| ATLAS F1 Volume 6, Issue 33 | |||
| The Hungarian GP Review | |||
| Hungaroring, August 11-13, 2000 | by Pablo Elizalde, Spain |
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It may not seem so, but, yes, what we saw at Hungary last Sunday was the same kind of motor sports we enjoyed two weeks earlier at the Hockenheim circuit. Indeed, it is hard to accept that, after the thrill, the emotion, and the excitement experienced in Germany, Formula One can become such a bore.
The weather was perfect at the Hungaroring (although too sunny, some may say); there were no incidents or important retirements, no bizarre events as in Germany, and little action whatsoever. And while the Hungaroring may be similar to Monaco, without the glamour and the history it's hard to understand why it still has a place on the Formula One calendar. Nonetheless, if anyone benefited from the orderly procession that was the Hungarian Grand Prix, it's Mika Hakkinen. And he could have fooled us too! Earlier in the weekend, the Finn seemed to be lost during qualifying and the warm up, only to make a staggering start and sweep the opposition when it really mattered. "Normally the perfect start doesn't happen more than once a year and after my get away two weeks ago at Hockenheim I thought that my quota had been used up, " confessed Hakkinen. However, Hakkinen did not win the race on the first corner, and as Schumacher said, it would have been only a matter of time before the Finn took the lead. The German had nothing to do but admit his rival was simply the fastest on the track, and to concede the championship's lead for the first time this season. The Ferrari driver was somewhat relieved to complete the first lap, let alone to finish in the points after four barren races, but these six points might not be enough at the end of the season, considering Hakkinen's and McLaren's current form. The silver cars have the edge over the Ferraris on race trim, and a new-found bullet-proof reliability. Furthermore, Schumacher has to fight against both McLaren drivers without much help from his teammate, so no wonder the rest of the season looks uphill for the German. Rubens Barrichello knew that, despite his fantastic win in Germany, he would have to play Ferrari's game, and in Hungary he faced the cruel reality. Not only was he outqualified by Schumacher by nearly a whole second, he could not get close to him or his McLaren rivals at any point during the race. Finishing some forty seconds behind his teammate is no good news for Ferrari, regardless of Schumacher's renowned ability to "do it" all on his own; McLaren have the upper hand right now and the German will need all the help he can get if he is to put an end to Ferrari's 21-year WC draught. Qualifying One single lap was all Michael Schumacher needed, to grab a dominant pole position during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, the 28th pole of his career. The German waited for half an hour before jumping onto the track, setting an amazing time, and then spent the rest of the session watching his rivals incapable of getting close to him. On such a slippery circuit as the Hungaroring, where is so difficult to get a traffic-free lap, Schumacher made it look too easy, and with the help of some clouds that made the track cooler, the Ferrari driver got his fifth pole on the year, something he had not achieved since 1994. With a track temperature of nearly 40 degrees it was not surprising having to wait for 15 minutes before the first car hit the track. However, the thousands of devoted Finnish fans could not believe their eyes when Mika Hakkinen was one of the first to come out, doing what is normally Minardi's job. "I did that because we had made some radical changes to the set-up and I wanted to evaluate them," explained Hakkinen, who struggled to find the right balance during the practice sessions. Despite the changes and a clear track, the Finn was not able to put a significant time. Many drivers must have thought that if the World Champion was on track it was a good moment to go out and try, and so they did. Alex Wurz, Jos Verstappen and Ricardo Zonta left their garages, but it was not until Ralf Schumacher came out, that a decent time was set. The Williams driver, whose car presented all sort of additional winglets in order to maximise the downforce, put himself in first place 23 minutes into the session. Two minutes later both David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello took the track and the first two positions, the Scot being the first driver to do it within the 1:18 bracket, with the Brazilian four tenths slower in second place. Only after half the session was completed did Michael Schumacher decide to leave the pits, and it was the right moment to do so. As he began his first flying lap, the clouds partially covered the track, as he managed to beat Coulthard's time by more than six tenths of a second. However, despite the perfect timing and time, Schumacher reckoned he could have improved: "On a circuit like this you always feel you can work harder to improve the setup. 'Perfect' is a different matter." Perfect or not, the German's time was out of reach for anybody else for the rest of the session. With 22 minutes to go, Hakkinen, who complained of the poor balance of his McLaren throughout the session, came out again and elevated himself to third place, still behind teammate Coulthard. The Scot himself improved on his previous best moments later, but his time was only good enough to reduce the huge difference between himself and Schumacher. Barrichello also improved time but not position and was still in fifth place, right behind Ralf Schumacher. Michael Schumacher took to the track again with some 18 minutes left, but he was not capable of improving his own pole position time. Even so, the German set the second fastest lap of the session, making it clear who was the class of the field on Saturday. "It was good to take the pole for this race, where it so difficult to overtake, " said Schumacher after equalling Juan Manuel Fangio's record of 28 pole positions, behind Ayrton Senna with 65, Jim Clark and Alain Prost with 33 and Nigel Mansell with 32. "I am obviously delighted to be on pole, too, as it is the basis for a good race. I just hope I can make a good start this time," added the Ferrari driver. David Coulthard, who got a $2000 fine for speeding in the pitlane, did get closer to Schumacher's time on his last attempt, but still ended the session more than three tenths of a second behind. "We did not optimise our car on low fuel settings," explained the Scot. "I had too much understeer on the first and second segments of the lap." Hakkinen, once again outqualified by his teammate, was not happy with his car, despite having made many changed to its set-up during the session, "but I hope we are reasonable in race trim," confessed the Finn. Ralf Schumacher was an impressive fourth with the Williams, while Rubens Barrichello was brought back to earth, ending the session more than eight tenths slower than his Ferrari teammate. "It was a difficult qualifying session for me, and unfortunately I was slowed by traffic on my last run," complained the Brazilian. In sixth place was Heinz-Harald Frentzen with the Jordan, followed by Giancarlo Fisichella with the Benetton, and Jenson Button in the second Williams - the young Brit doing a fine job on yet another unknown circuit for him. Qualifying Results
The Race The race was exactly what the qualifying session made us expect: a one man show. However, that man was not Michael Schumacher, but rather Mika Hakkinen. The expectation to see what would happen in the first corner was high, and many expected to see a titanic battle between the front row starters Schumacher and Coulthard. Nonetheless, as was the case in Germany two weeks ago, Mika Hakkinen was once again faster than his rivals and from third place jumped into the lead at the end of the straight. Schumacher, who failed to make it round the first corner in the last two races, preferred to let Hakkinen through. Coulthard, starting from the dusty part of the track, was nearly overtaken by Ralf Schumacher, but, after racing wheel to wheel into the first corner, the Scot remained ahead. While the start was incident-free throughout the grid, a couple of corners later Jacques Villeneuve ran into the back of Pedro de la Rosa's Arrows, damaging both cars and forcing them to pit to fix the damage. Villeneuve replaced the front wing of his BAR and rejoined the track, while de la Rosa had to live with a very unstable car during the rest of the race. After a couple of uneventful laps, it was surprising to see that Hakkinen was beginning to pull away from his rivals, specially considering he was off the pace during practice and qualifying. By lap eight, the McLaren driver had a lead of nearly four seconds over Schumacher, who was closely followed by Coulthard. Ralf Schumacher was fourth, ahead of Rubens Barrichello and Heinz-Harald Frentzen, these three already far behind the leaders. Meanwhile, seventh place man Giancarlo Fisichella spun off the track at the end of the straight and Jenson Button avoided hitting the Benetton by inches. The Italian, suffering from a poor brake balance, rejoined the race in 14th place, while Eddie Irvine took advantage of this incident and elevated himself to seventh place with the Jaguar. Not surprisingly, the first car to retire would be Jean Alesi's Prost, which spent more time in the pits than on track before finally calling it a day. In fact, the French team is starting to look more and more like a sporadic group of mates getting together for the GP weekends, and even the Minardis seems to be ahead when it comes to teamwork, let alone reliability. Meanwhile, the action - for lack of a better word - remained unaltered on the track, until Fisichella spun off again and decided to come into the pits to have his car checked. Further back, Villeneuve showed that it was possible to overtake on the Hungaroring, though he passed the poor handling Arrows of de la Rosa and his own teammate Ricardo Zonta. Up in front, Hakkinen continued extending his lead, seven seconds by lap 20, as the first round of pit stops was about to begin. Nick Heidfeld, in the remaining Prost, was the first one to come in for new tyres, but as he tried to rejoin the track, his car would not engage first gear due to an electrical problem and he retired, not before millions of people saw the French car limping down the pitlane. Twenty two laps gone and Prost started packing. Perhaps the positive side of this was that Alain had some extra time to try and find an engine deal for next year. Michael Schumacher came in on lap 27, and he had built a gap to Coulthard just big enough to keep second place after the Scot made his pit stop. Hakkinen stopped four laps later, had no problems and maintained his advantage. When the first round of pit stops ended the only driver who benefited from a faster service was Barrichello, who rejoined the track in front of Ralf Schumacher's Williams. Elsewhere, the high speed procession resumed unchanged until Fisichella's race came to an end due to handling problems. While Hakkinen was now out of reach, Coulthard began to close on Schumacher, who apparently was using a worse set of tyres than the McLaren driver. However, on lap 39, Coulthard lost a couple of seconds while trying to lap Marc Gene. The Minardi driver also held Irvine for four laps, for what he received a 10-second stop and go penalty. The Spaniard explained after the race that his radio was broken and he was not sure whether he was being lapped or fighting for position. Coulthard's only chance of overtaking Schumacher came at the second round of pit spots, which started on lap 47, when Barrichello came in for the second time. Schumacher entered three laps later, and despite a slight slower stop than Coulthard, he rejoined in second place, though more than 20 seconds behind Hakkinen. Further back, Ralf was still running fifth and Frentzen sixth, while Button's Williams began to suffer from throttle problems, which allowed Jarno Trulli, the only driver on a one stop strategy, to take seventh place away from the young Brit. Furthermore, Button later lost another spot to Irvine. Though Coulthard was breathing down Schumacher's neck, there was nothing he could do to overtake, and the German didn't put a foot wrong. Neither did Hakkinen, however, who cruised for the last 20 laps to achieve the 17th Grand Prix win of his career and the third this season, and certainly, one his finest. Not only for the way he drove during the race, but also for the magnificent job both he and his team carried out overnight, turning a struggling car into the best of field. "Once I took the lead I was comfortable throughout the race and the entire team has done a fantastic job the whole weekend to optimise the car," said the Finn who, for the first time this season, took the lead of the championship. Ironically, Michael Schumacher maintained the lead in the drivers classification after failing to finish three races in a row. In Hungary he did finish, and nevertheless he was relegated from the lead. The German remained sportive, however, admitting his rival's superiority this time around: "you have to say that today we were not fast enough to win the race. Mika was simply the fastest man on the circuit today." David Coulthard had to be content with third, the Scot blaming the slow traffic for not being able to overtake Schumacher. "Michael caught the traffic well, in that he caught them all in and around Turn 5, while I never got the chance to overtake them until we came out of Turn 10. That meant there was always one second lost in that sector," Coulthard said. "That sometimes makes a difference. But I started third and finished third. That's all I deserve, really." Rubens Barrichello finished a very distant fourth, and he was rather disappointed after his fantastic win in Germany: "To finish fourth after winning the last race is not fantastic but it was the best I could do. It was a tough race in the heat. I ran out of water halfway through the race and I lost about one and a half kilos." Ralf Schumacher returned to the points after struggling in the last couple of races and was happy with the result: "I am pleased with my fifth place even if I have lost one position to Barrichello, because I was delayed in my first pit stop due to a problem with a wheel, which didn't engage immediately." The last point went to Heinz-Harald Frentzen in the Jordan, and, considering the reliability of the McLarens and Ferraris, it was all he could hope for. "This was the maximum we could achieve, so I'm pretty happy," said Frentzen. "It was one of the toughest races of the season and, given the problems we have with the tyres in such high temperatures, it was good to get a point at the end." Mika Hakkinen now leads Michael Schumacher by only two points, and with only five races to go, the championship will begin all over again at Spa in two weeks time. "I have been keeping my head all the time and concentrating on my work in order to try to win the races," Hakkinen said after the race. "That's what I am going to do for the rest of the season." That is how he changed it all around in less than a month, when there were even rumours about his retirement. Now he is closer than ever to his third consecutive title and, after watching him perform in Hungary, who can bet against him?
Fastest Race Laps
Pit-Stops Times
Sector Times and Speeds
Before the start: As the grid is forming up Gaston Mazzacane suffers from a gearbox problem and has to switch to the spare and start from the pit lane. Johnny Herbert also switches to his spare because of a leak in his race car but he then switches back to the race car.
Lap 1: At the start Mika Hakkinen makes the best start while David Coulthard, on the dusty side of the track, is slower away. Hakkinen dives ahead of Michael Schumacher, squeezing through on the inside to take the lead. Behind them Ralf Schumacher goes through the first corner side-by-side but Coulthard holds on to emerge ahead on the run down to the second corner. Rubens Barrichello holds on to fifth ahead of Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Giancarlo Fisichella. At the chicane Jacques Villeneuve and Pedro de la Rosa collide. Both cars are damaged and have to pit for repairs.
Lap 8: Hakkinen has built a lead of three seconds while Schumacher and Coulthard follow. These three have pulled away from Ralf Schumacher, Barrichello and Frentzen. Seventh-placed Fisichella spins and Jenson Button goes wide in an apparently unrelated moment. This enables Eddie Irvine to move to seventh place in his Jaguar. Fisichella rejoins in 14th place.
Lap 9: Jean Alesi pits from 13th place and drops to the tail of the field with steering problems. He retires after two more stops to try to cure the problem. At the tail of the field the recovering Villeneuve passes de la Rosa for last place.
Lap 12: Fisichella goes off again, bouncing over a gravel trap and losing 13th position to Johnny Herbert.
Lap 15: Fisichella pits to try to solve brake problems. He rejoins in 19th place.
Lap 19: Hakkinen's lead is seven seconds. Down at the back Villeneuve overtakes Fisichella to take 19th place.
Lap 20: Villeneuve overtakes Ricardo Zonta to grab 18th position.
Lap 22: Nick Heidfeld pits from 15th place. The car stalls as he tries to rejoin and the German retires at the exit of the pit lane.
Lap 24: Irvine pits, dropping from seventh place to 11th. At the back Jos Verstappen also pits.
Lap 27: Hakkinen is nearly 10 seconds ahead when Michael Schumacher pits, the Ferrari driver having built up a lead of around eight seconds over a struggling Coulthard. Michael rejoins in fifth just behind Barrichello.
Lap 28: Third-placed Ralf Schumacher pits and drops to seventh position as his stop is three seconds longer than normal.
Lap 29: Barrichello pits and emerges ahead of Ralf Schumacher.
Lap 31: Hakkinen stops and Coulthard goes into the lead for one lap. Michael Schumacher is third ahead of Frentzen. Fifth-placed Jenson Button also stops. He re-emerges in eighth position ahead of Irvine again.
Lap 32: Coulthard and Frentzen both pit. Hakkinen goes back into the lead with Michael Schumacher second. Coulthard rejoins third ahead of Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher, Frentzen and Button.
Lap 34: Villeneuve overtakes Zonta again, having dropped behind him during the pit stops. At the tail of the field Fisichella retires.
Lap 39: Hakkinen's lead grows to 17 seconds, while Coulthard finds his second set of tyres to be more competitive and closes up on Michael Schumacher. He is badly held up by Marc Gene, who later gets a 10-second stop-go penalty for ignoring blue flags. Barrichello is a lonely fourth ahead of Ralf Schumacher and Frentzen. Further back it emerges that Jarno Trulli is on a one-stop strategy.
Lap 43: Trulli pits and drops from ninth to 12th.
Lap 47: Barrichello pits for the second time, signalling the start of the stops for the frontrunners.
Lap 50: The Schumacher Brothers both pit.
Lap 51: Coulthard pits and emerges just behind Michael Schumacher.
Lap 53: Hakkinen stops and emerges in the lead. He is over 20 seconds ahead of Schumacher who is under pressure from Coulthard. Barrichello was fourth with Frentzen fifth and Ralf Schumacher sixth.
Lap 56: Frentzen stops and drops behind Ralf Schumacher again. Further back Button begins to suffer from throttle problems and comes under pressure from Trulli who has risen to seventh place thanks to his one-stop strategy.
Lap 59: The order is the same but the battle for 13th place results in Johnny Herbert spinning under pressure from Villeneuve.
Lap 67: Herbert does the same again, under pressure from Jos Verstappen.
Lap 70: Mazzacane retires with a smoky engine failure.
Lap 74: Trulli catches Button and overtakes him for seventh place.
Lap 75: Irvine passes Button to move to eighth.
Lap 77: Hakkinen wins his 17th Grand Prix victory and takes the lead in the World Championship.
MCLAREN (Mika Hakkinen 1, David Coulthard 3):
Reigning world champion Hakkinen took the lead in the drivers' standings for the first time this season with a faultless drive. He took the lead at the first corner from third on the grid and was never challenged.
Coulthard lost a place from second to third at the start. The Scot almost overtook Michael Schumacher after his second pit-stop on lap 51, but the German retained his place by three-tenths of a second.
FERRARI (Michael Schumacher 2, Rubens Barrichello 4):
Schumacher failed to keep his pole position at the start and the German was more than two seconds down after six laps. After taking his pit-stops before Hakkinen, he failed to threaten the lead.
Brazilian Barrichello started from fifth and almost took third with a quick start. Coulthard and Ralf Schumacher closed the gap, however, and he was forced to wait until his first pit stop to take fourth place with a fast tyre change.
WILLIAMS (Ralf Schumacher 5, Jenson Button 9):
Schumacher lost a place at each of his two pit-stops but recovered to overtake Heinz-Harald Frentzen for fifth place in the last third of the race.
Button produced another impressive drive on his debut at the Hungaroring. The Briton ran in seventh place for most of the race before a late throttle problem lost him two places.
JORDAN (Heinz-Harald Frentzen 6, Jarno Trulli 7):
German Frentzen earned his first points finish since the Spanish Grand Prix in May with a consistent drive. He maintained his sixth-place start and never looked like missing out on points.
Trulli recovered from a bad start when he dropped a place to 13th to finish strongly. The Italian benefited from Button's problems to finish seventh but also had to see off Eddie Irvine's Jaguar.
JAGUAR (Eddie Irvine 8, Johnny Herbert retired):
Irvine drove aggressively as he aimed to impress watching team boss Neil Ressler and the Briton was seventh at one point after Giancarlo Fisichella lost control of his Benetton.
Long-suffering Herbert retired for the fourth time in five races, a mechanical problem ending his race after 67 laps.
SAUBER (Mika Salo 10, Pedro Diniz retired):
Salo recovered from a bad start when he lost two places from ninth on the grid to earn an encouraging finish. The Finn battled throughout with the Benetton of Alexander Wurze.
Brazilian Diniz retired after 67 laps. The 44 degrees Celsius trackside heat caused his engine to blow.
BENETTON (Alexander Wurz 11, Giancarlo Fisichella retired):
Austrian Wurz had a problem-free race but failed to make an impression. He had a close battle with Sauber's Salo.
Italian Fisichella suffered his third consecutive retirement after a brake problem. He spun on lap eight because of lack of grip, eventually completing 31 laps.
BAR (Jacques Villeneuve 12, Ricardo Zonta 14):
Villeneuve recovered from an early mistake to make up 10 places. The Canadian hit the back of the Arrows of Pedro de la Rosa at the first corner and, after pitting, rejoined in last place.
Brazilian Zonta failed to make an impression after starting in 18th and making up just four places through the 77 laps. He finished two laps down.
ARROWS (Jos Verstappen 13, Pedro de la Rosa 16):
Verstappen immediately made up two places from his 20th place on the grid. The Dutchman continued to battle through the midfield to earn an impressive finish.
Spaniard de la Rosa finished last, four laps down, after being hit by Villeneuve's BAR at the first corner. He was forced to pit and finished 16th after rejoining in 21st.
MINARDI (Marc Gene 15, Gaston Mazzacane retired):
Gene finished in 15th, three laps down, after a 10-second stop-go penalty thwarted any chances of a top-10 finish. The Spaniard was penalised for ignoring blue flags and blocking Irvine.
Argentine Mazzacane suffered his first retirement in three races as his engine blew after 68 laps. He had previously been battling at the back of the field.
PROST (Nick Heidfeld retired, Jean Alesi retired):
German Heidfeld failed to finish for a third consecutive race after stalling in the pits and retiring with an electrical problem after 22 laps.
Veteran Frenchman Alesi retired after 11 laps with steering and suspension problems. Alesi pitted three times in an attempt to solve the problem.
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| Pablo Elizalde | © 2000 Kaizar.Com, Incorporated. |
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