Hungarian GP 2008

[chasefreak]

was it everyone or just me

i just did not enjoy the last 1 min of quali.. there was no punch
massa just did not put a fight

hope so he does the opp in the race. cuz if he does nto then there will be no fun in watching the race.... but the cars in quali 3 were a whole lot slower by almost 2 sec's compared to quali 2

and all opted to be on the harder compound ( which in reality is the soft compound)

[donskar]

I think most of us had some good laughs during the "fire-Massa" thread. Very ironic that if one Ferrari driver had to go right now, I think most of us would vote "drop Kimi."

What is going on with that guy? Ferrari is 20 years away from the days when Enzo tried to pit one team driver against another, so I don't think that is the case. And if one driver is getting preference, one would assume it would be the reigning champ?

Some quirk of the car's performace that suits Massa, but not Kimi?

Maybe Kimi is satisfied that he has achieved his goal and is just on auto-pilot?

Alonso at Ferrari next year?

I'll get up at 0600 local time to watch tomorrow's race, but I might not stay up very long. We might see very little RACING at the front.

[gabsy]

The weather is looking good (sunny) for tomorrow so the result may be fairly predictable.

Piquet looking a long way off the pace in 10th place, he may be fuelled long, a dark horse possibly?

[MattF1]

The weather is looking good (sunny) for tomorrow so the result may be fairly predictable.

Piquet looking a long way off the pace in 10th place, he may be fuelled long, a dark horse possibly?

Maybe, but half a race on the super-soft compound could be a bad idea.

[f1italia]

Whats going on with with Kimi? It just seems he is not pushing as hard as Massa.

[Steven]

Whats going on with with Kimi? It just seems he is not pushing as hard as Massa.

Actually, neither of them have done very well in Q3, with Massa not happy about his pace and Kimi making a mistake in turn 4.

http://www.f1technical.net/news/10048

[De Weberis]

With Massa starting on P3, in the clean side of track, I believe there will be contact with Kova. [-X
Heikki is very tought fighting for positions and I'm afraid if something happens to Massa, people will call Heikki McLaren's hitman.

Kubica is also there, right behind in the dusty P4.

[donskar]

The Q&A with Kimi in autosport.com seems pretty revealing. Kimi's tone is very negative, seems passive or, worse, resigned to not doing well.

I'm thinking more and more that Kimi may feel he has achived his goal and could be thinking about what comes next.

(Yes, I'm aware Kimi is rarely very open or emotional - not an easy read.)

Barring accident or mech failure, Hamilton should have an easy win here.

[JamesS]

With Massa starting on P3, in the clean side of track, I believe there will be contact with Kova. [-X
Heikki is very tought fighting for positions and I'm afraid if something happens to Massa, people will call Heikki McLaren's hitman.

Kubica is also there, right behind in the dusty P4.

Taking Silverstone into consideration, Heikki was very quick off the start.

[Ray]

I hope Heikki gets a podium! [-o< [-o<

[JamesS]

WOW.

Massa got the jump on Lewis at the start to take 1st. He was able to drive away from Lewis. Lewis got a puncture, left front tyre while on his 2nd set of the hard compound gave way. He slipped down to 10th after pitting again to take on fuel + replace tyres for the super soft.

After the guys ahead pitted he ended up in sixth, with Alonso in front. He was able to marginally reduce the gap, but not enough. But then, Massa's engine blows up and he retires with just three laps left to go. Gifting the win to Hekkei and pushing Lewis up into 5th, behind Alonso in 4th.

Hekkei 1st, Glock 2nd, Räikkönen 3rd, Alonso 4th, Hamilton 5th.

Lewis still retains the championship lead.

[vyselegend]

Wow, that was intense!

Big Bravo to Kovalainen, congratulations for his first GP win. Though as much as I like him, I must say this result is quite "Buttonish", and his overall pace is rather disapointing.
It's funny that every times he is on a podium, Raikonen's on it too, and always behind.


Man of the race Timo Glock obviously =D> , whith Massa not far behind. It's ironic that the only engine that broke was the only one that hadn't endured running behind another car. One would logically think his overheating probabilities were lower than his competitors...

Toyota are incredible this WE. Two weeks ago, I wouldn't have put a penny on their fourth place in WCC, but now it seems they will give Renault a run for their money if they really want it. Realise Glock was faster than the Maccas in Q2, and had the same pace as Kovalainen for most of the race! It's just a shame Trulli choose this very week end to struggle a bit, but this is building a very good challenge between the two manufacturers for 4th in WCC...

I think the radical rules change for 2009 make the "season end phenomena" more obvious as in the previous years: Teams which comforted their position already have stopped 2008 development, while those in difficult position are giving everything on the current car.
BMW are in the former case indeed, they probably stopped F108 development since Magny cours or Silverstone. Their showing today was quite pathetic. I suspect (I hope) that the explications of Williams pace lies there too (they were fighting with Force India, for God sake! They were even severly outpaced by Honda & Torro Rosso.) Very different position than BMW, they must have resigned themselves for 7th in WCC and betting everything on the KERS era...

Strange things happened in the pit lane. Sure the race was hot, but I don't think we ever witnessed that much "stand still" fires in one race, I have counted 5 at least.

Also, could someone please show Bourdais how a tear-off works, for him to stop whinning every now and then about poor visibility, and stop pitting for his crew to clean his visor! Seriously... I imagine it must not be funny to have a spread of extingusher on your helmet every pit stop, but tear-off are there for that purpose.

PS: Anybody knows what happened to Alonso on his out lap with supersofts? He was 4 sec up on Raikonen (following the Finn's error) while he pitted, and when Raikonen exited the pits at his turn the next lap he had a 2 sec gap! I know the Ferrari is faster, but come on! not 6 sec a lap... TV only showed Nakajima having a contact with Sutil, but something must have happen to Fernando.

[shotzski]

I'm not a big fan of Massa, but I feel really bad for him. He did all that he could to win, but his luck just ran out. Congrats to Heikki. A well deserved win. Kimi and Lewis were both lucky to be able to finish where they are, considering the situations they were in this afternoon.

[roost89]

Great first lap, the racing seemed to last longer than the usual first corner crunch, which was good. After it was quite a slow race.
The fires were a bit strange!
Very un-lucky race for Massa, he got passed Hamilton and out-paced him (which shows there's still some pace in the Ferrari. Kimi with fastest lap too) until Hamilton got the puncture and then the loss of the engine!

BMW and Williams are not showing their normal pace. I hope it's down to the development of 2009 cars! But can they really drop this far off the pace with a switch of development after such a short period of time?

Toyota are running well! It makes me wonder if their developing their 2009 cars as much as others, while still developing their 2008 cars.

Driver of the day: Glock

[Belatti]

Looking foward an odd winner as some past years have showed
Remember Fernando, Jenson and almost Damon?

Not as odd as I expected, but odd at last

Before the race I have a strange feeling about Kovy, that then Massa dissipated with that magnificent start.