Felipe Massa OK after scary incident at the
Hungaroring. In the second round of qualifying in the Hungarian
Grand Prix Massa was struck on the helmet by a suspension spring that had
fallen from Rubens Barrichello's Brawn, at a high-speed part of the track.
He subsequently crashed head on into a tire wall. Felipe appeared to be
knocked unconscious by the flying debris. The debris hit him and he
immediately went motionless as his Ferrari began a straight line towards
the tire wall. Felipe's car hit went off track bouncing over the
curbing, which appeared to 'wake' him up. Skid marks back across the
track, over the runoff area, and smack into the tire barrier. Felipe
was not moving after impact as his engine continued at a very high rev.
Track workers immediately began waving for the medical crew to come and
help out. The on-track medical crew wasted little time getting to
the semi conscious driver. Felipe was still motionless in the cock
pit as medical staff attended to him. After about five minutes,
Felipe was removed from the wrecked car and taken by ambulance to a
waiting medical helicopter. He was taken by air to the hospital.
Later press reports from Ferrari claim that Felipe is doing fine, although
woozy with a surface abrasion above his left eye.
Barrichello subsequently visited Massa in the medical centre and
reported that he is conscious and talking.
Renault's Fernando Alonso won his first pole in two years
after a chaotic qualifying session for Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix at
Hungaroring.
Timing and scoring failed in the closing minutes of the third segment,
creating utter confusion among the 10 drivers competing in the final
stint. Alonso, a two-time Formula One world champion, was confirmed the
pole sitter shortly after the session ended.
The Spaniard lapped the 2.722-mile, 16-turn course in one minute,
21.569 seconds for his first pole since the 2007 Italian Grand Prix when
he drove for McLaren at the time.
"It was quite a stressful qualifying to be honest," Alonso
said. "The times were not working in Q3, and we were in parc ferme
(closed park), chatting among ourselves to ask what times you did and try
to find what position you were in."
Qualifying was also marred by Felipe Massa's high speed crash just
before the conclusion of the second segment. Massa, from Ferrari, ran off
the course in turn four and slammed head on into the tire barrier after
being struck on the head by a piece of flying debris, believed to be from
the rear of Rubens Barrichello's Brawn GP car. The Brazilian was awake and
alert when he was lifted from his car. He was transported by helicopter to
a nearby hospital for further evaluation.
International Automobile Federation (FIA) and Ferrari team officials
said Massa was in stable condition. His incident delayed the start of Q3
by 20 minutes.
Alonso finished ahead of Red Bull Racing teammates Sebastian Vettel,
who qualified second, and Mark Webber, taking the third position.
"It was a pretty difficult start to the weekend, since I was
struggling with the balance of the car during (Friday's) practice,"
Vettel said. "I am very confident about the race, and we should be
good for tomorrow."
Webber captured his long-awaited maiden F1 win two weeks ago in
Germany.
"Sebastian and I are in a position tomorrow to capitalize on some
good points hopefully."
Defending world champion Lewis Hamilton, from McLaren, will start
fourth, followed by Williams' Nico Rosberg and Hamilton's teammate, Heikki
Kovalainen, the defending race winner. Kimi Raikkonen, from Ferrari, took
seventh.
Brawn endured its worst qualifying effort this year with Jenson Button,
the current world championship points leader, starting eighth, while
Barrichello failed to make it out of Q2, as he will roll off 13th.
Jamie Alguersuari, who will become the youngest driver ever to compete
in an F1 grand prix at age 19, will start last in the 20-car field.
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro comes to the tenth round of
the Formula 1 World Championship on the back of an encouraging third
place podium finish for Felipe Massa in Germany. However, this season,
every race weekend seems to have its own story, often bearing little
relation to what has gone before. In theory, the F60 should be well
suited to the characteristics and demands of Budapest’s Hungaroring,
as this is the circuit that has the most in common with the tight and
twisty streets of Monaco. Back in May, it was there, on the streets of
the Principality that Ferrari looked at its most competitive this
season. The low speed nature of the track and the performance of the two
softest tyres Bridgestone has on offer this year will again be factors
in the Scuderia’s favour, possibly enhanced this weekend by the fact
we can expect higher temperatures than in Monte Carlo. Development on
the car has naturally moved forward since then and in Budapest, the F60
will see further updates with the introduction of new aerodynamic
components (changes on the floor and the rear wing) and a revised rear
suspension.
Just like Monaco, a good grid position is vital here,
not just because of the tight track layout, but also because the
Hungaroring is notoriously slippery off the racing line, in part due to
the sand and dust blown onto it from the surrounding land and also down
to the rubber “marbles” that build up from the tyres during the
course of the race. Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session will
therefore be a stern test of driver nerve and team strategy. Being near
the front of the grid is vital, but so is being on the clean side,
because past history shows that drivers who qualify with an even-number
start slot can often lose position within seconds of the lights going
out at the start. The main straight was lengthened a few years ago,
which should favour teams, who like Ferrari, are still using KERS. It is
a cliché that Hungary produces dull racing, but that is not always the
case: Nigel Mansell, who often defied convention, proved it is possible
to win here from a seemingly hopeless position and in 1989, he came
through from twelfth on the grid, pulling off a stunning pass on Ayrton
Senna on his way to a memorable Ferrari victory, the first of five for
the Scuderia at this event. If that victory was typical of the
Englishman’s hard charging approach, the next Ferrari win, in 1998 was
a classic example of Michael Schumacher’s more clinical style and two
stints run at qualifying pace, working in perfect harmony with an
inspired strategy call from pit wall, as the German snatched the win
with a then unheard of three stop strategy. In fact, this year, since
the pit lane speed limit has been raised to 100 km/h, the three-stopper
could well be a more generally popular choice.
In past years, the dust and dirt has meant that Friday
morning’s practice session at the Hungaroring has not provided the
fans with much track action to keep them entertained. However, this
year, with the ban on testing, the three hours of free practice on the
first day serve not only to set up the cars and prepare for qualifying
and the race, but also to evaluate components and ideas that might only
be used later in the season. For this reason, dirty or not, the first
practice day could be busier than usual this weekend. Another reason for
plenty of laps is that this winter will be the first time testing is
banned in the last two months of the year and with work now well
underway throughout the grid on the 2010 cars, evaluation of ideas for
next year can also find room on the day’s job sheet, as was already
the case for the Scuderia and other teams two weeks ago at the
Nurburgring. The test ban has forced teams to introduce development
components onto the cars based purely on the results from the Wind
Tunnel, Computational Fluid Dynamics and simulation programmes and, for
Ferrari, this has involved a major change in culture, given that, as the
first team to have had its own test facility at Fiorano for decades now,
much of its development work has been based on results from the test
track.
Another reason to cram in as much work as possible this
weekend is that we are heading for the first ever official F1
“shutdown” when the Gestione Sportiva will cease all work from 3rd
to 16th August. The new rules ban all teams from carrying out any work
on the technical, R and D or manufacturing side of the team, as part of
the new age of F1, following proposals by the teams within FOTA. In the
past, while there might have been a break in the calendar, work at the
factories continued full pelt throughout the summer months, so this
year, the staff and their families should be able to enjoy a proper
summer break. The downside of this magnanimous gesture is that one loses
two weeks work at a critical point in the development of next year’s
car, but the rules are the same for everyone.
As mentioned before, Michael Schumacher won in 1998 and
the German also took two more wins here at the wheel of a Prancing Horse
car, while Rubens Barrichello was also victorious. Current driver Kimi
Raikkonen has also stood on the top step of the podium, receiving a huge
welcome from the crowd, which, at the height of the holiday season,
usually sees hordes of Finns making the trip to turn this into something
of a home race for Kimi and his Finnish F1 predecessors. His win did not
come in red, although he finished second and third for the Scuderia in
2007 and ’08 respectively. As for Felipe Massa, this race has not been
kind to him with seventh his best finish. Particularly tough on the
Brazilian was last year’s event when he was just a handful of
kilometres from a comfortable win, having dominated the race, when a
con-rod let go, leading to engine failure. He will be hoping to make up
for that this weekend as indeed will be the whole team in pursuit of its
realistic target of moving up to third place in the Constructors’
Championship.
“The
Hungaroring is one of the most demanding circuits for drivers because you’re
busy throughout the entire lap. It’s a bit like a kart circuit – there are
lots of twists and turns and the only place to relax is along the start/finish
straight, which is quite short. It’s also quite low-grip which makes
overtaking particularly tricky. But I really enjoy the place – I won here in
2007 and was on pole last year. It’s a circuit that really rewards consistent,
precise driving – push too hard and you tend to lose rather than gain time.
Given the potential we showed in Germany last weekend, I’m hopeful of getting
a result that demonstrates the improvement we’ve made over the past few
weeks.”
Heikki
Kovalainen
“Obviously,
I won in Hungary in 2008 so it will be nice to come back to Budapest again. This
race is likely to be won or lost in qualifying: you’ve got to be at the front
and run an aggressive first stint if you are to succeed in the race. The track
is also quite hard on tyres so you need to find a balance that will allow you to
look after your rubber until the finish – the softer rubber, in particular,
tends to suffer at the end of the race so you have to be careful. I’m really
looking to running the team’s new upgrade package this weekend. I had a strong
weekend at the Nurburgring and I didn’t let a single car past me in the race
– with the improved car I’m really hopeful of getting another strong result
at the Hungaroring.”
Martin
Whitmarsh
Team
principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
“While
Lewis demonstrated during practice and qualifying at the Nurburgring that our
upgrade package appears to provide us with a sizeable step forward in
performance, it was frustrating that damage to the rear bodywork left us unable
to fully ascertain that benefit in the race itself. For Budapest, both Lewis and
Heikki will be equipped with the new package and we are hopeful that it will
enable us to mount a more sustained attack towards the front of the field. The
Hungaroring is a circuit where we as a team have enjoyed many successes in the
past and we travel there this weekend hoping to provide concrete evidence that
we’re decisively turning our fortunes around for the remainder of the
season.”
Norbert
Haug
Vice-president,
Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“The
Grand Prix circuit just outside Budapest is, after Monaco, the one with the
lowest average speed. The layout, consisting of more slower corners, where
mechanical grip is especially important, should suit us quite well – as
demonstrated already in Monaco. However, I currently would consider our
technical performance still not good enough to repeat last year’s victory with
Heikki – but in any case we at least have been in the lead for a few metres at
the Nürburgring - until Lewis’s right-rear tyre was hit which caused a
deflated tyre, damaging the underfloor – which prevented Lewis later from
achieving good lap times. Everybody in the team is giving it their all to
continue the upward trend with both cars.”
McLaren
at the Hungarian Grand Prix…
10
years ago (August 15 1999)
Starting
from pole position, Mika Hakkinen led from start to finish to notch up
his fourth victory of the season. Team-mate David Coulthard drove a
tenacious race, setting fastest lap and grabbing second position after the final
stops, usurping Ferrari’s Eddie Irvine, who finished third.
20
years ago (August 13 1989)
Nigel
Mansell out-foxed Ayrton Senna, boxing the Brazilian in behind Stefan
Johansson’s Onyx, to sensationally win in Budapest. Alain Prost
finished fourth. The race had initially been dominated by Williams driver
Riccardo Patrese, who was enjoying the first fruit of the team’s
Renault-powered renaissance before retiring from the lead with a holed radiator.