2012 Hungarian Grand Prix grid

2012 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Row 11. Lewis Hamilton 1’20.953
McLaren
2. Romain Grosjean 1’21.366
Lotus
Row 23. Sebastian Vettel 1’21.416
Red Bull
4. Jenson Button 1’21.583
McLaren
Row 35. Kimi Raikkonen 1’21.73
Lotus
6. Fernando Alonso 1’21.844
Ferrari
Row 47. Felipe Massa 1’21.9
Ferrari
8. Pastor Maldonado 1’21.939
Williams
Row 59. Bruno Senna 1’22.343
Williams
10. Nico Hulkenberg 1’22.847
Force India
Row 611. Mark Webber 1’21.715
Red Bull
12. Paul di Resta 1’21.813
Force India
Row 713. Nico Rosberg 1’21.895
Mercedes
14. Sergio Perez 1’21.895
Sauber
Row 815. Kamui Kobayashi 1’22.3
Sauber
16. Jean-Eric Vergne 1’22.38
Toro Rosso
Row 917. Michael Schumacher 1’22.723
Mercedes
18. Daniel Ricciardo 1’23.25
Toro Rosso
Row 1019. Heikki Kovalainen 1’23.576
Caterham
20. Vitaly Petrov 1’24.167
Caterham
Row 1121. Charles Pic 1’25.244
Marussia
22. Timo Glock 1’25.476
Marussia
Row 1223. Pedro de la Rosa 1’25.916
HRT
24. Narain Karthikeyan 1’26.178
HRT

2012 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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73 comments on “2012 Hungarian Grand Prix grid”

  1. So massively dissapointed with Webber :(

    1. Yer it’s like Silverstone never happened

    2. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
      28th July 2012, 14:11

      He’s doing a fine impression of Jenson.

    3. I’m a big fan of his but, again, today was another example of why I don’t think he’ll ever be champ. Just when you think he’s made some kind of a breakthrough he puts in another dismal performance to bring you back down to earth. It’s actually quite painful.

  2. a Stunning lap from Hamilton. Unbeatable. but I’m not sure they’re ready enough for expected wet race…

    1. hamilton shud be prepared for another heartbreak, wet race or not. Hungarian track WILL punish the tyres. poor hamilton.

      Vettel or Lotus for win!

      1. I don’t think Lotus would win even though they were very strong in the qualifying. They tend to be weak if temperature drops and that seems to be the case tomorrow.

        1. Agreed. i was referring to ‘if it stays dry’ situation! btw, it was 42-43, by far the highest track temp, right? higher than bahrain?

          1. Probably. as far as I remember Bahrain was 40-41 celsius.

        2. Ditto. If conditions are dismal make way for Alonso or Checo! Or even Jenson, for that matter.

  3. Did Raikkonen used their double DRS on qualifying? Because a reporter on my local tv station said that he did not…

    1. No. They won’t use it before Spa.

      1. Why on earth not use it now if it’s working fine?
        does it need to be colour-matched first? are the team waiting for printed formal invitations to arrive in the post sent by themselves? is the new sys very shy, or is it against it’s religion to run it at weekends?

    2. No the car was back to normal spec.

    3. thanks for the quick answer

  4. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
    28th July 2012, 14:07

    A very comfortable pole for Ham, the downside is that he wasted a fresh set of primes. Hopefully he didn’t hold up Maldonado.

    1. That’s hamilton, i guess. Still the go-kart mindset. Great attitude for a racer, not so great for a WC contender!

      1. Ken (@myxomatosis)
        28th July 2012, 15:03

        Hamilton was the only driver with two sets of fresh primes going into Q3 seeing as he PRESERVED an extra set by using only mediums in Q1 which nobody else could do. How this becomes a basis for criticism is beyond me.

        1. Some people seem to be here on the assumption that they can make certain drivers look bad by making posts whether fair or not.

          They are not men enough to respect HAM’s dominance, so other fantasies has to be thrown in a desperate attempt to smear mud.

      2. @f1lunatic I’m gonna lend U a dollar, so U can buy a clue

    2. @tmcs88 You mean options. And he used 1 prime set in Q1, 1 option set in Q2 and 2 (assuming first run on fresh options) in Q3. So he has no fresh options and 2 fresh primes left. Since Mclaren have made the prime their preferred race tyre, I think they will run a O-P-P strategy which is perfectly fine with their tyre usage.

      1. if it’s a 2 stop strategy…

    3. Cause the rain ?

  5. Could Ferrari have been using a set up more directed towards a wet race, which it is expected to be?

    1. I believe you could be correct, at least on Alonso’s car :)

      1. and how exactly did you figure this out? ;-)

      2. Mercedes at least, I hope. I mean, today their car was on Toro Rosso and Caterham levels…

        1. No, they were a little better, Sauber level. Only this was qualy, so I expect Saubers to drive by Rosberg tomorrow and then they will battle with Toro Rosso.

          1. Surely Schumi and Rosberg are better drivers than Perez and Kobayashi? That’s what I took into account.

          2. Maybe, unfortunately Suber is better race car and as seen now comparable qualy car…

          3. I agree, the Sauber cars have great race pace. They will surely be at least duking it out with Mercedes, if not passing both of them.

        2. Our dutch commenter thought it might have to do with engine mapping: Red Bull got caught, but everybody had to change according to the new directive.

          So Mercedes apparently profited most of the different engine maps and consequently suffers most…

          1. @verstappen That’s interesting! Were they just speculating, or did they have any other evidence to support it?

    2. Since the introduction of parc ferme after qualifying and the 2009 aerodynamic rules change the difference between ‘dry’ and ‘wet’ set-ups is far less significant than it used to be.

      1. Well we saw it can be significant last couple of races even though top 3 teams managing quite well.

        1. we saw it can be significant last couple of races

          How do you mean?

          1. We saw Lotus ruined their wet qualifying and make significant progress in the dry races. Mercedes was not so bad in wet but they struggled to beat Sauber in the races. Force India also have had some up and down.

          2. @eggry What were the differences in their set-ups?

          3. I don’t know how they set up. but I’m sure there were performance order changing. Well, maybe it’s not down to set-ups but just characteristics of each cars. anyway that’s my opinion.

        2. @eggry – With Lotus, it was not the difference with a dry/wet setup. Surely, with the car struggling to remain competitive with even a couple of degrees below 35c, even the best wet setup Lotus can ‘hardly raise the bar’!

      2. Yet there is a difference, right? That could be a factor to why they were so off pole in today’s session, if they were actually using a wet set up.

    3. Everyone would set up expecting rain but I’m not sure how much each team…Anyway wet race is good news for Ferrari and bad news for Lotus. I’m not confident about Mclaren or Red Bull though.

    4. wonder if they’re still getting advice on wets from MSC.
      Ferrari made him Chief Advisor on Strategy during the Kimi reign, and he advised to send KR out on full wets on a dry track once… Results not so good..

  6. Now onto the rainy race tomorrow…

    1. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
      28th July 2012, 14:13

      Hopefully not, I’ve had my fill of rainy races.

      1. get the wimbledon crew here to lay down those rain-proof sheets! ;-)

        1. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
          28th July 2012, 14:54

          @f1lunatic
          Maybe they should go further and build a roof over every F1 track!
          Also, Hawk Eye could’ve been used last week to instantly determine whether Vettel was ‘Out’ when he passed Jenson. :-)

          1. They didn’t need Hawk Eye for that!

  7. Wow. Haven’t seen a dominant pole like that in a while! If the race stays dry tomorrow Hamilton will not be beaten easily! At the back of the grid it’s great to see Caterham edging ever closer to the Toro Rossos and well done Charles Pic, comfortably out qualifying his team mate!

    1. yep, a dominant pole it was!

      But i disagree with

      If the race stays dry tomorrow Hamilton will not be beaten easily!

      ….. he will have to drive a race like Canada to be anywhere near the win. And this time he will have the Lotuses to contend with.

      If only Mclaren have improved on their tyre management. Hate it when the tyres dictate the show more than driver talent. DRS – phewww, nowhere near as potent a threat as tyre!

      1. Well I’m just going by the race pace Button showed in Germany coupled with the comfortable performance margin Hamilton showed today. Lewis could easily pull away from those behind him from pole tomorrow. I think he’s got a great opportunity to win tomorrow.

  8. So Mercedes not a backmarker, just a low midfield runner…They now don’t even have position to fall from on Sunday.
    Webber, Button, Raikonnen and Schumacher coming bad in comparison to team mates…
    Grosjean has a chance to be another driver to have first win here, if it’s not going to rain tomorow…
    Vettel, Raikonnen and Alonso will battle for third step.

    1. That is if he (Grosjean) does not get into trouble, especially in the opening lap…

      1. davidnotcoulthard
        28th July 2012, 17:23

        Which I don’t see coming

  9. anybody, did the lotus run with the new front wing, that was telecast during FP3?

    1. sorry, the new nose( not the front wing )!

  10. I predict controversy on the horizon. A five-place penalty for Hamilton and Vettel for blocking Maldonado on his flying lap, perhaps?

    1. If yes then Lotus 1-2 tomorrow …

    2. Hmmm…Alonso is not getting a push to pole with the penalty, so NO! ;-)

    3. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
      28th July 2012, 14:33

      I don’t think so, Maldonado had plenty of room.

    4. It was actually Button and Vettel, not Hamilton.

      1. I know …

      2. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
        28th July 2012, 14:45

        That’s what I thought when I watched it live, but during the post race analysis on sky they said that it was Ham…

        1. I saw Buttons Helmet and red T cam, and Button said himself after Q he had to move over to let Mal past.

          The Hamilton inncodent was somewhere else on circuit that we didnt pick up. But since Mal didnt mention it after Q, i dont think it was anything news-worthy.

      3. I think if you watch again it WAS Hamilton as he said at the time that he may have slowed Maldanado

  11. Oh dear, another quali failure for Webber and where on earth are Mercedes ?? Going nowhere fast at present !

  12. Overall, I think the most surprising thing for me was the Lotuses quali pace.

    Of course, in hindsight, it is not. We saw that on a similar track and with similar temperatures, they delivered more or less the same in Valencia.

    Consequently, they could be in for a win, like Grosjean did in Valencia. I play down the importance of rain somewhat – Lotuses are more affected by temperatures than humidity and the Budapest region, and the whole country as a matter of fact, is expected to remain very very hot tomorrow despite prospective quick showers.

    Hamilton is also a strong bet.

    As far as Alonso is concerned (being a fan of him, I analyze him): damage limitation aided by the luck of Webber, his nearest competitor in terms of points, starts way back on the grid. On the other hand, Alonso got the dusty side of the track, which could make a difference here, the circuit being consistently under-used aside from the Grand Prix. I think only Vettel could pose a problem, if Alonso gets ahead of Vettel and stays there, there could be no problem on the long-term. Hamilton and Raikkonen may gain points, but it it going to be an entirely different setting in five weeks time for the second half of the season – upgrades and different track characteristics. Ferrari performs way better on high-speed tracks like Silverstone or Spa.

    Anyway, it is important to note that the Lotus version of double DRS could really save their season as far as Raikkonen – their only driver hanging on for being a slight championship contender – is concerned. If he manages to qualify in the top 5 consistently from Spa onwards, he could win races based on their race pace.

  13. Hoping it DOES NOT rain tomorow

    1. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
      28th July 2012, 14:58

      Where’s an Ocarina when you need one. ;-)

  14. So, so disappointed with Mercedes. Don’t know what happened with them. They have all the ingredients but seriously lack execution.

    Pic beat Glock so that’s good for him and a nice change to see Vergne outside the bottom 7, only to be replaced with his teammate!

    I expect Webber will be kind to his tyres and make up for today. Grosjean and Raikkonen have their best chance to score 25 points tomorrow and I hope they deliver, just as we’re getting some order together they could mess it up a bit!

  15. I hope Alonso has a good start tomorrow.

  16. If tomorrow turns up to be wet afterall, we’re in for a handful. Ferrari, Sauber, Mercedes could be the ones to watch.

    Either way though, the 3 first rows at the start look VERY promising!

  17. I’m Going to rule out Button from WDC, he fail to deliver a 1-2 with the fastest car, he needs 7-8 podiums and 3-4 wins and all other dnf at least 2 times. Looks like max 1 not score race to be contendent.
    Ayway he can be a good number two starting in this race where we will see if he can help the team in the WCC,
    hope he can help Hamilton

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