Hamilton holds off Lotus to take victory

Lewis Hamilton achieved his 19th career Grand Prix victory with a lights to flag win at the Hungaroring, holding off the Lotus’s of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean.

This was Hamilton’s third victory at the track and his second this season. Raikkonen’s impressive pace in the middle stint jumped him several track positions which was even more remarkable considering a technical issue with KERS. The Iceman recorded an excellent second position while his Lotus team-mate Romain Grosjean took third.

Hamilton led the majority of the Hungarian Grand Prix, but had a Lotus on his tail nearly all of the way.

Initially it was Romain Grosjean, who dismissed a strong challenge from Sebastian Vettel at the first corner, which allowed Jenson Button to then demote the Red Bull to fourth through Turns 2 and 3.

Button could not match Hamilton and Grosjean’s early pace, so the McLaren and Lotus pulled away in a two-car lead fight.

Hamilton had it under control, although Grosjean did apply some pressure for a while in the middle stint of their two-stop strategies when the Frenchman was on soft compound tyres and the Briton had medium Pirellis.

When Button made an early second of three stops, Vettel was free to start catching the leaders too, but in the end it was Raikkonen who was challenging Hamilton for the race win.

Raikkonen had been sixth in the opening stint, and then passed Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari in the first stops. His strong late-stint pace on a long run on soft compound Pirellis in his next stint then allowed the Iceman to lead for a spell and vault from fifth to second, firmly resisting team-mate Grosjean as he emerged from his final stop.

Hamilton and Raikkonen were then tied together until the chequered flag, but there was nothing the Lotus could do to pass the McLaren on this twisty circuit.

Grosjean held on to third place ahead of Vettel, who made a third pitstop without losing track position and charged back to attack the Lotus on fresh softs, to no avail.

Alonso calmly protected his championship lead on a difficult day for Ferrari, finishing fifth. For a while it looked like main title rival Mark Webber would trim a little from Alonso’s cushion. The Australian jumped from P11 to seventh on the opening lap, and then got ahead of Alonso at the second stops. But making a third tyre change cost Webber and he fell to eighth.

Button’s three-stop plan was also unsuccessful, as his second stop left him trapped behind Bruno Senna’s Williams. The 2009 world champion got back in front of the Brazilian in the final tyre changes then chased Alonso home in sixth.

Senna resisted Webber for seventh, delivering one of his best drives of the season on a day when his Williams team-mate Pastor Maldonado lost ground at the start then received a drive-through penalty for barging into Paul di Resta’s Force India.

Felipe Massa was ninth while Nico Rosberg salvaged a point for Mercedes. As for Michael Schumacher, the seven-time world champion endured one of his most depressing races in Formula One. The Mercedes driver was left on the grid in an aborted initial start, joined the race from the pits, received a pitlane speeding penalty, and then retired from P18 late on.

Birthday boy Fernando Alonso still leads the championship with 164 points – forty ahead of Mark Webber followed by Sebastian Vettel and race winner Lewis Hamilton – as the sport heads into a summer break. The drivers and teams will re-group at the magnificent Spa-Francorchamps circuit in a month’s time. After seven different winners in eleven races, the second half of the season will be fascinating.

Race results at the Hungaroring after 69 laps:
1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           1h41:05.503
2.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +1.032
3.  Grosjean      Lotus-Renault              +10.518
4.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +11.614
5.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +26.653
6.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +30.243
7.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +33.899
8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +34.458
9.  Massa         Ferrari                    +38.350
10.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +51.234
11.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +57.283
12.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +1:02.887
13.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault           +1:03.606
14.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +1:04.494
15.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
16.  Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
17.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
18.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +2 laps
19.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +2 laps
20.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth          +2 laps
21.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +3 laps
22.  De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth               +3 laps

Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:24.136

Not classified/retirements:
Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth                 63 laps
Schumacher    Mercedes                     61 laps

World Championship standings, round 11:

Drivers:
1.  Alonso       164
2.  Webber       124
3.  Vettel       122
4.  Hamilton     117
5.  Raikkonen    116
6.  Rosberg       77
7.  Grosjean      76
8.  Button        76
9.  Perez         47
10.  Kobayashi     33
11.  Maldonado     29
12.  Schumacher    29
13.  Di Resta      27
14.  Massa         25
15.  Senna         24
16.  Hulkenberg    19
17.  Vergne         4
18.  Ricciardo      2

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          246
2.  McLaren-Mercedes          193
3.  Lotus-Renault             192
4.  Ferrari                   189
5.  Mercedes                  106
6.  Sauber-Ferrari             80
7.  Williams-Renault           53
8.  Force India-Mercedes       46
9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          6

Next race: Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps. August 31-September 2.

12 thoughts to “Hamilton holds off Lotus to take victory”

  1. After scoring his second victory of the 2012 season, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton is convinced he can still win the championship. Autosport.com has the story.

    Lewis Hamilton says his Hungarian Grand Prix victory shows it is still possible for him to win the 2012 Formula 1 world title, despite remaining 47 points behind leader Fernando Alonso.

    Hamilton’s second win of the season came after a run of three races in which he had scored just four points, but triumphing at the Hungaroring reduced his championship deficit from 62 to 47 points.

    The McLaren driver is now fourth in the standings.

    “This weekend shows it is all to play for still,” said Hamilton. “Not enough points taken for Fernando. If we can continue this kind of performance we can catch up.

    “We need consistency and we need to improve the car still in many areas and I am sure we will do that.”

    He admitted it was psychologically important to get back on the top step of the podium before the summer break.

    “It is nice to go into the break knowing that we have had a win,” said Hamilton. “It is a great feeling. It is very, very important how I manage the summer break.

    “We have clearly still got a lot of work to do. We should take from this a good pat on the back, but we should know we have a lot of work to do.”

    Hamilton reckons he was only able to beat chasing Lotus duo Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean in Hungary because he had started in front.

    “These guys were rapid,” he said. “If they had qualified at the front it would have been impossible to get past them.”

    He said that winning under constant pressure made this victory particularly satisfying, and that he was pleased with how he had been able to manage the situation.

    “When you win like this when under intense pressure from great drivers like Romain and Kimi, this is the kind of day when you have to have your mind 100 per cent,” Hamilton said. “I feel great, because the team didn’t flinch and neither did I.”

    Hamilton added: “It was never really close. I allowed them to close up in certain corners so that he may have problems with his tyres. I just made sure I saved my speed for the last sector so I had a big enough gap in the last three corners.”

  2. Despite finishing in an excellent second position Kimi Raikkonen was left feeling frustrated by Lotus’s qualifying performance. Autosport.com has the news.

    Kimi Raikkonen insists Lotus needs to improve its qualifying form if it is to finally clinch an elusive first victory this season.

    The Finn finished in second place in the Hungarian Grand Prix after charging from fifth place on the grid. He crossed the line just a second behind race winner Lewis Hamilton despite starting four places behind the Briton.

    Raikkonen admitted he needs to do a better job on Saturday in order to have a clear shot at winning.

    “We always try to win and sometimes you get close and it is a bit disappointing that we cannot,” said Raikkonen. “We know the reason: we are not so strong in qualifying and make it hard for ourselves on Sunday.

    “We should be able to put ourselves in a good position and get good points, but it is a long season. We are improving all the time, and if it comes, great, if not we keep trying.

    “I have been in this business long enough to not worry about things too much.”

    Raikkonen, who endured KERS issues during the race, said he was not worrying about not managing to win in Hungary.

    “I didn’t [win], so there’s no point to worry about it. I had an OK start but we had some issue with KERS and I could only use 50 per cent so I lost a position to Fernando [Alonso]. The first few laps were not good as we tried to get the KERS working.

    “It makes no difference if you don’t get past. We were second and third today. It’s good for the team but we keep trying to win and hopefully it will come soon.”

    Raikkonen came close to making contact with team-mate Romain Grosjean when he returned to the track after his second pitstop.

    The Finn said he had made an error that cost him time when he pushed the speed limiter button too late.

    “The team told me it would be very close and I made a mistake with the speed limiter, maybe five metres after the line I was still on it, so I think I didn’t do a good enough job out there. We went side by side for the first corner but I could keep the position quite easily.”

  3. Romain Grosjean says he bears no grudge towards Lotus team-mate Kimi Raikkonen after the pair went wheel to wheel in a battle for second in the late stages of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

    Grosjean had been running second when he made his final stop, although a combination of traffic and a searing pace from Raikkonen meant the Finn emerged alongside him heading down to Turn 1.

    Neither wanted to cede ground and the pair seemed to kiss wheels before Raikkonen eventually forced Grosjean onto the marbles on the outside to steal second.

    Despite the aggression Grosjean said it was a case of both drivers looking after their own interests, comparing the incident to his own defence of the inside when Sebastian Vettel attacked away from the start.

    “It was close with Kimi, he did what he had to do,” Grosjean said. “I got marbles on my tyres and struggled to recover, but it is what it is.

    “It was the same story with Kimi [as with Vettel] – I was inside of Seb so it was alright.”

    Grosjean was less relaxed about other incidents in the race however, after traffic held him up and ultimately allowed Raikkonen to close.

    “It just happened – unfortunately I got stuck behind another car and it wouldn’t let me past and I lost 1.5 seconds… I wasn’t happy at that stage as I was fighting for win and suddenly I got stuck with something you cannot manage,” he added.

    “We were close to fight for the win, so we are a little bit [disappointed] today. But I got stuck behind another car on that blue flag and it didn’t really respect it.”

    The Frenchman said part of his troubles were related to the difficulty in following Lewis Hamilton closely – a phenomenon Raikkonen also experienced late on.

    “It is really difficult for the car here to be close and not make mistakes,” he reported.

    “When following Lewis I was losing a bit of grip, then our first pitstop was a disaster. The second one was OK, but I didn’t get chance to jump in pitstops and strategy and that was key today because overtaking was too difficult. You started sliding more, losing temperature, so it was very difficult to follow.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  4. Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber admits the team were expecting rivals to experience higher tyre wear in Hungary to gain track position. Autosport.com has the story.

    Mark Webber admitted that Red Bull was expecting its rivals to suffer higher tyre wear when it opted for a three-stop strategy in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

    Webber had made it through from 11th on the grid to fifth but his final stop dropped him back to eighth. The majority of the other frontrunners pitted only twice, and Webber conceded Red Bull’s tactics were wrong.

    “I think we were hoping people would be in a bit more trouble at the end with the tyres. That’s where we lost the three positions. Fifth place was there,” said Webber.

    “I was thinking of staying out. Obviously we had a nice cushion and laptimes were going pretty well, but it’s always hard to know.

    “We’ve had plenty of incidents this year where people drop off the cliff [of tyre performance]. In the end, the strategy didn’t really work out. We lost three places through trying something different.

    “Also overtaking’s very difficult, so you need bad tyres for the other guys and a good run in the last sector. I was quicker but couldn’t get the job done.”

    Webber’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel also pitted three times, but it did not affect his race result as he had a sufficient gap behind to retain fourth place when he stopped for the final tyre change.

    “I was just following Romain [Grosjean] around and trying to do something different in the end, I think, was the right thing,” said Vettel.

    “It was marginal coming out ahead of Fernando [Alonso], but it was good. It could’ve been a different story. Their tyres could have gone off. We did everything we could.”

    The result leaves Webber 40 points behind championship leader Alonso, with Vettel two points further adrift.

    “We’ve got work to do,” Webber admitted. “We’ve had a little bit of friendly fire with ourselves. Yesterday was down to me. But we still have good points and it’s still open for the rest of the year.

    “Obviously Fernando grabbed a few more today. It was a disappointing grand prix. I risked quite a bit on the first lap and managed to get some things back, but in the end it didn’t quite work out for us today.”

    Vettel reckoned his race was ruined when he lost out to Jenson Button on the first lap, and said while he had no doubts about Red Bull’s pace, it needed to maximise its potential better.

    “I think the car is not so bad in the race, but we need to have better starts and better first laps,” he said.

  5. Michael Schumacher said he turned his own engine off at the beginning of the Hungarian Grand Prix in a misunderstanding over the delayed start.

    The Hungaroring race start was delayed for reasons not yet clear, with the yellow lights flashing as cars formed up on the grid.

    The usual procedure is for cars to continue running and immediately do another formation lap, but Schumacher shut his Mercedes down and consequently had to start from the pitlane.

    “We had the yellow lights and pretty high engine temperatures, and I decided to switch off the engine as we were waiting so long,” he admitted.

    The German’s race then got worse still, with a puncture, a pitlane speeding penalty and ultimately a late retirement from 18th place.

    “We had a puncture – I don’t know how and what happened. There was obviously no contact, I was alone and by myself,” said Schumacher.

    “Then we even had a drive-through because maybe the pitlane limiter or something didn’t work properly during the puncture phase.

    “That was the race decided. It was just trying to hang out and see if maybe something unusual would happen that we could take benefit from.

    “In the end, because we’d had these engine temperatures and we had some telemetry issues, we decided to stop the car.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  6. So the reason why the initial start of the Hungarian Grand Prix was aborted was due to Michael Schumacher not positioned correctly on the grid. Autosport.com has the details.

    The start of the Hungarian Grand Prix was originally aborted because Michael Schumacher stopped out of position, the FIA has confirmed.

    After completing the customary warm-up lap, the field was then kept waiting on the grid as yellow lights flashed, before eventually being sent on a second preparatory tour of the Hungaroring.

    As that happened, Schumacher was wheeled into the pitlane, the German having elected to switch off his engine due to a misunderstanding about the delay.

    That led to some confusion about what had originally caused the aborted start, but the FIA has moved to clarify the issue by confirming that Schumacher had not originally parked inside his designated grid spot.

    It was the first of a series of upsets the seven-time champion suffered, with a puncture and pitlane penalty leaving him 18th before he eventually retired.

  7. Bruno Senna is confident his seventh place in the Hungarian Grand Prix will be a turning point for his 2012 season.

    The Brazilian has struggled to match the performances of Williams team-mate Pastor Maldonado, but scored his second best result of the year on Sunday, having started from ninth place.

    Senna, who made it to Q3 for the first time this season on Saturday, believes the Hungaroring weekend could be the turning point that sees him enjoy a stronger second half of the year.

    “Today was a nice race,” said Senna. “We pushed very hard on the strategy to make it work especially as the track conditions and the weather were very different from what we were expecting, so I’m happy with the team and I hope we can carry this momentum on.

    “There were a lot of battles for me and it was hard to keep the tyres alive because the temperatures were so high, but it’s good to start in ninth place and finish in seventh. I think this is a turning point for us.

    “The race was good, it was a fun weekend, the team are happy and the break is now welcome as it will be a chance to rest before we continue to push in the second part of the season.”

    Team-mate Maldonado finished in 13th position after having to serve a drive-through penalty for a clash with Force India’s Paul di Resta which the Venezuelan described as “light contact”.

    “It was a difficult race today,” he said. “I had a bad start and lost a lot of positions which compromised our race from the beginning. It was hard to keep good pace in the traffic and then we also had to serve a drive-through penalty. I was on the limit racing Di Resta when I locked the brakes and lost some grip, but I was on the inside of the corner and so there was some light contact.

    “We had to concentrate on tyre management today and we gathered a lot of information for the future. We weren’t as competitive as we have been, but we now need to work hard to focus on the second part of the season after the summer break.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  8. Williams driver Pastor Maldonado was shocked by his drive-through penalty after clashing with Paul di Resta. Autosport.com has the details.

    Pastor Maldonado has “no idea” why the Hungarian Grand Prix stewards hit him with a drive-through penalty for his clash with Paul di Resta.

    The Williams driver hit the Force India’s sidepod with his front-left wheel while running side-by-side with him through Turn 11. This pushed di Resta onto the run-off while Maldonado made up a place.

    He is adamant that it was a legitimate overtaking manoeuvre and was unsure as to whether his recent record, which includes penalties in the European and British Grands Prix for contact, played a part in the decision.

    “I have no idea why I got the penalty this time,” he said when asked about the penalty by AUTOSPORT. “It was a good overtaking manoeuvre.

    “There was a small contact, but this is racing. I saw [Kimi] Raikkonen and [Romain] Grosjean [battling] and it was more or less the same.”

    Maldonado admitted that the contact happened because he had to correct a small slide.

    But he insists that the contact was not enough to justify the penalty that he got.

    “The contact was so small,” he said. “He decided to run wide because there was a lot of space off the track. There was nothing big from my point of view. It was a good move.”

    Chief operations engineer Mark Gillan backed his driver. He believes that the move was “reasonable” and that the penalty was disappointing.

    “Looking at it, it seems a reasonable manoeuvre. He went to overtake di Resta, had a slight moment going in. Di Resta gave him a bit of space and Pastor took it.

    “We weren’t expecting it but we take it on the chin and move on. Maybe it wouldn’t have made any difference to his final result, but it’s still disappointing.”

    Maldonado, who finished 13th, believes that the penalty decision cost him a shot at tenth place.

    “It cost the possibility of a point,” he said. “We don’t know, but my pace was good.

    “I had a hard race, especially because of the start. We had the pace to fight for P10 as I was quicker than the Force Indias and even [Nico] Rosberg. But with the penalty, the chance was gone.”

  9. Jenson Button says he does not understand McLaren’s strategy switch, particularly after twice being asked to pit early and exiting into traffic as a consequence in Hungary.

    McLaren opted to switch the Briton onto a three-stop strategy partway through the race as he was running a close third behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Lotus’s Romain Grosjean.

    Exiting into traffic killed the Briton’s hopes however and ultimately caused him to slide down to sixth at the chequered flag.

    Button said his tyres were still in working condition when he made his last two stops, and therefore couldn’t understand the team’s strategy call.

    “I don’t know what was going on there really,” Button admitted. “The weird thing was after the first stop I could still see the leaders so it was close, but we decided to go for a three stop and we were stopping early, and both times I came out in traffic and wondered why.

    “The tyres were still in good condition and I think they were trying to jump the cars in front but we went straight back into traffic and that was it. Normally you pit and come out into clean air.

    “Then we did that again later on in the race, so not a great race. Hopefully we will learn from this because it happened twice – I don’t think we looked too good on strategy today.”

    Button said his confusion was compounded by the fact he was not struggling for tyre wear but was still asked to pit early.

    “I don’t know why we pitted so early each time when the tyres were still in good condition,” he explained. “I said to the guys ‘Is this traffic quicker than the guys we are racing?’, and they said ‘no’…

    “I didn’t really think it was [a tough race on tyres] but the team obviously did. I wasn’t going slow but we pitted early twice and it put me straight into traffic, which made it very difficult to race those guys. Obviously it was a slight misunderstanding of positioning on circuit. Every time I stopped it just got worse and worse.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  10. Despite finishing in fifth position in the Hungarian Grand Prix, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso continues to extend his lead in the championship. Autosport.com has the details.

    Fernando Alonso labelled his Hungarian Grand Prix weekend as incredible after managing to extend his lead in the championship despite Ferrari’s lack of form.

    The Italian squad was unable to repeat the kind of performance that allowed Alonso to score his third win of the year last weekend in Germany.

    Alonso had to settle for a distant fifth position in the race, but the result meant he still managed to increase his lead in the standings from 34 to 40 points over Mark Webber, who finished eighth.

    The Spaniard admitted the weekend had gone much better than expected.

    “Incredible again. Another very, very good Sunday for the championship,” he said. “I don’t think we have been quick on Saturday or Sunday or on Friday and we still finished ahead of our main rivals, so it’s been another Sunday that was better than expected.

    “I think no one here thinks it’s normal to finish ahead of a McLaren or a Red Bull, but we finished ahead of one of each, so it was better than expected, especially thanks to the strategy, because the cars that finished behind us made three stops. We made two and this time it was the right call and it turned out well.”

    Alonso made it clear Ferrari is not hiding the fact that it needs to improve after finishing over 25 seconds behind race winner Lewis Hamilton.

    “We’ve been saying that all the time,” said Alonso about Ferrari’s need to improve. “We finished Canada and said we needed to improve. We finished Valencia and said we needed to improve. At Silverstone we had to improve, and here we have to improve again.

    “Because we won a couple of races it seemed that everything was on the right path, but we have never said anything else. This weekend, with dry running on Friday, Saturday and Sunday you can see more clearly, but Lotus, McLaren and Red Bull have been ahead of us for the whole championship.

    “It’s just that at the start of the year it was 1.5 seconds, then eight tenths, then four, then six. That’s the great merit of the team, that with all that, we are 40 points ahead, which is completely abnormal.”

  11. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said his team had no option but to put Mark Webber on to a three-stop strategy, because a differential problem with the car meant his tyre wear increased dramatically.

    Webber’s hopes of challenging higher up were dashed when he was hit with the differential failure late in the race – and that problem resulted in more wheelspin which increased his tyre degradation.

    That led to the team electing to give him a late stop for tyres – even though in theory the better strategy was to stick to a two-stopper.

    “In the end, we had to stop,” explained Horner. “With the differential issue and the tyres, you have a lot of wheelspin on the inside tyre and there is no way those tyres will get to the finish so we had to stop.”

    Horner said that early on it appeared as though Webber had done enough to get himself in to a good position for the closing stages of the race.

    “We thought that starting on the prime would give us more options,” he explained. “He made a good start and a good first couple of corners, and came around seventh.

    “From there on, he was going very well on the primes and we thought we would save the options for later on. He then mirrors [Fernando] Alonso, but we knew at that stage that we didn’t feel it was likely to get to the end on a set of softs.

    “So to put him into fresh air, and really make that new set of tyres work, would be the best chance for him. Unfortunately on lap 45 we had a differential issue that was not behaving quite as well as we liked, and that cost him a bit of time.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  12. Well yet again I found myself missing the race. Then again, watching the highlights, I didn’t really miss much.

    A perfect start for Lewis who never really looked back and a storming pit stop of 2.8 seconds. Crazy indeed and proof for McLaren themselves, that they can do pit stops if they just get everything right.

    What they still have a problem with is timing. The decision to stick Jenson on a 3 stopper was always going to be risky on a track not know for it’s overtaking abilities. OK if the tyres fall off the cliff then there is always a chance Jenson can do something special. That wasn’t the issue here though. What was the problem and one that McLaren seem to be really good at, is piss poor timing.

    You can do 2.8 second stops all day long, but when you release a driver slap bang behind a fast Senna in the Williams, your screwed and made to look completely stupid.

    When it comes to pit stops, the team have all the data and the driver knows what his tyres are like. If he says there is plenty of life left, then you HAVE to consider this. If your chasing for the lead and the the car in front pits, to a certain extent, then yes you must follow. But for a strategy change? You at least have to get the driver in clean air after and for all the world, I can’t figure out why McLaren pitted Jenson when they did. It’s a sod of track to over take and they knew the Williams was quick, so with the knowledge of a quick pit or not, they will have know it’s be close. So WHY effing do it?!?! Crazy and yet more proof, McLaren are abysmal at strategy. I can’t remember the last time I seen an inspired pit stop called by them. Can I think of utterly stupid ones? Hell yeah, I think Lewis and Jenson can think of a few too, WDC costing ones at that.

    And it was yet another chance for Red Bull to piss me off and add Christian Horner to my hate list over the strange ride height handle this week and his and Sebs bottom lip dragging, toys out the pram throwing bullshit and Lewis unlapping himself last week. Sorry, but fuck off RB. Were it not for his Webber’ness, there is nothing to like about this team. Seb is fine when it’s going his way, and there are plenty of other drivers I like less then him, but my god that whole crew ( Mark aside) really do think they are God.

    They do remind me of Ferrari, but without the passion. Ferrari were just being Italian, Red Bull do the same, but with so much less grace and far more of an attitude that they are untouchable and should be aloud to get away with anything.

    Just remember this Christian. Every, single, issue the FIA has had with your car, you have bleated on about how it’s a competition and people are slow to spot things, or you’ve got a weakly written letter saying an illegal thing about your car is OK. Or your engine mapping is perfectly legal. Take all those issues you claim to be your edge over the other team, and fucking tell me how are they OK when you been told to remover every single one!?!!?!?

    Generally it takes 2-3 races at least for something to be spotted and remove for the next race. So that’s at least 9 races you’ve had an unfair advantage over everyone else. Out right cheating? No, taking the piss? Hell yeah.

    Anyways, I must admit, I didn’t pay too much attention to this race, but just to show how crazy the top of the table is, Alonso comes 5th, and yet extends his lead?! Bonkers, but still fascinating. I don’t know what’s gone on at Ferrari, but Stefano Domenicali is breathing a huge sigh of relief. Another crap year, I really didn’t think we’d see him again for 2013. But somehow he and Alonso have turned the team around. I don’t think we are talking Ross Brawn and Schumacher levels, but some magic dust has been sprinkled on that team. All this and to be honest without any help from team mate Massa. But then Rubens Barrichello was in the same boat back then (only much more liked).

    So some more stuff happened and it’s the end of the race. Oh and ‘Maldildo’ shows yet again, he can’t drive for shit. This guy needs to be dumped, shame he’s paying for it.

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