2006 Hungarian F1 Grand Prix

[Jack_Bauer]

Traditionally one of the least thrilling races of the season due to the tight, twisty nature of the Hungaroring circuit, it looks as though the action BEFORE the competitive racing starts could be potentially championship deciding. Firstly in Thursday scrutineering the STR cars had their "mass-damper" system rejected which led to Renault having to drop their system again putting them at a disadvantage. Secondly defending champion earned himself a hugely damaging penalty by misbehaving TWICE in Friday practice, seemingly gifting the race into the hands of Ferrari.

And now after Saturday morning practice we have Michael Schumacher under investigation from the race stewards for apparently overtaking under a redflag after a Honda engine blew on track. If the stewards stay to form then Schumacher should recieve a similar 1 second per session penalty for illegal overtaking to the one Alonso got (if found guilty of course). With half an hour to go to qualifying there has still been no announcement from the stewards so we'll just have to wait and see if this puts yet another cat amongst the pigeons in terms of the race and the championship.

[Jack_Bauer]

Well, that certainly puts an end to any FIArrari conspiracy theory! ITV in the UK are reporting that Schumacher has recieved a TWO second penalty per qualy session, exactly the same as Fernando Alonso! Obviously the stewards have deemed that overtaking under redflags is exactly twice as bad as overtaking under yellows.

This could set up a fascinating race tomorrow with the two championship contenders both having to fight their way through from the wrong end of the grid whilst simultaneously battling each other. Should certainly liven up the usually dull race in Hungary!

[Dino Scuderia]

Maybe the two starting at the back will be exciting as Damon's run in the Arrows and when Nigel passed twelve cars in that race once.

[Wouter Melissen]

Is there an official word on this yet? They now got six minutes to announce it.

[Wouter Melissen]

They just told Alonso on the radio that MS also has a 2 sec penalty.

[Jack_Bauer]

First session over and both Schumacher and Alonso have made it through the first knockout. Alonso only made it with a storming last minute lap but he lives to fight another day. Schumacher and teammate Massa were blisteringly quick on outright pace, could we perhaps be seeing a maiden victory for young Felipe Massa in the Ferrari? With Michael so far down Massa will have a free reign to show what he can really do.

Those eliminated in session one are...

Yamamoto
Albers
Sato
Speed
Liuzzu
and perhaps suprisingly Rosberg

[Jack_Bauer]

The pace from Schumacher in that session was absolutely mesmerising. In the end he has only missed out on the final session by a matter of a few tenths despite his 2 second penalty. Alonso was damn quick too, but not quite on the same level. That little bit advantage in pace will mean Schumi will be a few places ahead of Alonso in the midfield for the start.

Looks like it'll be a shoot out between Massa and Raikkonen for the pole with Massa surely favourite unless McLaren go super aggressive on fuel as they did in Hockenheim. The other big story of Q2 was the stunning performance of young Robert Kubica. He outpaced his very experienced teammate by a long way on his debut and thoroughly deserves his place in the final shootout.

[fpv_gtho]

Looks like we could see Massa grab his first win for the race. He may not get pole but surely the Ferrari's will be the package to have for the race.

[Dino Scuderia]

MS will be 14th and Alonso 16th on the grid.

[Jack_Bauer]

Wow, that was a blistering final lap from Kimi. He was nowhere throughout that whole session and needed to pull it out of the bag on his final lap, and he did just that. Massa will be kicking himself after making a number of small mistakes on his hotlaps. It all ended up looking pretty scrappy from the young Brazilian and he has thrown away his best chance yet of a pole position. There were some pretty glum faces on the Ferrari pitwall after Kimi's pole lap. I think they were thinking Massa had the pole in the bag and that he would be able to control the race from the front.

All the media speculation around Mark Webber clearly hasn't distracted him as he was hugely fast, really putting his young teammate to shame. The Hondas looked genuinely quick too, turning the tables on their big rivals Toyota after it seemed they'd taken the upperhand in the race to be the best Japanese team. They must be kicking themselves after Jenson's engine blowup. And that 10 place grid penalty for Button was bad news for Renault as it ends up putting another car inbetween Alonso and Schumacher.

Fisichella looked average (as per usual) and is in no position to help defend Renault's slender lead in the WCC. The other big story is of course the stunning debut of Robert Kubica, beating his teammate and starting from 9th.

Provisional grid for tomorrow:-

1. Raikkonen, McLaren
2. Massa, Ferrari
3. Barrichello, Honda
4. De la Rosa, McLaren
5. Webber, Williams
6. R Schumacher, Toyota
7. Fisichella, Renault
8. Trulli, Toyota
9. Kubica, BMW
10. Heidfeld, BMW
11. M Schumacher, Ferrari
12. Coulthard, Red Bull
13. Klein, Red Bull
14. Button, Honda*
15. Alonso, Renault
16. Monteiro, MF1
17. Liuzzi, STR
18. Rosberg, Williams
19. Speed, STR
20. Sato, Super Aguri
21. Albers, MF1
22. Yamamoto, Super Aguri

*10-place engine penalty

[Dino Scuderia]

Should be a good Kimi/Massa dual for the first stint at least.

[Jack_Bauer]

Hmmm, there were some rather interesting comments from Schumacher to the ITV reporter after the qualifying. He seemed to be suggesting that there was some foul play going on in the incident that saw him penalised in practice. Apparently one of the 3 cars that Schumacher passed under red was none other than Alonso. He was being very coy about it, not wanting to say the wrong thing that could land him in more hot water, but was demanding that the TV companies get their hands on the on car footage of the incident to show what "really" happened.

All very mysterious. Without spelling it out entirely he seemed to be implying that Alonso did something devious deliberately to get him penalised. I hope the footage does get released so we can figure what Schumi's on about.

[Schumi]

I would want to know why the red flag for Jenson's engine blow? I cant recall a time when there was a red flag for somthing like this. But I would like to know the truth....that is...could there be some truth in what Schumacher is saying

[fpv_gtho]

If it was severe enough to block the track, or spew oil all over the place they wouldve done it. It happens quite alot in testing where they have to stop whats going on to remove one of the cars.

[SlickHolden]

Hope Webber has something up his sleeve again this race, He was doing a top job last out until his famous POS Williams with it's 10/10 reliability stopped him from getting into a great fight for the podium with kimi. Would have been great to watch.