Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix - Hungaroring
The first Hungarian Grand Prix (Magyar Nagydij) was held on June 21, 1936 over a 3.1-mile track laid out in Nepliget, a park near the center of Budapest. The Mercedes-Benz, Auto Union, and Ferrari teams all sent three cars and the event... [more]
The first Hungarian Grand Prix (Magyar Nagydij) was held on June 21, 1936 over a 3.1-mile track laid out in Nepliget, a park near the center of Budapest. The Mercedes-Benz, Auto Union, and Ferrari teams all sent three cars and the event drew a very large crowd. However, politics and the ensuing war meant the end of Grand Prix motor racing in the country for fifty years.
A major coup by Bernie Ecclestone, the 1986 Hungarian Grand Prix was the first Formula One race to take place behind the Iron Curtain. Taking place at the twisty Hungaroring near Budapest, the race has been a mainstay of the racing calendar. Run in the heat of a central European summer, it also holds the distinction of being the only current Grand Prix venue that had never seen a wet race up until the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix. The first Grand Prix saw 200,000 people spectating, although tickets cost several time the average Hungarian's wage at the time. Today, the support is still very enthusiastic, particularly from Finns, mainly because the Finns and the Hungarians both speak Finno-Ugric languages, which are not part of the Indo-European family of languages.
Due to the nature of the track, narrow, twisty and often dusty from under-use, the Hungarian Grand Prix is associated with processional races, with crocodiles of sometimes as many as six cars following one another, unable to pass. Thierry Boutsen demonstrated this perfectly in 1990, keeping his slower Williams car in front of champion-elect Ayrton Senna, unable to find a way by. The secret to a winning performance at Hungaroring, as well as qualifying well, is pit strategy, best demonstrated best in 1998, where Michael Schumacher's Ferrari team changed his strategy mid-race before Schumacher put in one of his finest drives to build up a winning margin after all the stops had been made. Passing is a rarity here, although the 1989 race saw a famously bullish performance from Nigel Mansell in the Ferrari, who started from 12th on the grid and passed car after car, finally taking the lead in splendid opportunist style when Ayrton Senna was baulked by a slower runner. The circuit was modified slightly in 2003 in an attempt to allow more passing.
Other notable occasions in Budapest include first Grand Prix wins for Damon Hill in 1993, Fernando Alonso (in 2003), the first Grand Prix winner from Spain, who also became the youngest ever driver to win a GP and Jenson Button in an incident-packed race in 2006. Also noteworthy is Damon Hill's stunning near win in the unfancied Arrows-Yamaha in 1997, when his car lost drive on the last lap causing him to coast in second place. -- source www.wikipedia.org
Lewis rides above controversy to win
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Lewis Hamilton took full advantage of McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso’s plight in Hungary as he held off a race-long challenge from Kimi Raikkonen to take his third Formula 1 victory.
Hamilton rose above the controversy that has engulfed the weekend with a commanding and mature drive under pressure, and increased his world championship lead over Alonso to seven points.
The reigning champion started sixth after stewards penalised him for impeding Hamilton in qualifying, and struggled to make much headway on the sinuous Hungaroring.
He eventually salvaged fourth place, hot on the heels of Nick Heidfeld, who achieved his pre-race objective of claiming BMW Sauber’s second podium finish of the 2007 campaign.
The fourth of the title contenders, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, faced the same struggle as Alonso, only more so, after qualifying down in 14th place.
Despite very long stints the Brazilian was able to make up only a single place after spending the whole afternoon in heavy traffic.
As expected, those starting on the dirty inside of the grid made poor getaways, which allowed Raikkonen to immediately dispatch Heidfeld and move up to second behind Hamilton.
Nico Rosberg and Ralf Schumacher squabbled over fourth but emerged in the same order, ahead of Robert Kubica and a surprisingly circumspect Alonso.
The Spaniard lost a further place when he ran wide in the long final corner at the end of the first lap, but he soon redressed the balance, repassing Mark Webber into turn one on lap three.
A lap later he nailed Kubica at the same place, but found Schumacher a tougher nut to crack and spent much of the rest of the afternoon following in the Toyota’s wheel tracks.
Initially it looked as if Hamilton would drive away into the distance, as he built a 3.4s cushion inside the first four laps.
But Raikkonen soon found his groove and after pegging the gap on lap six, he began to make slight inroads, whittling the deficit to 3.1s on lap 10.
Hamilton dug deeper and got the margin back out to 4.5s by lap 16, and it hovered around that mark until the top two pitted together at the end of lap 19.
Both were fuelled for long middle stints on the harder tyres, thus minimising the time they would have to spend on the less favoured super-soft compound in the final stages of the race.
Hamilton took on a little more fuel, enabling Raikkonen to close the gap to two seconds after the completion of the pit stop cycle and turn up the pressure on the McLaren rookie in the race’s middle phase.
Heidfeld retained third place after his stop, while Heikki Kovalainen – running a long first stint – was lapping quickly in fourth place despite using the super-soft tyres which had caused other teams to fret about degradation.
The Finn finally relinquished his place and pitted on lap 28, rejoining in ninth behind Rosberg, Kubica (who made up two places at the stops), Schumacher, Alonso and Mark Webber.
Meanwhile Raikkonen had been inching steadily closer to Hamilton and had the McLaren within his sights.
With more fuel on board, though, Lewis knew he had the upper hand provided he could soak up the pressure and give Kimi no half-chance to get past.
He carried out this task to perfection, and, sure enough, Raikkonen was the first to peel into the pits for his final stop and a change to super-soft tyres.
Three more laps elapsed before Hamilton was serviced, and he duly emerged with a much increased lead of more than three seconds.
Raikkonen continued to give valiant chase, looking much more comfortable on the softer rubber than the McLaren and closing back to within striking distance.
Once again Lewis was equal to the challenge, however, calmly keeping the Ferrari at bay all the way to the chequered flag.
In a never-say-die effort Raikkonen set the race’s fastest lap on the final tour, and just 0.7s separated the two cars as they crossed the finish line.
The BMW drivers and Rosberg all had to pit for late top-ups of fuel in accordance with planned three-stop strategies, while Alonso’s two-stop routine ultimately served him well and allowed him to slot into fourth behind Heidfeld.
He left no stone unturned (literally) in his attempts to find a way past Heidfeld, exploring the outer limits of the run-off strips on the exit of the corners – but to no avail.
The German is too seasoned a driver to be intimidated by the sight of the world champion darting around in his mirrors, and he fended off his advances with no undue drama to achieve his declared objective of finishing on the podium.
Kubica brought the sister BMW Sauber home in fifth, while Schumacher continued his recent upturn in form with a hard-earned sixth for Toyota.
Rosberg’s early pit stops worked against him and meant he slipped three places from his starting position to seventh.
The final point went to Kovalainen, who used his out-of-sequence strategy to leapfrog Webber’s Red Bull.
Hungarian Grand Prix, 70 laps, result
1. HAMILTON McLaren 1h35m52.991s
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 0.7s
3. HEIDFELD BMW 43.1s
4. ALONSO Mclaren 44.8s
5. KUBICA BMW 47.6s
6. SCHUMACHER Toyota 50.6s
7. ROSBERG Williams 59.1s
8. KOVALAINEN Renault 1m08.1s
9. WEBBER Red Bull 1m16.3s
10. TRULLI Toyota 1 lap
11. COULTHARD Red Bull 1 lap
12. FISICHELLA Renault 1 lap
13. MASSA Ferrari 1 lap
14. WURZ Williams 1 lap
15. SATO Super Aguri 1 lap
16. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1 lap
17. SUTIL Spyker 2 laps
18. BARRICHELLO Honda 2 laps
R. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 28 laps
R. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 29 laps
R. BUTTON Honda 35 laps
R. YAMAMOTO Spyker 66 laps
Fastest lap: RAIKKONEN 1m20.047s (lap 70)
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