2008 Hungarian Grand Prix

Background

The 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix was the 11th of the 18th rounds of the 2008 Formula One World Championship and occurred at the 4.381 km Hungaroring circuit, in Mogyoród, Hungary, on 3 August 2008. The Grand Prix was contested by 20 drivers in ten teams of two.

Following the on July 20, the teams conducted testing sessions at the Jerez circuit from July 22–25. Each team was limited to 30,000 km of testing during the 2008 calendar year, a reduction compared with previous seasons. Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso) set the fastest time of the first and second days, while Mark Webber (Red Bull) topped the third day's running, and Heikki Kovalainen was fastest on the final day of testing. Several teams tested using Bridgestone slick tyres, as preparation for the switch from grooved to slick tyres for the 2009 season, and BMW Sauber tested a Kinetic Energy Recovery System, also for the following year. Among the other teams, Force India's test driver, Vitantonio Liuzzi, tested the team's new "seamless-shift" gearbox ahead of the system's race début later in the year, while Timo Glock of Toyota took part after a heavy crash at the German Grand Prix.

In the week leading up to the race, a meeting between the teams at Ferrari's headquarters in Maranello resulted in the formation of a new representative body, the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA), which was led by Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo. McLaren team principal Ron Dennis said the establishment of FOTA was intended to encourage greater co-operation between the teams, particularly in framing new sporting and technical regulations, and to act as a counterweight to the sport's existing governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and the company responsible for its commercial management, Formula One Management (FOM).

On July 31, the day before the event's first free practice sessions took place, McLaren confirmed the team would retain Kovalainen for 2009 alongside Hamilton, while the organisers of the Hungarian Grand Prix signed a deal with Bernie Ecclestone, the president of FOM, to continue hosting the race until 2016.

Several teams made technical changes to their cars for the Grand Prix. Ferrari altered the F2008 chassis's cooling system and bodywork following high brake wear and engine water temperatures at the German Grand Prix. McLaren and Force India introduced revised aerodynamic packages for their MP4-23 and VJM01 chassis, aimed at increasing the amount of downforce, and therefore grip, produced by the bodywork. Force India also brought its seamless-shift gearbox to the event. Ferrari, Honda and Toyota also débuted raised engine covers, nicknamed "shark-fins" for the way they stretched toward the rear wing, and Honda introduced a new rear suspension package.

The sport's sole tyre supplier, Bridgestone, provided two specifications of grooved dry tyres for the race, designated Soft (also referred to as the "prime" tyre) and Super Soft (also referred to as the "option" tyre). The Super Soft compound was distinguished by a white stripe in one of the tyre's grooves. As was the case for all of the 2008 Grands Prix, the rules stipulated that all cars should use both types of tyre during the course of the race, and each driver was limited to seven sets of dry tyres for the weekend.

Practice

Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race—two on Friday from 10:00 to 11:30 and 14:00 to 15:30 local time, and a third on Saturday morning between 11:00 and 12:00. The first practice session took place in dry conditions. The ambient temperature was between 27 -, and the track temperature ranged from 31 - during the hour-long period. Massa set the session's fastest time with a lap of 1 minute and 20.981 seconds, almost four-tenths of a second ahead of his teammate Räikkönen. The two McLaren drivers were third and fourth, Kovalainen ahead of Hamilton. Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet Jr. set the fifth and eighth-fastest times respectively for Renault; they were separated by Glock and Kubica. Their teammates, Heidfeld and Toyota driver Jarno Trulli, completed the top ten. Vettel's Toro Rosso car was afflicted by a hydraulics problem; this restricted him to completing only four timed laps, and he was slowest overall.

The second practice session was held in similar weather to the first; the only difference was a slightly higher peak track temperature of 37 C. During this session, Hamilton set the quickest lap time of the day, a 1:20.554; Kovalainen finished with the third-fastest time. The Renault drivers were again quick—Piquet in second and Alonso fourth—although the team's Executive Director of Engineering, Pat Symonds, admitted both cars were running with slightly lower fuel loads than normal, improving their performance. Räikkönen and Massa slipped to fifth and sixth respectively, their best times one-thousandth of a second apart. They were ahead of Heidfeld, Kubica, Trulli and Williams driver Nico Rosberg. Vettel's car was still suffering from the hydraulics problem and he completed just five laps, again setting the slowest time of the session.

Saturday's weather was again dry for the third and final practice session, with ambient temperature between 27 - and track temperature from 32 -. Vettel had a trouble-free session and set the eighth-fastest time, one position behind teammate Sébastien Bourdais. Räikkönen and Rosberg completed the top ten ahead of qualifying.

Qualifying

Saturday afternoon's qualifying session was divided into three parts. In the first 20-minute period, cars finishing 16th or lower were eliminated. The second qualifying period lasted 15 minutes, at the end of which the fastest 10 cars went into the final period to determine their grid positions for the race. Cars failing to make the final period were allowed to be refuelled before the race, but those competing in it were not and carried more fuel than they had done in the earlier qualifying sessions to see them through the first part of the race. The session was held in dry weather slightly hotter than any of the free practice sessions; the ambient temperature ranged between 30 and, while track temperature ranged between 38 and.

Hamilton set the fastest time in the first and final parts of the session, which clinched him pole position with a lap of 1:20.899. Hamilton was joined on the front row by his teammate Kovalainen, who recorded a lap time 0.241 seconds slower and was fuelled for an additional two laps in the race. Massa set the session's fastest time of 1:19.068 during its second part, but was delayed by other cars, which prevented him from heating his tyres sufficiently to achieve the maximum grip possible. He dropped to third overall in the final part of qualifying. Räikkönen was on a heavier fuel load than his teammate but made a mistake on his final flying lap that restricted him to sixth place.

Vettel was the fastest driver not to advance into the final session, qualifying 11th; his best time of 1:20.131 was just over a second slower than Massa's pace in the second session. His teammate, Bourdais, set the 14th-fastest lap, but was penalised five positions on the grid for impeding Heidfeld during the first part of qualifying, a delay which limited the BMW Sauber driver to the 16th-fastest time. The Toro Rosso drivers were split before Bourdais' penalty by Jenson Button—who found his Honda's revised suspension a significant improvement—and David Coulthard, who believed the Hungaroring did not suit the handling characteristics of his Red Bull RB4 chassis. Rosberg made it into the second part of qualifying, but did not complete any laps thereafter after his Williams car developed a hydraulics problem. Kazuki Nakajima (Williams), Rubens Barrichello (Honda) and Force India drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil failed to advance beyond the first part of qualifying, and thus completed the final rows of the grid. In the first part of qualifying (the only section in which all drivers took part), the entire field was covered by just under three seconds.

Qualifying classification

• – Sébastien Bourdais was penalised five places on the grid for impeding Nick Heidfeld during first qualifying.

Race

The race took place in the afternoon from 14:00 local time, in dry and sunny weather, with an ambient temperature of between 30 and, and a track temperature ranging from 40 to. The race-day attendance was 84,000. As usual, the race was broadcast worldwide, with the "World Feed" coverage being produced by FOM. Every driver except Coulthard started on the Soft compound tyres. Massa made a good start on his only remaining new set of Soft tyres, moving ahead of Kovalainen from the grid and drawing alongside Hamilton into the first corner. Hamilton held the inside line for the turn, but Massa braked later than the McLaren driver and passed him around the outside. Behind the leading three in the run down to the first corner, Glock moved ahead of Kubica, while Alonso overtook Räikkönen. Barrichello made the best start in the field, moving from 17th to 13th place at the end of the first lap, while Vettel made a poor start and lost four places over the same distance. At the completion of the first lap, Massa led from Hamilton, Kovalainen, Glock, Kubica, Alonso, Räikkönen, Webber, Trulli, Piquet, Coulthard, Heidfeld, Barrichello, Button, Vettel, Bourdais, Rosberg, Nakajima, Fisichella and Sutil.

Massa and Hamilton immediately began to pull clear of Kovalainen. In addition, the high track temperature was to the Ferrari chassis's advantage, as it was easier on its tyres than the McLaren and was able to run them at an operating temperature of up to 10 °C (18 °F) lower, resulting in less tyre wear. By lap 18, Massa had a lead of 3.5 seconds over Hamilton, who in turn was almost 8 seconds ahead of Kovalainen. Glock was a further 3 seconds behind the second McLaren driver, but was drawing ahead of Kubica in fifth, who was finding his BMW Sauber difficult to drive in race conditions with a lack of grip and stability under braking, and was holding up a group of cars behind him.

Massa, Kubica and Webber were the first three drivers to make pit stops by coming in on lap 18. The McLaren mechanics timed Massa's stop to estimate the amount of fuel he received, and when Hamilton made his own first stop on the next lap, they fuelled him to run for three laps longer than the Ferrari in the second stint of the race. Kovalainen took over the lead of the race for two laps before his pit stop on lap 21 returned it to Massa. Piquet was the last of the leading runners to make a pit stop, on lap 25, allowing him to jump ahead of Kubica, Trulli and Webber. Further down the order, Vettel made an unscheduled pit stop on lap 20 and retired two laps later with an overheating engine. By the end of lap 26, all of the leading drivers on two-stop strategies had taken their pit stops. The race order was Massa leading from Hamilton, Kovalainen, Glock, Coulthard (who was yet to pit), Alonso, Räikkönen, Piquet, Trulli, Kubica, Webber, Heidfeld, Button, Barrichello, Bourdais, Rosberg, Nakajima, Fisichella and Sutil.

Hamilton rejoined the race following his first pit stop 2.6 seconds behind Massa, and needed to stay within approximately 3.5 seconds of the Ferrari driver to gain track position after the second round of pit stops. On lap 29, Coulthard made his first pit stop, dropping to 12th place as a result. Button, Barrichello, Bourdais, Rosberg, Nakajima, Fisichella and Sutil also made their first pit stops at this stage of the race.

At the front of the field, Massa continued to pull away gradually from Hamilton; the gap between the two had risen to 5 seconds by the end of lap 40. On the following lap, Hamilton's front-left tyre deflated approaching Turn Two; the resultant slow lap back to the pit lane and stop for a replacement tyre dropped him to tenth place. Massa now had a 23-second lead over Kovalainen and slowed his pace accordingly, adjusting the performance of the engine to place it under less mechanical stress. He made his final pit stop on lap 44, allowing Kovalainen to take the lead until his own stop four laps later, handing Massa back his lead. On lap 41, Heidfeld made his only pit stop, dropping from 11th to 12th position. In the following laps, the other drivers made their second stops, except Nakajima, who switched to a one-stop strategy at his first visit to his pit box. Behind the leading trio of Massa, Kovalainen and Glock, Räikkönen moved ahead of Alonso despite running off the road just before his pit stop; after he exited the pit lane, Piquet fended off Trulli as they battled for position. The pit stop sequence allowed Hamilton to move back up the order, to sixth place behind Alonso. Further back, Bourdais suffered another flash fire on lap 45, and made another visit to the pit lane one lap later to have fire extinguisher foam cleaned off his helmet visor. Rosberg was the final scheduled driver to make a pit stop, on lap 58. The majority of the drivers ran with Soft tyres for the first two stints of the race, then switched to the Super Soft compound for the final stint.

At the conclusion of lap 59, with the scheduled pit stops completed, the running order was Massa leading from Kovalainen, Glock, Räikkönen, Alonso, Hamilton, Piquet, Trulli, Kubica, Webber, Heidfeld, Coulthard, Button, Nakajima, Rosberg, Fisichella, Sutil, Barrichello and Bourdais. Trulli finished seventh, ahead of Kubica, who was extremely disappointed with the uncompetitive performance of his car at the Grand Prix closest to his home country of Poland. His teammate, Heidfeld, finished in tenth place between the two Red Bull drivers, both of whom were also disappointed by their team's performance. Button, Nakajima, Rosberg and Fisichella filled the next places, a lap behind the leader, while Barrichello was two laps down in 16th position after the delay at his first pit stop. Massa was classified in 17th place, ahead of Bourdais, who was the final finisher.

Post-race

Although Kovalainen was delighted with his first Formula One victory, he attributed much of the credit for his win to luck. After the race he said, "I feel a bit sorry for Felipe and Lewis. They both drove great races, but I know how it feels when things go wrong—I've had a few similar moments this year. I tried to put pressure on Felipe, especially during the last stint. I felt something might happen if I did that, you never know, but I still found it hard to believe when I saw his Ferrari on fire." Glock was pleased with second position and spoke of how he had dedicated extra training to improve his race starts. He said he had focussed on not making any mistakes in the closing laps as Räikkönen closed, instead of maintaining the gap.

The podium finishers were overshadowed in the media by coverage of the ill fortune of both the weekend's pace-setters, Hamilton and Massa. Journalist Mark Hughes described it as "almost certainly his best race to date", Hughes described the Grand Prix as "a throwback race", in that the leaders had suffered from unreliability, and the winner had not been in contention on speed alone; It was a situation reminiscent of earlier times in the sport, when the cars were generally less reliable.

Bridgestone director of motorsport Hirohide Hamashima said Hamilton's puncture was probably caused by debris, although as a result of the damage the tyre had sustained, the precise nature of the failure was impossible to determine. He also stated that Hamilton's tyre was more vulnerable to debris damage because he had flat-spotted it earlier in the race.

As a consequence of the race, Hamilton extended his lead in the Drivers' Championship to five points ahead of Räikkönen, who moved ahead of Massa in the standings. Kubica maintained fourth place; Kovalainen's win moved him to within three points of Heidfeld in fifth. In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari continued to lead, but McLaren jumped ahead of BMW Sauber for second position. Behind Toyota, Renault moved ahead of Red Bull.

Race classification

Championship standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings

;Constructors' Championship standings

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

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