Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying - Red Bull Unbeatable

Once again a Red Bull Racing car is on pole. Sebastian Vettel leads his teammate Mark Webber for an all Red Bull front row. Only once this year has any other team beaten Red Bull for pole. This is Sebastian Vettel's 7th pole position this year. Interestingly Vettel has only won twice this year and only once from Pole.

The Hungarian Grand Prix is known to be difficult for overtaking. Also the track is very dirty outside the racing line. Cars which start on the dirty side of the grid are at a great disadvantage. Fernando Alonso who is in third has a great chance to jump ahead of Webber. The gap between Vettel and Alonso's qualifying time is 1.2 seconds, would want to make most of hist start.

Vitaly Petrov qualified ahead of Robert Kubica after an impressive qualifying performance. He would be starting on the clean side of the grid and would be hoping to better his 7th place finish in China.

Force India decided against their exhaust blown diffuser for the race after friday practice. Adrian Sutil later qualified in 13th and Vitantonio Liuzzi in 16th.

Kamui Kobayashi was the first among the established teams to miss the next round of qualifying. The Japanese driver failed to make the Q2 cut. Kobayashi was later given a 5 place grid penalty for ignoring the stewards call to the weight bridge. Kobayashi failed to see the red light as he entered the pits and proceeded to his pit garage.

Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher failed to make the Q3 cut. For Schumacher this is the second race in a row where he failed to do so. Schumacher however is optimistic of a better race pace as they had changed the setup of his car with the race in mind. With the hotter temperatures during qualifying he struggled with the setup.

Sakon Yamamoto, Vitaly Petrov, Timo Glock and Lucas Di Grassi were given a reprimand for lapping too slowly on their in laps

Hungarian Grand Prix Friday Updates

It looks like a race between Red Bull and Ferrari again this weekend. Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time in both the practice sessions, but Alonso caught up in the afternoon session and is trailing by one a tenth of a second.

McLaren are off the pace from Red Bull and Ferrari. They probably would be going for the points rather than the win this race.

Schumacher thinks they are off the pace and doesn't expect much yet. Mercedes have a revised aero package which isn't yet suiting this circuit.

Qualifying tomorrow might be under wet conditions. The forecast is for heavy showers post lunch so we can expect an interesting session tomorrow.

Heikki Kovalainen's car suffered from a hydraulics failure and he couldn't take part for the entire afternoon session.

Interestingly Vitaly Petrov posted a much faster time than Robert Kubica in the afternoon practice, but the times were set under slightly different track conditions as explained later by Eric Boullier in the friday press conference.

HRT team principal was asked if Christian Klien might get a race later in the season. He said there is a possiblity. It seems that HRT have employed a driver rotation policy between their four drivers.

For Kubica and Kovalainen this race is more of a home race. A lot of Finnish and Polish fans are expected for the race since this race is the closest to their homes.

Hungarian Grand Prix Preview

This weekend the Hungarian Grand Prix will be emotional for Felipe Massa. Last year during qualifying for this race Massa suffered a serious head injury when a loose spring which fell off Ruben's Barrichello's car hit him.

Sakon Yamamoto continues to drive for Hispania Racing Team which means Karun Chandhok will be on the HRT bench. Chandhok is hoping for his race seat back by Spa, Belgium.

Mercedes will be back tracking on some of their W01 upgrades after Hockenheim. Most likely the upgrades are with their exhaust blown diffuser. The blown diffuser was introduced at Valencia but they had a troublesome race there. Silverstone was better where Rosberg scored a podium but Germany turned out to be bad again.

In the Thursday press conference Massa was asked if he is number 2 in the team now. Massa replied back that if he is the number two driver he will not race anymore.

Forecast is for rain tomorrow during practice. So its going to be a repeat of Friday practice at Hockenheim. There is a possibility of rain for Saturday, but Sunday should be dry.

Fernando Alonso and the Hungarian Grand Prix

There is something about Alonso and Hungary. Fernando Alonso recorded his first ever win in Formula 1 at the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix. By winning this race Fernando Alonso became the youngest ever Grand Prix winner beating Bruce McLaren's record (which was later beaten by Sebastian Vettel). This race Alonso dominated every one in the field and even lapping Michael Schumacher who was running in 8th. And as a measure for his dominance in this race he lapped his team mate Jarno Trulli who was running in 7th.

Flashback again to 2006, this was the time when the championship rivalry between Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso was really heating up and this race saw many twist and turns. Renault had decided not use their 'Mass dampers' concept in Hungary even though the race stewards at Germany considered it legal. Renault did this as the FIA had considered them illegal. On top of that Alonso was given a two second qualifying time penalty for brake testing Robert Doornbos and for overtaking under the yellow flags. This was on saturday and coincidentally after saturday practice, Michael Schumacher was given a two second qualifying penalty for overtaking Robert Kubica and Alonso under the red flags. Qualifying was tight with both drivers trying to make it to Q3, Schumacher failing to make it by about half a second with the penalty added and Alonso failed to make it by about a second after the penalty.

So the race started with Schumacher in 12th and Alonso in 15th. The race started with a wet track and for the first time ever it rained on race day at this Grand Prix. Schumacher made ground up to 6th, but Alonso was way ahead of anybody in terms of speed and was easily in the lead. There was a safety car during the race and once the safety car left Alonso was away. Unfortunately for him once the track dried out and he made his pit stop for dry tyres, a loose wheel nut caused him to crash out of the race. Incidentally Jenson Button won that race which was the first win of his career in F1.

A year later Alonso joined McLaren and by Hungary the rivalry between Hamilton and Alonso had already reached its heights. This was one of the years where the last qualifying session was run with race fuel weight on board so the first 8 or so minutes of the qualifying is where the drivers burn as much fuel as possible. Hamilton went ahead of Alonso and as per their rotation basis Alonso was supposed to go ahead of Hamilton but wasn't given way. This irked Alonso and for his last tyre change before the final qualifying run, even after the lollipop was raised Alonso waited another 10 seconds before going ahead for his qualifying run. For that 10 seconds Hamilton was stacked up behind Alonso and he he missed setting his final run as by the time reached the start line the chequered flag was already raised. Following the stewards investigation of the incident, Alonso was given a five place penalty and McLaren were docked the points they would get in the constructors championship. Probably this race decided the Alonso - McLaren relationship.

2008 was uneventful for Alonso and he finished in 4th. But it was the turn of Heikki Kovalainen to record his first win.

Back to 2009 Hungary, this was the year that Massa had a shocking accident after hit by spring in the face which fell of Barrichello's car. The timing information failed for the last qualifying and after the session the drivers were unsure of the grid positions. But after the timing systems were back - Fernando Alonso was on pole. And since 2009 Hungary Alonso has not been on pole. He could have in the German Grand Prix last weekend only to be beaten by a whisker by Sebastian Vettel.

Come the Hungarian Grand Prix you can expect something from Alonso :-). But if you were to bet on any one to win this race most would put their money on Alonso. I would...

German Grand Prix Post race updates

Heikki Kovalainen was given a reprimand for causing the collision between himself and Pedro de la Rosa by the race stewards. De la Rosa was not too happy with the incident and with the back markers in the race.

Force India too were given a reprimand for using tyres allocated for Vitantonio Liuzzi on Adrian Sutil's car. Both cars collided against each other and Liuzzi had a damaged front wing. There was some confusion in their pits and probably were expecting Liuzzi to pit first and even had a new nose ready. But it was Sutil who entered the pit first. Ironically both Torro Rosso cars collided with each other too.

McLaren would be happy to come in 4th and 5th. For McLaren this race would be more of a consolidation race for their new exhaust blown diffuser upgrade. The concern for McLaren would be that they finished the race 30 seconds off the leaders time.

The bigger concern would be for Renault and Mercedes as all teams other than Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull were one lap down by the end of the race. Hockenheim is a short circuit compared to the other tracks but being 1 lap down brings the confidence levels down a bit.

McLaren leave the German GP with 22 points leading the constructors world championship with 300 points. Hamilton leads the championship with 157 points and Button is second with 143 now. The two Red Bulls are on equal points with 136. Alonso gained most and is now on 123 points.

Ferrari apparently will not be appealing the fine of $100000 they received. Back in Austria 2002 Ferrari had received a bigger fine of 1 million dollars for team orders.

Press give Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa a hard time in the German GP post race conference

Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa had a hard time answering the questions from the floor. The questions from the journalists were direct and probably was a bit uncomfortable for Alonso in the end. Most of the questions were directed at Alonso.

After Valencia, Alonso had said that the race was manipulated. One journalist told Alonso that those words seem hollow now and asked Alonso where would he rate his victory at Germany. Of course Alonso didn't like the question.

Another journalist was straight to the point. He asked/told Alonso that since he couldn't beat Massa on track he had to get his team to do it for him.

It didn't end there. Another one asked Alonso that he didn't look happy at the podium, and at the press conference, why he doesn't admit that the win was handed in a plate for him. At this point Sebastian Vettel interrupts and says "Can i go ?" :-)

Alonso however stressed on the fact that Ferrari and he was the fastest throughout the weekend and that the deserved the victory etc.. Which is true, had Alonso gone ahead in the first corner looking at Ferrari and Alonso's pace it would have been tough for anyone to keep up with Alonso. Massa wasn't too bad either and he would have held on to a win if he hadn't slowed down. But yeah it would be hard to keep the media quiet for sometime now. Apparently Eddie Jordan has said that Alonso and Massa should be disqualified from the race.

From Ferrari's point of view a victory for Alonso means now he is closer to the leaders in the drivers championship. 7 points will really matter come this season end.

The race stewards have investigated the incident and Ferrari have been give a fine for what they have decided as team orders. Team orders have been banned since Rubens Barrichello moved over for Michael Schumacher and let him take victory at Austria 2002. Ferrari were handed a heavy fine in that race as well.

Ferrari fined $100000 after the German GP for team orders

The stewards investigated the Ferrari team orders incident where in Massa slowed down at the hair pin allowing Alonso to take the lead. The stewards have now reached a decision where in Ferrari have been fined $100000 for breach of article 39.1 under the FIA 2010 Sporting regulations and of Article 151 para c of the 2010 FIA International sporting code.

The case would also be referred to the World Motorsport Council. Ferrari may expect more penalties there.

Fernando Alonso takes victory at the German GP - well under controversial circumstances

Felipe Massa had a super start at Hockenheim and moved ahead into the lead by the first lap. Sebastian Vettel however had a poor start and although he tried to leave little space for Alonso, by the end of the first corner Vettel had dropped down to third. The two Ferraris lead the entire race except for a short duration where in Button was in the lead. But that was only because Button had yet to take his pit stop.

On lap 48 Massa slowed down at the hair pin which allowed Alonso to move ahead in the race. But that was under controversial circumstances as prior to that Rob Smedley (Massa's race engineer) told Massa over the pit radio - "Fernando is faster than you, can you confirm you understood the message". After Alonso overtook him there was another communication by Smedley something on the lines of - "Ok, good lad. Stay with him now... Sorry..."

Ferrari have been summoned by the race stewards who are investigating this issue. Were there any team orders ? And if true will Ferrari be penalised. Ferrari definitely cannot afford one after such a strong showing this weekend.

German Grand Prix Qualifying: Sebastian Vettel clinches pole

It was an exciting last few minutes of qualifying, Alonso looked like taking pole for the first time this year (and since Hungary last year for him), but Sebastian Vettel managed to clinch pole from by just 0.002 seconds.

Ferrari are looking strong at this circuit and should be challenging for a win tomorrow.

Mark Webber ran wide on his final flying lap and had to settle in 4th behind the Ferrari of Felipe Massa

McLaren have yet to show their good form from the last few Grands Prix. They are running their exhaust blown diffuser upgrade and might take this Grand Prix for consolidating on their upgrades. Jenson Button qualified in 5th ahead of Lewis Hamilton in 6th.

Robert Kubica qualified in 7th ahead of the Williams of Rubens Barrichello. Both the Williams cars are in the top 10 with Hulkenberg qualifying in 10th. Nico Rosberg came ahead of Michael Schumacher again after qualifying in 9th.

Schumacher however failed to make it Q3 again after Nico Hulkenberg moved ahead to 8th in Q2 pushing Schumacher down to 11th.

Force India had a terrible qualifying session with Vitantonio Luzzi crashing out in the final corner about five minutes into Q1. Adrian Sutil managed to qualify in 14th, but a gear box change prior to qualifying would push him down to 19th due a five place grid penalty

The rain stayed away for the qualifying session although it looked like it might affect Q3. However later during the race tomorrow there is a possibility of rain which should change a few things tomorrow.

Tomorrow's race should be interesting. Ferrari are looking a win since Bahrain. The Red Bulls are better placed than the McLarens. And rain should spice things up (if it rains that is. In F1 it rains only when you dont expect it to :-))

For full report and results - http://www.nowf1.com/editorials/4896-vettel-edges-past-alonso-to-clinch-german-grand-prix-pole.html

German Grand Prix Friday Practice 2

Ferrari are looking strong this weekend. Fernando Alonso topped the timing sheets in afternoon practice. Although there was a hint of rain during the session, it stayed away until after the session. Sebastian Vettel finished the session in second, his best time about three hundredths of a second off Alonso's best. Lewis Hamilton had to wait in the pit garage for most of the session due to the damage suffered to his car during his crash in the morning practice. He however managed to complete 10 laps towards the end.
McLaren are most likely running their exhaust blown diffuser upgrade for the entire weekend now.
Mercedes are reasonably happy with their 5th and 6th in the afternoon session.
Nico Rosberg damaged his front wing during the afternoon practice. During the friday press conference where Rosberg was also present he was asked if he was given a new front wing. To which he replied that he took Michael's (Schumacher) and that Schumacher was given an old one :-)

If Ferrari continue their Friday form on Saturday and on Sunday we may as well see three teams fighting for podiums. Tyres may be factor too with most teams unable to evaluate the harder tyres fully.

For full practice results - http://nowf1.com/editorials/4788-2010-german-grand-prix-friday-practice-2-results.html

German Grand Prix Friday Practice 1

Friday Practice 1 was a wet session. There was some amount of rain for most part of the session and the track was drying towards the end. Adrian Sutil set the fastest lap, followed by Felipe Massa and Jenson Button. Lewis Hamiton spun off the track and damaged his car after crashing into the barriers. The car had to be craned back to his pit garage and the championship leader must be hoping for no signifcant damage to his car. Meanwhile Michael Schumacher's session didn't go as he would have expected. The seven times world champion finished near last in 23rd only ahead of the HRT of Sakon Yamamoto. However Schumacher had only 11 laps of running in the session and would have a better running in the next session. Most of the drivers struggled in the wet spinning out of track quite a few times. The forecast for the afternoon session is for a wet session again.

For full practice results - http://www.nowf1.com/editorials/4757-2010-german-grand-prix-friday-practice-1-results.html

2010 German GP thursday conference

Sebastian Vettel had the opportunity to drive the Reb Bull in his home town of Heppenheim on Sunday. Vettel also had a minor injury scare early this week after he injured his leg while running. He had to cancel his participation in a football match, but he can walk fine and there should be no issues for him during the race

In the thursday conference press were mainly interested in how things are faring between Vettel and Mark Webber. Seems like each is going about their business at the moment. One of the journalists asked Webber what would he say over the pit radio this Sunday should he win the race.

Michael Schumacher was also present in the press conference. He was asked what his target would be for this year and the next. To which he replied that his target for next year is the World title. Another journalist asked him whether that means he would be continuing next year, to which Schumacher replied - "yes". Schumacher has a three year contract with Mercedes till 2012 and should atleast see out two years out three based on his comments

German Grand Prix

Back to back Grands Prix ! Germany and the Hungary before the summer break. Quite a bit of action off track since the British GP.

Mark Webber wasn't really happy with the preference given to Sebastian Vettel over the front wing at the British GP. "Not bad for a number 2" he said after the race over the pit radio. But it probably didn't end there. Apparently Red Bull Motorsport advisor Helmut Marko isn't too happy with Webber over that. Things may have cooled down now during the two weeks.

On the other hand the press tried in and out to try and get some sense of friction between Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.

Sakon Yamamoto replaces Karun Chandhok for the German Grand Prix and maybe a few more. Chandhok may get a few more races later this year. Bruno Senna gets his race seat back.

Michael Schumacher will be racing in front of his home crowd as a Mercedes driver for the first time. Well pretty much all the German drivers will be racing for a new team in front of their home crowd. Schumacher last raced for Ferrari, Nico Rosberg for Williams, Timo Glock for Toyota, Nico Hulkenberg will debut. Vettel and Adrian Sutil race for the same team as last year.

McLaren will be trying out their exhaust blown diffuser again this friday. After friday practice at the British GP they decided that the upgrades wasn’t really ready and took it off for Saturday and the race. Now with two weeks of time since most likely they should race the new diffuser for the race

Torro Rosso confirm the same driver line up for 2011. Jamie Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi will continue as their race drivers

Rumours of Jacques Villenueve trying for the 13th team bid are around. (I think there was some confirmation about that, but i'm not sure)

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