Formula 1 Jam

FIA had most of it right… It turns out to have a brilliant race you need just one extra component, nope not the mass dampers … Its just H2O good ole water and a lot of it.

Button drove flawlessly coupled with brilliant strategy coupled with amazing timing for switching tyres to take his maiden victory at the Hungaroring. There were a Spaniard and a German in the top 3 but they weren’t Alonso or Michael. Pedro produced a brilliant recovery drive(including an overtaking move on Michael) after teammate crashed out in an unfortunate incident to take the second step of the podium. Nick Heidfeld’s drive for BMW Sauber was perfect and carried him to a superb 3rd.

A drenched Hungaroring was the place to be as the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix started. Kimi started clean with Massa in his tail losing time fast, the Brazillian was heading for possibly his worst race for Ferrari in a long time. The biggest gainers were Michael jumping from 11 to 5th. Alonso stayed at 14th for the first corner but half way across the lap he was behind his teammate’s tail. The Spaniard was unstoppable overtaking Massa, Fisichella and Michael Schumacher within the next 2 laps.

Alonso continued to march ahead overtaking everyone in sight as Michael struggled on the Bridgestones that were just not performing in the wet conditions. Fisichella touched Michael’s front wing as he went thru and forced the German to pit… Fisi retired a lap later after a trip on the Gravel. Michael’s hope that the new set of Bridgestones would give him competitive times was quickly squashed as his times continued to be almost 5s off the top times.

Alonso was literally flying at one stage, he was over 4s faster than anyone else on the track and had almost 40s to the second placed man. He lapped Michael.. an event that reminded me of his victory in 2003 and against all odds. On another part of the circuit Kimi trying to lap Liuzzi got into a bad position and ended up crashing into his back. Both retired as Pedro who was in their slipstream driving brilliantly to avoid the debris. Safety Car was scrambled as Alonso and most of the grid except Button and Michael pitting. This decision probably won Button the race.

Alonso headed out still in the lead with just 7 cars in the lead lap, Michael was in 7th having unlapped himself as Alonso pitted. Button’s decision not to pit pushed him to 2nd as Pedro joined back in 3rd. The restart saw Alonso running away as Button struggled with in lapping Massa who seemed to hold up ever every single driver that lapped him.

Button then chose the perfect time for the reprival… Alonso’s lead from Button reduced from about 65s to 10s thanks to the Safety Car suddenly had competition. Button was lapping 1s faster than Alonso on his worn out Intermediates, Alonso slower on his new Intermediates which were not upto temperature. Button just kept gaining and after about 5 laps was on Alonso’s tail. The Honda pitted for its regular pitstop and switched to dry grooved tyres. This was like the perfect timing for the switch… he was now almost 2s a lap faster than the World Champion.

Alonso pitted a few laps later for Dry climate tyres and that was the Achilles heel for Renault. Two corners into the outlap a wheel nut came undone and Alonso spun to a retirement. Renault later informing that a Driveshaft failure ended the Champion’s best race ever.

Button now was way ahead in 1st and stayed there till the end to pick up the chequerd flag. Elsewhere on the track as Alonso retired Ferrari felt a sudden rush of adrenaline. Michael suddenly could actually gain points to Alonso and he suddenly looked perfect on the track. He was the fastest man on the track and the Ferrari was gaining positions. With everyone around him pitting for Dry tyres Michael soon was 2nd with Pedro behind him. Then everything went wrong Pedro like the dry runners was gaining almost 3s a lap to the intermediate tyre runners like Ferraris.

Michael fought hard but Pedro forged his way past the German and Nick pushed him just too much to the edge. Michael’s tyres looked destroyed and all of a sudden his gear box let go. Stuck in gear Michael drove to the pits and into retirement looking back at possibly 6 points over Alonso.

Button, Pedro and Nick drove the remaining 2 laps calmly and took the chequered flag. The reaction of the crowd was amazing… almost every race fan loved this race and were in front of the podium… it did not matter if they came to see Alonso win or Michael win, they were cheering the 3 podium finishers who deserved their race win.

Race Result