Bitch, please

A rumour has circulated in the Hungarian paddock last weekend, that Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen, who won the world championship for Ferrari in 2007, is on the verge of returning to Maranello. This, of course, is utter rubbish.

I´m really not quite sure where the rumour originated from, but as always, a comment here or there can suddenly erupt to ‘breaking news’ stories. One idea is that Kimi has been asked if he is to stay with Lotus for another season, and knowing Kimi´s usual stance towards the media, his response is in the region of ‘let´s see, shall we?’ This is apparently enough these days to spark the rumour that of course he is returning to Ferrari.

Another explanation is that some guy called another guy, who has a friend who kows someone at Ferrari. And this guy overheard a conversation in the break room, where some of the staff perhapsmade a wishlist of drivers they would like to have racing for them.

When you read the articles, and there are a lot of them, they tell the same story. “As crazy as it seems” tends to be a good start on some articles, and the reporter doing it, should really stop right there and think it through. Yes it is crazy. Very much so. Remember that Kimi was paid a hefty sum of money not to race in the 2010 season, and Kim later admitted that the relationship between him and Ferrari could have been better. However, Kiimi also said that he has no bad feelings about anything.

Naturally the teams are looking at which driver is doing good, and who is progressing and there can be no doubt that Kimi Raikkonen´s return to the sport, has been a real boost to F1. He is fifth in the championship, has scored points in all races bar one, China, has visited the podium five times already and with 116 points he is only one single point away from Lewis Hamilton´s fourth place, six points from Sebastian Vettel´s third place and eighth from Mark Webber in second.

Teams have a list of drivers they would like, and this season that list is growing bigger for every race. And why? Unpredictability. The first seven races featured seven different race winners, including Pastor Maldonado. For some people that is enough to put his name on the list, despite the fact that he has only scored points in two races out of eleven, where as Bruno Senna has scored points in six events, and is only a handful of points away from Maldonado. Just to compare.

The list includes Nico Hulkenberg, Paul Di Resta, Sergio Perez, and just for good measure I´ll throw in Felipe Massa as well, along with Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, both have been linked with a move to Ferrari. Heikki Kovalainen is another name whi pops up, the talented Finn is dragging a car which weighs the same as Belgium around the circuits, and Mark Webber admitted to be taling to Ferrrai, before signing for another year with Red Bull. SO that´s almost half the entire field.

So what does Kimi himself say to all this commotion?

After his stunning performance on Sunday in Hungary, The Telegraph insisted that this was enough of a boost for Kimi to ‘hint’ that Ferrari is not off the table. Here is what Kimi said:

“I always said that I had no bad feelings against Ferrari,” Raikkonen said. “When I had my time with the team I won my championship there. Things could maybe have happened in a nicer way at the end but life goes on.

“I am happy where I am now but you never know what happens in the future.”

So can we stop this now?

Ouch…

It was a day to forget for former seven time world champion, Michael Schumacher, as he had to pull out of the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday.

The weekend started in decent shape, as the 43-year old finished the first practice session in sixth place, two tenths off team mate Nico Rosberg´s pace. And in the second session Friday afternoon, he crashed the Mercedes. But it went on from bad to much worse, since session one was the best result of the entire weekend.

Schumacher qualified 17th on the grid, while Nico Rosberg qualified thirteenth, but as the formation lap was over, Schumacher, for some reason, didn´t park within the confines of the designated grid position, and as race control signalled a second formation lap, Schumacher had cut the engine. The Mercedes was wheeled back to start from the pitlane, as the other drivers completed the second formation lap. As the race progressed, he was handed a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane and ultimately capped of a horrible weekend, by ending the race prematurely with a puncture eleven laps before the chequered flag.

There were some speculation that Schumacher was told to retire in order to get a free gearbox change for Spa in a month, but Schumacher describes his problems like this:

“We did not have full telemetry before the start and during the period of overheating, and this is why we finally decided to retire, so as not risk any damage which might make us suffer in the next race,” he said. “Now we can check the car properly before the break and prior to [the next race at] Spa.”

After the German Grand Prix a week ago, Mercedes admitted that the car needed race pace, as Schumacher ended the race almost half a minute down on Fernando alonso´s winning time. And that gap is something the team will have to work very hard to close, now that the summer break is upon the teams. Factories will shut down for a couple of weeks, so even if Mercedes finds the issues, they will still need to raise their game.

Nico Rosberg is sixth and Michael Schumacher is twelfth in the standings as Mercedes is trailing fourth placed Ferrari by 83 points.

Six points for Williams

Williams scored another 6 points to the total, as Bruno Senna fended off Mark Webber for most of the race, while also fighting with Jenson Button.

“Today was a nice race,” said Senna after the race.

“We pushed very hard on the strategy to make it work especially as the track conditions and the weather were very different from what we were expecting, so I’m happy with the team and I hope we can carry this momentum on. There were a lot of battles for me and it was hard it keep the tyres alive because the temperatures were so high, but it’s good to start in ninth place and finish in seventh. I think this is a turning point for us. The race was good, it was a fun weekend, the team are happy and the break is now welcome as it will be a chance to rest before we continue to push in the second part of the season.”

The Hungarian grand Prix marks the sixth occasion where Senna picks up points, and he now 24 points, just one behind Felipe Massa, three behind Paul Di Resta and five behind Michael Schumacher., and also five points behind team mate Pastor Maldonado, who finished outside the points.

“It was a difficult race today,” Maldonado said. “I had a bad start and lost a lot of positions which compromised our race from the beginning. It was hard to keep good pace in the traffic and then we also had to serve a drive-through penalty. I was on the limit racing Di Resta when I locked the brakes and lost some grip, but I was on the inside of the corner and so there was some light contact. We had to concentrate on tyre management today and we gathered a lot of information for the future. We weren’t as competitive as we have been, but we now need to work hard to focus on the second part of the season after the summer break.”

The field from tenth to fifteenth is relatively tight, just nine points separating six drivers.

Lewis Hamilton wins the Hungarian Grand Prix

McLaren´s Lewis Hamilton has won the Hungarian Grand Prix, after a nail-biter of a race.

It was long expected that Lewis Hamilton would cruise to victory, as he made a clean start from Romain Grosjean, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso. He quickly managed to get some air to Grosjean, who showed speed and a power performance in second place. Vettel tried a move on Grosjean, but the Frenchman stayed on his line, cleverly, since he knew he is not the fastest starter. And as effect, Button took Vettel, as Alonso was P5 after Turn 1.

For long Hamilton stayed out in front, but the gap to Grosjean was rarely more than a few seconds. However, the French Lotus driver got a little over-excited at times, just as he was about to start an attack on Hamilton, he made a small error and lost time. This happened a few times in the middle of the race, until the final rounds of pit stops.

Kimi Raikkonen had started a mission from Lap 1. To go fast and stay fast. Simply put. Lap after lap, Kimi chipped away at Hamilton´s lead, a tenth here and two tenths there. Kimi Raikkonen won a position after the first rounds of pit stops, and after the final pit stop, in which he won three positions, also due to Button being held up by a superb driving Bruno Senna, Kimi rejoined in P2, but was soon able to chase down Hamilton in front. With tyres five laps older than Kimi´s, Hamilton looked to be in trouble towards the end. And it was clear from Kimi´s hard charging effort, late braking, super fast times and devil may care attitude, that Hamilton would not get this easy.

But Hamilton managed to get the very best out of the car, and indeed himself, and took his second race win of the season. A well deserved win, after a stunning performance from the drivers today. So close and so tight and again the tyres played the lead role.

Kimi Raikkonen finished second, Romain Grosjean third, Sebastian Vettel fourth, Fernando Alonso fifth, Jenson Button sixth, Bruno Senna seventh, Mark Webber eighth, Felipe Massa ninth and Nico Rosberg tenth.

Pos.	Driver	Points
1.	Fernando Alonso	164
2.	Mark Webber	124
3.	Sebastian Vettel	122
4.	Lewis Hamilton	117
5.	Kimi Räikkönen	116
6.	Nico Rosberg	77
7.	Jenson Button	76
8.	Romain Grosjean	76
9.	Sergio Perez	47
10.	Kamui Kobayashi	33
11.	Pastor Maldonado	29
12.	Michael Schumacher	29
13.	Paul di Resta	27
14.	Felipe Massa	25
15.	Bruno Senna	24
16.	Nico Hülkenberg	19
17.	Jean-Eric Vergne	4
18.	Daniel Ricciardo	2

 

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time
1.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	no time
2.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus	+1.032
3.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	+10.518
4.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	+11.614
5.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	+26.653
6.	Jenson Button	McLaren	+30.243
7.	Bruno Senna	Williams	+33.899
8.	Mark Webber	Red Bull	+34.458
9.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	+38.350
10.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	+51.234
11.	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India	+57.283
12.	Paul di Resta	Force India	+1:02.887
13.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	+1:03.606
14.	Sergio Perez	Sauber	+1:04.494
15.	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	+1 Lap
16.	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	+1 Lap
17.	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham	+1 Lap
18.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	+2 Laps
19.	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	+2 Laps
20.	Charles Pic	Marussia	+2 Laps
21.	Timo Glock	Marussia	+3 Laps
22.	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	+3 Laps
Did not finish
23.	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	+9 Laps
24.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	+11 Laps

150th pole for McLaren

Lewis Hamilton secured McLaren´s 150 pole, when he set a late time of 1:20.953, improving on his own best time, which already had given him pole.

But it wasn´t a walk in the park. As the clock ticked, Hamilton´s early fastest time, seemed to be well out of the reach of even the usual extremely fast drivers, and a calm and collected Hamilton was seen sitting in the garage, waiting to see what would happen in the dying seconds. And sure enough, we saw another close qualifying session, right to the end, in which Sebastian looked to be stealing pole from the Stevenage Speedster.

Vettel was fast in Sector 1, then lost very little time in Sector 2, but eventually finished P2. But out of the blue came Romain Grosjean, an expert qualifier I must say, to snatch P2 from Vettel and Grosjean must be having a great time in that Lotus these days.

Fourth placed finisher is Jenson Button, so perhaps a strong weekend for the McLaren boys, as Hungaroring is very difficult to overtake on. Starting positions is everything. Kimi Raikkonen is starting P5 ahead of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, then double positives for Williams, as Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna both made into the top tenth, while Nico Hulkenberg starts tenth.

Mark Webber is disappointed to be starting P11, ahead of Paul di Resta and Nico Rosberg, who looked to be suffering during the session. Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi represents Sauber in P14 and P15, while Jean-Eric Vergne starts ahead of Michael Schumacher in P17.

Final finishers are Daniel Ricciardo P18, from Heikki Kovalainen, Vitaly Petrov, Charles Pic, Timo Glock, Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan.

Even more controversy at Red Bull?

A week since the Red Bull team was investigated for their torque mapping, and though initially cleared by the stewards, the FIA decided to clarify the ruling and outlawed the mapping Red Bull made. Now, in Hungary, a new controversy has occurred. And once again, Red Bull is the root of it.

There are rumblings in the paddock at Hungaroring on Saturday, that the FIA investigated Red Bull earlier this season, this one regarding the ride-height system during the Canadian Grand Prix last month.

According to Sky Sports, the investigation was conducted by official from the FIA´s technical delegation, but the results from this investigation is yet to be published. Craig Slater has more:

“There are fresh murmurings from some of the teams about the Red Bull car. We’ve already had this issue into their engine mapping; they’ve been forced to change that.

“Some of the teams are now learning that in the Canada grand prix a few races ago, a race which Lewis Hamilton won, the FIA had a query about Red Bull’s ride height. We haven’t got any more details about this yet but it could well be that this develops into quite a significant story throughout the day.”

This will be followed closely by the reporters present at Hungaroring and I will bring the latest updates as soon as I have more.

In the meantime, Mark Webber finished the final practice session in P1, ahead of Lewis Hamilton in second and Sebastian Vettel in third.

Move over Hammy, Webber tops final practice

Red Bull´s Mark Webber put up a fight against McLaren´s Lewis Hamilton, to compete for the P1 position i nthe final practice session at Hungaroring, ahead of the qualifying session starting in a few hours.

With a 1:21.550, Webber was little more than one tenth faster than Hamilton, who was P1 for some time. Vettel made it to P3, just 0.028 behind Hamilton, as Bruno Senna completed another great session result and finished fourth. Fernando Alonso fifth, Kimi Raikkonen sixth, Romain Grosjean seventh, Felipe Massa eighth, Paul di Resta ninth and Jenson Button tenth.

Pastor Maldonado makes it elevent, then it´s Kamui Kobayashi, Jean-Eric Vergne, Nico Hulkenberg, Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo, Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg, Heikki Kovalainen, Vitaly Petrov, Charles Pic, Timo Glock, Pedro de la Rosa and Narai Karthikeyan.

 

 

Hamilton remains fastest as rain hits Hungaroring

Half way through the second practice session at Hungaroring, the rain started to fall. And fall it did.

During the dry runs, Lewis Hamilton was able to stay in front of the field, his second time this weekend, in a time of 1:21.995. Kimi Raikkonen finished in second, with a surprise third place finish for Bruno Senna. Fourth is Felipe Massa from team mate Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button gos sixth and Paul Di Resta seventh. Eighth is Sebastian Vettel, ninth is Romain Grosjean and Michael Schumacher remains tenth.

The rain fell hard and briefly stopped the action on the track, until a few drivers ventured out to examine the conditons. And one who did that, was Michael Schumacher, who suffered a minor bump with the barriers, as he locked the brakes going into Turn 12. The conditions were treacherous, but it soon cleared up and drivers could switch to the dry tyres again to complete the session.

From 11th it´s Nico Rosberg leading Pastor Maldonado, Nico Hulkenberg, Mark Webber, Kamui Kobayashi, Jean-Eric Vergne, Damiel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez, Vitaly Petrov and Heikki Kovalainen.