Results of the 2010 Hungarian F1 Grand Prix.
The twelfth race of the 2010 F1 season was the Hungarian Grand Prix, held at the Hungaroring. The circuit is famous for its tight curves and difficulty in overtaking. This played an important factor again in this year's outcome. After a week of controversy surrounding Ferrari and Felipe Massa, regarding Fernando Alonso's 'assisted' win at the German Grand Prix, eyes were on Massa, who was returning to the Hungaroring for the first time after his horrific accident exactly one year ago.
Sebastian Vettel took his seventh pole position this season at the Hungaroring and he looked great throughout the race, until a penalty, frustratingly, lost the race for him. However, Vettel still came in third place. First place was taken by Mark Webber, who drove a solid race, followed by Fernando Alonso. Massa was able to finish the race in fourth place. Although there were no major accidents at the Hungarian Grand Prix, there were plenty of incidents and penalties, some carrying over to the next race, the Belgian Grand Prix.
Vettel took both pole position and the fastest lap at the Hungaroring. He was followed by Webber, Alonso, Massa and Hamilton. Due to the tight nature of the circuit, the grid position is very important and race results were pretty much in line with the starting positions. It was a frustrating weekend for Lewis Hamilton as well, as he dropped out of the race with gearbox trouble in lap 24 and losing his lead in the Drivers' Championship.
The top pack pretty much stayed together, with just a few position changes. Big changes were made by Vitaly Petrov and Kamui Kobayashi. Petrov was able to overtake Hamilton and others, finishing in fifth place. Kobayashi started out 23rd and crawled his way up, finishing a respectable ninth. It was Vitantonio Liuzzi, who lost his wing and forced the deployment of the safety car. This in turn created many incidents: Vettel almost missing the pit stop, Rosberg exiting the pit with a loose rear tyre (which fell off and bounced into the Williams pit and hit a mechanic), Kubica was released too early causing a collision with Adrian Sutil (Sutil had to retire due to this incident), Renault was fined $50,000 for unsafe pit release. As if this wasn't enough, Michael Schumacher almost forced former teammate, Rubens Barrichello, into a wall, earning him a 10 place grid penalty for the next race and scorn from Barrichello.
The more surprising incident involved Vettel, which cost him the race win. Webber had passed Vettel, while he was pitting. Red Bull then decided to hold Vettel back, so that he would back up the field. However, this led Vettel to fall more than ten car lengths behind the safety car and was penalised with a drive through penalty. This was the same penalty Hamilton received in Spain, for using the safety car to his strategic advantage. Vettel ended up rejoining the race behind Alonso and was unable to overtake him.
This gave BMW Sauber eight points, with team mate Pedro de la Rosa finishing in seventh place. With Webber's first place finish and Hamilton's inability to finish the Hungarian Grand Prix, the Drivers' Championship has been significantly shaken up. Hamilton gives up his lead to Webber, who now has 161, to Hamilton's 157. Third place is still Vettel, with 151 points, closing the gap with Hamilton. Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso are in fourth and fifth place, respectively. Jaime Alguersuari scored his first points of the season, with his seventh place finish. Seven drivers remain with zero points.
With its first and third place finish, Red Bull finally overtakes McLaren-Mercedes in the Constructors' Championship. Red Bull is in first place with 312 points and McLaren-Mercedes in second place with 304 points. Ferrari, even with its second and fourth places finishes in Hungary, remains in third place with 238 points. The top three teams are now solidifying their positions, with the gap between third and fourth places significantly increasing. Fourth place Mercedes now has 132 points and fifth place Renault 106, making a catch up to the top three teams now near impossible, with only seven races left in the season. The three zero-point teams remain unchanged: Lotus-Cosworth, HRT-Cosworth and Virgin-Cosworth.
Results from Hungaroring
- Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault) 1:41:05.571s
- Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) +17.8s
- Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull-Renault) +19.2s
- Felipe Massa (Ferrari) +27.4s
- Vitaly Petrov (Renault) Retired +1:13.1s
- Nico Hulkenberg (Williams-Cosworth) +1:16.7s
- Pedro de la Rosa (BMW Sauber-Ferrari) +1 lap
- Jenson Button (McLaren-Mercedes) +1 lap
- Kamui Kobayashi (BMW Sauber-Ferrari) +1 lap
- Rubens Barrichello (Williams-Cosworth) +1 lap
- Michael Schumacher (Mercedes GP) +1 lap
- Sebastian Buemi (Toro Rosso- Ferrari) +1 lap
- Vitantonio Liuzzi (Force India-Mercedes) +1 lap
- Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus-Cosworth) +3 laps
- Jarno Trulli (Lotus-Cosworth) +3 laps
- Timo Glock (Virgin-Cosworth) +3 laps
- Bruno Senna (Hispania-Cosworth) +4 laps
- Lucas di Grassi (Virgin-Cosworth) +4 laps
- Sakon Yamamoto (Hispania-Cosworth) +4 laps
- Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) Retired, lap 23
- Robert Kubica (Renault) Retired, lap 23
- Nico Rosberg (Mercedes GP) Retired, lap 15
- Adrian Sutil (Force India-Mercedes) Retired, lap 15
- Jaime Alguersuari (Torro Rosso-Ferrari) Retired, lap 1
NOTE: Michael Schumacher will receive a 10 place grid penalty for the next race.