So, despite trying their best to throw it all away, Red Bull came away from the Hungarian Grand Prix with a good result – and the lead in the world championship. One suspects however that, in the eyes of team principal Christian Horner and Austrian team-owner Dietrich Mateschitz, the wrong man won…
Helped by the performance advantage of his Red Bull in clear air and a drive-through penalty incurred by co-equipier Sebastian Vettel, the Australian simply ran away from the field at the Hungaroring. Arguably, this was a circuit that demonstrated just how good Adrian Newey’s latest design is, as the lack of long straights meant that the rival Mercedes and Ferrari-engined cars could not rely on their power advantage to make up for their deficit in downforce on twisty sections…
Should one feel sorry for Vettel, who incurred the wrath of the stewards by allowing a gap of more than 10 car lengths to open up between himself and leader Mark Webber as they followed the Safety Car? A grand prix driver has so many rules to keep track of, particularly under Safety Car conditions – I noted Fernando Alonso’s comments about the speed one had to maintain before coming in for the pitstop in the same situation – that it is almost inevitable that someone is going to fall foul of officialdom. And Vettel had the added inconvenience of a breakdown in radio communications, so was out of touch with his engineer. Of course, driving a modern F1 machine has become very much a partnershi[ between driver and engineer these days – just ask Felipe Massa and Rob Smedley. From his reactions after the race, it appears that Vettel made an honest mistake and was not – as some might have suspected – allowing his team-mate to open up a gap on the field to compensate for the fact that he had not stopped under Safety Car conditions.
But, while one certainly needs to laud the winning Red Bull driver for his performance and perhaps commiserate with the other for falling foul of a niggling technicality, I think Fernando Alonso, the man in second place, needs to be singled out for the drive of the day. In a car that was at least a second off the pace of the RBs on a good lap, he managed to keep both of them at bay at different stages of the race, holding off the challenge for over 50 of the 70 laps. After a perfect getaway he managed to slot himself between the Red Bull pair, fighting off Webber until pitting for tyres during the Safety Car period, then held off Vettel for an eternity after the latter’s drive-through penalty. Certainly, the Hungaroring is a difficult circuit for overtaking but, with the RB’s big performance advantage, it needed just one slight slip for Vettel to get by. For an increasingly frustrated Vettel, that slip never came…
Talking about overtaking, the dramatic duel between Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher in the final stages had punters on the edges of their seats and, as so often happens with Schumi, the battle was decided in dramatic fashion. These days there is plenty of needle between Michael and his former Ferrari flunky and viewers were aghast as Schumacher’s Mercedes pushed Barrichello’s Williams to within inches of the pit wall as the Brazilian made his brave dive down the inside at the end of the main straight. The move stuck, but Barrichello was furious and the stewards agreed, slapping a 10-place gid penalty on Schumacher for the next race at Spa. Commentator David Coulthard was scathing, saying that Schumacher “never knows when to give up”.
Of course, Coulthard did give up and Michael is back in the thick of things. And MS’s comment on the incident is worth noting: “I have never given anyone any presents on the track. I was moving to the inside and making it very obvious and clear to him to go on the other side. He didn’t choose to, so it got a bit tight…” But he didn’t hit the wall, guys, so there was just enough room!
