F1: WEBBER TAKES CONVINCING FOURTH VICTORY OF THE SEASON
2010-08-02 13:43:35 Author: admin Source:
The last race before the Formula One World Championship summer break at the Hungarian Grand Prix saw Red Bull Racing driver Mark Webber confirmed his status as the drivers' championship leader following a brilliant early to middle stint strategy to secure a convincing fourth victory of the season. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso defended his position well against a hard-charging Sebastian Vettel in the final stint to finish second, while Vettel, the pole sitter, ended up third.
The points finishers at the Hungaroring presented a few surprises as well with the likes of Renault rookie Vitaly Petrov who stormed to his best ever results in fifth, alongside another rookie Williams' Nico Hulkenberg who also secured his highest finish ever in sixth, and Pedro de la Rosa's splendid seventh place that made a positive gesture to mark Sauber's 300th GP.
Webber's sixth career victory puts him clear on top of the Drivers' championship with a margin of four points to Lewis Hamilton and a further six to his team mate. Red Bull Racing have jumped ahead of McLaren by 8 points in the Constructors championship.
At the start, Alonso had a go at Vettel as the duo lined up side by side into turn one, but a resilient Vettel held his ground to assume the lead. Just behind them, Webber had to settle for third as he fended off Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari.
When the dust settled in the early stint of the race, Vettel built a marginal gap to Alonso and proved once again that the RB6 is currently a masterpiece on track. But, all hell broke loose when a situation called for the safety car on lap 15 and everyone except Webber and Rubens Barrichello pitted, causing an unnecessary traffic jam in the pitlanes. Two incidents happened during the safery car period, the first one in Mercedes GP's garage where Nico Rosberg right rear wasn't fastened properly and as Rosberg exited the box, the tyre came off and rolled into the Williams' garage. Rosberg stopped his car on the edge of the pitlane exit and retired soon after. The second incident happened right in front of the Mercedes GP pit, Robert Kubica collided with Adrian Sutil, forcing Sutil to end his Hungary GP a tad bit early while Kubica was able to continue following a switch for a new nose cone. Kubica was later penalized for causing the accident and would later retire on lap 47 from a damaged front suspension from the earlier accident with the Force India car.
In the lead pack, Webber had assume the lead with Vettel and Alonso pitting for fresh rubbers. As the safety car returned to the pitlane, Webber powered on into lead while Vettel did not realize the restart and left a big gap to his team mate. The young Red Bull Racing star would eventually be penalized with a drive through for leaving such a huge gap to the lead car, and as he served his penalty, Alonso took over as No. 2. A frustrated Vettel then tried his level best to leapfrog the Ferrari, causing several nail-biting moments for the RBR crew.
At the front, Webber remarkably stayed out for almost 35 laps on option tyres and was able to built a 20-sec plus gap to Alonso for his customary stop. He pitted and resumed in the lead, while Alonso was harried aggresively by Vettel. With a quarter of the race left, Webber sailed on smoothly to the flag, while Alonso was able to hold off Vettel. The race would finish in that order, with Massa fourth, Petrov fifth, Hulkenberg sixth, de la Rosa seventh, Jenson Button eighth, Kamui Kobayashi and Rubens Barrichello. Barrichello had quite a skirmish with Michael Schumacher in last couple of laps for the final point, Schumacher forced Barrichello wide onto the concrete wall along the pit straight as the Brazilian overtook him. Luckily, there were just enough room for the Williams' driver to squeeze through, otherwise it would have been a high-speed clash.
Webber said in post-race, “We knew the start was crucial, especially at a venue like this where it’s difficult to overtake. I knew I would be on the back foot fighting with Sebastian and Fernando at the start.I settled into the first stint, but then it was a chess game as to how we would jump Ferrari. The safety car opened up the race and we went off strategy and did something completely different to Fernando. When the safety car came out and I was told to stay out I hoped Fernando would go in to pit. When I saw him go in I knew we had a chance to do something good. I then settled down on the soft tyre and worked on getting a twenty-second lead to Fernando."
"After I came in for my pit-stop I was able to control the race. It’s a nice way to celebrate my 150th race and a great day for us as a team on our 100th race weekend," he added.
One Ferrari on the podium and the other at the foot of it, the results enabled Ferrari to lessen the gap to the Constructors' leaders, while Alonso (above) closed the gap to the leader of the drivers’ championship to 20 points, with Massa moving up to sixth place. Alonso played a defensive role in the race against the Red Bulls, but in the end, his experience was accounted for as he held on to second. "I got a great start, first of all managing to get past Webber and then getting alongside Vettel going into the first corner, but I was not able to complete that move. Then, we did not have the speed to stay with the leader and so I had to think mainly about defending my position. When the Safety Car came in, there were a few tense moments, when it was vital not to make any mistakes, keeping my speed on the limit," Alonso commented.
He added, "After that, it was not easy fighting off Vettel for over thirty laps: his car was definitely quicker than mine, but luckily this track does not offer up any places for overtaking, apart from the first corner. Clearly, we have to improve our car if we want to be in with a chance of fighting for the title. We will have some updates in Belgium: we hope they will allow us to close the gap to the main rivals."
McLaren probably had the worst race this entire season and this Hungarian GP was certainly a forgettable one for them. Button's eighth place and Hamilton's retirement due to a faulty gearbox had drop McLaren to second in the constructors' and Hamilton now trails Webber in the drivers' standings. .
Button lost four places at the start and ran a rather quiet race throughout, eventually picking up only four points to his cause. The defending champion is still optimistic about his title defence, "There isn’t a very big points gap covering the top four drivers – I’m only 14 points behind the championship leader, after all – so it’s still all to play for."
“It’s been a tough weekend, but we’ll come back fighting. We’re a very positive and strong team, and we’ve been in difficult situations before, so we can definitely jump back from this – hopefully as soon as Spa-Francorchamps at the end of this month.”
Petrov produced a stunner to take the flag in fifth overall, by far his best results for Renault. His team mate's race went downhill following a silly accident in the pitlane during the first quarter of the race and later retired from a suspension failure.
An elated Petrov testified, "I feel wonderful because we did everything almost perfect today. I made a good start and managed to pass Rosberg and Hamilton into the first corner, which was our target. After that, I didn’t try and block Lewis too much because I had a problem with my tyre warm-up. I lost a lot of grip and I was fighting the car. I decided to let him through rather than risk losing more positions. The points today are very important for us because Mercedes didn’t score any. Also, I have a lot of friends and family here today so I’m pleased I could give them a good result."
Hulkenberg (above) has his career-best sixth place in the bag. The young German drove a mature and controlled race amid an incident-filled GP. Team mate Rubens Barrichello had a more interesting race where an early safety car period effectively neutralized the Brazilian’s race plan and he was forced to run a long first stint. In the last quarter, he successfully took on his old Ferrari team mate after switching to options and claimed the tenth spot which was highlighted by a close-shave overtaking move on Schumacher against the pitwall. .
In what was the 300th Grand Prix for Peter Sauber’s team both drivers finished in the points for the first time this year: Pedro de la Rosa (above) came seventh, while Kobayashi bagged ninth, having started from 23rd on the grid.
Mercedes GP, too, had a race to forget with Schumacher struggling to 11th place and Rosberg retiring from a pitstop blunder by the mechanics. Schumacher has been handed a penalty by the stewards after the race for apparently forcing Barrichello onto the pitwall eventhough the Williams car had the sheer pace and already surged ahead of him in the closing laps. The 7-time champion will serve the 10-place grid penalty for the next round in Belgium...
Force India F1 Team finished the race with Vitantonio Liuzzi in 13th position and Sutil retiring from a pitlane accident with a Renault. Liuzzi finished three places up from his starting position but unfortunately could not move up any further on the notoriously difficult to overtake Hungaroring. Sutil pitted under the safety car on lap 15 but was taken out by Kubica, who had been released from his own pit stop too soon. Kubica piled into the side of Sutil, causing significant damage to the right rear of the VJM03. Despite no points gained this round, the team maintains its sixth position in the constructors' going into the 'summer break'.
Best of the new teams for the Hungarian race was the Lotus Racing team. The team efforts saw Heikki Kovalainen drove to a 14th spot finish and Jarno Trulli just behind in 15th.
Results
1 Mark Webber Red Bull 1:41:05.571
2 Fernando Alonso Ferrari +17.8
3 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull +19.2
4 Felipe Massa Ferrari +27.4
5 Vitaly Petrov Renault +73.1
6 Nico Hulkenberg Williams +76.7
7 Pedro de la Rosa Sauber +1 Lap
8 Jenson Button McLaren +1 Lap
9 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber +1 Lap
10 Rubens Barrichello Williams +1 Lap
11 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP +1 Lap
12 Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso +1 Lap
13 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India +1 Lap
14 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus +3 Laps
15 Jarno Trulli Lotus +3 Laps
16 Timo Glock Virgin +3 Laps
17 Bruno Senna HRT +3 Laps
18 Lucas di Grassi Virgin +4 Laps
19 Sakon Yamamoto HRT +4 Laps
DNFs
Lewis Hamilton
Robert Kubica
Nico Rosberg
Adrian Sutil
Jaime Alguersuari
Drivers Standings
1 Mark Webber 161
2 Lewis Hamilton 157
3 Sebastian Vettel 151
4 Jenson Button 147
5 Fernando Alonso 141
6 Felipe Massa 97
7 Nico Rosberg 94
8 Robert Kubica 89
9 Michael Schumacher 38
10 Adrian Sutil 35
11 Rubens Barrichello 30
12 Vitaly Petrov 17
13 Kamui Kobayashi 17
14 Vitantonio Liuzzi 12
15 Nico Hulkenberg 10
16 Sebastien Buemi 7
17 Pedro de la Rosa 6
18 Jaime Alguersuari 3
Teams Rankings
1 Red Bull 312
2 McLaren 304
3 Ferrari 238
4 Mercedes GP 132
5 Renault 106
6 Force India 47
7 Williams 40
8 Sauber 23
9 Toro Rosso 10
