Button Busts Maiden
Everyone else is just a bust in Hungary.
What a wild and wooly week it has been at Hungaroring. Everything from race fixing charges, to a pair of race leaders crashing out of said lead and “The Dear Boy” gaining his first GP win. It should keep the ink stained wretches (and humble bloggers) that follow the F1 Circus in column space for the next few weeks.
Jenson Button’s win, from 14th on the grid after a 10-place penalty for an engine change on Saturday, was Honda’s first as a constructor since 1967. Strangely enough, the last race winner for Honda was also a Briton - former champion John Surtees in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Four of the last five winners in Hungary had come from pole position on the normally hard to pass circuit. The wet conditions changed that and led to pole sitter, and at the time race leader, Kimi Raikkonen crashing into the back of Vitantonio Liuzzi’s Toro Rosso.
Fernando Alonso made a breathtaking charge from 15th place on the grid in the wet conditions. But he also retired from the lead after skidding off the track into the tire barriers with 18 laps to go.
And then there is the strange case of F1 debutant Robert Kubica. Kubica finished seventh, but it was discovered that his car was two kilograms underweight in post race inspection. That handed Michael Schumacher a single championship point and moved him within 10 of Alonzo.
Stewards accepted that Kubica’s BMW Sauber had not been deliberately underweight, but the reason given was a bit strange.
“The reason for the car being underweight was explained as being attributable to excessive and unexpected tyre wear (and therefore weight loss) arising through continued use of wet weather tyres in comparison to the accustomed and anticipated rate of wear for dry tyres,” they said.
Granted, his set of tires had been on for the last 50 plus laps of the event. But 2 kilos of rubber met the road and not the scales? That sounds exessive even for wet compounds. Could it be a little engineering miscalculation in “getting the fat out,” i.e. Jacques Villeneuve?
We’ll probably never know for sure and I doubt Schumie cares after the gift of a point.
With three weeks until the Circus meets again in Istanbul the press scribes will have plenty of fodder for their “what if” scenarios after this weekend - like “what if” Heidfeld hadn’t put a “damper” (Sorry Flavio) on Schumie’s charge up the points table.
F1, Formula One, Jenson Button, Hungaroring, FIA, Sports, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle
A further rationalization of Kubica’s weight issue is the intermediate wet tires allegedly weigh less from the start then dry compounds. I have to go with these theories as I can’t believe any team would deliberately shave the cars weight so close.
Alonso’s DNF was due to the right rear wheel nut coming loose within two laps of his last pit stop/tire change. Somebody’s head will roll on Monday morning!
I loved the race! As for the gap in championship points it’s basically the same as before. I am going to look forward to the rest of the season & a challenge for the title.If Alonso were to have romped of with the points, too early in the season, it would have become boring from a spectators view.
Michael-despite struggling with the Bridgestone’s-seemed to have engaged self destruct from the moment Alonso caught him in the races early stages. I was certain he was going to come to grief with his pig headed defence on Fisi’s pass attempts.