15:51
Ok, so can I NOW say that Vettel’s quality as a driver and Red Bull’s dominance as a team are in doubt? Or are we waiting for 5 GP’s lost by RB?
More luck for Hamilton and better driving from Alonso and we would have no Bulls on the podium.
andrewf1 (@andrewf1)
31st July 2011, 16:36
Vettel did nothing impressive today. But sadly, still got to be the winner in the overall picture. Shame really
David-A (@david-a)
31st July 2011, 16:51
Red Bull’s dominance is in doubt, Vettel’s quality as a driver is not. He still showed decent pace and overtook Alonso when he needed to, gaining good points. Grinding out results when things aren’t going that well is the stuff of champions.
andrewf1 (@andrewf1)
31st July 2011, 17:06
Oh common, Vettel did ok today, but nothing like ‘the stuff of champions’. He got lucky
suka (@suka)
31st July 2011, 17:46
It takes time for him to spend a few more races behind other cars for him to master efficien overtaking and catching up…but did fine today. His pass on Alonso was better than Alonso’s on him last weekend.
David-A (@david-a)
31st July 2011, 19:38
This wasn’t his best race. Yet still, he showed good racecraft when attacking and defending, kept up with the Mclarens (as impressive as Hamilton keeping up with the faster RBR in Melbourne) and ground out a great result for his championship.
Hell, even Alonso said that Vettel’s performances weren’t “luck” having been there and done it himself. Definitely the stuff of champions.
Cyclops_PL (@cyclops_pl)
31st July 2011, 17:21
He almost got McLarens to get away with 1-2 starting from PP. Hamilton destroyed him in the early stage of the race. I guess there are some champions better than others.
Olivier42 (@olivier42)
31st July 2011, 18:33
It’s clear that McLaren was a good deal faster than Red Bull this weekend. Hamilton didn’t get pole because he made mistakes.
Vettel did an ok job holding onto first place, but Mclaren successfully forced him to make mistakes with their superior car. We saw their solid pace all race.
That Vettel finished second in a slower car with smart strategy shows he can get the work done.
David-A (@david-a)
31st July 2011, 19:44
I agree with Olivier42. With Mclaren’s car, frankly, Vettel did a great job to even get pole this weekend. Some champions are better than others- Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso are evenly matched and on their way to becoming some of the best.
Should we doubt Vettel’s quality based on this weekend? Absolutely not.
joseph
31st July 2011, 16:10
the moist master does it again
BROOKSY007 (@brooksy007)
31st July 2011, 16:23
i think webber had a chance for a podium today!! Was it his call to switch to inters or was it the teams with the intent of gaining knowledge for vettel?
– maybe it was to maintain a gap!
Eggry (@eggry)
31st July 2011, 18:47
Every top 6 had. Just all about stretagy.
DaveW
31st July 2011, 16:42
It must be infuriating for McLaren and Ferrari that they have now indisputably knocked RBR off their horse, but Vettel continues to scurry away in the points. They guy has been dancing between the rain drops for 5 races now. How perfect for Vettel that on the day when Hamilton looked ready to hang two in a row on him, the other McLaren, the one completely out of the points race, wins.
Oliver
31st July 2011, 16:56
I believe Mclaren wanted Button to win his 200th GP but were hoping for a 1 2, a driver can’t decide to use the inters if rain was only for 4 minutes. The pit should give the driver info on the duration of the rain.
Redbull and Ferrari do that. Mclaren are selective in their release of critical info.
Rob2
31st July 2011, 17:55
Yeah because they could tell using their magic time machine that it would only last as long as it did.
suka (@suka)
31st July 2011, 17:51
So far, Mclaren’s have shown no signs of team orders. Today was another proof. Look how easily Alonso repassed Massa when got off the track. Hamilton had to work hard to pass Button or rather force him go wide.
ad3
31st July 2011, 17:55
Boullier really doesn’t seem to like Heidfeld at all. He seemed determined to pin the blame on his driver for his car catching fire. You’d normally expect a team principal to play the ‘vague’ game and just say that they’re ‘looking into it’. Not the first time he’s failed to defend Heidfeld.
flowerdew (@flowerdew)
31st July 2011, 18:46
There’s been that tone to his comments all along this season — earlier on when Nick was leading Petrov he gave an interview about how Nick was a disappointment, was not a leader, and really needed to improve. Those things may all be true, but I don’t know that I’ve heard any other team principal speak about their driver like that, and certainly not when that driver’s out performing their teammate.
Honestly, just like a driver slating their team when things go wrong turns me off to that driver, a team boss slating their driver on questionable grounds turns me off to that team.
OnTheOtherHand (@robcacox)
31st July 2011, 20:24
If Lewis had just stood on the brake where he spun then Di-Resta and the two cars in front of him would all have had to drive around Lewis and off the track.
Well at least that what I saw. No I do not need glasses.
And it was good to see a public apology on the BBC even if we did not get to hear it.
Great race though…
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
31st July 2011, 20:40
Great race and some great results, especially Button and Di Resta.
Great stuff from Ricciardo too, he did himself proud, keep it up!
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
1st August 2011, 3:17
Good drive by Sebastien Buemi from the back of the field.