Wikipedia

2007 Hungarian Grand Prix

The 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix (officially the Formula 1 Magyar Nagydíj 2007)[5] was the eleventh race of the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship and was held on 5 August 2007 at the Hungaroring racing track in Mogyoród, Pest, Hungary. It was also memorable for an incident in the Saturday qualifying session, between McLaren teammates Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

2007 Hungarian Grand Prix
Race 11 of 17 in the 2007 Formula One World Championship
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Hungaroring (GP track)
Hungaroring (GP track)
Race details[1][2]
Date 5 August 2007
Official name Formula 1 Magyar Nagydíj 2007
Location Hungaroring, Mogyoród, Pest, Hungary[3]
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.381 km (2.722 miles)
Distance 70 laps, 306.663 km (190.552 miles)
Weather Sunny, temperatures reaching up to 27 °C (81 °F)[4]
Pole position
Driver
McLaren-Mercedes
Time 1:19.781
Fastest lap
Driver Finland Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari
Time 1:20.047 on lap 70
Podium
First
McLaren-Mercedes
Second
Ferrari
Third
BMW Sauber
Lap leaders

Hamilton went into the race with a 2-point advantage in World Championship points over Alonso and was 11 points ahead of 3rd place man Felipe Massa after a chaotic European Grand Prix, whilst McLaren held a 27-point lead in the Constructors' Championship over their main rivals Ferrari. Ralf Schumacher scored his last World Championship points at this race.

Japanese former Super Aguri driver Sakon Yamamoto filled the second Spyker car, replacing European GP leader, German Markus Winkelhock. Sebastian Vettel, the youngest Grand Prix point scorer made his second Grand Prix start replacing Scott Speed at Scuderia Toro Rosso.[6]

Controversy hit the qualifying sessions when Hamilton failed to honour an agreement to let Alonso past on track; this denied Alonso a competitive advantage when setting his lap time.[7] Alonso then retaliated by holding Hamilton up in the pit lane, to in turn deny Hamilton a chance to record a final lap time. Stewards later dropped Alonso five places down the starting grid of the race, putting him in sixth while Hamilton started in pole position. McLaren were also told they would not score any Constructor's Championship points in the race and wouldn't be presented with a winning constructor's trophy on the podium if one of their drivers were to win the race. The team stated Hamilton's hold-up was not Alonso's fault (although Alonso gave the stewards a different explanation, that he was inquiring about his tyres),[8] and that Hamilton had disobeyed team orders to let Alonso pass him, which put the two drivers out of sequence for their pit stops.[9] McLaren had initially expressed their intent to appeal the Constructor's points penalty but ultimately withdrew their appeal after subsequently losing all their Constructor's points as penalty for the espionage scandal.

Report

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Practice

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BMW's Robert Kubica was the fastest driver in the first of the practice sessions with a time of 1:22.390.[10] He was followed by the two Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen, and the two McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. Friday's second session saw the two McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton in first and third, respectively, separated by Renault's Heikki Kovalainen. Fernando Alonso's time was 1:20.919.[11] In Saturday's practice session Felipe Massa took first spot with a time of 1:20.183, followed by Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Nick Heidfeld and then Kimi Räikkönen.[12]

Qualifying

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In the first qualifying session, Lewis Hamilton posted the fastest time with 1:19:570, which was the quickest time recorded in the weekend so far, being the only lap under 1:20. Hamilton and the rest of the front-runners led the way, and as the session ended Jenson Button, the 2006 winner, had bumped his Honda teammate Rubens Barrichello into the relegation zone. However, Button was soon beaten by Liuzzi. Joining the two Hondas were Takuma Sato, Sebastian Vettel, Adrian Sutil and Sakon Yamamoto.

In the second session, Jarno Trulli of Toyota led the pace early, but Hamilton and his teammate Alonso posted the best times. Massa and Kubica struggled to 11th and 12th places, but, Kubica's team put on new tyres and reached the top 10. Massa had worse luck; the Ferrari team weren't prepared for him to need a second run in Q2, and he was released into the pit-lane without being refuelled.[13] His pit crew had to run down the pit-lane and pull him back to his pit to be refuelled, by which time his tyres had lost temperature so when he finally made it out, the lack of grip meant he was unable to improve his time. Joining Massa among the eliminated drivers were David Coulthard in 11th, Heikki Kovalainen in 12th, Alexander Wurz of Williams Toyota in 13th, 15th was Anthony Davidson, and 16th was Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Hamilton led out of the pit-lane at the beginning of Q3, followed by teammate Alonso. Hamilton set the quickest lap time the first time around, but was soon beaten by Nick Heidfeld. Around the 9-minute mark, Trulli was the first into the pits to change tyres. Alonso was next into the pits; at the time, he was ninth. All the others followed suit, and meaningful times were soon put in. Hamilton again impressed the crowd with another time below 1:20. Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen, the only remaining Ferrari driver, Nick Heidfeld, Kubica, and Trulli filed in behind. With around 2:30 remaining, Alonso again pitted for fresh tyres, along with almost every other driver. The McLaren crew held Alonso for around 20 seconds after the tyres were fitted, in a stated attempt to give him a clear track (however, this reasoning was later rejected by the stewards as most other cars on the track had also pitted). At the time, Hamilton was 'stacked up' behind, waiting for Alonso to leave. But when Alonso was released, he remained stationary for a further 10 seconds, even though the pit crew were gesturing for him to leave. Hamilton then pulled in for his final set of tyres, but the delay meant there was insufficient time for him to get back to the start-finish line before the chequered flag and the end of qualifying. Alonso started his flying lap with less than 2 seconds of the session remaining while Hamilton missed out by around 5 seconds.

Alonso's final lap was good enough to claim pole and push Hamilton down to second. TV pictures showed Ron Dennis angrily throwing his headphones down as Alonso pulled out of the pits; and after the session was over he was seen having a serious conversation with Alonso's trainer. He refused to comment on the pit-lane delay, although he later explained that Hamilton had ignored team orders to let Alonso past at the beginning of the fuel burn phase, which had put the cars out of sequence for their stops.

Behind the McLarens of Alonso and Hamilton, third went to Heidfeld, which surprised many Ferrari and BMW fans. In fourth was Räikkönen, fifth was Rosberg. Sixth place was taken by Ralf Schumacher of Germany, seventh was the second BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica. Giancarlo Fisichella posted the eighth fastest time, with Trulli and Webber rounding out the top ten.

Following the qualifying session, the stewards investigated an incident in Q1, when Fisichella appeared to block Yamamoto into the final corner – and they also investigated the Alonso/Hamilton incident (subsequently called Pitlanegate by the media).[14] Fisichella was handed a five-place penalty, dropping him down to thirteenth. Alonso was also handed a five-place penalty on the grid, meaning he started the race in sixth position and promoted Hamilton to pole position. His McLaren team were told they would not be allowed to score any Constructors' World Championship points for this race,[15] which McLaren subsequently appealed.[16]

The race

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Lewis Hamilton led every lap of the race (the first time anyone had done so in 2007),[17] but had to withstand near constant pressure from the Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen, which appeared more competitive than it did in qualifying and practice. Hamilton's team-mate Fernando Alonso managed to climb from his 6th place grid-slot to 4th by the end of the race, just behind the BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld. Alonso spent much of the race behind the Toyota of Ralf Schumacher, only getting past by the third stint. Schumacher finished in 6th place, after repassing Nico Rosberg (7th) and Heikki Kovalainen (8th) who were on three-stop strategies compared to Schumacher's two-stop strategy. This was the last time that Ralf Schumacher scored in Formula One.

Retirements from the race were Sakon Yamamoto, who crashed in the early laps of the race on his Spyker debut. Jenson Button and Vitantonio Liuzzi both suffered mechanical failure while the Super Aguri of Anthony Davidson was taken out after a collision with the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella. The moment Lewis Hamilton crossed the finish line he was celebrated, becoming the first ever rookie and the only active Formula One driver to have achieved a Grand Chelem at the time. However 0.715 seconds later, Kimi Räikkönen beat Hamilton's fastest lap, depriving him of the record.[18]

Classification

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Qualifying

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Pos. No. Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Q3 Grid
1 1   Fernando Alonso McLaren-Mercedes 1:20.425 1:19.661 1:19.674 61
2 2   Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:19.570 1:19.301 1:19.781 1
3 9   Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:20.751 1:20.322 1:20.259 2
4 6   Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:20.435 1:20.107 1:20.410 3
5 16   Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:20.547 1:20.188 1:20.632 4
6 11   Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:20.449 1:20.455 1:20.714 5
7 10   Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 1:20.366 1:20.703 1:20.876 7
8 3   Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:21.645 1:20.590 1:21.079 132
9 12   Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:20.481 1:19.951 1:21.206 8
10 15   Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:20.794 1:20.439 1:21.256 9
11 14   David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:21.291 1:20.718 10
12 4   Heikki Kovalainen Renault 1:20.285 1:20.779 11
13 17   Alexander Wurz Williams-Toyota 1:21.243 1:20.865 12
14 5   Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:20.408 1:21.021 14
15 23   Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 1:21.018 1:21.127 15
16 18   Vitantonio Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:21.730 1:21.993 16
17 7   Jenson Button Honda 1:21.737 17
18 8   Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:21.877 18
19 22   Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:22.143 19
20 19   Sebastian Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:22.177 20
21 20   Adrian Sutil Spyker-Ferrari 1:22.737 21
22 21   Sakon Yamamoto Spyker-Ferrari 1:23.774 22
Source:[19]
Notes
  • ^1 – Fernando Alonso was dropped five places for impeding Lewis Hamilton during Q3.
  • ^2 – Giancarlo Fisichella was dropped five places due to impeding Sakon Yamamoto during Q1.

Race

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Pos. No. Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 2   Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 70 1:35:52.991 1 10
2 6   Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 70 +0.715 3 8
3 9   Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 70 +43.129 2 6
4 1   Fernando Alonso McLaren-Mercedes 70 +44.858 6 5
5 10   Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 70 +47.616 7 4
6 11   Ralf Schumacher Toyota 70 +50.669 5 3
7 16   Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 70 +59.139 4 2
8 4   Heikki Kovalainen Renault 70 +1:08.104 11 1
9 15   Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 70 +1:16.331 9
10 12   Jarno Trulli Toyota 69 +1 lap 8
11 14   David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 69 +1 lap 10
12 3   Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 69 +1 lap 13
13 5   Felipe Massa Ferrari 69 +1 lap 14
14 17   Alexander Wurz Williams-Toyota 69 +1 lap 12
15 22   Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 69 +1 lap 19
16 19   Sebastian Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari 69 +1 lap 20
17 20   Adrian Sutil Spyker-Ferrari 68 +2 laps 21
18 8   Rubens Barrichello Honda 68 +2 laps 18
Ret 18   Vitantonio Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 42 Electrical 16
Ret 23   Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 41 Collision 15
Ret 7   Jenson Button Honda 35 Throttle 17
Ret 21   Sakon Yamamoto Spyker-Ferrari 4 Accident 22
Source:[20]

Championship standings after the race

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  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
  • Bold text and an asterisk indicates competitors who still had a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Hamilton originally qualified 2nd, but was promoted after Alonso received a penalty for blocking him during Q3.

References

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  1. ^ "2007 Hungarian GP". ChicaneF1. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  2. ^ "2007 Hungarian Grand Prix". Racing-Reference. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  3. ^ "2007 Hungarian Grand Prix". Motor Sport. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  4. ^ Weather info for the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix at Weather Underground
  5. ^ "Hungary". Formula1.com. Archived from the original on 26 October 2007. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  6. ^ "Sebastian Vettel replaces Speed at Toro Rosso". F1Fanatic.co.uk. 2007. Retrieved 31 July 2007.
  7. ^ "The F1 great who couldn't catch a break". BBC. 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  8. ^ "The full decision by the race stewards". Autosport. 4 August 2007. Retrieved 4 August 2007.
  9. ^ "Hamilton inherits pole as Alonso and McLaren penalized". Formula1.com. Formula One Group. 5 August 2007. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  10. ^ "FORMULA 1 Magyar Nagydíj 2007 - Friday Practice 1". Formula1.com. Formula One Group. 3 August 2007. Archived from the original on 18 April 2012. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  11. ^ "FORMULA 1 Magyar Nagydíj 2007 - Friday Practice 2". Formula1.com. Formula One Group. 3 August 2007. Archived from the original on 18 April 2012. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  12. ^ "FORMULA 1 Magyar Nagydíj 2007 - Saturday Practice". Formula1.com. Formula One Group. 4 August 2007. Archived from the original on 16 April 2012. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  13. ^ "Massa frustrated by Q2 nightmare". ITV F1. 4 August 2007. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 7 August 2007.
  14. ^ "Steward investigate Alonso". 365 Media Group. 4 August 2007. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 4 August 2007.
  15. ^ "Alonso punished for Hamilton move". British Broadcasting Corp. 4 August 2007. Retrieved 4 August 2007.
  16. ^ "McLaren launch appeal over points". news.bbc.co.uk. 8 August 2007. Retrieved 8 August 2007.
  17. ^ "Hungarian Grand Prix 2007 facts & statistics". F1Fanatic.co.uk. 2007. Retrieved 7 August 2007.
  18. ^ "Hungarian Grand Prix 2007 fastest lap succession". Forix. 2007. Retrieved 2 August 2008.
  19. ^ "FORMULA 1 Magyar Nagydíj 2007 - Qualifying". Formula1.com. Formula One Group. Archived from the original on 31 October 2013. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  20. ^ "FORMULA 1 Magyar Nagydíj 2007 - Race". Formula1.com. Formula One Group. Archived from the original on 28 December 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  21. ^ a b "Hungary 2007 - Championship". statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.

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47°34′44″N 19°14′55″E / 47.57889°N 19.24861°E / 47.57889; 19.24861

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