2013 Hungarian Grand Prix

Report

Background

Like the 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix, tyre supplier Pirelli brought its white-banded medium compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the yellow-banded soft compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre.

Qualifying

Q1

Eliminated in Q1 were Sauber's Gutierrez, Force India's di Resta, Caterham's Pic and Van der Garde and the Marussias of Bianchi and Chilton.

Q2

Eliminated in Q2 were Force India's Sutil, Sauber's Hülkenberg, McLaren's Button, Toro Rosso's Vergne, and the Williams cars of Maldonado and Bottas.

Q3

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton took pole position with a time of 1:19.388 narrowly followed by Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, and the Lotus of Romain Grosjean.

Race

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton led from pole position ahead of Vettel and Grosjean. Rosberg and Massa touched on lap 1 and caused damage to Massa's car. Rosberg twice ran off the road during the first lap and lost several places, but suffered no damage. Hamilton made his first pit stop on lap 10 and that handed the race lead to Vettel. Hamilton came out just behind McLaren's Jenson Button, but was able to get past him quickly and this changed the dynamic of the race.

Vettel would pit and get stuck behind Button for several laps. Webber was the only leading driver to start on the harder compound tyres, giving him the lead after the first round of pit stops. However the harder tyres were to prove less durable than expected under the hot conditions, and he was eventually forced to make three stops. By lap 15 the running order was Webber, Hamilton, Button, Vettel, and Grosjean. Vettel tried to get past Button and damaged his front wing during one attempt. Vettel and Grosjean would eventually get past Button. Grosjean touched Button going into the chicane at Turn 6 and 7. Grosjean eventually passed Massa into Turn 4 but received a drive-through penalty for leaving the track during the overtake. Sutil suffered a hydraulic leak earlier on and his 100th Grand Prix was over. Shortly after Grosjean's penalty, Esteban Gutierrez who suffered an engine failure in FP3 and was eliminated from Q1 continued to have reliability issues and was wheeled back in the garage with transmission problems. Despite being a potential contender for points, his teammate Hülkenberg picked up a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Valtteri Bottas retired after a smoky engine failure when the race leaders were on lap 45, which was his first retirement in Formula One, it was later confirmed of a hydraulic failure the cause of the smoke.

Hamilton retook the lead after the last round of stops ahead of Räikkönen, Vettel, and Webber. Rosberg retired late in the race with a fiery engine failure which lifted Maldonado and Williams into the points for the first time this season. Di Resta, Sutil's teammate also suffered hydraulic failure shortly before the end of the race.

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton went on to win the 2013 Hungarian Grand Prix followed by Lotus' Kimi Räikkönen and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel. Hamilton had thus won the Hungarian Grand Prix four times, in 2013, 2012, 2009, and 2007, and became tied with Michael Schumacher for the most wins in the Hungarian Grand Prix. He also became the first British driver to win in a Mercedes since Stirling Moss. This would prove to be the last non-Vettel win of 2013, as Vettel would go on to win the next nine races.

Post race

Romain Grosjean received a 20-second post-race penalty for hitting Jenson Button's McLaren while attempting to overtake him at the chicane during the race, but the penalty had no effect on the final standings as Button was more than 20 seconds behind him at the end of the race.

Ferrari was fined €15,000 when FIA's technical officials notified the race stewards after the race that Fernando Alonso had activated his DRS on three occasions during the race when not within one second of another car, as mandated by the regulations. The team was reported to not have switched the DRS enabling system from the pre-race setting to the race setting. As soon as the team became aware of the problem, they informed the driver to only use DRS when told to do so by the team. Stewards concluded that although Alonso gained a small advantage (less than a second), he also suffered a disadvantage by being unable to use DRS on every legitimate occasion. The team was still ultimately responsible for ensuring that the system conformed to the regulations.

Classification

Qualifying

Race

• — Romain Grosjean was given a 20-second post-race penalty in lieu of a drive-through penalty for hitting Jenson Button's McLaren during an overtake attempt. Grosjean's time difference to race winner Lewis Hamilton was +32.295 at the finish line, and the post-race penalty did not thus affect final race standings.

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

References

1. "Formula 1 Magyar Nagydíj". [[Formula One Group.
2. "Portfolio".
3. "FIA Formula One calendar". Fedération Internationale de l'Automobile.
4. Straw, Edd. (28 July 2013). "Hungarian GP: Romain Grosjean penalised for Jenson Button clash". Autosport.
5. Noble, Jonathan. (28 July 2013). "Hungarian GP: Fernando Alonso, Ferrari fined for DRS misuse". Haymarket Media Group.
6. (27 July 2013). "Formula 1 Magyar Nagydíj 2013 - Provisional Results". [[Formula One Group.
7. (28 July 2013). "FORMULA 1 MAGYAR NAGYDÍJ 2013 - Provisional Results". [[Formula One Group.
8. (28 July 2012). "Lewis Hamilton wins Hungarian Grand Prix from pole position in scorching 50-degree heat". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
9. "Hungary 2013 - Championship • STATS F1".