Lotus Racing F1 Team Race Report: Hungarian GP

A year after Scuderia Ferrari's Felipe Massa freak accident that nearly cost his life during qualifying, the F1 party continues to Hungary. The 1st July race was quite a dull affair, as the race result was already decided on Saturday's qualifying. Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber took the front row for their 11th pole out of the 12 races this season. The race, won by Webber in his 150th outing and gifting him the championship lead, was interrupted on the 16th lap after a minor accident left debris on the track. While Webber stayed out on the track, Vettel was called in for a pit stop on the lap 18, a move which effectively ended his chance to challenge for the win and took second on the podium. It was during this Safety Car period that saw many incidents in the pit lane. A wheel rolled off Mercedes Petronas GP's Nico Rosberg's car and bounced wildly down the pits, hitting a William's pit crew. Another pit lane incident occured when Renault released Robert Kubica too soon, which caused him to collide with Force India's Adrian Sutil. McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, who was leading the championship table prior to the race, was taken out by a gearbox problem on lap 24. Another drama unfolded near the end of the race when Mercedes GP's Michael Schumacher and Williams Rubens Barrichello got tangled in a dangerous overtaking maneuvre. Schumacher appeared to force Barrichello into the pit wall when the Brazilian was attempting to overtake him for 10th place, but Barrichello held on to his nerves and sped through trouble. After the race, a livid Rubens condemns Schumacher's driving, saying that the former world champion should have been black-flagged for it. Schumacher has since apologized to his former team-mate. As for Lotus racing F1 Team, the team was in an ecstatic mood as all new teams finished the race. Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen finished 15th and 14th rescpectively. Technical chief Mike Gascoyne said, "That was an excellent two-car finish and once again we're the best of the new teams. Both drivers drove strong races and Trulli had a particularly good start. Once the safety car came out we made a strategy call to keep Trulli out as we knew it would be a short period behind the safety car and this was the right strategy for the team. Unfortunately this meant Jarno lost a place to his team-mate, so apologies to him, but we got the call right for the team. Kovalainen drove a good strong race to the end. Kovalainen said, "I think that was the maximum we could have hoped for, so we're all really pleased." Trulli added, "All weekend I've been strong, and today's two car finish shows how hard the team's been working." The F1 circus will take their 3-week summer break before resuming with the Belgian GP on the 27th to 29th August.