STRONG DRIVE FAILS TO REWARD WEBBER IN HUNGARY

Ninth place in today’s Hungarian Grand Prix was scant reward for a good solid performance by Mark Webber at the Hungaroring, just outside Budapest. The Red Bull Racing driver who started the race in ninth position after Giancarlo Fisichella was penalized five grid positions following an infringement in qualifying, drove well throughout the 70-lap race but, although running in the lower end of the points for much of the race, was ultimately outpaced to the final point up for grabs by the quicker Renault of Heikki Kovalainen.

Webber made a clean start, jumping ahead of Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and running side-by side with team-mate David Coulthard who briefly went ahead at turn one. Webber redressed the order at turn two and then benefited when Fernando Alonso ran wide onto the dirt. However, it didn’t take the reigning world champion long to recover and he repassed the Australian on the next lap. This left Webber in eighth position, 2.6s behind Robert Kubica who had also been quickly demoted by Alonso, and 2.9s ahead of Kovalainen.

Nick Heidfeld, Nico Rosberg and Alonso triggered the first round of pit stops on lap 17, followed a lap later by Ralf Schumacher, and then race leader Lewis Hamilton, second-placeman Kimi Raikkonen and Kubica; all this promoting Webber into third. Webber pitted on lap 20 and rejoined the order in 10thwith only Kovalainen and Coulthard ahead of him still to pit. Once they had, Webber regained eighth position.

With Webber adopting a three-stop strategy after his first pit stop and Kovalainen on a two-stopper, the race was now on to see who could complete the race the quickest.

Webber moved into seventh when Rosberg. also on a three-stopper, pitted but dropped to ninth when he made his second stop on lap 40. Webber rejoined 10 seconds behind Kovalainen and although he began to narrow the gap, the Finn responded before pitting for his second and final stop on lap 49. Webber briefly held eighth but his fate was sealed when he pitted again on lap 59, handing the final points scoring position to Kovalainen who was eight seconds ahead of Webber at the chequered flag.

“It was a long day at the office for no reward in terms of points although I was happy with the way I drove,” said Webber afterwards. “The start was pretty good; as usual it was a hectic first turn and I lost a spot to David (Coulthard) but I was able to repass him at turn two. Fernando made a mistake at the last corner of the first lap so I got ahead of him for a lap but he regained the position on the main straight. After that I settled into my first stint – we had two options at our first pit stop; either to two stop or three stop and we thought we’d give three a go. In the end, our race was solid but we just weren’t fast enough. It was between Heikki and me all day for the last point and he got it; maybe through tyre strategy and a slightly quicker car. This track rewards high levels of down force and we need more of it.”

The FIA F1 World Championship now takes a deserved three week summer break before resuming in Istanbul on August 24-26 for the Turkish Grand Prix.