There’s been some great action on the track this year, but controversy seems to be following F1 around the world and stealing all the headlines. Who can put the racing itself back on the sports pages in Hungary this weekend?
Felipe Massa (BRA), Ferrari – 8th, 85pts
The Ferrari ‘team orders’ shenanigans in Germany were a real slap in the face for Felipe Massa, who's not exactly had much luck since being only two corners away from a world championship title 20 months ago. Almost exactly a year after taking a piece of countryman Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn car to the skull here in Hungary, Felipe has fought his way back, now in the shadow of yet another team-mate in Fernando Alonso, and his terrific move around the outside in turn one at Hockenheim saw him leading by right. How unfair, then, that the Brazilian’s team repaid his hard work by making him move over for the impatient Alonso, hardly streets ahead so far this year, and worse that the team’s top brass made Felipe’s engineer and friend Rob Smedley deliver the request to let Fernando past. If Ferrari continue their dramatic improvement in performance, the neutrals will surely be keeping their fingers crossed that Felipe’s next podium visit is to the top step.
Mark Webber (AUS), Red Bull Racing – 3rd, 136pts
Sebastian Vettel (GER), Red Bull Racing – 4th, 136pts
If there’s a shortage of parts at any point in Hungary this weekend, Christian Horner will have to make his toughest call yet, but we jest – clearly things are back on an even keel at Red Bull, and it must have come as a relief that somebody else was attracting the negative publicity at Hockenheim. Less of a relief, though, is Ferrari’s sudden resurgence, the controversy of Alonso’s win not changing the fact that it would have been a fairly convincing Ferrari one-two anyway. With McLaren still lurking, Mark and Sebastian need to be singing from the same hymnsheet from now on if the performance gap continues to close between them and their rivals, but with identical points totals, it’s still going to be healthily competitive between the pair.
Lewis Hamilton (GBR), McLaren – 1st, 157pts
He’s still top of the pile, no mean feat in a car that’s not always been the best on the grid and with the championship wide, wide open this season. Though his first and only world championship came almost two years ago now, Lewis is perhaps showing more class and maturity this year than ever. Having to play catch-up to the Red Bulls, having the man who took his drivers’ crown (and another British favourite), Jenson Button, as his team-mate, plus old team-mate and sparring partner Alonso still hellbent on succeeding at his expense, Lewis has had to step it up. And the maths prove that he’s doing a superb job. His win at the Hungaroring last year was the turning point in a torrid 2009 campaign – another one here this year would do very nicely…
Heikki Kovalainen (FIN), Lotus – 19th, 0pts
Two years ago, Felipe Massa’s penultimate rotten afternoon at the Hungaroring ushered in a historic day for McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen, who, having qualified second behind team-mate Hamilton and seen Felipe jump them both at the start, then gained the lead and his only F1 win to date. Two summers on, and Heikki’s at the opposite end of the grid most of the time, but the Finn still has a smile on his face. Perhaps one reason is that the likeable Lotus man is reportedly marrying his English sports psychologist girlfriend in October – on 10/10/10, if the reports are true. (Seeing as this is the same day as the Japanese GP, we think this is unlikely.) Perhaps he won’t have 10 points on the board by then, but it would be good to see him finish in the top 10 places at least once this year…
Robert Kubica (POL), Renault – 7th, 89pts
Like Kovalainen, he still has only one win – Canada, also in 2008 – on his F1 CV, but Kubica has come much closer to glory this year than the Finn. As the only Polish driver ever to make it to the top series of motorsport, Kubica is massively popular in his home country, and despite there being no Polish GP (yet… don’t put it past Bernie to create one), many thousands of faithful Poles drive the 300km or so down the E77 through Slovakia to Hungary to lend their support. Renault may not have maintained their early-season charge from nowhere in the R30, but Bahrain and Britain excepted (11th and retired respectively), Kubica has finished in the points in every 2010 race, including podiums in Australia and Monaco, and with a fastest lap in Canada. Whether or not Renault can regain the initiative this weekend, they have a very, very capable driver who can deliver if they do.
Read more over the weekend from Budapest at our F1 Hungary event page
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