Hungarian Grand Prix Review

The Brazilian was the story of the race. Heavily criticised for his humiliation at Silverstone and his meek submission at Hockenheim, it looked like he would fall further back against championship leader Lewis Hamilton after the McLarens locked out the front row. After all, he was known more as the recipient of ballsy moves (like the one Alonso put on him at the Nurburgring last year) rather than the maker of them, and generally he is only capable of victory when starting from pole.

But he defied convention here. From the clean side of the track, he out-dragged Kovalainen off the line, risked braking later around the outside of Hamilton into the first corner, avoided keeping his brakes locked for too long, and then used the wider arc around the turn to get on the gas faster than the McLaren to snatch the lead. It was one of the starts and passing moves of the season, and belated payback for Malaysia 2007 when Hamilton had done almost the same thing to him.

From there he kept the hammer down. Hamilton did not go longer enough in the first stint to overtake Felipe, and in the middle stint the Ferrari driver virtually took the pit leapfrog out of the question by building the lead over Lewis, before Hamilton's puncture should have sealed the deal but for Massa's heartbreaking engine failure three laps from home. Though he will gain huge confidence from this showing, there is no substitute for the lost points.

Undoubtedly it had been a fantastic drive, coming from a place of deep motivation to prove his critics wrong. But the question is, would he have dug so deep and pulled out a performance of such quality had he not been so heavily lambasted for his efforts in Britain and Germany? The best always seem to be at or near the top of their games. Is there simply too much fluctuation in Felipe's level? Could the exceptional quality of this drive actually confirm the doubters? Or are we being too harsh judges?

The tale of Kimi's race was basic. It took him two thirds of the race to overtake Alonso's Renault; once released he was able to pull away easily. And with the misfortunes that befell his team-mate and Hamilton, he landed on the podium and is only five points from the McLaren driver. But he scored another fastest lap, his 7th of the season, all in the last 8 races. So the pace is there once he gets into race mode; but without better qualifying efforts he just can't always make best use of that speed.

It is unclear whether Hamilton's puncture was caused by over-driving in a bid to stick with Massa, debris, or just a tyre failure, but he was well beaten even before that. He still definitely holds the championship advantage though. It was an inspired drive by Massa but that does not change the fact that Lewis dominated qualifying and, though in effect he made his last stop early and had to run a long last stint on super-softs and heavy fuel, he made it back to 5th without passing a car on track. That's latent speed.

Of course Kovalainen will take the win however he could get it, and no doubt that first win will boost his confidence, but he will know that it was not a particularly impressive performance and that yet again he was struggling to match Hamilton's pace all weekend. Though in the second quarter of the season he showed signs of being on even terms with Lewis, he has slipped in the last few races and it's long enough into his McLaren tenure to declare him a genuine number two driver, whatever McLaren's equality policy.

Benefiting from Hamilton's puncture and Massa's demise, he rose to 2nd but had to hold off the charging Raikkonen at the end. The result may just seal Glock's place in F1 for the next season or two, and is confirmation of Toyota's form over the mid-season. The big double-points haul, with Jarno Trulli still picking up a solid 7th despite being overshadowed by his team-mate, consolidates their 4th place in the constructors championship. They have scored 26 of their 35 points in the last five races.

Toyota have now got a small margin of four points over Renault, which also recorded a double-points finish here and picked up their second consecutive eight-point haul. Alonso gained from starting on the clean side of the track to relegate Raikkonen on the drag to the first turn, and did well to hold off the Ferrari until the second stops. Credit also to Nelson Piquet Jnr, who made full use of his strategy to move from 10th to a net 7th at the first stop, before climbing to 6th at the second.

So Renault too appear to be on the improve, even if Toyota have shown better form to suggest that they deserve favouritism over the French team to pick up 'best of the rest' honours behind the top three teams. They have both, however, dropped Red Bull, which not only has to use the relatively gutless Renault engine, but they just don't appear to be able to keep up in the development race with their RB4. They have now failed to score points in the last three races.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Refueling Apparatus
Not a coincidence: someone or something stuffed up

Enduring an even more dramatic fall from grace, however, were BMW Sauber, their 8th and 10th place finish and resultant single point surrendering 2nd in the constructors points to McLaren. They have only scored 16 points in the last three events, whereas McLaren have picked up 14 in each of those three. Perhaps how poor they were in Budapest could have been a one-off slump, but then again we said the same after Magny-Cours. It could also signal their falling away from Ferrari and McLaren which everyone has anticipated.

For a man who was wrestling with the F1 equivalent of a bucking bronco, understeering one minute and oversteering the next, Kubica actually worked miracles to qualify 4th and consistent race lap times kept him in the points even if he fell to 8th - although the quality of his driving would have been lost on the hordes of Polish fans who had come to Hungary hoping for more. Having missed the Q1 cut, Nick Heidfeld depended on a one-stop strategy, but to very little avail.

Not only was it a case of having a difficult car, but it was also a continuation of the German's qualifying woes, but in this case he also blamed his failure to make it past Q1 on being baulked by Sebastien Bourdais, for which the Frenchman subsequently got punished. This was a most dubious call by the stewards. Bourdais would need to have come to a near stop to let Heidfeld by. Nick was distracted, certainly, but that is not the same as being carelessly baulked to the point where the offender should be penalised.

It all went downhill for Toro Rosso from there. Sebastian Vettel just got pipped for a Q3 spot before his race lasted just over half an hour, yet another DNF blighting his season record although he continues to take it to the main Red Bull guys. Bourdais' race was compromised enough by having to start 19th after his grid penalty, but he was further delayed at both his stops when flash fires broke out as the refuelling hose was removed from his car.

Other than that it was a long afternoon at any rate for both Honda and Williams. Both teams have found themselves, in dry running and in normal conditions, at the back end of the midfield which only leaves them fighting each other and fending off the Force Indias, such is the tightness of the field. Jenson Button, stung by Barrichello's podium at Silverstone and questions about his future, did very well to qualify 12th, and finished in the same place after a dreadful start, having passed the lacklustre Rubens on track.

Nakajima, along with Giancarlo Fisichella's Force India, also passed Rosberg on track on lap 50 as Rosberg's one-stop strategy succumbed to the greater pace of Nakajima and Fisichella on two-stoppers. Button's move on Barrichello, and Nakajima and Fisichella's pass on Rosberg, were the only two recorded overtaking manoeuvres for position all race, which tells you all you need to know about the Hungaroring. Can someone please explain why Bernie has signed a contract extension with the circuit?

Williams have suggested that they may re-divert resources back into the 2008 car to regain some respectability, but one wonders if it may not be too little, too late. Both Honda and Williams have opposed any delay to the introduction of KERS in 2009, presumably because they have some fairly nifty systems lined up that might just give them an advantage to push them up the field. If that is the case, then they might as well write off the rest of 2008.

Fisichella comfortably out-qualified Adrian Sutil in the Force India battle at the back, and raced relatively competitively as well to finish ahead of Barrichello, whereas Sutil went out late with a puncture of his own. It marks a little bit of a resurgence from Giancarlo, although Force India's problem is that they haven't had both drivers firing at the same time, let alone their car disadvantages, which they hope to solve come Valencia with the introduction of their seamless shift gearbox.