Hungarian GP 2012 - Race

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It was complete domination by Hamilton, this was his 3rd pole of the year. He has been on top of the charts for every session so far except FP3 this morning where was second to Webber, who by the way didn’t make the Q3 cut. Lotus was second best in the very hot and dry conditions with Grosjean sharing the front row, Raikkonen was 5th. Vettel somehow got the third best time fueling speculation that the latest FIA restrictions (engine mapping and now front ride-height illegal manual adjustment) is clipping Red Bull’s wings. Button in the sister McLaren complained of understeer finishing 4th. Ferraris could not do better than 6th & 7th but Alonso says he’s not worried. Both Williams made it to Q3 for the first time. Hulkenberg out qualified DiResta again to close the top 10. 

The last time a CFA member scored a QF plenum was Carlos in Canada (we had achieved maximum QF points only twice this year) so our poor results in Hungary are pretty much the standard these days.  Matias, Rodrigo & I got 2 points (1-3) plus single marks for 10 colleagues. 

The Hungaroring has the reputation to be a difficult place to overtake (‘Monaco without barriers’ it’s called) but to our amusement all those track preconceptions had change for good this season. In the old days the only way to pass was during the pitstops and we may see some of that tomorrow, although for the front runners the quickest way to cover the 70 laps will be options-primer-primes. There is an outside possibility of doing a one-stopper (the pit lane takes 20 seconds) for those drivers with a very smooth right-foot.  Keep an eye on the number of laps they can cover in the opening stint, the longer they can stretch the life of those used options the faster they will be able to close the race on fresher primes.

It’s curious that for such narrow, twisty ‘non-passing’ track only one of the last 7 drivers starting from pole has gone to win the race. McLaren has won 4 of the last 5 Hungarian GPs, compare that to Ferrari whose last victory was 8 years ago. Only one of the last 12 winners in this track has won the Championship the same year.

Do you believe the weather man? The forecast in Budapest calls for thunder showers in the morning and in the afternoon...

OK, let’s play.

Allow me first: Cato – HAM  VET  GRO  ALO  BUT  RAI

Enjoy

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