THIRD AND FOURTH FOR RED BULLS IN HUNGARY Sebastian Vettel finished third and Mark Webber fourth at the Hungarian Grand Prix in a race of contrasting fortunes. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton took his first win of the season, with Kimi Raikkonen second for Lotus. Sebastian made a good start from P2 on the grid and despite being on the dirty side of the track managed to hold position under pressure from Lotus’ Romain Grosjean. Race leader Hamilton made his first stop on lap nine and was followed to the pits by Seb two laps later, both drivers taking on medium compound tyres. Both emerged behind Jenson Button. However, while Hamilton got past the slower McLaren, Sebastian found himself stuck behind the Briton for 13 laps. He made a bold attempt to get by on lap 17 but the challenge resulted in a minor collision that damaged Seb’s front wing. He eventually made it past Button but by then Hamilton had built a substantial gap. Seb about salvaging as much as he could and in the closing stages chased down Raikkonen, who had risen to second from sixth on the grid on the back of a two-stop strategy. Despite the Finn battling degraded tyres in the last few laps he successfully fended off repeated challenges from Sebastian and the championship leader finished third. “I would have loved the race to have been a bit longer, as it was fun with Kimi at the end,” said Seb afterwards. “It’s hard to pass on this track, I got close but I wasn’t in the prime overtaking spot at that point; I was trying to set something up for the next corners, but it didn’t work. “The key issue in the race was when I got stuck behind Jenson,” he added. “There’s no one to blame for that, I lost more time than expected on the way into the first stop and we came out just behind him. I couldn’t get past; I tried to force it and damaged my front wing, which was a mistake from my side. I was maybe trying to urge a bit too much. It was close with Kimi and nice to be on the podium again today. Congratulations to Lewis, he did a good job today.” While Sebastian lost out in his chase for victory, Mark turned qualifying disappointment into race joy by battling from 10th on the grid to fourth at the flag. Due to technical issues, Mark was unable to set a time in Q3 on Saturday and thus had a choice of starting tyre for the race. He and the team opted for the medium compound and after a good start Mark found himself seventh and the highest prime-tyre runner and when the soft-tyre shod leaders pitted early in the race, Mark assumed the lead. With clear air in front he set about making up ground. After successfully closing on the leading cars, Mark took on a mandatory set of soft tyres on lap 59 and emerged in P4. He almost caught Sebastian but in the end finished a useful fourth. “I think we had the right strategy,” he said. “We knew there was a lot of pressure on getting a good first lap and I got some clear air, which worked well. The start was okay and the first sector was very good, I was able to put a bit of pressure on Kimi and then we just settled in. “I had a pretty tricky car for the first three or four laps, as I knew the option tyres were quite grippy and after that we just got our heads down,” he added. “I don’t think we could have got much more than that result today. The strategy was pretty solid and you have to pace the option tyres until the end.” Team principal Christian Horner admitted afterwards that Seb’s laps behind Button had been the deciding factor in his race. “We weren’t able to get past quickly and sustained a bit of wing damage,” he said. “That then effectively released Lewis and put us back into the realms of fighting with Kimi on a two-stop. However, despite the damage, Sebastian was able to maintain a very strong pace and pushed all the way to the flag.” He went on to hail Webber’s performance as “excellent”. “A very strong first stint put him back into contention and to recover from tenth on the grid to fourth was a very good performance,” he said. “So heading into the summer break, we’ve extended our lead in the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships and everyone now deserves a well-earned rest to recharge their batteries for when we come back at the end of August.” Sebastian’s third place means he maintains control of the Drivers’ Championship standings. He now has 172 points, with Raikkonen in second place with 134. Alonso is third on 133, while Hamilton’s win gives him a total of 124 points and fourth place. In the Constructors’ battle, we increase our lead and now have 277 points. Second-placed Mercedes have 208 and Ferrari 194. Lotus are fourth 11 points further back.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 04:56:37 +0000
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