Category: Race Review

Delayed Race Notes: Belgian Grand Prix 2009

[Preface – Due to studies I fell behind with the editing of these posts. They were written live as usual, but needed a lot of work to make readable. Anything in italics in square brackets was written during the edit, just like this paragraph.]

2009 Formula 1 ING Belgian Grand Prix
Date: 30 August 2009
Circuit: Spa-Franchorchamps (PF) (GC)
Location: Francorchamps, Belgium
Distance: 44 laps
Tyre choices (red): SS / S / M / H

Coverage: BBC One / BBC Radio 5 Live[*]
Anchor: Jake Humphrey
Analysts in the paddock: David Coulthard (DC) and Eddie Jordan (EJ)

R5 commentary[*]: David Croft (Crofty) and Anthony Davidson (Ant)
R5 pitlane[*]: Holly Samos

[*for many years the BBC has held the UK radio rights to F1. In ’09 they also picked up the TV rights and they now offer an alternate feed on digital television, combining TV pics with radio commentary. I tend to use this feed.]

Coverage begins at 12.10pm.

DVR Notes

Spa. They’ve been racing here for 80 years. Need balls to be fast here. DC and EJ walk down memory lane recalling classic moments they were involved in during their careers – DC’s ’98 crashes, Jordan’s 1-2 in the same race which he calls the greatest day in his sporting history. Brundle says it rewards you if you attack it and respect it.

This is the longest lap of the year.

Points recap:
Button leads Barrichello by 18.
Brawn ahead of Red Bull by 27.5 but the battle for 3rd is worth watching.

Jake says Spa is what Formula 1 is all about.

Ted’s Qual Report:
Spa is more kebab and chips than champagne and canapes. Fans bought tickets expecting to see Schumacher.

Badoer qualifed last for the 2nd race in a row: LB “the last lap was a lot of traffic, everybody was waiting, one Toro Rosso overtake me when I was waiting” (for space).

Button – couldn’t get grip on the soft tyre, says he had oversteer.

Ted says Spa isn’t as reliant on aero as many circuits, so it favours teams used to making their tyres work to make up for their aero package, like Force India.
Hamilton says he’s losing a lot of time in the middle sector.

Barrichello only has fuel for 9 laps but could only get 4th. (If 9 laps doesn’t sound like much, just remember how long this place is.) Rubens says he’s looking for great overtaking.

Fisichella was by no means the lightest car on the grid, so it was a genuine surprise for pole.

Fisi: “Guys in the factory did a fantastic job, with our limited budget.”

Grid:
Fisichella (pole), Trulli
Heidfeld, Barrichello
Kubica, Raikkonen
Glock, Vettel
Webber, Rosberg
Sutil, Hamilton
Alonso, Button
Kovalainen, Buemi
Alguersuari, Nakajima
Grosjean, Badoer

Proper chat with Fisichella now. His last pole was in 2006! Says a pole with a good car is fantastic for sure – to do it with a small team, limited budget, is amazing.
Expected top fifteen, difficult to get to top ten, and got pole!
Says the Ferrari stories are just rumours and they haven’t called him, and even if they did he’d have to think about it.

Back to Jake and David who rubbish that – he’d jump at it, they say.

They waffle on for a bit, then we go to a package with EJ and Rubens meeting at a big house in Portugal. Is it his? Rubens brought wine!
Rubens says if he cries on the podium, so what? It’s for him. Valencia was like he was reading a book, very consistent that weekend.

EJ is only wearing shorts, my eyes, my eyes!
They go for a round of golf. Seemingly lots of man-love between EJ and Rubens.
Qualifying means a lot, JB has been qualifying well all season. Says he loves JB as a man but hates him as a driver..

OK this feature is way too long.

This is better. Lewis Hamilton walking the circuit with Martin Brundle
Eau Rouge. Compression, can only see the sky! They are breaking a sweat just walking up it.

Pouhon, downhill, just drop a gear, wait for car to settle and power on. No braking at 170mph with the wall outside.

Feature on tyres. Not BBC graphics, maybe supplied by Bridgestone and then voiced by DC? Completely ripping off that Sony ad with things bouncing down hills – tyres bouncing to the same (or similar) song.
This isn’t being presented well for TV, very dry. Four different dry tyre types. Graphs of optimum tyre temps and bumpiness of circuits.

Back to the guys. Eddie Jordan very proud of his old team for getting pole position.

Gridwalk
Brundle is talking conspiracies. First 7 drivers on the grid don’t have a drive next year. BMW leaving, Toyota threatening, Force India low on money – he says it is rubbish, they all just happen to be working very well.

Trulli (P2): “To win you need a good start, good first lap, avoid trouble.” Says he will win the race.

Fisi (P1): “I was saving fuel so I didn’t push (going to grid). GOnna be difficult to keep the pace of the other people, good for us to score points and go for podium. We are on pole, that means something very important.” He’s looking for Rubens, Kimi and Jarno to come up from behind.

Heidfeld (P3), surprised?: “Yeah definitely, thought we’d have a good result but thought P5 would be maximum. The view is a bit unusual for me this season, we usually have better starts than the Toyotas and will try to get by Fisi with a longer strategy.”

Rubens (P4): “Crucial for strategy to have a good gap when I comes out of the first pitstop. You gotta go and try to win the race, if you’re too cautious it isn’t going to work.”

Running after Jenson!
Button, (P12): “Difficult qualifying. Tough position around Spa. We got a Force India on pole so I’m sure we could have a good race here. Couldn’t get radio working, might need that this race, it’s all good now.”

National Anthem
Jake introduces the anthem as the Spanish National Anthem. We are in Belgium, Jake. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard it before. They are doing it in the style of a jazz club? Nice.

Fuel weights to the tune of Can’t Touch This by MC Hammer!! Ha!! Gotta love Ted Kravitz.
If you equalise the weights it was Jarno Trulli who was fastest, with Vettel 2nd then Heidfeld. Fisi would be 4th. Barrichello the lightest car on the grid, stopping on lap 9. Many front-runners are stopping on lap 12.

Lee with unknown FIFI man: “[Fisi] is in good shape. We’ve been on the pace all weekend, we took a good aero package to Valencia but it wasn’t a circuit where we could show it. We came here expecting top six and that’s where we’re hoping to end up in the race.”

Howett, Toyota: “All year our car is more competitive than our qualifying results have shown.”

Mario T! “We are confident of our race performance, anything can happen, we hope we can put one car on the podium today. We need some luck, maybe we have it.”

Ted with Christian Horner, RBR: “Glitch with front wing, reset electronics and its looking good. Good opportunity to score points, key is to survive first lap, we’re heavier on fuel, Kimi is a factor.”

Chris Dyer, Ferrari: “If we get a good first lap we’re in with a chance.”

Pundit tips?
Eddie Jordan says Kimi is strong but wants an ex-Jordan driver to win, doesn’t matter which.
David Coulthard goes for Kimi to win.

Live Notes

GRID

Fisichella, Trulli
Heidfeld, Barrichello
Kubica, Raikkonen
Glock, Vettel
Webber, Rosberg
Sutil, Hamilton
Alonso, Button
Kovalainen, Buemi
Alguersuari, Nakajima
Grosjean, Badoer

FORMATION LAP

Radio 5Live audio with BBC1 pictures.

1.2.3.4.5..GO!

Great start from Fisi, all tangled at the start and one car tagged.. Fisi great lead up the hill!

Les Combes – BIG accident!
3 or 4 cars in the wall. Button spins. Grosjean and Hamilton and an STR are in the wall, suspension damaged.
Toyota wing damage, continues.

Replays: Someone tagged Button from behind and sent him into the pack.

Safety Car – first one since Barcelona! Trulli pits for repairs, it was his front wing.

Button, Grosjean, Hamilton and Alguersuari are out of the race.

Replays: Barrichello slow at the start. Sutil tagged someone and suffered damage at La Source.

Kimi had somehow made it from 6th to 2nd in that.
Order:
Fisi, Kimi, Kubica, Glock, Webber, Heid, Ros, Vet, Alo, Kov, Bue, Nak, Bad, Tru, Bar, Sut

Lap 4 (3 complete, we’re on 4) – SC in at the end of this lap.

L5 RESTART

LOVE that onboard with Kimi as we chase Fisi! Kimi makes the pass on the Kemmel straight. KERS in action.

L6 Barrichello took Trulli on the restart, now a replay of taking Badoer at the Bus Stop, 13th now..

Webber is ahead of Heidfeld now. This is a great opportunity for Button’s rivals to take points off him in the title race!

L7 Barrichello passes Nakajima with a great run through Eau Rouge and Raidillon to take him with momentum on the straight.

L8 Holly with Lewis: “What can you do? We got off to a bad start, when it goes bad it goes bad. No biggie, not challenging for the championship so not the end of the world.”

Sutil passes Badoer around the outside, off the circuit to pass him. Might get a penalty for passing him?

Sutil just clears Nakajima in the same way Barrichello did, really easy pass. Kaz just sits there and lets it happen, doesn’t react at all.. Is Naka really heavy or is he not bothered?

L10 Kimi had set some fast laps to get a gap, Fisi is now holding him at 1.8sec. Kubica a similar gap back to Fisi.

L11 Button: “Alongside Kovalainen into the corner and got whacked in the rear wheel. Was an avoidable accident, I think it was braking too late. Made up places at the start, I wasn’t too far behind Webber, 5 positions, now I’m out no points. At least it happened here not somewhere where we’re competitive.”

L12 Kova radio: “Fuel-corrected your pace is as good as the leaders, keep it up you’re in contention for 6th place.”
He’s now 10th.

Kubica and Glock pit.

13 laps gone. Heidfeld sets fastest lap in 1:47.738.
Alonso is being told to push to stop Fisi coming out ahead of them after the stops.

Replay of Glock stop: Slow stop, the original fuel hose did not work, had to use backup.

L15 Raikkonen, Fisi, Webber and Heidfeld all pit!!
Kimi out first, Fisi 2nd, Webber JUST beats Heidfeld who has to brake hard. Red Bull get could penalised for that, you’re not supposed to release into the path of another car.

Heidfeld passes Webber at Les Combes!
Rubens takes Mark around the outside at Blannchimont!

L17 Webber has been given a drive-thru penalty. Vettel pits. He’s out ahead of Heidfeld cleanly.

L19 Rosberg pits from his temporary lead. Webber is in for his drive-thru.
The accident on lap one will be investigated after the race.

Crofty says Toyota told him they are aware their engine is not as good as some others, they knew they’d be c30 horsepower down on Merc and Ferrari which hurts on the long uphill straight here.

L21 Trulli stops again and is last due to his earlier wing change.
ALonso (3rd) and Kova (5th) still need to stop, so do Naka and Badoer at the back.

L22 Kimi radio: “Fisi could be same lap or one lap longer so we need to open a gap.”
Ahh, Jarno Trulli is out of the race. He’s parked it in the garage.

L24 Fisi radio: Needs a tenth per lap, Raikkonen has been told to push.
Alonso has been told they will fit the softer option tyre. He pits now.
Problem! Left front wheel fairing is not engaging. STUPID devices. They are banned next year, Crofty calls for them to be banned immediately.

Replay, onboard Alonso: Sutil spinning on the first corner, his nose hit Alonso’s left front wheel and damaged the fairing thing.
L26 Alonso’s spinner fairing is now flailing around, he’s having to drive slowly to the pits to get it fixed.

L27 Kovalainen pits. He’s out alongside Vettel and beats up up the hill.

L28 Alonso makes it back. He’s out of the race. Barrichello in from 6th. He beats Nakajima out, Kazuki still hasn’t stopped – so Rubens made up an entire stop length on him!
Nakajima stops a lap later.

L29 Kimi and Fisi are just a tenth or so different lap to lap. If Fisi wins this, he’s earned it.

L30 Kubica pits from 3rd and rejoins 5th, ahead of Glock and Webber.

L31 Kimi and Fisi pit together! Prime tyre for Fisi. Option for Kimi. They rejoin in the same order, Kimi may win this on the better tyre.

L32 Heidfeld pits from 2nd, this’ll drop him back behind Kimi/Fisi. Vettel leads with a stop to make, he is projected by 5LIve to beat Kubica.

L34 The harder tyre seems to work for Fisi – he is catching Kimi!! It WAS the quicker tyre in qualifying though…

Fastest lap from Heidfeld: 1:47.541
Webber pits and he’s out between Rosberg and Glock.

L36 Vettel pits. Does he beat Kubica?? Yes!

More quick laps from Nick. Quick Nick, gradually catching Kubica. Next lap Vettel goes quickest, 1:47.3361 and 0.7s faster than Kimi and Fisi and only 6sec behind them.

L39 Sutil tries it on Glock – no.

L41 Onboard with Vettel as he catches the leaders… homing in.. not quite within sight but it won’t be long. Play the Jaws music!

L42 Cut to Barrichello who is chasing Kovalainen. Rubens’ car is a bit smokey yet he’s still catching Heikki. More smoke now, he has to lift, he’s backing off to make the final two laps. He does not pit, can he make it last and get a point or two?

Penultimate lap. He’s still running, has been told to look after the engine.. Vettel seems to have backed off.

L44 Final lap. Rubens is told it is an oil leak, telemetry is fine.

FLAG – KIMI RAIKKONEN WINS!!
Fisichella 2nd!
Vettel 3rd
Kubica, Heidfeld, Kovalainen, Barrichello makes it back, and Rosberg rounds out the points positions.

6 winners in 6 races. And F1 is boring is it?

No cooldown lap at Spa because it would take too long, drive back up pitlane the wrong way into Parc Ferme.

Fire!! Barrichello’s car has caught fire. We cut away and don’t see it get extinguished..

Fisi doesn’t know where to go!

PODIUM

Finnish anthem (has been a while), Italian anthem.
Nice anthem combo.

Trophies.

BIG cheer for Fisichella’s 2nd place trophy.

Champaggnee!!!

What a great result for Fisichella and Force India. The rumour is Giancarlo will be in a Ferrari for Monza in a fortnight – is that true, or will he prefer to drive the improved Force India?

The team manager for FIFI is on the BBC, he says they are here to stay now, they are very quick in a straight line so look for them to do well at Monza. Excellent, bring it on!

Conference:

Kimi Raikkonen, winner:

Hasn’t been easy year for us, behind straight away at first race, then made a big step in Barcelona. Long time since I last won, it was perfect, my aim was to win at least one race and keep 3rd in the championship. We probably were not the fastest in laptimes but overall we were fast and managed to keep everyone behind. Hopefully we get good results after this race.

Giancarlo Fisichella, 2nd:

Great result for us. A great day, I was quicker than Kimi he could overtake me just because of KERS after the restart, I’m a little bit sad for that, I was quicker than him, keeping his pace. We did exactly the same strategy, its great to have second, actually we could have won the race.

Sebastian Vettel, 3rd

If you look at the championship it was a very good result. Not an easy place to start from in the middel of the pack, first lap was a little conservative when I saw Nick off track, I lost position to Nico which I got back on restart. I was pushing every lap like qualifying, it was a pleasure to drive the car, was very nice. Strong pace, quicker than the guys in front.

Result


 Driver Gap Pts
1 Räikkönen 44 laps 10
2 Fisichella 0.9sec 8
3 Vettel 3.8sec 6
4 Kubica 9.9sec 5
5 Heidfeld 11.2sec 4
6 Kovalainen 32.7sec 3
7 Barrichello 35.4sec 2
8 Rosberg 36.2sec 1
9 Webber 36.9sec
10 Glock 41.4sec
11 Sutil 42.6sec
12 Buemi 46.1sec
13 Nakajima 54.2sec
14 Badoer 102.1sec
DNF Alonso retired
DNF Trulli brakes
DNF Button accident
DNF Grosjean accident
DNF Hamilton accident
DNS Alguersuari accident

An interesting podium and a good result for BMW!

Drivers’ Championship


 Driver Prev BEL Total
1 Button 72
72
2 Barrichello 54 2 56
3 Vettel 47 6 53
4 Webber 51.5
51.5
5 Räikkönen 24 10 34
6 Rosberg 29.5 1 30.5
7 Hamilton 27
27
8 Trulli 22.5
22.5
9 Massa 22
22
10 Kovalainen 14 3 17
11 Glock 16
16
12 Alonso 16
16
13 Heidfeld 6 4 10
14 Kubica 3 5 8
15 Fisichella 0 8 8
16 Buemi 3
3
17 Bourdais 2
2

Despite Button’s non-score he retains a large lead over his team-mate, while the lower positioned Red Bull driver prior to this race was the one to pick up points, Vettel overtaking Webber once again in the standings.
Raikkonen is really making great strides forward now – can he bridge the gap to the leading four?
Fisichella picks up his first points of the year with his 2nd position (I probably should have reversed his position with Kubica’s on the ‘quality of results’ rule).

Constructors’ Championship


 Constructor Prev BEL Total
1 Brawn 126 2 128
2 Red Bull 98.5 6 104.5
3 Ferrari 46 10 56
4 McLaren 41 3 44
5 Toyota 38.5
38.5
6 Williams 29.5 1 30.5
7 BMW 9 9 18
8 Renault 16
16
9 Force India 0 8 8
10 Toro Rosso 5
5

Red Bull claw back a small amount of the deficit to Brawn, it isn’t enough to make the fight interesting though.
Ferrari are solidifying their 3rd position. Realistically they will not catch those ahead of them, they can only reduce the gap. McLaren are in a similar position, it will be interesting to see which team emerges in 3rd position at the end of the year!
BMW’s haul form this race doubles their score for the season to date and jumps them over Renault, while Force India’s score means every team has now registered a score.

That’s all from the fantastic Spa-Francorchamps, one of the highlights of the year. Next up is the historic circuit of Monza on 13th September for which notes will be up as soon as I can do them.

Flag courtesy of 4 International Flags

Delayed Race Notes: European Grand Prix 2009

[Preface – Due to studies I fell behind with the editing of these posts. They were written live as usual, but needed a lot of work to make readable. Anything in italics in square brackets was written during the edit, just like this paragraph.]

2009 Formula 1 Telefonica Grand Prix of Europe
Date: 23 August 2009
Circuit: Valencia Street Circuit
Location: Valencia, Spain
Distance: 57 laps

Coverage: BBC One / BBC Radio 5 Live[*]
Anchor: Jake Humphrey
Analysts in the paddock: David Coulthard (DC) and Eddie Jordan (EJ)

R5 commentary[*]: David Croft (Crofty) and Anthony Davidson (Ant)
R5 pitlane[*]: Holly Samos

Tyre selection (red): SS / S / M / H

[*for many years the BBC has held the UK radio rights to F1. In ’09 they also picked up the TV rights and they now offer an alternate feed on digital television, combining TV pics with radio commentary. I tend to use this feed.]

Coverage begins at 12.10pm.

We start with a recap of the title race so far. Button leading early, but Vettel and Webber are catching up but the McLaren resurgence is helping Button retain his lead.

JH, DC and EJ are chatting. JH and EJ in pink shirts, which has been the theme for every Button win so far. John Button wears a pink shirt ‘for luck’ and early in the season Jake followed his lead.

Just over their shoulder the RTL guys are talking with Niki Lauda. M Schumacher is walking around – Eddie tries to grab his arm, misses, gestures to him, then runs off and grabs him and brings him to the camera!
MS is disappointed that he’s not in the car, say his fitness was far below the level to withstand the forces in the car. We can hardly hear him because of the engine right behind him.
Just a quick chat. Jake says we are all keen for him to get back in a car sooner rather than later…. errr, no Jake.

Quali recap.
Story of qualifying: Badoer is subbing for Massa, leading to a Ferrari qualifying slowest on merit for the first time – they’ve been last before due to crashes/penalties, but not lack of speed;
Badoer says he’ll be better at the next race;

Webber’s car overheated the soft tyres. What’s the problem? “laptimes of other people”;
Alonso isn’t happy with 8th but says they did the maximum they could do;
Button says he’s not in a bad position, Vettel just in front, not too bad;
Barrichello thought he could put the car on pole;
Hamilton got pole position – a grinning Lewis says it has been a long time since they’ve battled for pole, this time they had the pace and were able to do it but the Brawns are still quick;

Grid:
Hamilton, Kovalainen
Barrichello, Vettel
Button, Raikkonen
Rosberg, Alonso
Webber, Kubica
Heidfeld, Sutil
Glock, Grosjean
Buemi, Fisichella
Nakajima, Trulli
Alguersuari, Badoer

Now live with Lewis.
– Great feeling, very relaxed and casual for the team. Still very tough as always, Heikki did an excellent job next to me. Clean side of the grid, drag race with Heikki ‘cos he has KERS, same power same everything. He generally gets a good start so I have to make sure I start well.

Now a recorded segment with Lewis. Gushing platitudes for team. He’s visibly proud of having his own ‘bay’ in the factory for his car, says he came here as a kid and saw Mika, David, Juan’s bays and wanted his own. He reckons he notices each upgrade, asks when things will be tested, why haven’t things been tested yet.. Says he gets really involved with the team, learning about the car, can talk for ages about the car. Ropes Jake into doing pull-ups in the gym!

Martin Whitmarsh, first win a weight off your shoulders?:
“When you’ve got one win you want more. We’ve already forgotten what happened in Hungary, we feel we can win here. We hope we can win this afternoon.”
Jordan apologises for calling his car a dog earlier in the year. Whitmarsh says he always enjoys Jordan’s apologies.” From this evening after this race we’ll be looking at Spa, we need to win at a high-speed circuit, it is a great circuit and we are looking forward to it.”

He talks about drivers as well but we can’t hear him because engines are firing.

12.30 UK time. Pitlane is open.

Focus switches to Jenson, pre-record with Lee:
“I’ve got a 19 and a half point lead still. Its not easy, not a walk in the park as some people might think it is. We did a better job but I don’t think we had the best car all the time. Rest of the season will be very competitive. Red Bull are challenging, McLaren are very strong.”
He did a triathlon in London during the summer break, then went on holiday. It took his mind off it, and he says if you don’t take your mind off it you’ll go mad. He’s nice and refreshed now.

Jump into a Martin Brundle package on pit stops, a running feature for some races now. This time we’re looking at the layout of the pit lane. Fast lane for entry/exit, inner lane where work is carried out. 26 men waiting for the driver when he arrives. Tyre changers, jackmen, fire extinquisher, fuellers. We know all of this Martin, tell us something we don’t know.

Gridwalk!
Martin Brundle
– Expected the Safety Car last year, didn’t happen, maybe we’ll see it today.
We find Eric Clapton – “I don’t know what to make of [Badoer]. He’s got the experience but its going to be tough for him. If he can stay with the field its a great thing.”
MB – “I find it bizarre. Give him an Enzo for a month and put someone quick in.”
EC – “With the rules he’s just dropped in it so I thought he did really well considering – even if he gets around in one piece its a result.”

Martin says it feels like Bahrain temperature and humidity.

Bernie with the president or mayor or something, via translator.
Valencia has re-signed for a further 5 years.
Dignitary: “We’d like to make this one of the best Grands Prix in the world. We are very pleased that Alonso has made it after the penalty was rescinded.”

Rubens would love to win the race. He’s wearing a ‘cool suit’ which extracts the warm air away from his body. Ahem.
Barrichello: “Would you rather be less fuel on pole or not? We thought about it, the guys in front have KERS and they’d just overtake me, so it is a bit of a game in a way. I would love to win the race today and I think it’s my best chance.”

There’s a queue for Seb.. haha, Brundle pushes in front of Sky Germany to get to Vettel! She’s not impressed…
Vettel: “Not a secret that this track is not the best for us. 4th is not a disaster. Our focus is on Rubens, Jenson, Kimi.”
Martin walks away and apologises to German TV as he leaves..

Horner: “Our priority is to beat both Jenson and Rubens. Mark isn’t happy with the car, the stop/start nature of the track doesn’t suit our car.”

Rosberg says he has more fuel than the guys ahead of him, is worried slightly about Kimi and his KERS but may be saved by the short run to turn 1.

Anthem

Err, we stop for the Spanish national anthem but are unable to hear it, it fades up a little but very quiet. Shouldn’t it be the European anthem? This is the European GP. We can now hear the Spanish anthem in the background but enough time has passed that maybe they played the European song first.

Jake says Martin is in serious trouble with Tanya from German TV, he’ll be lucky to make it out alive..

Fuel-corrected quali report with Ted – to the tune of Push It by Salt’N’Pepa! I am not making this up! Haha.
Rubens would have been quickest on equalised fuel, so he has the best strategy. Kovalainen looks better than Hamilton on strategy. Both McLarens (and Vettel) are stopping ahead of the rest. He tips Barrichello for the win with a slightly later stop.

Ross Brawn: “The start will be what it is, thereafter it’ll be making the tyres last. It’ll be marginal for us with our fuel load.”

Pundits, pick a winner: EJ says Hamilton by a big margin. DC says McLaren.

Grid Recap
Hamilton (pole), Kovalainen
Barrichello, Vettel
Button, Raikkonen
Rosberg, Alonso
Webber, Kubica
Heidfeld, Sutil
Glock, Grosjean
Buemi, Fisichella
Nakajima, Trulli
Alguersuari, Badoer

FORMATION LAP
Switching to 5 Live audio. I love the 5Live coverage of the formation lap. BBC1 is just the two guys filling to almost dead air while they wait for the cars to come around. 5Live has music, rapid-fire scene-setting, a real tension-builder.

GRID

Lights are 1.2.3.4.5…GO!!

Badoer up four places before turn 2!
Someone loses part of the front wing.
5Live says Grosjean,
Button runs off course.

Button tries to repass Alonso, goes too deep.

Grosjean, Glock and Buemi all pit for damage repairs.

L3 (2 laps done, we’re on lap 3) Badoer is now 17th, he’s fallen back behind the guys he beat at the start.

L5 Badoer spun?
Webber on the radio, he says Button should be behind him because Jenson cut the chicane.

L8 Things settled down really early. Not much going on. I didn’t expect it to be this boring so early!

L10 Grosjean has a half-spin.

L14 According to official live timing at f1.com there has been no change of position since lap 5. Literally NOTHING has happened.

L17 Here we go, Hamilton pits. Vettel and Kubica are also in.
L18 Kovalainen and Alonso pit.
Vettel is also in again, looks like the rig may have failed on the last stop!!

Fastest Lap from Rubens Barrichello on lap 18. The BBC guys tipped him for the win earlier, said he had the best fuel load / position.

L20 Raikkonen and Button pit.
L21 Barrichello pits and he’s out between the two McLarens!
Webber also pitted, he’s out in front of Fisichella and Button but Giancarlo has yet to stop.

L22 Rubens has gone for another stint on the harder of the two tyre choices. Hamilton is on the softer tyre.

L23 Heidfeld and Sutil pit. Confirmation from Holly Samos that Vettel had a fuel rig problem and didn’t get any on that first stop. Ant says this has cost him 20-30 seconds.

Hamilton told to ‘lift and coast’ to keep rear temps low

L25 ANOTHER engine failure for Vettel!
He manages to pull over to the side of the road and into an escape road, track is clear although there may be oil.

L29 The heavier runners are about to make their stops.
Badoer and Grosjean pit. Clean stops, but Badoer pulls to the right and isn’t accelerating, Grosjean drives past him!! Badoer then momentarily puts his wheels over the white line where the pitlane joins the racetrack. Big no-no!

Grosjean not at fault there, clearly if a car slows and pulls to the side he’s in trouble (even if he wasn’t really).

L32 Drive-thru penalty for Badoer for crossing the white line on pit exit.

Rubens told he must cut the deficit to Hamilton from 4.5sec to 2sec in 8 laps.

L33 Glock has pitted and Badoer takes his penalty. Luca is 18th.

L34 New FL from Rubens. Button is also fast, catching Webber.

L37 Badoer spins..again.. Braked too late at turn 17.

L38 Hamilton in. Early stop? Pit stop is slow, tyres were not ready! He’s lost a place to Rosberg, and lost a good 4 seconds on a usual stop time.
Rubens needs to PUSH HARD now to take advantage of this.

RB sets another fastest lap of the race.

L39 Kovalainen pits.

L40 Puncture for Nakajima, rubber everywhere. SC?
Rubens should pit now just in case of Safety Car..

So far it is covered with a waved yellow flag, and white flag. Rubens does pit.

RB is back out, wow that’s a huge gap to LH.

Nakajima makes it back to the pitlane for a replacement set of tyres. Yellows clear.

Message from Holly in the pits, the pitwall called in Hamilton but the garage was not ready..

L43 Button and Alonso pits. Kimi has passed Heikki, was that through the stops? I missed it.

L44 Rosberg is in. Webber and Heidfeld in, a spinning Toro Rosso! We cut away to see the stop of Webber, who rejoins the track some way behind Button. Jenson’s quick laps and shorter stop really gained him some ground.

The spinning STR was Buemi, Ant says it looks like his brakes were too hot…

Barrichello, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Kovalainen, Rosberg, Alonso, Button, Kubica! Where’d he come from?

New Fastest Lap from Button. 1:38.874 Catching Alonso.

10 laps to go.

Rosberg is setting personal best times, so is Webber, and Button is still catching Alonso. They are going to run out of laps.

5 laps now. The only action in this race was during the pit stops, the intervening parts have been pretty dull… Not for the drivers who have been pushing like hell, drivers who have been pushing like hell, unforunately that’s not very interesting when they are running by themselves.

3 to go.

Drivers are setting the odd personal best sector here and there as the fuel loads come down and the rubber is being laid on the track. The gaps aren’t really changing much, we’re talking tenths.

Glock sets Fastest Lap! He did pit a 3rd time so maybe down to low fuel and new tyres.. He is 14th and 22sec down on Trulli in 13th.

Final Lap

Rubens Barrichello WINS!

Brawn on the radio: “Fantastic, just like the old days, fantastic.”
I can’t make out Rubinho’s response! He’s crying??

Parc Ferme

Applause in the pit lane for Rubens.
Congratulates the mechanics.. up the stairs, kisses the camera, little dance on the way to the podium!

Brazilian national anthem.
British anthem for Brawn.

Another stealthy podium from Kimi. We hardly saw him all race.

Trophies.
Champaaggggne!

Whitmarsh denies the pitstop was the reason for losing the race, and says it was down to race pace. The error only lost 2 seconds, he says, they weren’t quick enough on race pace.
I don’t agree with that! They lost more than 2 seconds and there would have been a fight, Lewis may not have won it without it, but he may have done….

Brawn says it was one of Barrichello’s best races. Could have been more aggressive on strategy, worked for Rubens not for Jenson.

Conference with James Allen:
(ex-ITV commentator Allen now does the conference, Peter Windsor has his USF1 job so can’t work for F1/FOM due conflict of interest)

Rubens:

“It’s been fantastic, a weekend I will never forget. After 5 years you don’t forget how to do it. The car has been perfect, I want to thank the team for that.”

Lewis:

“We win and we lose together. We’ve had a tremendous effort to get us here, we had extraordinary pace in the last 2 or 3 races, it was a tremendous race for everyone. We’ll keep pushing, we need to catch these guys.”

Kimi:

“We needed to go 100% all the time, we knew on Friday I had a good feeling from the car. We know we are not where we want to be, we’re not bringing new parts to the car but usually we can fight for 3rd place and if something weird happens we can fight for the win.”

Kimi is happy with a podium.

Okay, that’s all from me. Here are the stats:

Race Result


Pos
 Driver Gap Pts
1 Barrichello 57 laps 10
2 Hamilton 2.3sec 8
3 Räikkönen 15.9sec 6
4 Kovalainen 20.0sec 5
5 Rosberg 20.8sec 4
6 Alonso 27.7sec 3
7 Button 34.9sec 2
8 Kubica 36.6sec 1
9 Webber 44.9sec
10 Sutil 47.9sec
11 Heidfeld 48.8sec
12 Fisichella 63.6sec
13 Trulli 64.5sec
14 Glock 86.5sec
15 Grosjean 91.7sec
16 Alguersuari 1 lap
17 Badoer 1 lap
18 Nakajima retired
DNF Buemi brakes
DNS Vettel engine

Drivers

Pos
 Driver Prev EUR Total
1 Button 70 2 72
2 Barrichello 44 10 54
3 Webber 51.5
51.5
4 Vettel 47
47
5 Rosberg 25.5 4 29.5
6 Hamilton 19 8 27
7 Räikkönen 18 6 24
8 Trulli 22.5
22.5
9 Massa 22
22
10 Glock 16
16
11 Alonso 13 3 16
12 Kovalainen 9 5 14
13 Heidfeld 6
6
14 Buemi 3
3
15 Kubica 2 1 3
16 Bourdais 2
2

Barrichello makes a big gain on Button, and both Brawns extend their advantage over the Red Bulls.
Hamilton and Raikkonen are well and truly up and running with big scores now expected at every race, they ought to reel in Rosberg fairly soon (even with Nico scoring well) and then set about closing the gap to the Red Bull drivers.
Kovalainen is starting to make his presence felt in the middle order now.

Constructors

Pos
 Constructor Prev EUR Total
1 Brawn 114 12 126
2 Red Bull 98.5
98.5
3 Ferrari 40 6 46
4 McLaren 28 13 41
5 Toyota 38.5
38.5
6 Williams 25.5 4 29.5
7 Renault 13 3 16
8 BMW 8 1 9
9 Toro Rosso 5
5
10 Force India 0
0

Brawn now have a 27.5 point lead over Red Bull, not insurmountable but we will quickly run out of races to pull that gap back over the coming stretch.
Ferrari and McLaren have overtaken Toyota, and given Toyota’s current form it is unlikely they will mount a challenge. Realistically this table has broken into a series of team vs team battles. Brawn & Red Bull, Ferrari & McLaren, Toyota & Williams (along with maybe Renault), then the tail-enders.

The next race is the Belgian Grand Prix at the fantastic Spa-Francorchamps, the middle of the 3-race close to the European F1 season before the flyaways resume. I hope to have notes up soon.

Delayed Race Notes: Hungarian Grand Prix 2009

[Preface – Due to accountancy studies I fell behind with the editing of these posts. They were written during the live BBC coverage as usual, save for the race result and points. Anything in italics in square brackets was written during the edit, just like this paragraph.]

Formula 1 ING Magyar Nagydig 2009
/ 2009 Formula 1 ING Hungarian Grand Prix
Circuit: Hungaroring
Location: Budapest, Hungary
Distance: 70 laps

Coverage: BBC One / BBC Radio 5 Live[*]
Anchor: Jake Humphrey
Analysts in the paddock: David Coulthard (DC) and Eddie Jordan (EJ)

R5 commentary[*]: David Croft (Crofty) and Anthony Davidson (Ant)
R5 pitlane[*]: Holly Samos

Tyre selection (red): SS / S / M / H

[*for many years the BBC has held the UK radio rights to F1. In ’09 they also picked up the TV rights and they now offer an alternate feed on digital television, combining TV pics with radio commentary. I tend to use this feed.]

Coverage begins at 12.10pm. Update on the season so far.

Hungaroring is 14 corners in roughly 3 miles. I can’t see how that many corners in such a small space can produce good racing – and it doesn’t at this track.

Massa is in a stable condition after his horrible accident yesterday.
Ted reports. Felipe didn’t need another lap as he was already through, but went again to make sure. Failure on Barrichello’s car when a spring fell off at 140mph, 3 seconds later Massa drove into the path of the spring.
It cut a 4″ groove out of the helmet shell but it remained structurally intact.

Luca Colajanni, Ferrari – He was concious when he arrived at hospital, he went through medical checks, he had a cut in his forehead, bone damage to his skull, brain concussion. He has to undergo and operation.

Ross Brawn – Heavy object, 1.5 – 2 pounds, a kilo, at those speeds its a serious impact. Spring is from the gearbox. It is part of the assembly, we’ve raced it all season, it is subject to a lot of testing. Not happened before, first occurrence. We need to understand what happened.

Ted says surgery was successful and he remains stable in intensive care.

Colajanni again, live this time – He went for a CT scan which had a negative outcome, which is positive, now he sleeps. His family have just arrived from Brazil. Now he sleeps, we just have to wait.

[Thankfully, as we all know now, Felipe is well on the way to recovery! He’s very lucky.]

David Coulthard – It’s been a freakish week [with Surtees the week before]. We just have to look at the positive side of this, Felipe should make a full recovery, we should move on and try and stop things falling off cars in future.

Eddie Jordan has a spring from a GP2 car to illustrate the size/weight, says the F1 version is very similar.

DC – Felipe is a well-liked member of the drivers’ association. Ironically enough the part that has fallen off has been used since the invention of racing.

Qualifying update with Lee
Alguersuari struggled in his first Q session.
Force India had to repair Sutil’s car after a big hit in practice. He says 18th is not so bad..
Button could only do one Q3 run because they were changing the spring on his car after Barrichello’s failed, the team and the FIA wanted to make sure it was safe.
Hamilton starts 4th, his best of the season.

Then the official timing system went down! Alonso was going to each driver asking their time! Each driver gets their own time on the dash so they knew that, but not what others had.

Vettel (P2) – Our biggest threat is coming from behind with the KERS cars.
Alonso (P1) – Car worked fine in qualifying, the most stressful time was in parc ferme afterwards asking ‘what time you did’, what time you did’!

Pat Symonds – We knew what we’d done, it was a little bit better than we expected but we didn’t expect pole.
DC – Did you think you went too short on strategy?
PS – We came here to be aggressive, we knew tyres would be a big part, they are marginal here and a three stop is not a silly thing to do.
He says Piquet has the same car as Alonso this weekend, completely identical.

Nelson has been complaining because his drive is under threat. Yesterday in the quali show we learned he must score half the points of Alonso to keep his drive and he hasn’t done that – but he says he hasn’t had the car.

The grid has moved forward to fill Massa’s space, so only the top 9 ran their fuel load in qualifying.

Grid from BlogF1 (thanks for the shout!):
http://blogf1.co.uk/2009/07/25/hungary-2009-the-grid/

Ollie puts together a great grid line-up which you should check out before each race. My little summary pales into comparison:

Alonso, Vettel
Webber, Hamilton
Rosberg, Kovalainen
Raikkonen, Button
Nakajima, Buemi
Trulli, Barrichello
Glock, Piquet
Heidfeld, Fisichella
Sutil, Kubica
Alguersuari

Piece with Mark Webber cycling with Jake. Says winning was “total emotion” and the next two races will decide the championship. [erm, maybe not!]

12.30 and the pitlane is open, cars are leaving for the grid over the next 15 mins.

Refuelling piece with Martin Brundle and Force India. Refuelling was reintroduced to F1 in 1994.
The refueller delivers ‘clean’ fuel (road fuel with a small amount of biofuel) at 12.1 litres per second.
Sometimes the first rig fails, a reserve rig is on standby. Force India have a reserve crew ready. At Brawn they hand the spare hose to the main refueller.
The filler on the car is designed for the height and angle of the man doing the refuelling – assuming the car stops in the right place it should make things as smooth as possible.
Martin – Enjoy it while you can, refuelling is banned for 2010.

GRIDWALK – Jake, Eddie, David
The Hungarian GP attracts fans from across Europe, there are flags from everywhere in the stands. Martin joins them briefly and then walks off to start the Gridwalk proper – with EJ! This can only go well.

Martin says it has been 26 years since EJ was on a Formula 3 grid telling MB he’s going to beat Ayrton Senna.

EJ – Your thoughts are with Massa but you have to put it to one side and focus on your job.

Little argument already! Martin saying he was upset in the Imola ’94 race when he wasn’t told what was going on, EJ defending his situation saying the teams didn’t know either, they were told he was okay, until they got on the plane to come home.

Button: We’ve got a lot of fuel on board. The KERS cars are in front of me, which is good because they are aiming at the Red Bulls. It would be lovely to win this race but the most important thing is to finish in front of the Red Bulls, I’m not sure Alonso is going to be a factor in this race.

Martin asks EJ about championship strategy. Let them race or focus on one driver, shouldn’t RBR concentrate on Vettel?
EJ says RBR haven’t made that decision yet, and with Mark Webber’s recent races you can’t rule him out, he could be the dark horse.
MB – Absolutely.

Webber: Its a long race. Different people have different ideas about tyres. I’m looking to get away clean and get in Alonso’s tow and try and get Sebastien. The Williams is no slouch off the line either, it’s going to be aggressive to turn one.

MB: KERS. Ferrari have got it, McLaren is the only team who’ve made it work.

They find Flav and Bernie!
EJ (arm around Bernie): Do you remember me?
BE: No.
EJ: Why haven’t you done signed Concorde yet?
BE: I can’t write.
MB: Flavio, is Alonso driving with you next year?
FB: For the moment he’s with us, we see race by race.

Evasive Bernie.. Martin bails out to go to the Hungarian National Anthem. Probably a good thing, that interview could have been even more embarrassing than it was. (not for the first time this year, there is no singing with this anthem.. maybe it doesn’t have words?)

Ferrari mechanics gathered with a pitboard: Forza Felipe

FUEL LOADS
Alonso only has 29kg of fuel on board. Fuel-corrected, the Red Bulls were fastest with Vettel on pole, then Webber. Button is well placed because he saved 4 laps of fuel compared to the others in qualifying.

Martin Whitmarsh saying they hope the KERS will help them jump a few cars at the start, they want to challenge for a podium with both drivers.

Guys are filling again to hit the next mark.. A check of the points shows Button leading Vettel by 21 points, and Brawn ahead of Red Bull by 19.5 points.

Pick a winner in one word?
DC – Have to go with Red Bull, Vettel.
EJ – Hamilton by a big margin.
JH – That wasn’t one word but it was quicker than usual.

FOM Intro

BBC One crosses to Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundle.
I cross to Freeview channel 302 to have the same pictures but with the BBC Radio feed of David Croft and guest commentator Johnny Herbert – Anthony Davidson is at Spa for the FIA GT 24 Hours.

Cars are away for the formation lap. This will be a 70 lap race.

Extreme tyre warming as they arrive on the grid!

1.2.3.4.5…GO!

Banging wheels at the start, Kimi tries to barge his way through the Red Bulls and Lewis touches wheels with a Red Bull as well.

Start of Lap 2. Adrian Sutil pits with damage, he’s being wheeled back into the garage.

Replays:

Lewis and Kimi both try for the same space in the gap between RBRs. Kimi backs out and Lewis passes both.
Onboard LH: KERS off the start. Webber repasses him out of turn one.

After the shake up of the start the order is:
Alonso, Webber, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Rosberg, Kovalainen, Vettel, Button, Nakajima, Trulli, Piquet, Glock, Kubica, Buemi, Heidfeld, Barrichello, Fisichella, Alguersuari
Sutil is listed as RETIRED on the live timing. What happened to Rubens?

Holly Samos on 5Live says Sutil’s car is overheating, they will try to go back out later.

L5 Hamilton on the KERS passes Webber with ease.

L6 Raikkonen with KERS is catching Webber now.

Hamilton just set Fastest Lap.

L8 He’s done another FL and is 3/10ths faster than Alonso, Webber and Raikkonen.

L9 The reverse situation a little further back with Vettel on the tail of Kovalainen – but Seb can’t pass because Heikki can defend with KERS.

L11 Button on the radio. Seems to have tyre problems? Hard ot hear him through the noise.

“Incident involving Car 4 under investigation”
That’s Kimi – the wheel-banging start?

L13 Alonso pits after completing 12 laps. He’s out in from of Piquet, behind Trulli. Immediately he’s off the road, vibrating front right.
The wheel has come off! It is bouncing down the road, and luckily comes to a rest by a barrier before anyone else comes along – that could have been much much worse. Yellows in that area only.

He slowly makes it back to the pits for a replacement but he is now last.

L16 Hamilton leads and is setting fastest laps every lap now the yellows are clear. He’s 4.2sec up over Webber.

Alonso pits once more and it seems his race may be over.

L18 Nakajima is catching Button but Jenson is much lighter on fuel.

L20 Both Webber and Raikkonen pit. Webber is slow away, he almost hits Raikkonen!! Expect a penalty for dangerous release. Webber under pressure and passed by Glock.

L21 Hamilton pits, so does Rosberg. Rosberg slots in between Glock and Webber but Webber passes him!

L22 Kovalainen and Vettel come in together. Sebastien has a very long stop – we saw RBR struggle with Mark Webber’s stop, same problem here or did they fuel Vettel long?

L23 Naikajima in – wouldn’t normally mention it but he could get points this week!

Piquet vs Nakajima! Piquet wins that battle.. for 14th..

Button radio: We have to go long, would you like prime or option? “We know the car doesn’t work with prime.”

Button pits and emerges behind Barrichello – and Fisichella passes him in turn one as well. Button will probably be trapped behind Giancarlo for some time now, Crofty says Fisi isn’t pitting for another 6 laps.

L27 Vettel is on the radio saying something broke on the car.
Replays: Smoke from the car. Barrichello passes him. The car seems to be dropped down at an angle.
Vettel pits and they are changing the front wing. They are carefully checking the front left wheel.
He’s back out.

L29 Alguesuari pits, a nice solid first F1 pit stop!
Fisichella is in one lap later.

L31 Something still wrong with Vettel’s car, looks very hard to control. He pits and the team rolls it into the garage, day over.

L32 Button is complaining again. “How, how can this car be so bad??”

L33 Glock pits from 3rd, he’s got himself ahead of Button with that long run.

Barrichello has pitted and drops back from 7th to 13th.

Order at half distance (lap 35)

Hamilton, Raikkonen +6.6, Webber +18.6 to LH, Kovalainen +19.5, Rosberg +21.1, Glock +35.3, Trulli +41.0, Button +44.9, Piquet +45.9, Nakajima +46.8, Heidfeld, Kubica, Barrichello, Buemi, Fisichella, Alg.

Lewis team radio: Pace is good. We’ve got 3 or 4 tenths on Kimi.

Kovalainen is pressuring Webber, which is good to see. Heikki seemed to be nowhere earlier – although is this down to Mark being on the soft tyre and the others still on the supersoft?

L40 Buemi runs wide on his in-lap. He is the first of the second-stoppers and is now last.

Shots of small boy having his pass autographed by Bernie. RUN. RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN

Holly with Vettel: In the first corner I had contact with Kimi. He hit my front left and that was the reason the pit stop took very long, to change the front left tyre, all of a sudden it was game over and the front left suspension gave up.

L45 Kovalainen pits and takes the soft, which is the harder of the two compounds this week.

L46 Kimi Raikkonen pits but he can’t get going again… he’s slow away and rejoins having lost 4 or 5 seconds.

L47 Lewis Hamilton pits and rejoins still leading.

Everyone is changing to the soft tyre for the last stint – except Mark Webber who can use the faster supersofts.

L50 Rosberg pits, is out in 5th. Good points for he and Williams this week!

L51 Mark Webber pits and is out just ahead of Rosberg for 4th, he actually maintains 3rd position because Glock got ahead of him in that stop, and he’s soon to pit.

L54 Glock is right on the tail of Raikkonen but does need that stop. Kimi is actually costing Timo time.

L56 Hamilton radio – he’s turning his engine down.
Since he has a 17 second lead over Raikkonen that’s probably a reasonable thing to do.
Button pits, a lap later Nakajima pits.

L58 Barrichello pits now.

L59 5Live discussing whether Glock is pitting. He’s taking his time over it. There’s no way he could have run the supersofts this long though.

Trulli pits, so Glock should be next. Trulli is out just behind Button.

10 laps to go.

L61 Timo Glock pits from 3rd and gets out on a clear track, other than a lapped Toro Rosso a little way behind him.

Holly Samos: The aim for Rubens Barrichello is to overtake the two cars ahead of him on soft tyres, he is on supersofts.

Rubens is 10th, behind Trulli and Nakajima. Points to 8th remember. Finally, Trulli has developed himself a little train. He just can’t help himself.

L66, 5 to go. Mark Webber just set the fastest lap its too late now Mark. He’s 5 seconds behind Kimi but there aren’t enough laps to make the move.

The last 10-15 laps have been really dull.

2 to go.

Final Lap. Obligatory pointless shot of his dad and girlfriend. Crofty says Hamilton hasn’t even scored a point for six races (Bahrain).

Lewis Hamilton wins!!!

Raikkonen 2nd, Webber 3rd

Parc Ferme
Lewis is bouncing around!

Green room thing.

Podium
Anthem
Trophies… really very strange trophies..
Champagne!

We await the result of the stewards investigation into Kimi’s incident – he could yet be DQ’d or dropped back.

Back to BBC1 for Jake/DC/EJ.

Button with Lee:

Friday our pace was good on the option, everyone else struggled with graining. Today after 4 laps my tyres were destroyed, I had rear graining and couldn’t keep with the cars in front. I don’t know why we’re graining the tyres today. We’ve had two updates on the car but they shouldn’t unbalance the car in any way. The other teams have improved but our car is not what it was to drive a few weeks ago.

Press conference with James Allen:

Lewis in his shiny suit:

An incredible feeling to be back here after what seems a long time away. I’m so proud of the guys, they never give up. We didn’t expect to win this weekend.

Kimi in his oversize hat:

I made a very good start, that defintely helped. The gap stayed more or less the same all the time, then I has some issues on the last pit stop. Its difficult to challenge for the win right now but we’re closer than expected. Difficult weekend for the team but this is something positive at least.

Mark, the orange squash hog according to @SniffPetrol:

I was worried about the length of the stint so it was difficult to know what tyre to put on. Our guys and Renault have a lot to be proud of.

BBC1 are out of here ASAP to cross to Donington Park for live MotoGP, I’m hitting Red Button for the F1 Forum post-race debrief which I won’t note-take as it is quite long.

Race Result

Pos Driver Gap Pts
1 Hamilton 70 laps 10
2 Räikkönen 11.5sec 8
3 Webber 16.8sec 6
4 Rosberg 26.9sec 5
5 Kovalainen 34.3sec 4
6 Glock 35.2sec 3
7 Button 55.0sec 2
8 Trulli 68.1sec 1
9 Nakajima 68.7sec
10 Barrichello 69.2sec
11 Heidfeld 70.6sec
12 Piquet 71.5sec
13 Kubica 74.0sec
14 Fisichella 1 lap
15 Alguersuari 1 lap
16 Buemi 1 lap
DNF Vettel 41 laps suspension
DNF Alonso 55 laps fuel pump
DNF Sutil 69 laps engine
DNS Massa n/a accident

Drivers’ Championship

Driver Prev HUN Total
1 Button 68 2 70
2 Webber 45.5 6 51.5
3 Vettel 47 47
4 Barrichello 44 44
5 Rosberg 20.5 5 25.5
6 Trulli 21.5 1 22.5
7 Massa 22 22
8 Hamilton 9 10 19
9 Räikkönen 10 8 18
10 Glock 13 3 16
11 Alonso 13 13
12 Kovalainen 5 4 9
13 Heidfeld 6 6
14 Buemi 3 3
15 Bourdais 2 2
16 Kubica 2 2

Webber overhauls Vettel for 2nd.
Rosberg and Trulli pass the out-of-action Massa.
Lewis and Kimi finally make some in-roads into the field, pushing Alonso back.

Constructors’ Championship

Constructor Prev HUN Total
1 Brawn 112 2 114
2 Red Bull 86.5 6 92.5
3 Toyota 40.5 4 44.5
4 Ferrari 29 8 37
5 McLaren 14 14 28
6 Williams 20.5 5 25.5
7 Renault 13 13
8 BMW 8 8
9 Toro Rosso 5 5
10 Force India 0 0

Red Bull closes on Brawn for the 4th consecutive race.
Ferrari are beginning to challenge Toyota for 3rd.
McLaren make their first big gain of the season to double their score and leap into 5th.
Williams are establishing themselves in 6th with a consistent string of results.

That’s it from Hungary! Hope these notes were in some way useful. The next race is the European Grand Prix around the harbour of Valencia after the summer break, on 23rd August.

Hungarian flag courtesy of 4 International Flags

Catch-Up: GP2 Asia – 5&6 – Bahrain

GP2 Asia Series
Rnd 5, Bahrain Feature
Held 23 Jan / Watched 31 Aug

This is GP2 Asia’s first of two visits for the 2008/’09 winter series, the second visit will come as the support to the F1 race in April. As always, first up we have the feature race which today is for 34 laps. These are my ‘short notes’ – I want to cover lots more racing and I’m still working out the best way to do it, either short-form versions of the notes posts or more general impressions like the recent A1GP post.

I’ve got the Eurosport commentary team of Martin Haven and Gareth Rees. Haven is the 2nd tier / junior series extraordinaire, he seems to do commentary on literally *everything* outside of F1 in Europe. Rees is an experienced driver at this level having competed in F3000 for a while before running out of money.

Gridded. Long hold on the start..
Hulkenberg leads into turn one. Kobayashi 2nd. At least 3 stallers.

Stallers are clear as leaders complete lap one, either got fired on the grid or were pulled into pitlane for refiring..

Lots of action back in the pack. GP2 cars, particularly in the Asia Series, are not easily identifiable and less so the drivers. No standout colour schemes. The cameras being so far from the race track don’t help, they aren’t zooming in enough.

Top 5 after 2 laps: Hulkenberg, Kobayashi, Mortara, d’Ambrosio, Rodriguez

Haven on Hulkenberg: “Willi Weber will try and talk him into being the next Schumacher, whether that’s Michael or Ralf remains to be seen.” Ha!

Dive-bomb into turn 1! Cars left, right, everywhere as they try and lap a backmarker who was delayed when he stalled at the start. Backmarker should have eased off and let the leaders through, he just got in the way.. d’Ambrosio ahead of Mortara in the melee.

After 8 laps, Hulkenberg and Kobayashi have checked out on the rest of the field. Kamui is pushing hard and is only 0.37sec behind Nico, trying to pressure the F3 Euroseries champ into a mistake. Commentary guys earlier made the point that Nico won’t be used to the race lengths and the higher g-forces of these cars compared to F3, and that’ll come into play in the second stint.

We’re not really seeing what’s going on with the rest of the field, which is a shame. This earlier generation car is more entertaining than the current European series car, we’re bound to be missing something good back there.

Eventually we see it.. just a long line of cars. I’m disappointed.

Kobayashi passes Hulkenberg into turn 1! Very late on the brakes, nice move.

Pitstops, 14 laps done 20 to go.
Wheels bang, Perez and Villa touch!
Top six are running longer on their stops.

Problem for Hulkenberg’s tyre changer, long stop on the right rear. Cost him a position to Mortara.

Hulkenberg is faster than Mortara, he’s trying it on Mortara with Rodriguez & co closing in.

Valsecchi passes van der Garde, caught him completely unawares, good move.
Ricci got tagged into a spin.. put himself on the apex and someone clouted him. Not sure of his position in the order..

Kobayashi leads d’Ambrosio by about 8sec, with Mortara and Hulkenberg 6sec further back.

Pretty poor driving standards in this field, particularly Razia weaving all around, looking like ramming his opponents off the track.. I know the Asia Series attracts new drivers rather than series returnees but this is silly.

Valsecchi has passed Rodriguez, working his way up the field from 10th, doing a good job. Rodriguez could have a problem because van der Garde is catching fast as well, or is he just slow.. commentary is saying he was an early stopper, could he have worn his tyres out?

Kobayashi wins!! – despite there being no flag until the 2nd place man crosses the line… oops.

Points go to D’Ambrosio, Mortara, Hulkenberg, Valsecchi, Rodriguez, van der Garde, and the reverse grid pole to Perez.

Pretty boring race after the stops, seems to be a theme for these Asia Series races, action early on then gets dull quickly. The two DAMS cars hammered the field here, good job from them. Kobayashi is still at racing speed on what is meant to be the cooldown lap… he didn’t see a flag so he’s carrying on! Eventually he gets the message and heads to parc ferme.

Truly awful standards on the last lap when someone tried to run Yamamoto off the track, could have been Razia again! Let’s hope things are better for the Sprint, and also for the F1 visit later in the year. Keep scrolling for the next one..

****
GP2 Asia Series
R6, Bahrain Sprint
Held Jan 24 / Watched Aug 31

23 lap sprint race, no stops, reverse top 8 on the grid, points only to 6th in this race.

Good start from Perez, has a healthy lead through turn 1. Cars 3-wide after turn 1! Another stalled car on the grid.
Van der Garde pitted at the end of the formation lap but seems to be running now.
Nunes comes out of the pits after missing the start, he may have been the staller left behind this time.

Replay of a great start from Villa, up from row 5 to brake ultra-late into turn one and is now 4th. Courageous! Of course had he got it wrong he’d looks stupid..

D’Ambrosio passes his teammate Kobayashi.
Ooh, lots of action all down the field!
Petrov and Yamamoto going at it, Petrov coming off better.

Wow, 4-wide, nearly 5-wide for a short while! I think this is the same group, Yamamoto, Petrov, Gonzalez, Bonanomi and a couple of others – people keep catching this group which is being held up by Gonzalez.

Perez leads, Valsecchi, Hulkenberg, Valles are the top 4.

Al-Fardan proves he’s completely out of his depth as he wanders all over the road, then fails to brake for the corner, hits Razia and loses his front wing – has to pit for a repair. Razia wasn’t at fault at all, perhaps unusually.

D’Ambrosio has passed Villa for 4th – switchback move, good stuff!

Valsecchi is catching Perez who may be struggling for grip. d’Ambrosio passes Hulkenberg with less than a lap to go!

Perez wins by 0.7 seconds!

Perez, Valsecchi, D’Ambrosio, Hulkenberg, Villa, Kobayashi (who seemed a little off-pace).
D’Ambrosio started 7th, good job to get a podium. Bamber finishes 7th, Mortara 8th but no points for those in the sprint race.

Good entertaining stuff this one.

Points:
1. Kobayashi 34
2. Valsecchi 24
3. Rodriguez 22
4. D’Ambrosio 17
5. Villa 12
6. Perez 10
7. Hulkenberg 10
8. Bamber 8

Next up is Losail, Qatar – which is GP2’s first night race – and then a visit to Malaysia to hook up with F1 before the finale which is back here in Bahrain.