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Fernando
Alonso produced a sensational drive to finish second in
the Hungarian Grand Prix this afteroon, while Felipe
Massa delivered a faultless performance on his return to
the Hungaroring, finishing where he started in fourth
place. In fact, the thirty points the Scuderia takes
into the summer break is probably slightly more than
expected, given the week long dominance of the Red
Bulls, who finished first and third courtesy of Mark
Webber and Sebastian Vettel.
The race was more interesting than might have been
expected at this twisty track, where overtaking is so
difficult. As everyone in the Ferrari garage had hoped,
starting from third on the clean side of the track,
Fernando got the jump on Webber at the start to go
second behind Vettel, while Felipe stayed fourth. When
the Safety Car came out on lap 15 for debris to be
cleared, almost the entire field pitted at the same
time, which caused chaos, as Robert Kubica in the
Renault and Adrian Sutil in the Force India collided,
while Nico Rosberg lost a wheel that bounced through the
pits. Webber did not stop and was thus in the lead,
while the run of pit stops saw Lewis Hamilton in the
McLaren get ahead of Felipe, after Ferrari staged a
double pit stop which went off smoothly. However, the
Englishman would later park his car at the side of the
track, so that Felipe moved back to fourth where he
stayed to the flag.
Webber had opted to stay out on track at this time and
thus led from Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton and Felipe.
However, on the Safety Car’s last lap, while Webber
stuck close on its tail, Vettel left almost half a pit
straight distance between him and his team-mate,
evidently trying to help him build up a big enough lead
before his pit stop. However, this was against the
regulations and the German was given a drive-through
penalty, which promoted Fernando to second place, with
Felipe around 2.5 seconds behind the Red Bull. The pace
of the Red Bulls was such that Vettel had soon closed
right up on Fernando so that, in a slower car, the
Spaniard then had to play a cat and mouse game with the
German to keep him behind him for around half the 70 lap
race: it was a bravura performance, dealing with the
relentless pressure of a faster car on his gearbox.
Webber however was well out in front, having built up a
big enough lead to hang onto first place comfortably,
after changing tyres.
Fifth place went to Vitaly Petrov in the Renault. Nico
Hulkenberg was sixth for Williams, the last driver to
finish on the same lap as the leaders. The rest of the
points went to Pedro De La Rosa, Jenson Button, Kamui
Kobayashi and Rubens Barrichello in tenth place. Going
into the compulsory summer break, with a four week gap
to the thirteenth round of the World Championship, the
Belgian Grand Prix, Fernando’s great drive means he is
now just twenty points off the leader in the Drivers’
championship and indeed, no less than five drivers are
all within these 20 points, so the rest of the year
promises to be a fascinating fight. Felipe has also
moved up to sit behind his team-mate in sixth place,
while Ferrari is still third in the Constructors’
classification.
Stefano Domenicali: “It would have been
nice to dedicate a win to Lupo Montezemolo, the son of
our President, but it was not possible, because, we have
to admit it, this weekend, Red Bull was stronger than
us, but we will definitely try again in Spa! All the
same, we are very pleased to have picked up 30 points
which came at the end of a race that was very closely
contested from the first to the last lap. I wish to
congratulate Felipe, both as a driver and as a man: he
managed a very difficult race without making the
slightest mistake and as a man, he proved able to tackle
in the best possible way a week when he was under a lot
of pressure. Fernando was extraordinary: even though his
car had a lower performance level, he held off Vettel
for over thirty laps, not forgetting his great start.
Our aim today was to close down the gap to the leaders
in both championships and that’s exactly what we did.
The situation is once again more open now, but we are
well aware that there is still a lot to do. The Red
Bulls have always been very strong and I am sure McLaren
will return to top form. We must stay focussed on our
own work, always giving our utmost effort; on the track
trying to exploit every opportunity while at Maranello
pushing hard on the development of the F10. Finally, our
thoughts are with our young driver, Jules Bianchi, who
had a serious accident in yesterday’s GP2 race: he must
be strong at a difficult time like this, but he can
count on the knowledge that Ferrari is there to support
him.”
Fernando Alonso: “This is a very
important result. Luck owed us a lot and today it made a
first payment, or at least a partial one. 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. 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: here
the Red Bulls were unbeatable and although McLaren
struggled today, they will be very strong again in Spa
and Monza, where there are long straights that suit
their car. We will have some updates in Belgium: we hope
they will allow us to close the gap to the best. It was
important to finish this very tough month of July in the
best way possible: the break is coming at just the right
time. The final part of the championship will be very
interesting, with five drivers all within 20 points.”
Felipe Massa: “This is my best result
at this Grand Prix and I am happy that it comes one year
after my accident. All things considered, this was a
positive result. At the start, I did not have much grip,
but I expected that, given I was on the dirty side of
the track. Today, against rivals who were really flying
we did the most we could. I think the decision to pit
when the race was under the Safety Car was the right
one: we could not have done the same as Webber, staying
out for such a long time on the soft tyres. It’s true
that with the double pit-stop, I lost a place to
Hamilton, but then for once, luck was on my side and I
got the place back. A week ago in Hockenheim and at the
start of the season in Bahrain, we were the quickest,
but apart from that, the Red Bulls have always been
strongest. We have to continue to push on the
development front to catch up: in four weeks times in
Spa, we will see where we are compared to them. My
championship definitely does not stop here: it has been
a very special week for me and this has been a positive
weekend for me and the team.”
Chris Dyer: “A great performance from
both our drivers. Today we got a result that was
definitely better than the one our car should have been
capable of delivering and Felipe and Fernando both had
to be perfect to bring home these 30 points. When the
Safety-Car came out we immediately called in Fernando
because it was the best solution, while with Felipe we
also had the option to keep him out on track: he also
came in and thus lost a place to Hamilton, but got it
back when the Englishman retired. The soft tyres
performed as expected, without really showing any real
signs of degradation. However, we probably could not
have done such a long stint as Webber: for us it was
important to control the situation and react to what our
rivals did.”
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