Results:
Qualifying:
Race:
Championships:
Full Report:
The conditions on the grid were dry before the race, the air temperature at 26 °C (79 °F), and the track temperature at 43 °C (109 °F).The formation lap for the race began at 14:00 local time (UTC+2), with the race beginning a couple of minutes later.Alonso retained his pole position lead into the first corner, followed by a fast-starting Hamilton, Webber, Räikkönen and Vettel, who had made a slow start from the "dirty" side of the grid. Hamilton and Räikkönen nearly touched on the run to turn one, which in effect slowed the Finn slightly and allowed to Webber to maintain third.Hamilton ran slightly wide on the exit of the first corner, which allowed Webber to challenge him. The counter-effect caused Räikkönen and Vettel to stack up, with the German's Red Bull making slight contact with the rear of the Ferrari. Vettel lost further places to Rosberg and Kovalainen as a result of the incident. Räikkönen would latterly be investigated after the race for both of his first lap incidents. At the end of the first lap, Sutil came into the pits from 19th place with water pressure problems. The problem was terminal and he became the first retirement of the afternoon. Alonso started to pull away from the field, setting his fastest lap of the race – 1:23.529 – on lap four.
Positions remained static until the start of lap five. Hamilton pressured Webber in turn one, and with the aid of the KERS button, overtook the Australian before turn two. Once clear of Webber, Hamilton started to cut into the gap that Alonso had built up at the front. Alonso's Renault was suffering from graining on its rear tyres (when the tyres shed little bits of rubber before sticking to the tread of the tyre, effectively separating the tyre from the track surface very slightly), and also a fuel pump problem, which forced him to change to a different fuel setting on the car. Alonso pitted on lap twelve, and was stationary for 6.4 seconds. However, he was released with his front right wheel incorrectly attached, causing the wheel-mounted brake duct or "spinner" to rotate while the wheel was turning. The duct then fell off and disintegrated at turn four, as Alonso continued to go round the circuit. The wheel then parted from the car at turn nine, and Alonso drove the car back to the pits on three wheels. The missing wheel was replaced, enabling him to continue in the race, but he returned to the pits on the following lap, as the earlier fuel pump problem proved terminal.
With Hamilton extending his lead to almost six seconds – including his fastest lap of 1:22.479 on lap sixteen – Räikkönen and Webber both pitted on lap nineteen. Räikkönen was at a standstill for 8.3 seconds, while a slight problem with the fuel rig cost Webber valuable seconds. He was eventually released just as the Ferrari was trundling down the pit lane. The two cars just avoided a collision, which almost caused the Red Bull to career into a number of the Williams mechanics, who were standing in the pit lane at the time. Hamilton pitted the following lap, but was slightly delayed by Rosberg's Williams, which had entered the pit lane as Hamilton was about to exit the McLaren pit box. This promoted Kovalainen into the lead, followed by Vettel but both drivers pitted at the end of lap 21, to hand the lead back to HamiltonVettel's sluggish pit-stop cost him track position, as he filtered out behind Rosberg.
During Hamilton's stint on a second set of super-soft tyres, he was told by race engineer Phil Prew to look after his tyres as he had a comfortable gap of 15 seconds over Räikkönen. Championship leader Button, who was heavily fuelled at the start, had improved up to second by the time of his first stop on lap 25. Vettel was struggling with his car, and was passed for eighth position by Barrichello on lap 27. He then reported to his race engineer Guillaume Rocquelin that something was broken on his car.He pitted at the end of the lap from eleventh position, having lost more places, and his pit crew routinely replaced the nosecone and took a detailed look at the rear suspension.He rejoined a lap down before retiring on lap 30. Debutant Alguersuari made his first Formula One pit stop on lap 28, when running in thirteenth place.Glock also moved into the points-scoring positions at this stage of the race by using the strategy of a long 32-lap first stint.Buemi spun at turn two on lap 38, and subsequently rejoined the circuit behind his team-mate Alguersuari.
Hamilton was left unchallenged for the rest of the race, making his final pit stop on lap 46, and came home to win his first race as World Champion.This was his first victory since the 2008 Chinese Grand Prix, his tenth in total, and also the first time that he had won at a circuit twice, having won at nine different circuits previously. This was also the first occasion on which a KERS car had won a Grand Prix; Räikkönen (in another KERS car) came in second, setting his fastest lap on the final lap. Webber finished third, a result which moved him into second in the championship standings past Vettel. Webber also recorded the first fastest lap of his career, with a lap of 1:21.931 on lap 65. Rosberg finished fourth for the third race in succession, heading home Kovalainen, Glock, Button and Trulli rounded out the top eight point scorers. Outside the point-scoring positions were Nakajima, Barrichello (the first time that a Brawn car had finished a race outside the points), Heidfeld, Piquet, Kubica, Fisichella and the Toro Rossos of Alguersuari and Buemi.With Button's seventh place, his lead in the drivers' championship over Webber was cut by four points, to 18.5 points.
"Yeah, I was able to manage them quite well but something I want to say is that yesterday was, I think, and maybe I can speak for all of us drivers, quite a sad day to see Felipe not with us here today. Hopefully I speak on behalf of all of us when I say we miss him and wish him well and wish him a speedy recovery. But back to the car, it was just fantastic. The team asked me to look after the tyres in which through all the great experiences I have had – good or bad – I was able to apply that today, so really a big thank you to all the guys and all the fans that have always given me support and never gave me up and to all my family." Lewis Hamilton, reflecting on how well his car looked after its tyres, and also the previous day's events with Felipe Massa's accident.
The top three finishers appeared on the podium and in the subsequent press conference, where Hamilton was overjoyed at being back at the front of the field: "It’s an incredible feeling to be back here after what feels such a long time away and with such a struggle with me and my team. But as I said on the in lap I am just so proud of the guys, as I go into the factory and I see how hard everyone is pushing. Everyone wants to win just as much as I do and they never gave up. They have never given up which is something very rare to see in such a large group of people. I am very, very proud of them. We didn’t expect to win this weekend. Undoubtedly we have caught up quite a bit but we never felt we had the pace to win. But the car felt fantastic and it is incredibly special to get back up here, not only on the podium, but to get a win. It is amazing."
Räikkönen also achieved his best result of the 2009 season to date, but was unaware that the moves that he made at the start of the race were under investigation, to be looked at after the race.
I don’t know about the whole thing, so if you can tell me what it’s about that would be nice...I haven’t even noticed if I touched somebody. I was in-between, I think, Mark and somebody else but I don’t know what is going on. That is the first time when you told me but I didn’t feel any touching or anything, so I cannot comment on that.
Webber's podium finish moved him into second place in the championship standings. He was surprised, however, at the way proceedings played out, describing his result as "a little bit of a surprise. I think we expected to be a little bit quicker after our running on Friday but to be honest we knew these guys would be around us. It was a pretty difficult venue for us and we knew that we didn’t have the advantage maybe that we had in the last few events. All in all for me I am still pretty happy to get the result we did. I think we had a better chance to fight Kimi if maybe we did a slightly different pit stop and maybe chose a different tyre but that was my call. I was worried about how long the length of the stint was and it was quite difficult to know which tyre to put on but overall we still have a lot of positives. We are still up here. We haven’t been blown away by any means. We are in the hunt and we can take our car to a lot of venues and be competitive, so our guys and Renault have a lot to be proud of. We are still very much a force, so it is still a positive day for us."
Two hours after the race's conclusion, representatives of Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault were summoned to see the race stewards due to the various incidents that occurred during the race. Ferrari and Räikkönen were cleared of any wrongdoing in either of his incidents with race-winner Hamilton and Vettel on the first lap of the race.Red Bull were given a reprimand for the second race running, due to the unsafe release of Webber into the direct path of Räikkönen in the pit lane, at the first round of pit stops. Red Bull had been in a similar situation at the German Grand Prix, when Vettel was released unsafely into the path of Kazuki Nakajima during qualifying, and the team were given a €10,000 fine.Renault received the harshest punishment of the three incidents, in the form of a suspension from the next race of the season, the European Grand Prix.The race stewards felt that Renault "knowingly released car no. 7 [Alonso] from the pitstop position without one of the retaining devices for the wheel-nuts being securely in position, this being an indication that the wheel itself may not have been properly secured. Being aware of this, [Renault] failed to take any action to prevent the car from leaving the pitlane. [Renault] failed to inform the driver of this problem or to advise him to take appropriate action given the circumstances, even though the driver contacted the team by radio believing he had a puncture, resulting in a heavy car part detaching at Turn 5, and the wheel itself detaching at Turn 9." which was in breach of Articles 3.2 and 23.1.i in the Sporting Regulations. Within half an hour of the decision, Renault filed the mandatory cost of €6,000 to appeal against the decision. The International Court of Appeal heard the case on August 17; the Monday before the European Grand Prix and the court upheld bid for the suspension to be overturned. The team was fined $50,000 for the breach of the regulations in Hungary, and were allowed to race at Valencia.
"I don't remember anything and that's why what the doctors did had to be explained to me. When I saw Rob [Smedley], he asked me if I remembered Rubens, but the last thing I remembered was when I was behind him at the end of my fast lap in Q2, and then it's blank. It's difficult to explain. I'm feeling much better now and I want to recover as soon as possible to get back behind the wheel of a Ferrari." Felipe Massa, in his first interview following the accident.
Massa's condition continued to improve over the course of the weekend, the Brazilian having been sedated in a coma for 48 hours.After being visited by Ferrari and Fiat president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo and also Rubens Barrichello, doctors from the Állami Egészségügyi Központ military hospital released a statement saying that Massa could make a full recovery. Massa could be released from hospital within a week to ten days, depending on how well he progresses.Massa's doctor, Dino Altmann, also told the media that he is certain that Massa will race again, having stated that the trauma suffered by the Brazilian was not as bad as first thought, and that his condition has improved rapidly, taking his first steps since the crash, when he left the intensive care unit.Massa left hospital on August 3, returning home to Brazil to recuperate. He checked into the Sociedade Beneficente Israelita Brasileira Hospital Albert Einstein in São Paulo for a series of medical tests that would allow him to recuperate at home, rather than in hospital. All the results of the tests for abnormalities came back negative, and Massa was given the all-clear to continue his recuperation.
"Whoever sits in the car at the next race in Valencia, it will not be Michael Schumacher. I am not 100 per cent sure; I am 200 per cent sure. The pressure on him would be huge. He would be expected to win, but he has not driven this car. When Michael was racing he would get as close to perfection as possible. In this case, it would not be perfection; it would be a gamble – and that's not Michael's style." Willi Weber, on rumours that Michael Schumacher would be replacing Massa.
Rumours began circulating that any one out of Ferrari advisor Michael Schumacher, and the team's two test drivers Luca Badoer and Marc Gené would be replacing Massa for the European Grand Prix, and the succeeding events. On July 29, Schumacher agreed to drive the car until Massa was fit enough to return, subject to medical tests.However, Schumacher called off his return on August 11, due to a lingering neck injury which he had suffered six months earlier, while testing a Honda CBR1000RR motorcycle at Circuito Cartagena.Badoer replaced Massa in Valencia, and competed in his first Grand Prix since 1999. The gap of nine years, nine months and 24 days was the second-longest gap between Grands Prix competed, with only Jan Lammers (ten years, three months; when he returned to Formula One in 1992), having a lengthier spell between races.
The Hungarian Grand Prix was also the last appearance for Renault's Nelson Piquet, Jr. as he parted company with the team on August 3, 2009.Romain Grosjean was announced as his replacement, with his GP2 Series team Barwa Addax signing up Davide Valsecchi to replace him; ending his title aspirations.
The Fast Castor
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