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Formula One – Hungarian Grand Prix
Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean both reach
the podium at the Hungarian Grand Prix and
challenged Lewis Hamilton for victory throughout.
It was Lotus’ second double-podium of the year,
the drivers having finished the same way round
in Bahrain.
Kimi started fifth and lost a place to
championship leader Fernando Alonso, forcing him
to lap behind the Ferrari for his first stint
and conserve his tyres. He had a problem with
his KERS, which failed at the start of the race
and only later returned at 50 percent power.
Team-mate Romain, who started P2, was the one
putting the initial pressure on Hamilton before
pitting on Lap 19 and losing a second during his
stop due to a slow rear tyre fit.
Raikkonen profited as the pitstops shook out and
rose to P4 on a long 26-lap stint on soft tyres
before re-pitting for mediums on Lap 46, six
laps after Grosjean and five after Hamilton, and
preparing for a final hard charge. The Finn
exited the pits just as Romain, who had been
held up by a backmarker, came screaming down the
main straight, causing their engineers to sweat
as they went through Turn 1 side-by-side and
Raikkonen forced Grosjean wide in order to steal
the racing line and hunt Hamilton.
He was soon within a second of the Englishman,
but the McLaren driver was able to eek out
faster third sectors, protecting himself down
the main straight. There were no other
opportunities for the Lotus to pass. Grosjean
held on to third ahead of Vettel, who made a
third pitstop without losing a place and charged
back to attack the Lotus on fresh softs, to no
avail.
Kimi Raikkonen: “We came second and it’s not
enough, but McLaren had very good speed. It’s
very difficult to overtake here, and Lewis was
pulling away on the straight. My only chance was
if he ran out of tyres. We had a lot of speed
but we just couldn’t use it. Nevertheless, a
double podium is good for the championship and
I’ll take second place. We keep making it very
hard for ourselves in qualifying. But it’s a
long season and they’ll probably be another
time. I’ve been long enough in the business that
I don’t worry about it too much.”
Romain Grosjean: We were fighting for the win
throughout the race, and it’s a fantastic result
after such a difficult race in Germany. It
didn’t go all my way though. Our first pitstop
was a disaster, and then I got stuck behind
another car and lost 1.5 seconds, which meant
Kimi was able to get ahead. He did what he had
to do and pushed me to the outside. It’s a good
result for the team but to be honest I’m a bit
disappointed. I think we were really close to
winning here.”
GP2 – Hungary
Esteban Gutierrez won the second GP2 race of the
Hungarian Grand Prix weekend from pole position.
Having finished Race 1 in eighth place, the
Mexican was awarded the reverse grid pole ahead
of Nathanael Berthon. He made a good start,
maintaining his lead through Turn 1 and then
maintaining a comfortable gap to the Frenchman.
When Berthon posted a fast lap and cut the gap
to under a second, Esteban responded by setting
the fastest lap of the race, a 1:32.348 on Lap
15, which was a full 1.5 seconds faster than the
Racing Engineering driver on that lap.
It was the Lotus driver’s first sprint race
victory of the year, having already scored
feature wins in Valencia and Silverstone. He
maintains third place in the championship.
Team-mate James Calado had mixed fortunes. He
was given a two-place grid penalty for impeding
another driver during practice, which moved him
from P2 to P4 for Race 1, and remained in that
position when he crossed the line. That put him
fifth on the grid for Sunday’s sprint race, but
the Englishman had a clutch problem which saw
him fall down through the field at the start.
Fighting to get past Max Chilton for much of the
race, he eventually salvaged sixth.
Lotus leads the championship with 282 points, 24
ahead of DAMS.
Esteban Gutierrez: “I made a great start in Race
1. We started on the clean line and shot from
seventh to fourth. The strategy we used was very
different to the others and was working well
until we lost three seconds keeping the position
to Marcus Ericsson. We had been in a good
position to exit the pits ahead of the pack, but
it was not to be. After that I tried to fight
back, but also preserve the tyres for a final
push, which worked well and I was able to pass
Fabio Leimer for eighth place and the pole for
Race 2. Starting in front makes a big difference,
and I just had to hold onto my tyres and manage
the gap to the guy behind. The car was really
nice to drive on the limit. When the team asked
me to do the quickest lap it was pretty easy. In
the end I saved some fuel, but was in control
all the time and never felt threatened. It was
good!”
James Calado: “A pretty average weekend, but we
scored some points and its put me fourth in the
championship. Things got off to a bad start with
the penalty in free practice, which I think was
very undeserved. I put that behind me and
qualified second. Race 1 was pretty good and I
finished fourth, and in Race 2 I had an issue
with the clutch which I had to recover from. I
still scored more points than Giedo van der
Garde (who is fourth in the championship), we’re
leading the teams’ championship, Esteban drove a
great race and next we go to Spa, which I love.”
GP3 – Hungary
Lotus GP posted pole position and a podium
finish at the Hungaroring, maintaining their
lead in the teams’ championship.
Aaro Vainio secured pole position for Race 1 but
made a terrible start, while championship rival
Mitch Evans pulled off a blinder and left the
Finn weaving on the grass in an attempt to
defend. Then Evans went wide at Turn 1, allowing
Vainio back through along with team-mate Daniel
Abt and they set off to chase leader Antonio
Felix Da Costa. Evans recovered to re-pass both
Lotus’ at Turn 3, but then Abt lunged down the
inside to retake second place a few corners
later and maintained that position till the end.
Vainio dropped a position to Kevin Ceccon on Lap
2. The third Lotus driver, Conor Daly, finished
behind Vainio in sixth.
Sunday morning saw a damp and drying track for
Race 2’s start. Most of the cars started on wets,
but nine of those towards the rear of the field
took a slick-tyre gamble right from the off. Abt
clipped Evans at the start, spinning the MW
Arden driver. With three laps to go, Vainio
passed Daly for second around the outside of
Turn 1. As the race entered its closing laps,
the slick-shod cars were lapping over 10 seconds
per lap faster than those on wets, and Da Costa
was the first of the slick runners on track. He
carved his way past Abt, Daly and Vainio as the
Lotus’ fell back. A post race penalty for Tamas
Pal Kiss means Vainio clawed back seventh place
and is now 17 points behind Evans in the
championship. Daly finished ninth and Abt 11th.
Daniel Abt: “I also had a second place in
Hockenheim but that one felt really, really bad.
I was quite comfortable from the beginning but I
was a bit unhappy with my qualifying, but like
always I was able to make a good start. For sure
I was not able to stay with Antonio but it's a
difficult track with the low downforce, so you
need a lot of confidence to push. But I kept it
safe and I was able to keep Mitch behind. It
started in the first corner because I was able
to overtake him. Then he made a great move to
overtake me in the second corner, it was on the
outside and I was quite surprised to see him
there. I knew I had to get him back and I did,
so I think it was some kind of revenge for
Hockenheim after he stole my home win! So in the
end I am quite happy. Honestly, I had really
high expectations of myself coming into this
Series this year. There have been some races
which haven't really gone to plan, especially in
qualifying I need to improve. In the last few
races I have been able to take some good points
and close the gap to Vainio in the championship.
I would like to close the gap with Mitch, I know
it's quite a big margin but I am going to try
everything. I can just give my best and try not
to make any mistakes.”
European Rally Championship - Rali Vinho
Da Madeira
Lotus’ groundbreaking Exige R-GT, the first
car in this category of tarmac-racing rally
sports cars to be homologated by the FIA, made
its competition debut at the weekend in Madeira,
Portugal, with works driver and local hero
Bernardo Sousa at the wheel.
The priority was on reliability over
performance, but unfortunately despite showing a
lot of promise in the opening special space, the
car was not able to complete the rally due to an
electronics issue.
In the first special stage the car ran well and
lapped seventh overall, but in the second
special stage a problem emerged with the
internal electronics connection which affected
all the systems and its laptime, finishing tenth.
In the third and final stage an electronics
glitch caused the gearbox to fail, the wheels to
lock, and Sousa and co-driver Corrado Mancini to
career into the wall at slow speed.
The Lotus International Team is focused on
resolving this electronics issue, and Bernardo’s
next date with the car will be an extensive
four-day test in Italy at the end of the month
to validate all systems.
Bernardo Sousa: “I’m disappointed because I
really wanted to finish the rally, but we can
take heart that the potential is clearly there.
We crashed out due to a failure, which is
frustrating, but not uncommon when you debut an
all-new car. On Special Stage 3 when I braked,
the gearbox wouldn’t downshift, the wheels
locked, and we didn’t make it through the
corner. We crashed at about 40km/h. The first
stage was promising, though, particularly as
there were lots of chicanes and we don’t have
power steering. I know that on proper stages we
can be a lot faster. I’m very confident this car
can compete at a high level. Despite the
electronics glitches, the parts are high quality
and we will fix this one problem.”
Claudio Berro, director of Lotus Racing: “A
memorable week for Lotus Racing, with success in
the single-seater categories and our debut in
the European Rally Championship. First of all,
well done to the Lotus F1 Team on their double
podium. Next they head to Spa, where Kimi
Raikkonen has won four times before and is
looking incredibly motivated. Congratulations to
Esteban Gutierrez on his third GP2 race win for
Lotus GP this year, and Daniel Abt on second
place in GP3. So, a very strong weekend for
Lotus. On the rallying side, we hoped the Exige
R-GT would complete the course in Madeira, but
it was the car’s first taste of competition and
these things rarely go smoothly. The pace is
there, we just have to make the car 100 percent
reliable, so we’re looking forward to a big test
at the end of August.” |
