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...
