Vote for the best driver of the Hungarian GP weekend

2012 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Which F1 driver had the best race weekend in Hungary?

Compare all the drivers’ performances below and vote for who you think was the best driver of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend.

Driver notes

Sebastian Vettel – Following the team’s struggles on Friday, third place on the grid was a good result, especially as his team mate failed to reach Q3.

Attempting to wrest second place of Grosjean at the start lost him a place to Button and consigned him to a frustrating two stints stuck behind the McLaren, which led to him imploring his team to “do something” on the radio. They gambled on a late extra pit stop which nearly cost him a place to Alonso.

He wasn’t able to catch the leaders but had Narain Karthikeyan’s retirement produced a safety car instead of a permanent yellow flag he could have had a very exciting end to the race.

Mark Webber – Missed out on Q3 but a superb start (how often do we say that about Webber?) put him on course for a damage-limiting drive. His final pit stop cost him three places including one to championship leader Alonso.

While Webber thought he could’ve made it to the end without a further stop, team principal Christian Horner said his differential problem made it necessary.

Jenson Button – Fourth on the grid was his best since Bahrain but he was over six tenths of a second slower than Hamilton.

He didn’t have his team mate’s pace in the opening stint either, falling almost nine seconds behind in the first 14 laps. He managed his tyres better in the second stint and reduced the gap to Hamilton, so he was frustrated by how early his second pit stop was.

Worse, it dropped him behind Senna (as the team cannot have failed to anticipate it would) and ultimately cost him a podium. His admission that he was “not happy with the strategy after the race” suggests he will have some frank things to say about the team sacrificing track position for an unusable performance advantage at a circuit where passing is so tough.

Lewis Hamilton – Hamilton was hooked up in the revised MP4-27 right from the word go. But for Webber pipping him by less than a tenth of a second on Saturday morning, he would have headed every session including all three parts of qualifying.

The latter was essential to his victory chances as it allowed him to preserve two sets of new medium tyres to resist the challenge from the Lotus duo. His win was not as dominant as it looked like it might be on Saturday, and it breathed life into his flagging championship hopes.

Fernando Alonso – Damage limitation was the name of the game in Hungary and as usual Alonso did the best he could. He made one of the race’s few passing moves, taking Perez after his first pit stop before the Sauber had come in. Keeping Raikkonen behind probably wasn’t realistic but beating Webber and increasing his championship lead was the best he could have hoped for.

Felipe Massa – Closer to Alonso than usual, particularly in qualifying. But he fell behind Senna at the start and never looked like getting back in front of the Williams. Indeed, he dropped far enough back that Webber was able to come out of the pits between them, further evidence that Massa is falling short even in the diminished role of a ‘number two’ driver at the moment.

Michael Schumacher – Crashed in a wet second practice session on Friday for the second weekend running, though this appeared to be a case of misfortune, skidding off when the track was at its wettest.

He was last in Q2, leaving him 17th, but made the unusual mistake of lining up 19th at the start. He then switched his engine off when the restart was given and picked up a puncture when he was pushed into the pits.

Having completed a slow first lap he returned to the pits to change his tyres – and broke the speed limit, collecting a drive-through penalty. Adding insult to injury, the team then lost the telemetry on his car. They retired him short of the 90% classification distance so he can change his gearbox at the next race without a penalty – the only consolation from an awful weekend.

Nico Rosberg – Rosberg’s trouble-free run served to underline that Mercedes were nowhere on pace in Hungary, Schumacher’s dramas notwithstanding. Rosberg started 13th and climbed up to tenth to take the final point.

Kimi Raikkonen – A less-than-perfect qualifying lap and losing a place to Alonso on lap one were the two things that kept Raikkonen from victory. A problem with his KERS following the delayed start contributed to the latter – Raikkonen had to ask his team how to reset it, something he had also had to do during practice.

After that he demonstrated excellent pace in the Lotus again, especially when he enjoyed sustained clear air in his second stint, which allowed him to claim second at the expense of his team mate. Couldn’t get close enough to Hamilton to test his rival’s defences.

Romain Grosjean – Friday looked like a continuation of his dodgy weekend from Germany. So he reverted to an earlier set-up and was back on form on Saturday, claiming his first ever front row start.

Having rebuffed Vettel at turn one he went after Hamilton and despite a few scruffy corners on laps 25 and 26, kept the pressure on the McLaren. Alonso running long on his second stint and Schumacher’s reluctance to obey blue flags cost him second to his team mate – Grosjean was perhaps wise not to force the issue when Raikkonen appeared on the inside of him at turn one on lap 46.

Paul di Resta – The contest between the two Force India drivers remains one of the closest in the field. Di Resta was only 0.16s slower than his team mate in Q2, and finished a little over five seconds behind him.

Di Resta felt the car was capable of better than 12th: “My race was compromised by a poor start and I lost a few positions going into turn one. I had the same issue in Germany last week so we need to understand how we can improve that going forward because it’s hurting our track position.”

Nico Hulkenberg – Ran the same strategy as his team mate except that he had to start on used tyres, having made it into Q3. His tyres went off towards the end of the race but his team mate behind was grappling with the same problem.

Kamui Kobayashi – After Sauber took their biggest points haul of the season in Germany, Hungary was a non-race for them. “We have simply been too slow here,” sad Kobayashi. “We have been struggling all weekend, especially with the medium tyre compound.”

Kobayashi was squeezed wide at the start, dropping back four places to 19th. From there the team tried to salvage his race with an early pit stop, but that forced a long middle stint on the very tyres Sauber were having the most trouble with. Having recovered his place in front of the Toro Rossos an hydraulic leak ended his race early.

Sergio Perez – Sauber explored the possibility of running a one-stop strategy for Perez, delaying his first pit stop until lap 21. He couldn’t make the tyres last long enough, but ended the race catching the struggling Force Indias hand over fist.

Daniel Ricciardo – Once again the Toro Rossos were just behind the midfield battle. Unusually it was Ricciardo who went out in Q3 this time but he got ahead of his team mate at the start and finished there, albeit 45 seconds behind the next car and lapped.

Jean-Eric Vergne – Had to make an extra pit stop on the 65th lap to clear rubbish from his sidepod which was causing overheating.

Pastor Maldonado – Made a poor start from eighth and fell to 12th place. Made an attempt to pass Di Resta at turn 12 on lap 47 which ended in contact and resulted in a drive-through penalty for Maldonado which ended his hope of scoring points.

Bruno Senna – Reached Q3 for the first time and made a brilliant start, briefly getting ahead of both Ferraris. But he was out-accelerated from turn one by Alonso and Webber.

Nonetheless he kept Massa behind until the flag and was little troubled by either Button or Webber who briefly appeared behind him as well – the latter staying there.

Heikki Kovalainen – Within a few tenths of beating Ricciardo in Q1 but the Caterham was well over half a second off being able to reach Q2 on merit. Could do little more than watch the Toro Rossos pull away during the race.

Vitaly Petrov – A mistake at turn 11 left him over half a second slower than Kovalainen in qualifying. Wasn’t as happy with the balance of his car in the race: “The car felt very different to how it performed in qualifying and we need to go back and look at the data to try and understand why. It’s a bit strange as we had definitely improved it over the weekend, but in the race it just didn’t feel the same”

Pedro de la Rosa – Had a close race with Glock, finishing half-a-second behind the Marussia. “At the end I had Glock in my sights and he was blocking his tyres a lot, but the race finished before I could overtake him. The blue flags didn’t help much either and this time I was unable to pull it off.”

Narain Karthikeyan – Clos drove his car again in first practice which was a particular disadvantage at a track which he didn’t race at last year. His car was compromised by extra holes cut in its bodywork to aid cooling.

He crashed out late in the race when his car failed: “With five laps to go, the car was steering to the right, it was getting worse, and coming out of turn three the steering broke, so we have to figure out what happened exactly.”

Timo Glock – Was unhappy with the balance of his car. An early spin compromised his race and left him under attack from De la Rosa.

Charles Pic – Impressively beat Glock in a straight fight, both out-qualifying and out-racing his more experienced team mate.

Qualifying and race results summary

Started Gap to team mate Laps leading team mate Pitted Finished Gap to team mate
Sebastian Vettel 3rd -0.308s 65/69 3 4th -22.844s
Mark Webber 11th +0.308s 4/69 3 8th +22.844s
Jenson Button 4th +0.63s 0/69 3 6th +30.243s
Lewis Hamilton 1st -0.63s 69/69 2 1st -30.243s
Fernando Alonso 6th -0.056s 68/69 2 5th -11.697s
Felipe Massa 7th +0.056s 1/69 2 9th +11.697s
Michael Schumacher 17th +0.828s 0/58 2
Nico Rosberg 13th -0.828s 58/58 2 10th
Kimi Raikkonen 5th +0.364s 31/69 2 2nd -9.486s
Romain Grosjean 2nd -0.364s 38/69 2 3rd +9.486s
Paul di Resta 12th +0.16s 1/69 2 12th +5.604s
Nico Hulkenberg 10th -0.16s 68/69 2 11th -5.604s
Kamui Kobayashi 15th +0.405s 0/67 2 18th Not on same lap
Sergio Perez 14th -0.405s 67/67 2 14th Not on same lap
Daniel Ricciardo 18th +0.451s 68/68 3 15th -20.237s
Jean-Eric Vergne 16th -0.451s 0/68 4 16th +20.237s
Pastor Maldonado 8th -0.404s 0/69 2 13th +29.707s
Bruno Senna 9th +0.404s 69/69 2 7th -29.707s
Heikki Kovalainen 19th -0.591s 66/67 3 17th Not on same lap
Vitaly Petrov 20th +0.591s 1/67 3 19th Not on same lap
Pedro de la Rosa 23rd -0.262s 60/60 2 22nd
Narain Karthikeyan 24th +0.262s 0/60 2
Timo Glock 22nd +0.232s 0/66 2 21st Not on same lap
Charles Pic 21st -0.232s 66/66 2 20th Not on same lap

Review the race data

Vote for your driver of the weekend

Which driver do you think did the best job this weekend?

Cast your vote below and explain your choice in the comments.

Who was the best driver of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend?

  • Charles Pic (2%)
  • Timo Glock (0%)
  • Pedro de la Rosa (0%)
  • Narain Karthikeyan (0%)
  • Vitaly Petrov (0%)
  • Heikki Kovalainen (0%)
  • Bruno Senna (6%)
  • Pastor Maldonado (0%)
  • Jean-Eric Vergne (0%)
  • Daniel Ricciardo (0%)
  • Sergio Perez (0%)
  • Kamui Kobayashi (0%)
  • Nico Hulkenberg (0%)
  • Paul di Resta (0%)
  • Romain Grosjean (2%)
  • Kimi Raikkonen (30%)
  • Nico Rosberg (0%)
  • Michael Schumacher (2%)
  • Felipe Massa (0%)
  • Fernando Alonso (3%)
  • Jenson Button (0%)
  • Lewis Hamilton (55%)
  • Mark Webber (0%)
  • Sebastian Vettel (1%)

Total Voters: 597

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2012 Hungarian Grand Prix

Browse all 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix articles

Images © McLaren/Hoch Zwei, McLaren/Hoch Zwei, Lotus F1 Team/LAT, Williams/LAT

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...

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114 comments on “Vote for the best driver of the Hungarian GP weekend”

  1. Easy one again. Lewis.

    1. +1. 99.9% faultless.

    2. xeroxpt (@)
      31st July 2012, 17:21

      yes, but not surprising actually the most predictable result of the season.

  2. This is too easy, Lewis was on it all weekend, drove his heart out in the race and got the result he needed to

  3. Another clear decision: Hamilton. On it all weekend. From FP1, he nailed everything together, and by qualifying, he was far ahead of the competition.

    Special mention to Senna. He had a very strong weekend. And Kimi too, ofc, his race pace was blistering: sad he qualified so far back!

    1. Hey! We agree on something, @fer-no65!

      1. @mpw1985 Oh nooooo! :P

    2. me too.

  4. Dimitris 1395 (@)
    30th July 2012, 13:39

    I would vote Raikkonen but you can’t look behind the winner

  5. Lewis, but I voted for Pic because it deserves a mention.
    Lapped Glock, was keeping Petrov in sight, doing extremely capable laptimes, especially in his 2nd stint (1:28s and 29s).
    It even made a few people mention it on forums I go on, so it must have been impressive

    Lewis was faultless and was the only other candidate, and he;ll probably walk this poll but Pic deserves some praise too.

    1. Totally agree. Someone give that man a proper car!

    2. Jubameister
      30th July 2012, 17:49

      It’s a shame that performances like this go relatively unnoticed.

      1. I must admit I hadn’t noticed – thanks for mentioning it here :)

    3. I too voted for Pic. For what he’d driving, and the team mate he has, Pic is having a great season and he did the maximum in that Marussia this weekend. Hamilton will deservedly win this poll so I voted for Pic for the same reasons you did, so he can get even a small bit of recognition on here.

    4. Another vote for Pic. For some all they can do is beat their team mate and he did that conclusively…not bad at all when you consider Glock has done 74 more GP’s over Pic’s 11.

      1. xeroxpt (@)
        31st July 2012, 17:32

        Yes but i dont see Glock as a good driver, he shouldnt be in F1 he’s not good, he’s driving a slower car and that’s why people sometimes see Glock as a better driver than he actually is.

  6. Hamilton- he dominated the race and qualifying, soaking up pressure from the Lotus’. His only notable mistake was a poor first corner, but thankfully that came after a fantastic start. I also considered Raikkonen (might have won had he done better in qualifying, so despite a great race he cost himself victory), Grosjean (great qualifying, but didn’t do enough to trouble Hamilton, and was passed by Raikkonen who was faster when it counted), and Senna (he had a good race for the first time in a while, but it was good not spectacular, and only of note due to his poor recent performance).

    1. Actually, saying Senna’s race was good but not spectacular seems a little unfair, seeing as he was the highest placed driver outside what seem to now be the top 4 teams, and he took pressure from Button very well. But still, I would probably only rank him as the 4th best driver of the weekend.

      1. Not intending to take anything from Senna – he’s had a great weekend, but I have to agree: not spectacular. He took pressure from Button and Webber very well but on a track where overtaking is virtually impossible anyway.

        Plus, we all know by know that the Williams is a fast car that has been drawn back all season by its underperforming drivers. Williams belongs there in the upper midfield with a chance to snatch points off Massa, Webber, Button or Grosjean once every couple of races..

        I’d say Senna had a good weekend in Hungary, as most of the other weekends should be for him and Williams, and hopefully he will keep this kind of performance up. This looks like a fair statement to me, rather than something involving words like “spectacular” or “outstanding”.

        1. Jon (@patomilan)
          30th July 2012, 18:49

          I believe that now he has 6 point finishes as opposed to 2 by Maldonado and 5 from his closest rivals from Sauber and Force India. He doesn’t have spectacular races but he is slightly more consistent than his rivals and much more consistent than Maldonado. I’m not saying you guys are criticizing him but he doesn’t deserve the bashing he receives from many people.

          1. Jon (@patomilan)
            30th July 2012, 18:52

            We also have to consider that he only gets one practice session on Fridays which sort of explains his poor qualifying…

          2. Eleanore (@leucocrystal)
            31st July 2012, 6:08

            Agreed. Also, he was one of the few to pull off a pass on track in Hungary (as opposed to overtaking via pit stops), a very nice move on Perez around the outside of turn 2.

        2. I think in this Pirelli era it’s hard to judge drivers and cars. The optimum is so small, we even see tyre-master Jenson suffer.

          For some reason people always ‘blamed’ Vettel’s performances on driving the best car, but now they say that Maldonado and Senna are bad and not the car.

          It’s probably in between…

          Senna came back from a bad period and showed racecraft in defending from Button, driving just that other line in turn 2 – 4 to make sure Button could do nothing. And he did well even after giving his car to Bottas again.

          I voted for Bruno.

        3. I reckon you’re on to something about how good the 2012 Williams is – just imagine how it could have gone if Kimi had signed for them like we all were thinking late last year…

          1. That car still looks like it could have the potential to be fighting with Mercedes and Sauber for 5th in the WDC, in my humble opinion.

            And this is the reason why I would avoid describing Senna’s weekend as “amazing”. He did not perform above the capabilities of the car. He finally matched those capabilities. Describing his weekend as “astonishing” or what-not would only look like praising someone for finally doing their job right…

            Plus, it’s not Senna’s potential of shining on some of the tracks we should be looking at. It’s his consistency rates. Hungaroring could have been a turning point in his season or it might have been a one off performance. We don’t know yet. Spa will hopefully reveal that.

            And as far as the drivers go, I’ve said it before: Kimi is better off at Lotus but Williams would have been in a very good position now with two drivers like Barrichello and Sutil in those seats.

          2. Drop Valencia!
            31st July 2012, 10:19

            But the thing is Kimi wasn’t bringing 30 million dollars, the Williams would be slow without Maldo.

      2. xeroxpt (@)
        31st July 2012, 17:36

        Sennas only quality is his well measured aggresiveness, that’s not enough for any F1 team, he is consitently slower than his team mates. People really want to see the Senna name in F1 even if Bruno family name is Lalli, Brazils economy is flying therefore alot of brands are using him to sell their products he has so much sponsoring that he’ll always find a way to stay in F1 especially if the grid remains as brazilianless as now.

    2. @matt90, we say it was a bad 1st. corner but I am not so sure, by braking late and going deep he minimized the chance of being taken out by someone making a kamakazi dive down the inside and I suspect this may have been on his mind.

      1. @hohum It was a large lock-up. So I don’t believe it was pre-meditated and anything other than an error that allowed Grosjean and Vettel to get a sniff.

        1. fair enough.@matt90

  7. Lewis Hamilton for me. Stuck it on pole by quite a large margin and drove a great race even with McLaren almost mucking it up for him. It was just the result he needed to mount a championship charge after the summer break.

    He sounded calm in his car on the team radio and his pace versus Buttons pace shows how well he did.

  8. Raikkonen, he gained 4 places at the second stint.

    1. 4 places which he would have already had, had he qualified better. It’s driver of the weekend, not driver of the race. You need to consider qualy and, to some extent, free practise as well.

      1. Still..for some countries a week-end in Saturday, cos Sunday they go to work again.

    2. He gained the most through pit stops.

  9. Has to be Hamilton really. Raikkonen had a great weekend but Hamilton’s win was pretty much never in doubt from the first practice session. He’ll need a few more of those this year though if he’s going to have a hope of winning the championship.

  10. I’m gonna go sideways here and say Raikkonen.

    Of course Lewis is the obvious choice but, as a viewer I feel he failed to do one thing – provide an element of surprise. Raikkonen on the other hand did that, with an amazing second stint, plus he finally managed to locate the (almost) full potential in that Lotus. That has to count.

    1. Raikkonen probably would have been my choice, but he was out-qualified by Grosjean. He maximised the performance of the car during the race, but Grosjean’s qualifying time tells us there was more speed in the car than he was able to extract. Had he put in a similar qualifying performance to his teammate, he may well have won the race. Ultimately, Kimi drove a great race, but clearly he didn’t achieve as much as the car was capable of. For that reason I don’t think he had as successful a day as Hamilton.

      1. No… For Raikkonen, the race was exacly what happened in Bahrain. He used less tyres than Grosjean in quali(with a disadvantage of some position at start). As a result, in the race, at the second stint, Grosjean had used soft tyres from quali. At the second stint, Raikkonen had new soft tyres, but he waited the drivers in front to go to pits, meanwhile he didn’t abuse of his tyres, and when Button got to pits, he started the rampage with that tyres. He gained 7 seconds by all of the drivers who were in front. That’s why he gain 4 position, and for sure because he is very fast. So if you want to really compare Grosjean and Raikkonen in quali you should see how much tyres they use. And, he didn’t win not because Hamilton was fast, because overtaking with a lotus a newly upgraded mclaren in a the worst circuit in overtaking after monaco is imposible. Raikkonen, by far for me.

    2. Raikkonen’s qualification was horrible though. It clearly (with hindsight) cost him the race win.

    3. seems a little harsh to mark someone down for being so brilliant the whole weekend it was no surprise at all to see him win.

      1. It’s also harsh to mark Raikkonen down for not winning even though he posted insanely good lap times for half the race, went through his second set of tyres like no one else on track and provided the main spotlight in an utterly boring race. It could go either way.

        Hamilton was brilliant in Hungary but Raikkonen posted just as good of a performance. It’s a matter of choice from here on, to be honest, nothing more. :)

        1. Why is it even driver of the weekend and not just driver of the race? Is it because of the great haul of points you get during Friday practice, or even qualifying? It’s ony the race that truly matters.

          1. @Kingshark You’re right by saying that it’s the final result that matters but a driver’s performance in FP & particularly qualifying sessions seriously impacts his prospects on Sunday. For instance, Raikkonen was probably the most impressive driver of the race but he buried his chances to win the race on Saturday by having an insufficiently good qualifying result. Moreover, it could happen that a driver shines in qualifying but has to retire on the 1st lap because of a car failure or if someone else takes him out.

          2. Because if you based it solely on how they perform during the race, then the driver of the race will always be the winner won’t it. This poll is about looking at individual performance regardless of finishing position. Taking into account the job the driver does through the practice sessions and qualifying, since these are integral parts of what makes a driver a good driver. By taking this into account you can also go some way to negating the performance differential between the cars; you can see how consistent the performance is over the weekend. So if a driver gets consistent times through practice, beats his teammate in qualifying, and then puts in a solid, mistake-free performance in the race, then that driver has had a great weekend. Even if they finished 20th.

          3. @kingshark

            Why is it even driver of the weekend and not just driver of the race?

            Because qualifying is a competitive session.

            It seems odd to come off the back of the race such as this one where track position was everything and dispute the importance of qualifying.

  11. Lewis and Bruno Senna for me. They both performed well throughout the weekend.

  12. I voted for Bruno Senna. It’s hard to know what the Williams car was really capable of this weekend but he impressively outpaced Maldonado, who’s often lacked intelligence but never the speed. Moreover, Senna managed to leave two championship contenders’ cars, one Red Bull and one Ferrari, behind him. It’s too early to declare this a turning point in his career but the whole weekend must have been very encouraging for Bruno.

    1. Erm… I mean.. Massa’s Ferrari a championship contender? :P

      1. @Nirupam I meant the teams, Ferrari and Red Bull, who both have built cars that obviously are good enough to fight for the DWC.

  13. Hamilton, easily. Fastest in all but one of the practice sessions, fastest in all three qualifying sessions, lead the entire race from pole, and despite having a lot of pressure applied on him from Raikkonen and Grosjean, kept his composure and made that win look effortless.

    1. The pressure was not so big, not because Raikkonen or Grosjean weren’t fast, because circuit is not for overtaking at all. For Hamilton was the same as for Webber in Monaco.

      1. Sorry, but the lotus WAS faster, also it’s a difficult circuit to overtake on but not impossible and certainly nowhere near as bad as Monaco, other drivers managed to overtake, so no excuse really.

  14. A close call between Hamilton and Raikkonen, the British was always in the front all weekend so it would be unfair not to give him my vote, however Raikkonen made a fantastic race, was always on the top places in practice and qualifying and recovered a 15 s disadvantage to the leader mainly in the second stint, and on a “normal” track he would have won this race.
    My mind says Hamilton and my heart Raikkonen, but as I criticize others who vote on their favourite driver despite the track performance I can not do the same so Hamilton it is.

  15. Kimi was best on Sunday, he produced a great drive (if not a little thwarted by the inherent difficulty in overtaking at the Hungaroring). But across the whole weekend it could only be Lewis, fastest in FP1 and FP2, nearly top in FP3, dominant in Quali and a Race win, not far from a perfect weekend.

  16. Lol, I love the description of Schumacher’s weekend. Man, things really went horribly wrong there.

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      30th July 2012, 14:17

      Didn’t Schum say anything about next year? I thought he was about to decide it in Germany GP.

  17. Have to give it to Hamilton because its the driver of the weekend. Had it been the driver of the day. I must have voted for Raikkonen.

  18. Has to be Hamilton over Senna then Kimi. Had Kimi qualified higher he would have a great chance of winning. Hamilton absolutely dominated every session upto the race where the Lotus’s were faster.

  19. Got to be Lewis, hasn’t it. Great performance all weekend.

    He does tend to bounce back after a miserable race such as Hockenheim with a strong race.

  20. Hamilton. Was on it all weekend and took a dominant and deserved victory, under some pressure from the Renaults Lotuses. An easy decision.

  21. Michael Schumacher has to win this, he provided the only highlight of a predictablly dull and pointless procession. The Haungarian GP is invariably a high speed parade and Michael Schumacher’s error was the only memorable incident of this years race.

    1. Agreed fully! Were it not for Michael, there’d be nothing to remember.

  22. I’ll reiterate because Keith fails to put the last line of the title in bold caps. It’s weekend. There is not doubt that Hamilton dominated the weekend. Taking account performance from Friday to Sunday, there is no room for another choice. If you want to discount the performance by the capability of the car, look only to Button, alleged tires-whisperer, for a control-experiment. That said, I renew my comments that some kind of cumulative voting would be more satisfying. While one must choose Hamilton on this occaision, one must in effect to put performances like Raikkonen’s and Schumachers on the same plane.

    1. While I do agree with what you’re saying, I don’t think that you can say that a driver, even one who is fastest in every session and then wins the race, is always the driver of the weekend without question. Look at the likes of Pic who arguably also extracted 100% from his car in every session. In some respects he’s had just as good a weekend as Hamilton. Also, a driver may start off with a very poor car at the start of the weekend, struggle to drag it through qualifying, and then drive around problems in the race to produce a result much better than anyone expected. In some respects, dragging a bad car to a good result is more impressive than having a faultless race in the fastest car. Several times last year, Vettel put in a dominant performance, and yet other drivers were voted to have put in better individual performances, because they didn’t have the benefit of a fantastic car under them. That’s why it’s a subjective decision, even when the results of the race are very clear.

    2. Why so serious?

      1. Sorry, I forgot. “Kimi got this!” Seriously, I’m pulling for this meme to take off.

        Unless Hamilton can take many more poles and then drive a really wide car, somebody might make a mint selling Kimi Got This t-shirts and mugs from Spa onward.

  23. This one’s a no brainer…

  24. I believe the best was Michael Schumacher. Schumacher tried to gain as many places as possible at the start. Firstly he didn’t put his car in a right position before the start. That made everyone to do another formation lap, despite green flags waved at the end of the peloton. Then he switched off his engine to divert the attention from cheating with starting position. What a clever move was to tell everyone that he misunderstood the meaning of yellow lights. And that’ s on his 299th GP! Well done, Michael! Top class!

  25. Obviously HAM.

  26. Weekend: Lewis. Race: Kimi.

  27. I think that Hamilton deserve it, he was FAST from friday to sunday.
    Incredible performance saturday, maneged well the tyres in the race, his leadership wasn’t really never in doubt.

    Kimi did an outstanding race, but on saturday he wasn’t that fast, compared to Grosjean.

    Another strong driver in hungary, Bruno Senna.
    His performance was very solid all along the weekend.
    Missed the first practice, third in Fp2 , fourth in Fp3 and inside the q3 for the first time in the year.
    Race was also perfect, with a great start and no errors in the hard defence on Webber and Button.
    Signs of potential here IMHO

  28. First time I’ve voted Hamilton this year, but the man was simply perfect, even thoughh Kimi got close to equalling is excellence

  29. To be absolutely honest, Lewis was the best driver of the weekend and I’m his number one fan; but i knew everyone would go for him, so i thought id give kimi some credit. A good drive from him

  30. It’s hard to choose between Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen. Kimi provided about 90% of my excitement during the race, and I was willing him on to victory, but Lewis was just about faultless all weekend. It has to be said that if Kimi had got pole position, or even the starting grid slot of his team-mate, he would almost certainly have won the race. That he didn’t, while Lewis did, means I have to vote for the British driver.

  31. Hamilton was the best! All weekend was the guy to beat.

  32. Lewis was the fastest, but Kimi has got 3 positions, he started 5th and finish 2th, so my vote is for him, so mush he produced and really not so far from perfection!

    1. much * sorry

  33. Driver of the Race – Raikkonen.
    But Driver of the Weekend – Hamilton by a country mile.

  34. Has to be Sebastian “You have to do something!” Vettel ;-)

    In all seriousness though, Lewis Hamilton by a wide margin. He was the fastest driver in every single session that mattered, and even some that didnt. He drove a very convincing race, using shrewd tactics to preserve his tires while degrading those of the Lotuses (by his own admission), and seemed to be completely in synch with his team over the radio as the race unfolded. It was top notch.

    Honorable mentions for Kimi, on account of his manhandling his teammate; and for Bruno Senna, for one of his best drives yet. Hard to believe that Maldonado has won a race and yet is only five points ahead of Senna.

  35. Has to be Hamilton, although Raikkonen and Senna deserve a mention, and Alonso still managed to increase his championship lead.

  36. a very easy one Lewis… was untouchable all weekend.. Q1 was even funny.. The guys on soft couldn’t even match his best time on medium. He showed them who is the boss :-)

  37. Some good stand outs in a fairly boring rage:
    Kimi had the perfect strategy for the race but messed up his qualifying.
    Grosjean has a brilliant qualifying and almost a perfect race, backmarkers and a slow pit stop letting him down.
    Senna did a solid job all round.
    But Hamilton absolutely dominated all weekend.

  38. Hamilton, for pole and win. Raikkonen should have qualified higher to get my vote. I still think Raikkonen deserved the win, and although I’m not saying Hamilton didn’t defend well, I think it’s also merit/cause of the track if Kimi couldn’t overtake him. Grosjean, Alonso and Senna, as I said before, were also good.

  39. For me it’s Kimi. Okay, Lewis has also been faultless. But I think Kimi had to have bigger balls to complete a mistake-free and perfectly executed weekend.

    1. Just curious but how did he have ‘bigger balls’ than Lewis who dominated practice, quali and won the race? I appreciate you’re entitled to your opinion but at least back it up with logic … Kimi had a car as fast as, if not faster than the McLaren yet he didn’t qualify anywhere near Lewis, in fact Grosjean showed more of what the car was capable of in qualifying, also Kimi didn’t win the race and you can say that it’s difficult to overtake at this track but others managed it, so hardly a mistake free and perfectly executed weekend, sorry!

  40. Lewis faced strong pressure from Kimi, but was able to prevail in a good fight between the two.

    Big Lewis fan, and thrilled with both his command yesterday of both his race pace and tire management, but also glad that the Kimster is back!

  41. Hamilton of course. But also Kimi, Grosjean and Pic had a good weekend.

  42. Button he make progress for the WDC !

  43. I voted for Hamilton, obviously. Nobody came close to his consistent level of performance all weekend. He was fastest in practice, straight out of the box. Seemed to have no missteps or complications and absolutely delivered on what was expected for Q1, Q2 and Q3, with one of my favourite pole laps ever (although, Korea 2011 still stands as my favourite).
    As for his race, a dominant display, regardless of Kimi’s pace and apparent potential to win had he started further forward. Lewis was, at all he times, just managing his pace. This is obvious during the phase where Kimi was leading and trying to open a gap big enough to come out ahead. The gap initially went from roughly 13s to 14.4 or so, after that though, the gap stayed static as Hamilton was pretty much matching Kimi’s times to ensure he retained the lead. He was always doing just enough to keep the win in sights and that was exactly what he did, and never faltered at any point.
    I’ve also noticed a majority who seem to feel that had this been a different track, where overtaking is less of an impossibility, then Kimi or Grosjean would have passed Lewis and gone on to win. However, this would only be true if Mclaren and Lewis had played the same race strategy at a different track. I think it’s safe to assume that at say, Spa or Monza, Lewis and the team would have adopted a different tact. Probably a three stop and more dependancy on flat out times and overtaking. As it is, they new that managing their pace, to ensure the tyres’ longevity, and keeping track position, was key. That’s exactly what they did, and some crafty driving from Lewis (slowing down in certain corners to try and destroy the Lotus’ tyres in the turbulent air), made the win a reality.
    So, all in all, a perfect weekend for him, performance-wise, and on a rare occasion this year, his result has reflected that.
    Honourable mentions to, Bruno, Charles, Kimi and Grosjean.

    1. *at all times *knew

  44. Lewis Hamilton for me, practice, qualifying and the race …. just superb!… But great drives from Senna, Grosjean and Raikkonen.

  45. Most definitely Hamilton but Kimi was a close second for me. Lewis dominated the complete weekend and won the race with a much slower machine compared to the Red Bull & the Lotus. Lately, only Alonso has been able to win with such an inferior car and yesterday’s race just proved who are still the top 2 drivers (Alonso & Hamilton).

  46. Dane (@n0b0dy100)
    31st July 2012, 1:58

    I went with Raikkonen. If his KERS worked at the start I think he would’ve stayed ahead of Alonso and won. Not his fault, but great recovery.

  47. HAM (then SEN). But he would clearly win this, so I voted for Schumi for the entertainment value he provided.

  48. Maybe I missed something. But I love how Hamilton presents him self this season also the way he is towards other people/drivers. Makes me happy inside to observe such decency in people :)

    All the best to him and hope he gets another WDC some time soon, cause 2012 is Kimi’s!!! :D

  49. Schumacher must receive a 5 place grid penalty for blocking Grosjean at Hungarian GP race. Romain found himself stuck behind the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher “who didn’t respect the blue flags at all” costing the Lotus driver a lot of time. “Because of this I lost a place to Kimi (Raikkonen), and at the same time a possible chance to fight for the win,” he said.

    1. He would have been more ****** if he was asked to move over for RAI later on. As we all saw he was much slower in the last stint.

  50. I gave an ironic vote to Schumacher.

    Though his qualifying position was partly due to him not being reckless and accelerating though an obscuring dust cloud, I don’t think you could imagine a worse race weekend.

  51. You know.. I still believe there are Grade A drivers, for driver who able to put consistent lap times espescially during pitstop. Currently, only KR and FA who have the ability, because MS is gone like Rossi. Other drivers, only able to be fast but not consistent enough, are Grade B. The rest, are Grade C.

    1. Well RAI and ALO are legends of their generation. They both have speed and experiences. HAM and VET will soon follow them.

      1. ALO, of course. RAI, dream on!

        RAI: 168 starts, 18 wins, 16 poles, 1 WDC
        VET: 92 starts, 32 wins, 33 poles, 2 WDC
        HAM: 101 starts, 19 wins, 22 poles, 1 WDC

        Stats say significant F1 driver, but legend? Those two ‘kids’ have done more than RAI in 5 years than he has managed in 9 years. This is not the stuff of legend.

        1. kimi spent 5 years in mclaren wasted with unreliable engine and cars~~ if you want to compare stats, pls provide more description..or else it just shows how amateur you are

          1. There’s always an excuse for Kimi…

            Of course I’m an amateur – what makes you think I get paid for this?

  52. I honestly think that Lewis Hamilton was the driver of the weekend, he was on it from the word go and never put a foot wrong in the race even though McLaren seemed to be determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory once more.

    That said, I voted for Bruno Senna. His drive was first class and he withstood massive pressure from Button and Massa. This fiction that he is being “comprehensively outdriven by Maldonado”must die now. If you ignore Barcalona (very difficult to do I know) has scored more points more often (scoring in 24 points with 6 points scoring finishes to Maldonado’s 4 points in 1 points scoring finish), has a better best finish (6th vs 8th) and has made significantly fewer trips to the stewards office than Maldonado. Yes his qualifying pace isn’t as good as Maldonado’s, but let’s not forget he is being seriously hindered by missing out regularly on track time in FP1.

    1. Completely agree with everything said by GeeMac. The usual Senna “Haters” must be finding this page hard to swallow. Now that Bruno has sorted out his front tyre issues with the change to the brakes, he showed his class (and pace) throughout the whole weekend in Hungary. Roll on Spa and Monza where he is also quick!!
      Kimi drove brilliantly, and Lewis was faultless
      Now for 3 weeks of boredom!!

      1. Exactly, he was quick at Spa last year, so let’s hope for another strong result!

    2. Couldn’t agree more. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how he performs during the back half of the season, at the tracks he has experience from last year driving on.

  53. spankythewondermonkey (@spankythewondermonkey)
    31st July 2012, 9:49

    no question. lewis.

  54. Lewis, as easy as it was picking Alonso for Germany.

  55. Raikkonen got my vote. I think Lotus were the best team over all but they just couldn’t get it done on that particular circuit, which is understandable. It was either going to be Grosjean or Raikkonen for me, but Kimi had to put up with problematic KERS and Romain just had a couple of dodgy laps behind Hamilton that maybe cost him a better chance at 25 points.

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