The complete 2010 Hungarian GP review

PRACTICE

Practice 1 - Friday AM

Red Bull announced its dominance the moment its cars hit the track on Friday morning, with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber's first flying laps immediately putting them two seconds clear of the previous benchmarks.

Renault's Robert Kubica eventually got to within 1.096s, but that was the best Red Bull's rivals could manage as Vettel and Webber proceded to battle among themselves for the morning. The German ended up on top by 0.130 seconds.

Jenson Button was fourth for McLaren, ahead of strong runs from Williams' Rubens Barrichello and Sauber's Pedro de la Rosa. Felipe Massa was 12th after his first session back at the scene of his horrible 2009 accident.

Practice 2 - Friday PM

Had the practice one times been one of those Friday anomalies that can happen on a dusty track? Had Red Bull just been running an utterly different programme to the rest of the pack?

Any such notions were swiftly dispelled as Vettel and Webber blitzed the opposition just as comprehensively in the first half of practice two.

Fernando Alonso did hint that Red Bull might not be totally unstoppable, though, getting between Vettel and Webber with a lap half a second shy of the pacesetter. Massa was also within the same second in fourth.

Renault was another team with cause for some optimism as Vitaly Petrov took a promising fifth, but McLaren and Mercedes in particular were steeling themselves for a long, tough weekend.

Saturday Practice

Red Bull simply increased its advantage during the final practice hour - or should that be half hour? Only a handful of cars bothered to take to the track during the first 30 minutes after a trail of concrete dust rendered the section between Turns 2 and 3 ultra-slippery following an oil spill during a support event.

Track conditions improving, Webber became the first man to break into the 1m19s all weekend and ended the session with a half-second advantage over Vettel.

Ferrari found itself over a second off the pace, while McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button were both 1.8s adrift. Surely nobody was going to challenge the Milton Keynes machines.

QUALIFYING

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-5

Like in Germany one week earlier, Vettel was on pole. Unlike Germany, however, the Red Bull driver seemed to be in a league apart in Hungary, as the four tenths of a second to Webber showed. He was a delighted man yet again, having securing his fourth pole in a row and the seventh in 12 races.

2. Mark Webber, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-7

The Australian had to accept it was not his day and that Vettel had done a better job again. Perhaps the four tenths to Vettel was not the worst news, however, as starting from second position in Hungary was nearly a guarantee of losing that spot at the start.

3. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 9-3

Even if he was the "best of the rest", Alonso had to admit he was surprised by the pace of the Red Bulls in Hungary. Having missed out on pole by 0.002 seconds in Germany, the Ferrari driver was 1.2 seconds off the pace at the Hungaroring. At least he was starting from the clean side.

4. Felipe Massa, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-9

The Brazilian was pleased with his position, although understandably worried about the gap to Red Bull, in his case over 1.5 seconds. The gap to his team-mate, despite being just one place behind, was also nothing to be too happy about, as Massa finished nearly four tenths off.

5. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 8-4

It was clear from the start of the weekend that McLaren was still far from the shape it was hoping to be in, despite the better knowledge of the blown diffuser. Hamilton claimed to have extracted every last drop from the car in order to qualify in fifth.

6. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 10-2

Rosberg continued to get the best out of his Mercedes, the German admitting he was not expecting to be so high up on the grid after struggling for pace in practice. Although miles away from Red Bull, at least Rosberg could find some consolation in having clearly outperformed Schumacher.

7. Vitaly Petrov, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-11

Petrov looked to be on form right from the start of the weekend, his previous knowledge of the Hungaroring paying off handsomely. In the end he managed to put on a superb performance to outqualify team-mate Kubica for the first time this season.

8. Robert Kubica, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 11-1

Kubica was left baffled by his struggles in Q3, where he was around half a second slower than in the previous segment. The Pole complained about the lack of grip and too much bottoming and was disappointed not to be closer to the leading cars.

9. Pedro de la Rosa, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-5

De la Rosa was ecstatic with his performance, and rightly so, the Spaniard having been very strong all weekend. He admitted to having driven a series of laps that he could not repeat too often and a Q3 effort was a good reward for Sauber's progress.

10. Nico Hulkenberg, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-8

The Williams driver was happy to reach Q3 for the third time this season, although he admitted anything other then tenth was a tall order. On another positive note, Hulkenberg seemed to be the only driver not concerned about having to start from the dirty side.

11. Jenson Button, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-8

Button blamed a lack of overall grip for his failure to go into the top ten shoot-out. The world champion was pleased with his car in practice, but claimed the balance was off during qualifying, meaning he finished nearly half a second off Hamilton's pace in Q2.

12. Rubens Barrichello, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 8-4

The Brazilian felt going into Q3 again should have been pretty straightforward, having needed just one run to move into Q2. But then Barrichello found traffic ahead of his final run and was unable to bring his tyres up to the right temperature and therefore missed the cut.

13. Adrian Sutil, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 10-2

Despite Force India proving unable to be in the mix again, Sutil was pleased with his qualifying effort, the German having expected a worse performance after the struggles of final practice. He said he was unable to make the softer tyres work perfectly, so he was satisfied with 13th.

14. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-10

You could tell Schumacher was in trouble when he opted for a set-up gamble for qualifying, hoping it would help him in the race. The reality, however, was that starting from 14th in Hungary meant no magic set-up would put him be in a strong position on Sunday. Nearly a full second slower than Rosberg in Q2, the seven-time champion had little to smile about.

15. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 9-3

With the Toro Rosso incapable of fighting for better positions, Buemi was happy to at least finish ahead of his team-mate Alguersuari. The Swiss conceded a lack of downforce was still hurting the team, so 15th was possibly the best he could have hoped for.

16. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-10

Liuzzi went into qualifying not having tested the softer tyres in final practice, when a mechanical problem cut his running short. He was still hopeful of a good result after a strong Q1, but then hit traffic in the second qualifying segment and could not move forward.

17. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-9

One year after making his debut at the Hungaroring, the Spaniard was disappointed with the performance of his car, admitting he was hoping for better. At it was, however, the Toro Rosso was not strong enough. Alguersuari admitted he had extracted the maximum from his car.

18. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-7

The wrong tyre strategy, plus traffic and a penalty for missing the call to be weighed summarised how Kobayashi's day went. The Japanese Sauber driver was adamant that going into Q2 should have been a straightforward affair, but as it turned out, it was not - and ignoring the weighbridge summons would later see him demoted to 23rd on the grid.

19. Timo Glock, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 11-1

Finishing on 'pole position' among the new teams, Glock had a satisfying day in Hungary. The Virgin racer said he was surprised to be able to outpace the Lotus drivers, as he was struggling with his car over the bumps.

20. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 6-6

Kovalainen lost the whole afternoon session on Friday to a mechanical problem and was playing catch-up with his set-up all weekend. In the end the Finn said he had extracted the maximum from his car given the circumstances.

21. Jarno Trulli, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 6-6

Trulli found traffic on his first run, something that cost him around four tenths of a second. In the second one, the Italian's tyres did not work as well as expected and he found himself unable to extract the maximum from his Lotus package.

22. Lucas di Grassi, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-11

After a promising performance in final practice, di Grassi was hopeful for qualifying, but a mistake during his first run cost him. The Brazilian damaged his car's floor and as a consequence had to drive with less downforce in the remaining part of the session.

23. Bruno Senna, HRT
Team-mate qualifying battle 8-4

It was a frustrating day for Senna, who struggled with the handling of his car to finish nearly a second off the pace of his closest rival. He felt that car had more potential, but his set-up was not good enough for a better result.

24. Sakon Yamamoto, HRT
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-3

Yamamoto put on a solid performance to finish less than a tenth behind Senna, especially after a driving error on his final flyer cost him around three tenths of a second. He was nonetheless pleased with his effort after improving steadily since the start of the weekend.

QUALIFYING RESULTS

Pos  Driver         Team                   Q1         Q2          Q3
 1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:20.417   1:19.573   1:18.773
 2.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:21.132   1:19.531   1:19.184
 3.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:21.278   1:20.237   1:19.987
 4.  Massa          Ferrari                1:21.299   1:20.857   1:20.331
 5.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:21.455   1:20.877   1:20.499
 6.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:21.212   1:20.811   1:21.082
 7.  Petrov         Renault                1:21.558   1:20.797   1:21.229
 8.  Kubica         Renault                1:21.159   1:20.867   1:21.328
 9.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari         1:21.891   1:21.273   1:21.411
10.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:21.598   1:21.275   1:21.710
11.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:21.422   1:21.292
12.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:21.478   1:21.331
13.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:22.080   1:21.517
14.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:21.840   1:21.630
15.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:21.982   1:21.897
16.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:21.789   1:21.927
17.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:21.978   1:21.998
18.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:22.222
19.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:24.050
20.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         1:24.120
21.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:24.199
22.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        1:25.118
23.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth           1:26.391
24.  Yamamoto       HRT-Cosworth           1:26.453

All Timing Unofficial

THE RACE

How many times has Red Bull rocked up at a racetrack in 2010 and shown a clean pair of heels to its rivals in the speed stakes?

How many times has Red Bull failed to turn a clear pace advantage into the one-two finish it merited, or even a victory at all?

A quarter of the way into the Hungarian Grand Prix, history was looking like it would repeat itself yet again for the Austrian-owned, British-based outfit.

Yes, Mark Webber was leading. But the Australian had missed the opportunity to make his mandatory tyre change behind the safety car, where the penalty for trundling down the pitlane at the prescribed limit would be as little as possible. He would instead have to make a green-flag stop.

Yes, Sebastian Vettel was second. But the German had been slapped with a drive-through penalty for falling back more than the regulation 10 car lengths behind his speedy team-mate as the restart approached at the end of lap 17.

Any fears that the team may have had were allayed by the time Webber rounded the final corner on lap 70 and took the chequered flag to claim his fourth win of the year and the lead of the Formula 1 world championship.

In fact, they had been allayed far earlier. Leaving Webber out on-track was no accident. After falling to third behind Fernando Alonso's Ferrari at the start, he could have pitted on the same lap (15) as leader Vettel without having to queue up behind him.

Oh no. This was a carefully considered course of action quickly thought out in the heat of the moment. It turned out to be a masterstroke.

With debris lying on the circuit between Turns 13 and 14 and the safety car already circulating, the majority of the field - Vettel and Alonso included - took their stops immediately.

Not Webber though. His crew wisely figured that by stopping him now, he ran the risk of remaining behind Alonso's far slower Ferrari for the rest of the race. Not what he needed in his chase for the title.

Instead, out he stayed, moving to the head of the pack. Why not give him clear air with which to exploit the one second per lap pace advantage of the RB6 over the Ferrari? After all, the tyres were good to go for at least another 20 laps.

Sure, he wasn't going to beat Vettel, but if Webber could pull out a 20s advantage over Alonso, second was his for the taking.

But he did beat Vettel. The German had lost part of his radio connection, the part from which news from race officials was fed down. He never received the message that the safety car was pulling in at the start of lap 18. Because of that, he didn't stay within 10 car lengths of Webber on the restart (as rules dictate you must). Because of that, it was just a handful of laps before he was given a drive-through.

His penalty dropped him to third, and no matter what he did to try and pass Alonso (which included setting the fastest lap of the race on the final tour), he could not get by.

In the distance, Webber showed an incredible turn of speed - even by Red Bull's standards - as he pumped in fastest lap after fastest lap. It was reminiscent of Michael Schumacher's incredible 18-lap stint at the Hungaroring in 1998, and it gave him enough of an advantage to take his stop and still emerge four seconds to the good.

Alonso's second place was a gift, as he freely admitted, while Vettel was bitterly disappointed to stand on only the third step of the podium. Two wins from seven pole positions will not make for happy reading for Seb.

His finish did, however, keep him right in the hunt for the title. With erstwhile championship leader Lewis Hamilton retiring with gearbox problems, he is now 10 points behind Webber and six behind the McLaren driver. Alonso is not out of the hunt either, 20 behind Webber and only six behind Jenson Button, a disappointing eighth in Hungary but surely with better fortunes lying ahead.

The safety car prompted a flurry of activity in the pits. Within all the goings-on, mistakes were going to be made, even in a pitlane full of well-drilled crews.

Renault made the biggest of them, releasing Robert Kubica into the path of Adrian Sutil just as the Force India driver, whose pit was directly in front of the Pole's, began to pull in.

Contact was the inevitable result, leaving Sutil out on the spot and earning Kubica - who would later retire - a 10 second stop/go penalty and Renault a $50,000 fine.

Mercedes was given an identical fine for letting Nico Rosberg out without his right-rear wheel correctly attached. The German was powerless to do anything but park at the end of the pitlane.

Both Rosberg and Kubica could easily have challenged Felipe Massa for fourth place, but their eliminations left the Ferrari man untroubled as he ran there until the finish.

Kubica's absence meant that Vitaly Petrov now carried Renault's hopes. He didn't disappoint. From looking the most lairy of drivers during practice, he showed nothing but guts and determination throughout the race - even if he should have put up more of a robust defence of his position when Hamilton drove around the outside of him at Turn 2 on the second lap.

Petrov came home fifth for his best F1 result yet, and just one place behind him was his GP2 rival of last year, Nico Hulkenberg, also taking his career-best result.

Hulkenberg's pace has been steadily improving, as has that of the Williams, and making it into Q3 for the third time in the last four races was a clear sign that he will not easily be put in his place by his team-mate Rubens Barrichello.

Speaking of Barrichello, he was the only man other than Webber not to pit behind the safety car. Unlike Webber, he did not have the pace to put his track position to good use, so despite running fifth until his stop on lap 56, he dropped back to 11th and without much chance of a point.

Or so he thought. On fresh rubber, the Brazilian quickly closed in on Michael Schumacher's Mercedes, and set up what would become the most controversial incident of the race.

After a couple of unsuccessful attempts at putting his nose inside the German's, Barrichello got alongside his rival on the start/finish straight with three laps to go while Schumacher, his car sliding through the final corner, applied the power later than normal.

With the cars next to each other, Schumacher drifted across to the right side of the track, forcing Barrichello towards the pit wall. This he missed by inches, and after taking some grass too, he made the pass stick.

Dangerous, horrendous and stupid were all words he used to describe Schumacher's actions. The race stewards agreed and will dock him 10 places on the grid for the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix.

The war of words that followed between the two took the focus off two of the men that finished a little further up the road; Sauber team-mates Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi.

Recent upgrades have made the Ferrari-engined C29 a much more competitive prospect, and de la Rosa's top 10 grid spot and seventh place finish were proof of the progress made by the Swiss squad.

The feisty Kobayashi was even better though. On a track where overtaking is deemed to be nigh-on impossible, he climbed up from 23rd on the grid to finish an incredible ninth. That boy's got some future ahead of him.

The goings-on at the tail end of the top 10 will be of no concern to the men who stood on the podium though, save perhaps for Button's eighth-place finish. They've got three weeks to come up with their gameplan for Spa. It ought to be a cracker.

RACE RESULTS

The Hungarian Grand Prix
The Hungaroring, Hungary;
70 laps; 306.663km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           1h41:05.571
 2.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +    17.821
 3.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +    19.252
 4.  Massa         Ferrari                    +    27.474
 5.  Petrov        Renault                    +  1:13.100
 6.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth          +  1:16.700
 7.  De la Rosa    Sauber-Ferrari             +     1 lap
 8.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +     1 lap
 9.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +     1 lap
10.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +     1 lap
11.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +     1 lap
12.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
13.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes       +     1 lap
14.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth             +    3 laps
15.  Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth             +    3 laps
16.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +    3 laps
17.  Senna         HRT-Cosworth               +    3 laps
18.  Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth            +    4 laps
19.  Yamamoto      HRT-Cosworth               +    4 laps

Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:22.362

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes             25
Kubica        Renault                      25
Rosberg       Mercedes                     17
Sutil         Force India-Mercedes         17
Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari           2


World Championship standings, round 12:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Webber       161        1.  Red Bull-Renault          312
 2.  Hamilton     157        2.  McLaren-Mercedes          304
 3.  Vettel       151        3.  Ferrari                   238
 4.  Button       147        4.  Mercedes                  132
 5.  Alonso       141        5.  Renault                   106
 6.  Massa         97        6.  Force India-Mercedes       47
 7.  Rosberg       94        7.  Williams-Cosworth          40
 8.  Kubica        89        8.  Sauber-Ferrari             23
 9.  Schumacher    38        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         10
10.  Sutil         35       
11.  Barrichello   30       
12.  Petrov        17       
13.  Kobayashi     17       
14.  Liuzzi        12       
15.  Hulkenberg    10       
16.  Buemi          7       
17.  De la Rosa     6       
18.  Alguersuari    3       
 

All timing unofficial

Lap-by-lap as it happened on AUTOSPORT Live

TEAM BY TEAM

McLaren

McLaren's recent pace issues continued in Hungary as the Woking squad fell back to around 1.8s off the pace of the Red Bulls in Saturday practice and qualifying. Button kept a cool head on a circuit not conducive to overtaking and moved up from 11th on the grid to eighth in the race. Given his practice pace, anything better would have been a major bonus. Team-mate Hamilton was on course for better though, having leapfrogged Massa's Ferrari for fourth at the pitstops. His race ended with a gearbox failure on lap 23, handing the championship lead to Webber.

Mercedes

Opted to do without the F-duct in Hungary, but found pace elusive in practice. Rosberg did superbly to qualify on the third row after just about showing top 10 pace in qualifying, but his race was ruined when he was released from the pits (unsafely as a later $50,000 fine would indicate) without his right-rear wheel attached. Schumacher did at least make it to the finish, but lost his 10th place to Barrichello in a controversial late incident and will lose 10 places on the Spa grid as a result.

Red Bull

Just as in Spain, Red Bull had over a second advantage over the rest of the field. After dominating every session, front-row starters Vettel and Webber looked like they might throw it away in the race though. Thankfully for Webber, his tactic of not pitting while the safety car was out paid off as he was given acres of clear track with which to pull away to victory on. Vettel was given a drive-through penalty for not staying within 10 car lengths of his team-mate at the restart, and finished third.

Ferrari

If you'd told Alonso he'd finish second after Friday, he'd have taken it. He was, after all, over a second behind the Red Bulls at that stage. The Spaniard drove around the outside of Vettel to lead at the start, but failed to make it stick. Once the German was penalised though, second was his, and he wasn't about to give it up. Massa, on his return to Hungary for the first time since his accident last year, was jumped by Hamilton at his pitstop, but finished fourth after the McLaren's retirement.

Williams

Hulkenberg outqualified Barrichello and raced his way to a career-best sixth place. Barrichello stopped late, as Webber did, but didn't have the pace to make his strategy count. On fresh tyres he made a move on Schumacher for 10th with three laps left and just avoided hitting the pit wall. He made it by though. Good on mechanic Nigel Hope too. He was injured when hit by Rosberg's errant wheel in the pits, but resumed his duties for Barrichello's late stop.

Petrov may have been the most lairy driver of them all during practice, but the Russian showed impressive speed to outqualify Kubica and race his way to a career-best fifth place. Kubica's race started well as he ran in the top 10, but collided in the pits with Sutil after his crew released him into the Force India's path. He retired after serving 10s stop/go penalty for causing the incident. As a further punishment, Renault was fined $50,000.

Decided against running its new blown diffuser after problems on Friday, and Liuzzi then missed most of Saturday morning's session when he picked up some debris and split his driveshaft boot. The Italian moved up from 16th to 13th in the race. His team-mate Sutil qualified three places higher but was eliminated in the pits when Renault released Kubica into his path as he was pulling into his stall.

Algueruari, celebrating a year in F1, suffered graining on the softer Bridgestones on Friday and was worried about how they'd last in the race. He never got the chance to be worried as his engine let go on the second lap after he qualified 17th. Buemi finished 12th, but cursed the drop-off from his tyres, which he believed prevented him from challenging Schumacher for the final point.

Kovalainen did an excellent job to outqualify Trulli, despite having missed most of FP2 with a mechanical problem. He then led home his team-mate in the race, finishing 14th. Trulli lost ground at his tyre change as he was forced to do a lap behind the safety car while the Finn pitted. He finished 15th, ahead of the Virgins.

A mistake from Yamamoto on his final lap of Q1 lost him 0.3s and prevented him from outqualifying Senna. It was a shame for the Japanese, who had by far his most competitive showing since returning to F1. A double finish in the race was deserved. Significantly the F110 showed much-improved race pace against the Virgins in particular. Senna finished 17th with Yamamoto two spots further back.

Glock starred in qualifying as he put Virgin at the head of the new teams in 19th. Neither he, nor team-mate di Grassi - who damaged the floor of his car after running wide in qualifying, could repeat that feat in the race though. They finished 16th and 18th, di Grassi being beaten by Senna's Hispania.

Pedro de la Rosa had been promising this kind of performance for a while. Ninth on the grid and seventh in the race was proof that Sauber has unlocked the C29's inherent speed. His team-mate Kobayashi had a weekend of torment, his final qualifying lap being ruined by a HRT and the Japanese driver then receiving a five-place grid penalty for ignoring a call to the weighbridge as he entered the pits. From the back row, he took a tremendous ninth.