Hungarian GP Stats & Analysis

The main battle that took place over more than half of the race was going between Kimi and Alonso. Overtaking proved a continuing nightmare at the Hungaroring and Kimi had to wait 3/4 of the race to be able to really push once Alonso came out behind after the final pitstops. That’s when we saw the Iceman fly and take 3 consecutive fastest laps, thus being the fastest of the lot in the race. Catching Timo Glock was a real treat to watch, although Kimi had to back off due to a shakey problem with the rear of his car (and it was visibly noticeable on the onboard camera) and settled for 3rd. The Toyota driver took his first ever F1 podium with a well deserved 2nd place. So, now that’s all out of the way, let’s see some stats and figures from the 2008 Hungarian GP weekend courtesy of Autosport.com’s Michele Merlino.

Kovalainen for 100

Heikki Kovalainen became the 100th winner in Formula One history –
and the fourth Finn, after Keke Rosberg, Mika Hakkinen and Kimi
Raikkonen.

Kovalainen scored the third McLaren win in a row, and the
Woking-based team didn’t record a straight of three consecutive wins
since Monaco, Canada and USA last year.

With this win, Finland has matched Italy at the fifth all-time spot
in the wins-per-country chart. At the top, Great Britain rules with 198
wins. The last win for Italy came in the 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix with
Giancarlo Fisichella.

First podium for Glock

Timo Glock scored his maiden podium in Hungary. He is the 12th
driver on the podium this year and also the 12th driver to score a
podium for Germany.

This is the second podium for Toyota this season, the japanese
manufacturer didn’t score more than a podium since 2005, when at the
end of the year it counted five podiums.

Hamilton’s tenth pole

Lewis Hamilton in Hungary clinched his tenth pole, matching Jochen
Rindt at the 29th all-time spot. Hamilton is the third-fastest driver
to reach ten pole positions in Formula One history.

The fastest was Juan Manuel Fangio, who conquered his tenth pole at
his 20th race, the 1953 Swiss Grand Prix. Second is Alberto Ascari, who
reached the milestone in France the same year, at his 22nd race. In
third place, alongside Hamilton, are Jim Clark (Great Britain 1963) and
Jacques Villeneuve (Belgium 1997).

Qualifying notes

• For the first time this year McLaren were able to fill the front
row. That hasn’t happened since the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix. In 2007,
McLaren filled the front row five times, winning in all cases, three
times scoring a double.

• Kimi Raikkonen missed the front row for the third straight race,
which has not happened to him since Hungary (3rd), Turkey (3rd) and
Italy (5th) last year. Qualifying between Massa and Kimi is now a 7-4 battle, with the Finn claiming he must improve his qualifying performances to achieve better race results.

• Best career result for Timo Glock, who before the Hungarian Gran
Prix counted as personal best an eighth place, scored in the French
Grand Prix this year.

• Worst qualifying spot of the season for Nick Heidfeld, who has not qualified this low down the grid since Germany 2006.

Race notes

• Kimi Raikkonen ended his seven straight race without a win. To
find a longer winning drought for the Finn we have to go back to the
2005-2006 seasons. From China 2005 to Brazil 2006 he was for 19 races
without a win. He then went to Ferrari and won the first race of the
2007 season. This was Kimi’s 6th podium visit this season including his 2 wins, tallying up his total career podiums to 54.

• The fastest lap of the race came back to this season’s most frequent poster, Kimi, which took his 7th fastest lap this year and his 32nd career total.

• A Ferrari engine was in the points in Hungary for the 46th
straight race, tying at the third all-time place the record set by
Renault from Monaco 1991 to Brazil 1994.

• Fernando Alonso equalled his best result of the season, a fourth he scored in the opening race in Melbourne.

• First back-to-back points finish for Nelsinho Piquet, who scored points in three of the last four races.

• Worst result of the season for BMW Sauber, who racked up only a
point with Kubica, while Heidfeld finished 10th. Before Hungary, the
worst showing for BMW Sauber was France, with a fifth by Kubica and a
13th by Heidfeld. The last time the Swiss-German team scored only one
point was last year in the US GP.

• Best result of the season for Toyota, who scored ten points in
Hungary. To find a higher points tally for the japanese team in a
single race, we have to go back exactly three years. In the 2005
Hungarian Grand Prix Toyota scored eleven points with third by Ralf
Schumacher and a fourth by Trulli.

• For the third straight race a Red Bull car was not in the points,
which has not happened since Hungary, Turkey and Italy last year.

• With 18 cars classified out of 20 starters, the 2008 Hungarian
Grand Prix is one of the twelve races in Formula One history to have at
least 90% of the drivers classified. France this year was one betterm
with 19 cars classified.

All the race lap-by-lap facts can be read on the FIA’s website. If you’re interested in looking at the full statistics of Kimi’s career, you can read them all in the KRS Archive here. So, the race was not as bad as we thought it might have been for Kimi. Qualifying sixth mainly due to a mistake already cost Kimi the win. But at least he was able to prove how fast he was and the potential in the car. Kimi’s fastest time, when no doubt that he was pushing like a mad man, was a 1:21.195 on lap 61, three tenths quicker than Massa’s fastest time of 1:21.355 which was on lap 16, presumably when he was pushing at his maximum too. So, that’s another thing to be happy about. Kimi is clearly the fastest driver, and nothing ever let me doubt this despite his qualifying performance. Now, we can really look forward to the new race at Valencia, where no team has tested and no team is even allowed to test during this 3 week break. All the work must be done back at the factory, and at the Scuderia in Marenello the reliability is the most vital factor to improve. Kimi could have easily lost any points available in France with that broken exhaust, just as Massa lost his 10 points yesterday. The championship is more than open, and eventhough Lewis is leading it’s his game to lose now. At this point last year Kimi was beginning his championship charge, and it’s going to happen this year. But we’ll have to see if lessons and mistakes have been learnt from. Keep Flying Kimi!