Hungarian GP: Winners And Losers

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Monday 6th August 2007

A McLaren driver won the race but McLaren won nothing and may lose their World Champion and Chairman as a result...

Star of the Race
Lewis Hamilton, McLaren 1st
A lovely, measured drive from Lewis that once again made a mockery of his rookie status. In spite of a handling glitch, and all the other problems that besmirched McLaren this weekend, the World Championship leader never put a wheel offline and remained unperturbed by Raikkonen's relentless pursuit. The boy doesn't feel pressure - even the self-inflicted kind.

Overtaking Move of the Race
Lap 2, Fernando Alonso on Robert Kubica
Other than Kimi Raikkonen out-starting Nick Heidfeld, Alonso's two-corner move was the only pass of significance. Without rain, the Hungaroring is a desert of overtaking. It was strange, though, that Alonso was able to overtake Kubica - who set the fourth-fastest lap of the race - without any undue fuss and yet never got close to the ninth-fastest Ralf Schumacher.

Winners

Ferrari
With their rivals shooting themselves in the foot, Ferrari dodged a bullet in Budapest.

Temporarily handicapped by their long wheelbase, both Ferraris struggled - relative to their recent superiority, that is - around the Hungaroring's twisty, slow corners. Nonetheless, the team left Hungary eight points closer to McLaren in the Constructors' Championship and with Kimi just two scores further adrift of Lewis. They probably couldn't believe their luck.

That said, if they are to bounce further back in Turkey, it might be a good idea if they remember to put fuel into Felipe Massa's car. Even a bit of detergent would have been preferable to an empty tank.

Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 2nd
Pushed Hamilton all the way without ever quite being near enough to launch a serious challenge for victory. Or, as Lewis put it, "he was up my tail all the way". No wonder Nick Heidfeld sported such a startled look throughout the press conference.

Raikkonen may have lost two points to Hamilton but he is now ahead of team-mate Massa and finally settled at Ferrari. If the Italians can reproduce their race pace in qualifying then Raikkonen will soon be up Hamilton's tail in the Drivers' Championship as well.

Nick Heidfeld, BMW, 3rd
'Startled' was being kind. Heidfeld actually looks faintly psychotic in press conferences. The beard doesn't help but it's the goggle-eyed routine that really does it.

Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 4th
Unfairly cast as the villain of Saturday's piece, Alonso responded in typically feisty fashion on Sunday afternoon. In the circumstances, both on and off the road, fourth was a reasonable result, but the raggedness of his display provided yet more reason to suspect that Alonso is unable to channel his road rage to his advantage. Compare and contrast his hot-headed drive to Schumacher's icy-cool performance at Monaco last year after the stewards also judged him a qualifying cheat.

Alonso has a tendency to let his emotions get the better of him and a whole new rash of 'Alonso to leave McLaren' stories will inevitably keep the F1 world running during the three-week break. Ron Dennis will be aware of the danger more than anyone else: the McLaren boss famously convinced Juan-Pablo Montoya, another hot-headed driver, to leave Williams in the stormy days that followed his rumpus with Sam Michael at Magny-Cours in 2003.

Robert Kubica, BMW, 5th
Marked his first anniversary in F1 with another solid drive. Probably had the pace to edge out team-mate Heidfeld in a clean fight but paid the price for being unable to hold up Alonso.

Ralf Schumacher, Toyota, 6th
Revitalised. Amazing what the threat of being sacked can do, isn't it?

Nico Rosberg, Williams, 7th
It was about time that Rosberg finally turned his pace into points. Young Nico has been quicker than Alex Wurz throughout the year but had less than half the number of points before this weekend.

Heikki Kovalainen, Renault, 8th
A point and a wonderful pre-race riposte to Ted Kravitz after ITV's interrogator-in-chief sycophantically congratulated the Finn on his team's exploits in qualifying:

"What do you mean a 'strong' qualifying? I am 12th and Fisi is further back. It was a disaster."

Losers

Ron Dennis
You only had to see Ron's pained expression during his post-race interview on ITV to realise that McLaren had been badly beaten this weekend despite one of their drivers actually winning the race. Unable to collect any points due to the qualifying rumpus, Dennis was also unable to take any consolation from Lewis' tainted victory. He looked crushed.

Although the British press have absolved 'our Lewis' of all blame, Hamilton's conduct on Saturday must have particularly hurt Dennis. After ten years of schooling in the McLaren ethos of putting the team first and foremost, it was Dennis' prot�g� who disregarded the direct order of his team boss, setting in motion a dismal train of events that ended at 11pm that night with the stewards effectively branding the team liars.

For Ron, this must have been the ultimate betrayal. If Lewis wasn't prepared to play fair, then how could Fernando? And as a man who prides himself on both his personal and organisation's integrity, the stewards' ruling will have been deeply wounding.

Nor will his mood have been brightened by Hamilton's request that he "go f**king swivel". It was that advice, and not Alonso's tardy exit from his pit-stop, that prompted Dennis to throw down his headset in disgust at the end of qualifying. The youngster is deluding himself if he believes that "something as small as this is definitely not going to affect our relationship".

In hindsight, this may be regarded as a seismic weekend in the history of McLaren in three respects.

First, it has probably damaged Alonso and Hamilton's relationship to such an extent that Fernando will prefer to take a year out of the sport than continue at McLaren.

Second, events in Budapest shattered the illusion that the team can come first in F1 - the very principle on which McLaren is founded.

"I really want everybody at McLaren to share the responsibility of being part of this team," Dennis declared last year. "I also think it is very important for all of us to realise that McLaren was there before we arrived and will be there after we've gone. We're simply custodians of the company, writing our own chapter in its history."

It is a laudable ethos yet one which crumbled during the era of Senna v Prost - rather than Senna and Prost - and again on Saturday when two drivers fell into the temptation of driving for a World Championship rather than for the McLaren team. It is ironic that they were both permitted to collect World Championship points and McLaren were not because the qualifying debacle was caused by Alonso and Hamilton prioritising individual ambition over team glory.

Third, it may hasten the retirement of its chairman, CEO and founder member. Dennis turned 60 in June and could not disguise his exhaustion at Budapest. Over the next few weeks, he could be forgiven for concluding that if winning provides so little relief then he might as well step out of the firing line.

It is an open secret that Martin Whitmarsh has been groomed as his successor and that he has already assumed many of Dennis' day-to-day responsibilities. "Martin has spent the last 10 years trying to convince me to retire," he told the Guardian in January. "Most people's perception of retirement is that you stop working. My perception is completely different. It's just a systematic back-off. It will be a slow process of disengagement but not a switch. I don't want to quit as a loser."

Perversely, at the end of 2007 it may be the bitter taste of victory which causes him to quit as a winner.

Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, and McLaren
Every relationship of significance within the confines of McLaren - Dennis and Alonso's, Alonso and Hamilton's, Hamilton and Dennis' - was damaged this weekend. At least one has probably been irrevocably weakened beyond pair.

It is worth dwelling on Lewis Hamilton's role in the debacle because his guilt has largely passed without comment by the fawning British media. Even The Guardian's old sage Alan Henry fell into the trap, assuring readers that the qualifying rumpus 'all started when Alonso appeared to deliberately hold up his team-mate'. Not so; it all started when Hamilton deliberately ignored a direct order from Dennis to let Alonso past on the track during the early stages of qualifying three. It was a defining moment for driver, team and, very possibly, the 2007 season. In that moment, Hamilton revealed that he was only willing to respect McLaren's belief in equality so long as it suited him, and thus a hitherto-concealed ruthless streak.

Comparisons with Ayrton Senna suddenly seem even more appropriate. Like the Brazilian, Hamilton is prepared to play dirty. And like Senna, he has the happy knack of dodging the crossfire whilst his unfairly-maligned team-mate takes the flak.

Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 13th
Yes, he was heavy on fuel. And yes, the Hungaroring doesn't exactly invite overtaking. But that doesn't excuse Massa's fastest lap time being over a second slower than Raikkonen's in identical machinery. 13th was a pretty pathetic effort.

Giancarlo Fisichella, Renault,
There can be few more humiliating embarrassments to befall at F1 race driver than being found guilty of blocking Sakon Yamamoto.

Sakon Yamamoto for heavens' sake.

Perhaps Fisi was testing reverse gear?

Jenson Button, Honda, DNF
What a difference a year makes. Unfortunately for Jenson, there is little reason to believe that next year will bring a more favourable reversal. The modified car that Honda introduced at the start of the European leg is as bad, if not worse, as its slow-running forerunner. The best that can be hoped for next year is respectability.

However, one ray of light did emerge this weekend. If Alonso does quit McLaren then a route out of Honda may become available.

The Hungarian GP
Quite how or why Budapest remains on the F1 calendar is one of life's little mysteries. The circuit is unsuitable to host a grand prix in the same way that I am deemed unsuitable to date supermodels.

2006 proved an exception, but only because of unseasonal rainfall. Otherwise, year after year, Hungary provides soporific, tedious racing. Even Kimi Raikkonen admitted he was "bored" this weekend as he chased Hamilton with little or no hope of overtaking the race leader.

It says everything about the fare that the go-kart circuit generally provides that Martin Brundle refuses to attend the event.

Officially, of course, Brundle is on holiday this weekend. Oh really? The last grand prix was two weeks ago. The next is a full three weeks away. And Brundle, ITV's pundit-in-chief, only has to work 19 weekends a year in any case.

He isn't on holiday; he just didn't fancy being bored to tears by a procession for two hours.

Oh, and if you are wondering why this column is under a new by-line this weekend it is because Frank Hopkinson is away. On holiday.

Pete Gill