Hungary: The Race Seen from the Pits

McLaren

Lewis Hamilton – Winner

Jenson Button – 6th

Martin Whitmarsh, Team Principal: « Lewis delivered an incredible race this afternoon, and the result was a meticulous victory despite enormous pressure throughout the race. He made a superb start from pole position, then controlled with incredible authority, achieving very fast laps while preserving his tires.

The 25 points earned today allow him to reach a total of 117 so far. Even though he is still a bit far from the leader of the drivers’ standings (Alonso), he is now well-positioned to launch his assault on the world crown during the last nine races. Believe me, anything is still possible.

Jenson had a frustrating race, but he still managed to score eight valuable points with his sixth-place finish. Like Lewis, he will return from this summer break ready to tackle the second half of the season, fresh and enthusiastic. And once again, like Lewis, his goal will be to score big points, from Spa-Francorchamps to Interlagos, at every race between these two events.

Yesterday, Lewis achieved the 150th pole position in McLaren’s history – and today, he claimed our 178th Grand Prix victory. It was his 101st Grand Prix – and it’s hard to imagine a better start to his second century of Grand Prix, isn’t it?

In the constructors’ championship, the 33 points scored by Lewis and Jenson today allowed Vodafone McLaren Mercedes to reclaim second place in the constructors’ standings. Once again, just like in the drivers’ championship, we are in a good position to work on closing the gap with the leaders and clinching the constructors’ laurels by the end of the year.

Speaking of hard work, I would like to pay tribute to the incredible determination shown by everyone within the team at Woking and at Mercedes AMG HighPerformancePowertrains in Brixworth throughout this 2012 Formula 1 season so far. And, in fact, I would also like to say a big ‘thank you’ to our friends in Stuttgart as well as those in Brixworth, because today’s win was the 75th for the McLaren/Mercedes-Benz partnership: an incredible number!

We will now take a vacation, recharge our batteries, and we will return to Spa-Francorchamps in a month, well-prepared and ready to fight again.

– Lire des déclarations des pilotes

Lotus

Kimi Räikkönen – 2nd

Romain Grosjean – 3rd

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: We have both cars on the podium at the end of a fairly good weekend for the team. We must salute everyone at Enstone because they work so hard for such results and they rarely get the chance to taste champagne on the track. I am very happy that Romain is back after a tough weekend in Germany and I am very happy to see Kimi fighting for the win. Our new approach to qualifying is the right one. We qualified better this weekend and ran at the front of the race for many laps. On a different track that allows overtaking, I think we could have won this race.

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Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – 4th

Mark Webber – 8th

Christian Horner, Team Principal: With the heat this afternoon, it was a very difficult race. Sebastian lost time in turn 1 in his battle with Grosjean, then in the 1st and 2nd stints. Mark got off to a good start on hard tires but his strategy was not yet defined.

For Sebastian, who was stuck behind Grosjean, we opted for a 3-stop strategy. The pit crew did a fantastic job today, allowing Sebastian to get ahead of Alonso.

Mark experienced some differential issues around lap 45, which forced him to stay behind Senna until the end.

We are heading into the summer break with good standings in the drivers’ championship and a first place in the constructors’ championship, which we can be pleased about. There are 9 races left to go, but I think everyone deserves a rest before coming back recharged!

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Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 5th

Felipe Massa – 9th

Stefano Domenicali, Team Principal: It’s clearly a case of seeing the glass half full or half empty! Fernando’s fifth place allowed him to extend his lead in the championship, which is a very important achievement on a weekend where our performance wasn’t on par with the best. It was a very difficult race, mostly decided by grid positions and the start, with the only variables being concerns about tire degradation and the different strategies. I think regarding this last point, we made the right choices, allowing Fernando to stay ahead of two cars that were faster than him. In fact, it was the start that had a detrimental effect for Felipe: he couldn’t make up for the lost places, despite having a similar pace to his rivals.

As I said at the beginning, the outcome of this weekend is not negative, but we clearly need to study closely how the weekend unfolded in order to understand why we weren’t as competitive as in the recent races. We now have a week before the summer break: there is much to do to reduce the performance gap and be as prepared as possible for the last two races in Europe.

At Spa and Monza, we will race under very different conditions and on circuits very different from Budapest, so anything can happen. It will be important to be ready for any eventuality. We will be able to catch our breath for a few days, but I’m sure our guys have only one thing in mind…

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Williams

Bruno Senna – 7th

Pastor Maldonado – 13th

Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: « I am delighted for Bruno who had an excellent race and these six points are a big boost for the team before the August break. Pastor had a poor start which compromised his race. He then attacked, showing good pace before being penalized after his overtaking maneuver on Di Resta. I would like to thank our mechanics who did a great job today, with what was our fastest stop. »

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Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – 10th

Michael Schumacher – Retirement [Fuel pump]

Ross Brawn, team director: Nico did a good job today, and the 10th place is what the car was worth, if not a bit better. He drove very well to make his tires last which is a positive sign, and with a good strategy, he was able to gain a few places. Michael had a roller-coaster race. He started from the pit lane, received a penalty, and then suffered a puncture, so it wasn’t really a very good start to the weekend for him. We lost telemetry on his car, and then encountered various problems during the race that we weren’t quite sure about, so we decided to retire him. We are clearly not as competitive as we had hoped, and while we got the most out of the car today, we need to find more performance and lap time.

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Force India

Nico Hülkenberg -11th

Paul di Resta – 12th

Vijay Mallya, General Manager: « We showed flashes of speed this weekend, but ultimately we weren’t consistent enough to achieve our goal of finishing in the points. We didn’t qualify well enough yesterday, and this afternoon there was little chance of progression as overtaking is very difficult on this track. There was no room to improvise with the strategy, and our two-stop strategy was certainly the right choice considering the cars we were battling with. We will retain the positive aspects of these past few days and try to understand where we can find more performance so that we can come back stronger after the summer break. »

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Sauber

Sergio Pérez – 14th

Kamui Kobayashi – 18th

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering: « In the end, we finished as high as we could this weekend. It’s hard to judge our race performance because our drivers were often stuck in traffic. Kamui lost places at the start, which made things difficult for him. We pitted him earlier than planned to give him a clearer track, which helped him a bit. However, midway through the race, we discovered a small hydraulic leak that only got worse, and we decided to call him to the pits a lap before the end. Checo [Sergio Pérez’s nickname, ed.] gained a position at the start, but we were still outside the points. Therefore, we decided to take a risk and extend his first stint, considering the possibility of a one-stop strategy. But the tires didn’t last long enough, and in hindsight, it didn’t pay off. We also delayed the second stop, which helped Checo catch up with some drivers, but ultimately, we have to accept that we weren’t fast enough overall this weekend. We must react to this. »

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Toro Rosso

Daniel Ricciardo – 15th

Jean-Eric Vergne – 16th

Franz Tost, team director: 15th with Daniel and 16th with Jean-Eric, this is of course not what we wanted to achieve. But we cannot hide the fact that currently our level of performance is not good enough to fight at the front of the midfield.

Today, our two drivers did the best they could with the equipment at their disposal. It was really tight choosing between a two-stop or three-stop strategy; but given our position in qualifying, the balance tipped towards three stops. Jean-Eric was forced to make an additional one due to overheating caused by some debris in the right sidepod of the car.

We only have a few days of work left available before and after the mandatory break, in order to find improvements to try to reverse the trend. We have nine Grand Prix left in this really tight championship.

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Caterham

Heïkki Kovalainen – 17th

Vitaly Petrov – 19th

Mark Smith, Technical Director: « We have reached the end of the first part of the season and today’s race is a good indication for us to see where we stand. Our drivers raced faultlessly this afternoon. The pit stops, the strategies worked well, and the efforts made by all the staff as well as the factory members cannot be questioned.

However, we are not where we want to be, and we know that there is still work to be done to achieve the goals set at the beginning of the season. We have a break ahead of us, which gives us time to take stock and recharge our batteries.

– Lire des déclarations des pilotes

Marussia

Charles Pic – 20th

Timo Glock – 21st

John Booth, team director: « First of all, I would like to congratulate the entire team for the great strides made so far this season, which, in light of today’s performance, are clearly evident. While we have occupied similar positions for much of the season, we have slowly but surely closed the gap with Caterham, distanced ourselves from HRT, and more broadly, reduced the margin between us and the best. With another impressive race today, Charles has shown this progress, as he was in contact with Petrov – and occasionally faster – for a large part of the race. In contrast, Timo experienced another tough race and has yet to benefit from the new package’s contributions. A long break is just what our sport needs now, and we will return to the UK, spend the week preparing for the nice batch of races ahead after the break, and literally shut down for a few weeks to enjoy a well-deserved vacation. These first seven months have been a real challenge and the whole team is to be congratulated for responding well to it. I am confident that when we return to Spa in a month, both our drivers will be able to make even better use of our package and the developments we will bring to Monza. »

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HRT

Pedro de la Rosa – 22nd

Narain Karthikeyan – Retirement [Suspension]

Luis Pérez-Sala, Team Director: It was an interesting race for us because we battled with Glock from start to finish. Pedro and Narain got ahead of him and stayed there until mid-race, but they passed us again after the second stop. Pedro had him in sight at the end of the race, but it wasn’t meant to be this time. Although we finished behind our rivals, we had a good pace and the most negative aspect was the problem Narain suffered with the suspension, which we need to analyze.

Now, we will return to Madrid, to the Caja Magica, and after a few days of work, we will take a bit of rest before tackling the second part of the season full of energy to continue progressing and improving our project.

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