Full Throttle

It was a race of surprises in the “Nearly Smokeless” (explaination forthcoming) Hungarian GP. The largest, to me at least, was the length of Michael Schumacher’s first stint. Most thought his pole winning effort was aided by a light fuel load and expected a very early stop for fuel. That turned out not to be true as his first stop occured on the 14^th circuit of the Hungaroring and was 3 laps later that Kimi Raikkonen.

The second major surprise was Michael’s brother Ralf who gained his first podium finish of the year placing third in his Toyota followed by teammate Jarno Trulli in fourth. Jenson Button, Nick Heidfeld, Mark Webber and Takuma Sato - also a surprise finish, but probably not enough to save his BAR Honda seat - rounded out the point-scoring positions.

Kimi Raikkonen avoided the bad luck that has plagued him the last few weeks and went on to an impressive victory. The McLaren team used a short-fill pit stop to give the lead to Raikkonen on the second pit stop. The Finnish driver then used the open track to his advantage by posting the fastest lap of the day on lap 40. At that point the race was effectivly over.

The win sliced into Fernando Alonzo’s Championship lead which now stands at 26 points and puts Kimi within striking distance of his first World Championship but will still need one or two more non-points paying finishes by Alonzo to make a race of it.

Alonzo was one of the many victims in a series of first lap shunts that saw his Renault and the Ferrari of Ruebens Barrichello suffer damage. Both Red Bull entries suffered major damage and retired from the race. Christian Klein - in what may be his last drive for Red Bull - got the worst of it after touching wheels with Jacques Villeneuve and being launched into a slow barrel roll (pictured) that left him right side up outside turn one and out of the race. Teammate David Coulthard didn’t fair much better as he hit the front wing of Alonzo laying on the track and the contact sheared off the right front suspension. Alonzo’s wing had been damaged when he touched the rear of Ralf Schumachers Toyota, also in the first turn skirmish.

All in all it was an entertaining event considering the Hungaroring is infamous for providing “parade lap” type races. With three weeks off until the next event in Turkey, “Buttongate the Sequel” and other stories of driver switches should provide more than enough reading material.

As for my title, “the smokeless Hungarian GP.” Sharp eyed viewers will note the change in sponsorship logos displayed by some, but not all cars. Sunday was the end of tobacco sponsorship as mandated by the European Union. The Intel Corporation is rumored to fill some of the gap created but it remains to be seen what the total effect will be.

This writer took note of McLaren-Mercedes replacement’ for it’s previous tabacco sponsorship with liquer producer Diageo and it’s Johnnie Walker brand with the “Striding Man” logo displayed. In addition the company will be invest