Alonso splits Red Bulls for valuable second place (Ferrari race review)

Posted on

| Written by

A win never looked on the cards for Ferrari given Red Bull’s performance advantage.

But Fernando Alonso was able to split the RB6s on race day giving him a useful haul of points.

Team mate Felipe Massa, however, never figured in the battle at the front.

Felipe MassaFernando Alonso
Qualifying position43
Qualifying time comparison (Q3)1’20.331 (+0.344)1’19.987
Race position42
Average race lap1’27.044 (+0.138)1’26.906
Laps70/7070/70
Pit stops11

You need to upgrade your Flash Player

Open lap times interactive chart in new window

Felipe Massa

Spent the build-up to the race telling the press he’s “not a number two” – but never did anything on the track to suggest otherwise this weekend.

He dropped behind Lewis Hamilton during the pit stops as there was a delay in getting his tyres ready after Alonso had pitted. He was fortunate not to lose even more time as Barrichello almost passed him as he left the pits.

We never got to see whether Massa could take the position back from Hamilton on the track as the McLaren driver retired, leaving Massa to take fourth.

Compare Felipe Massa’s form against his team mate in 2010

Fernando Alonso

Qualified the Ferrari as high as it could go and took advantage of starting from the clean side of the grid to pass Mark Webber on the first lap.

While Webber was able to use strategy to get back ahead, Sebastian Vettel’s drive-through penalty allowed Alonso up to second.

He was hounded by Vettel for the rest of the race but the F10’s straight line speed and Vettel’s inability to close on him in turbulent air meant Alonso’s defences were never tested.

A valuable second place puts him within 20 points of championship leader Webber.

Compare Fernando Alonso’s form against his team mate in 2010

2010 Hungarian Grand Prix

    Browse all 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix articles

    Image (C) Ferrari spa

    Author information

    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...

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    25 comments on “Alonso splits Red Bulls for valuable second place (Ferrari race review)”

    1. finally some luck for ferrari and alonso after qually everyone was sure that red bull was faster and that track position would be crucial vettel still unlucky and the track proved to be very hard for racing last year it was a lot easier to overtake in normal conditions

    2. MacademiaNut
      2nd August 2010, 0:15

      You have to hand it to ALO for keeping VET behind him for a good part of the race. I thought it would have been much easier for VET to overtake ALO, given the speed of RB6. It is probably the track, but Ferrari’s straight-line advantage over RB6 certainly helped and ALO did not do any significant errors even when he was less than a second gapped by VET for a good number of laps.

      1. It’s a combination of the track and the fact that the RB6 is the slowest car in a straight line. As Alonso said in the press conference, this was pretty much a gift for Ferrari, as on any normal circuit Vettel would’ve been able to pass with that much of a pace advantage.

    3. I hope the doubters will shut up now.

      Massa is not in the league of Alonso and his performance yesterday was proof. Regardless of whether Vettel pushed him or not, he finished second and he took his opportunity well.

      This F1 season is turning out to be great! 5 drivers split by 20 points, each with a chance of winning the WDC.

      Next race should be a RBR given, the fast sweeping corners of Spa will suit them, Ferrari will not be able to push for a win. Monza after that would be a more of a chance for Ferrari and nothing would better to see Alonso winning infront of the Tifosi!

      FORZA FERNANDO!

      1. Spa will suit the Mclaren and the Ferrari as well due to the long straights and their top speed advantages. It will be close, and the victory will depend on the outcome of the flexi wings.

      2. Spa will probably be nowhere near RB territory. Expect mclaren to be at the top following by ferrari….

        Keith wrote: “… meant Alonso’s defences were never tested.”

        So keeping Vettel for more than half of the race isnt defence?!?! lol

        He drove ubelivably well… All track he kept Vettel slow on purpus and on the last corrner he give it all to escape for the straight line (theres the big part of speed difference compared to Vettel), and on the last 3 laps he put few fast laps just to be safe. Awsome driving

        1. Forgot the FI… if they have the same aero as last year they should be super quick… also Renault with their straigt line speed.

        2. Keith wrote: “… meant Alonso’s defences were never tested.”

          So keeping Vettel for more than half of the race isnt defence?

          He drove ubelivably well… All track he kept Vettel slow on purpus and on the last corrner he give it all to escape for the straight line (theres the big part of speed difference compared to Vettel), and on the last 3 laps he put few fast laps just to be safe. Awsome driving

          I’m not saying Alonso didn’t have to adjust his driving to stay ahead, but he was never in a position where he had to come off-line to defend from Vettel.

      3. I didn’t see any proof in the race that Massa wasn’t in the league of Alonso.

        Massa’s pace was generally very close to Alonso’s, he was just unlucky to fall behind Hamilton in the pitstop phase. If not, I think he could have finished 3rd.

    4. Alonso and ferrari have their luck baq and are on the same page now. Spa is gonna suit ferrari more than redbull. not exactly wat i wud call “sweeping corners” like barcelona and silverstone. similiar speed type corners as hockenheim and that long str8 after eau rouge. and ferrari generally do well at Spa. too bad Kimi Raikkonen isnt there to show them how its done…Monza will be a battle of f-ducts, but ferraris performance in quali and race is better than mclaren.

      1. Yeah… so Kimi can put it in a wall :P

    5. All of a sudden Alonso is the biggest threat for the Red Bulls as they will have two drivers fighting it out where Ferrari have one,with another helping him out.

    6. “F10’s straight line speed and Vettel’s inability to close on him in turbulent air meant Alonso’s defences were never tested.”

      Why it looks like something is burning inside you? :D

      1. Because it is :D

      2. What do you mean?

        1. Well, in my opinon he means that you are not fair with Alonso’s performance; and he may be guessing it is because of the problems he had with Lewis in McLaren.
          But it is just my pont of view, I could be wrong.

    7. He was hounded by Vettel for the rest of the race but the F10’s straight line speed and Vettel’s inability to close on him in turbulent air meant Alonso’s defences were never tested.

      i watched the GP2 drivers dive in on the inside of rivals at the chicane and managed to get passed, we saw Rubens get into Micheal’s slipstream and get sucked up so he could pass,

      truth is Vettel couldn’t pass a bus on this track if he tried.
      he would get close to Alonso, but always at the wrong places, working out how to get past another car when you have so much more speed around corners is a art in itself, and Vettel has not got it i am afraid.
      watching him loose traction on corners when closing in on Alonso was a crying shame.
      you need to think more than one corner ahead and start the run in further back making sure your just outside the dirty air till the right moment.
      Vettels thoughts are more about sleeping. now that has got to be the craziest thing to say, keeping your mind on the job and staying in touch with the driver in front under SC is a must.
      he had just lost the lead.
      i believe this knocked him off his game plan and was just taken back by the fact Webber was in front now.

      1. we saw Rubens get into Micheal’s slipstream and get sucked up so he could pass,

        But Barrichello’s performance advantage over Schumacher was far greater than Vettel’s over Alonso.

        Barrichello was on new super-soft tyres, Schumacher was on mediums which he’d spent all but the first 15 laps of the race on.

        Barrichello reduced an 8.085s gap to Schumacher to 0.433s in three laps – that’s 2.68 seconds per lap.

        Alonso and Vettel were both on mediums and had put them on at the same time.

        Vettel took five laps to cut Alonso’s advantage from 4.103s to 0.821s – that’s 0.66 seconds per lap.

        You can find all that data in the race chart here.

        1. if Vettel could have come outa that last bend with enough speed or close enough, he just might have got sucked up to Alonso as well, just like Rubens did in a way slower car (top end speed) than Micheals.

    8. Didn’t Ferrari have greater straight line speed too?

    9. RB Car is an extreme car made to run the first. Then its aerodynamics work perfect but when it’s behind another car it doesn’t work. Even yesterday that they have 1 second to Alonso. For a RB driving behind another car is bad.
      Anyway I think Vettel did’t pass Alonso because of this fact but expecially because of the track. Alonso didn’t make mistakes but he has a lot of track to hide the pace gap.

    10. good race by Alonso and ferrari.. Alonso made no mistakes throughout the race for vettel or webebr to pass thru..

    11. The start of the race was very telling. Fernado had a great start and going into the first corner he was about 3 feet ahead of Sebastian. If he had been able to hold that lead thru the corner, he could have controlled the race (given the nature of how hard it is to pass). Sebastian still has to get better starts. Is it him or the car? I note the Renault engine seems to have good torque for getting off the line with Renault.

    12. Keith a thought for the next race in Spa,Ferrari are reported to be bringing quite a substantial update,revised EBD and floor,plus a new gearbox,will the gearbox be “new” as in design or just an allocated replacement? On one site i have also read that the “flexi” wing saga will hurt Ferrari more if it is to be strengthened to reduce movement,than Red Bull?

    13. interesting to see Massa / Ferrari wanted to state that Webbers strategy would not have worked for him http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/240497/massa-webber-s-strategy-wouldn-t-work-for-us/

    Comments are closed.