9.8.10

At the Hungaroring with no appreciable straights, the superiority of the Red Bull chassis became apparent. Vettel was on pole on 1.18.7, Webber was second on 1.19.1 and Alonso third 1:19.9. This is a HUGE gap in contemporary F1. Slow motion footage has shown that the front wings of the Red Bull and Ferrari flex under speed. The closer their endplates get to the road the more downforce is developed. The FIA have a series of tests to try to stop this happening. The front wing test is that 50kg is placed on the end plate and there must be no more than 10mm deflection. Both cars pass this test and are therefore legal. The FIA has told the teams it reserves the right to increase the severity of the tests and also look at the way wings are fixed on. In Hungary Massa was fourth and Martin Whitmarsh of McLaren said his was the first of the fixed wing cars with Hamilton in fifth.

At the start Vettel seemed to have learned that when you're going sideways you're not going forwards as he flew straight and true. However Alonso made a brilliant start, worthy of a hillclimber, passed Webber and almost took the lead. It settled down to Vettel, Alonso, Webber and Massa until lap 15 when the race was effectively decided. There was a large chunk of front wing on the track so the Safety Car was deployed. All stopped bar Webber who stayed out on the softer tyre. In the pits mayhem broke out when Kubica was released into the path of Sutil and the two cars collided. Next we saw Rosberg's broken arrow stranded with the right rear wheel. missing. The wheel had flown off and struck a Williams mechanic. Potentially this was a catastrophic incident but fortunately he suffered no serious injury.

Out on the circuit it was said that Vettel had lost radio contact with his pit, did not know the Safety Car was coming in and dropped more than the regulatory ten car lengths behind. For this he received a drive-through penalty. This allowed Alonso past and gave Webber the opportunity he needed. He drove a blinding race on the softer tyres that were bald when he did stop on lap 43, taking the win some 27 laps later. Alonso was second Vettel third and Massa fourth.

Barrichello was another who tried a late stop. It did not work for him but he caught up with Michael Schumacher who was running 10th on tired tyres. Rubens complained that Schuey was repeatedly moving over on him in the braking areas. Then Schuey was slow out of the corner before the pit straight. Rubens got a better drive out of the corner and went to pass him on the inside. We saw Schuey look in his mirror and move over and in a heart-stopping incident almost put Barrichello into the wall. Were it not for the fact that the pit wall finished he would almost certainly have done so.

After the race Rubens was incredulous. Typically Schuey was unrepentant saying Rubens should have gone the other side. The Stewards did not see it like this and Schumacher will be penalized by a ten place demotion on the grid at Spa. Rubens later said he doesn't want to go to heaven yet and Schuey has apologised.

Whilst one man's legend was suffering others were attempting to make theirs. Young guns Petrov (Renault) and Hulkenberg (Williams) out-qualified and beat their illustrious team mates and Kamui Kobayashi started dead last after a poor qualifying and a five place penalty for having a gearbox changed. He finished ninth on this original "no overtaking" track.

And that's it. As we enter the summer shutdown Webber leads the championship by 4 points from Hamilton and is ten ahead of his team mate. Vettel is certainly fast enough to be champion, but some are beginning to question whether he is bright enough. It will also be interesting to see when the team begin to favour the Aussie in races - oh they can't do that can they? Ferrari are best of the rest at the moment and Alonso says that he can still win the title. With their great driver strength and prodigious work rate it would be foolish to write off McLaren team.

Back at Ferrari, Luca is rarely out of the news, whether Ceasar-like sternly exhorting the team to greater efforts or saying that's more like it. I wonder how much it all helps? Finally a last word on the "barcode" controversy. A friend said she thought it stood for KitKat! So much for the power of subliminal advertising.

Next race is at Spa when circuit expert Tony Cotton will be reporting. In the meantime we might take a look at how the little teams are doing. In Hungary they all finished for the first time.

Click here for FIA lap chart.