F1 Hungarian GP: Hamilton wins, and who else?

Lewis Hamilton’s victory today at the Hungarian Grand Prix brought his McLaren team back to winning ways in resounding fashion. True, the bumpy, twisty Hungaroring circuit is not necessarily a reliable guide to performance elsewhere. But McLaren have clearly made a huge leap forward after a dismal first half of the season, and, with no major upheavals in the F1 regulations on the cards for 2010 (not forgetting the abolition of re-fuelling from next year), it is a leap that could be ominous in the longer term for the rest of the grid.

McLaren’s resurgence also has implications for how the rest of this year’s championship will play out. It would take a miracle for Hamilton himself to get back into title contention, but nevertheless, a more competitive McLaren is an intriguing new element in the title mix. Indeed, it is not the only potential new element, with signs this weekend of improvement from Renault (pole position) and Ferrari (a perhaps surprising 2nd), and with Williams knocking on the door of the podium too. The theory is that a now struggling Brawn - and championship leader Jenson Button in particular - would benefit from having McLaren and others take points off Brawn’s only realistic title rivals, Red Bull.

The logic holds to a point. Yes, Red Bull’s Webber was prevented from making bigger inroads into Button’s lead today by Hamilton, and a plucky Raikkonen. With Red Bull man Vettel not finishing, a rather lowly Button, in seventh position, almost begins to look like one of the day’s winners, in damage-limitation terms. But look at it another way: if the relative developments in performance are such that there are three cars (including a McLaren) between Button and the Red Bull ahead of him, that’s still not convincing enough for Brawn with seven races left, unless Red Bull undergo some form of sudden collapse.

It had been tempting to put down Brawn’s recent performance wobble to track conditions. Whichever way you cut it, in Hungary, which was supposed to be more to their liking, the Brawn problems began to look less transient. All this means Mark Webber was one of the big winners in Hungary. He has closed the gap at the top of the championship and taken the upper hand (even if not yet decisively) over teammate and title rival Vettel. It doesn’t mean Webber will be world champion, but it’s more concrete than talk of virtual alliances.

How they fared (in order of provisional classification):
Lewis Hamilton: Big return to winning ways for the McLaren man after a podium-less season up to now. A fine drive that included one particularly nice early move on Webber. Could bode well for the rest of 2009, and 2010 too.
Kimi Raikkonen: All credit to the Finn for delivering a gutsy podium finish as the sole Ferrari in a race overshadowed by the nasty crash in qualifying of teammate Felipe Massa. We wish Massa a speedy recovery.
Mark Webber: After an eventful afternoon’s racing for the Australian, he will maybe count himself disappointed not to have finished one place higher, but, building on German GP win, gained on key championship rivals Button and Vettel.
Nico Rosberg: Another impressive display. Williams not looking far off breaking into the podium places.
Heikki Kovalainen: A solid contribution to the McLaren comeback.
Timo Glock: Good drive and use of strategy from 13th on the grid giving the German his best finish since the second GP of the season.
Jenson Button: This could have been worse for the championship leader - with Vettel not finishing and Webber only gaining 4 points on Button - but it still wasn’t very good. Head-scratching over lack of performance following recent ‘upgrades’ and continuing issues with tyres - and this was supposed to be a circuit that suited Brawn.
Jarno Trulli: Has had an up and down kind of season, and this was a modest up moment - coming home in front of a gaggle of traffic to make sure both Toyotas finished in the points.
Kazuki Nakajima: A whisker away from his first points finish of the season - unfortunately for him as he pressed Trulli, it’s just not that easy to overtake at the Hungaroring.
Rubens Barrichello: Qualifying compromised by the incident in which a piece falling off the back of his car appeared to be responsible for Massa’s accident. Had been talking ominously of 5% of him wondering whether he wants to continue in F1. Injuries sustained by fellow Brazilian Massa will not have helped his mood.
Nick Heidfeld: Not-so-Quick Nick in sluggish BMW.
Nelson Piquet: The talk was that Piquet could be sacked by his Renault team if he did not show improvement in Hungary. Sadly, with 12th position (and shots of team boss Flavio Briatore leaving the race early after the earlier retirement of Alonso) he probably didn’t do enough to keep his seat.
Robert Kubica: Just so non-descript for BMW.
Giancarlo Fisichella: Force India’s apparent improvement looking like something of a false dawn.
Jaime Alguersuari: Replacing Bourdais, the 19-year old Spaniard became the youngest ever F1 driver, arguably putting in one of the performances of the day. With doubts being raised about the readiness of such a young driver (and even the impact on the safety of other drivers), it wasn’t spectacular, but he brought it home ahead of his teammate...
Sebastien Buemi: ... who came in an even less spectacular last.
Sebastian Vettel DNF: A bad weekend, losing championship ground to Button and teammate Webber after a mechanical failure that appeared to have its origins in a first-bend coming-together with Raikkonen.
Fernando Alonso DNF: Mixed picture for the Spaniard. Seemed to be roaring back into race-winning contention with a first pole of the season (albeit on the back of a very light fuel load in qualifying) until his tyre fell off. If Renault have made genuine progress, Alonso should still be optimistic for the rest of the season (or even beyond).
Adrian Sutil DNF: Problems in qualifying, mechanical failure during the race. One to forget.

Comments

[Dupin]

chapeau bas wim!

He'll probably do well. Perhaps he was inspired by Lance Armstrong's very presentable reprise in a far more cardiovascularly demanding sport.

I doubt that the differences in reflexes and mental agility between a fit 30 and 40 year old are so great either.

[The Worm]

Outstanding prediction
Schumi back in a Ferrari at Monza is going to be one hell of a weekend

[worldinmotion]

Thanks Worm.

Agreed on Massa. I really hope he comes back soon. I'm somewhat hesitant to raise the question in the circumstances, but nonetheless one has to begin to wonder who would come in for Ferrari if Massa is, as you suggest, going to be out for some time. And now I'm having wild visions of Michael Schumacher back behind the wheel of a Ferrari. But are they so wild? Stranger things have happened.

wim

[The Worm]

As an unashamed fan of little Lewis, all controlled aggression and turbo boost, McLaren's return to form made my day.

In the title race, a big loss for Vettel... with 8 scoring positions and reliability being consistently good these days, DNFs are as decisive as race wins. I was also surprised at how uncompetitive Brawn were, maybe their cost cutting over the Winter is beginning to show in the lack of development. Good weekend for Webber, but thought he should have been penalised for coming out of his pitstop into Kimi's path. Seemed pretty dangerous to me.

In midfield, I said it last time and I'll say it again- Rosberg is the class of the pack. Always been quick, now he is more consistent and less error prone. A potential race winner, given the right package.

With Bourdais gone and Piquet to follow, the Sword of Damacles looks for a new subject- I volunteer the lacklustre Kovalainen. He's had 2 years, but hasn't got close to challenging Hamilton. I have a vision of Robert Kubica in a McLaren... not based on anything but a hunch.

Funny how events cluster- the Surtees death, the frightening Massa impact and then the wheel falling off Alonso's Renault. Very strange statements tonight r/e Renault being banned, that they knew the wheel wasn't properly attached and let him go, subsequently not telling the driver... I can't see how they would get any benefit from that and it would have been spectacularly irresponsible; I only hope it was not the case otherwise they have far more to be ashamed about that McLaren after Melbourne.

I wonder if we'll see Massa for the rest of the season... he seems a very decent young man and we can be thankful he was not killed by that terrible incident; news of a skull fracture and a chemically induced coma makes me rather anxious for him still. I imagine a lengthy layoff.