1999 HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX

Where have Benetton come from?! For the past few races the blue Benetton cars have struggled in qualifying, and suddenly they manage 4th and 7th on the grid. Meanwhile, the other serious Supertec-powered contenders (Williams) languish at the back of the grid in 15th and 16th. Zanardi was fractionally quicker than Ralf Schumacher, having begun to use left-foot braking for the first time in his life.

The disappointment of the qualifying session today was Mika Salo. In a car he described himself as as good as the McLarens, the Finn could only manage 18th quickest time. His final attempt was thwarted as he got caught behind both Prosts on their in-lap. Previous to this race, it was rumoured that Salo had already received a few offers for full-time drives in the 2000 season. Will they stand?

The starting order is shown on the left. Can Irvine, who drove like a true champion in qualifying, challenge Hakkinen on this twisty circuit? We'll know tomorrow! Our review will be online in a weeks time. Steve Dean has given his usual no-holds barred opinions in Steering Column this week. It certainly makes interesting reading.

Qualifying Review

At the start of the race, Hakkinen took the lead into the first corner and retained his lead right to the end of the race, in a show of complete dominance at this circuit by McLaren. Off the line Irvine was on his tail, but Coulthard was not as quick. He was overtaken by Fisichella and Frentzen before the first corner. Further back, Jacques Villeneuve also made a bad start and dropped from 9th to 13th. This was a disaster for him as he was on a three stop strategy. At the back, Pedro De La Rosa overtook Salo in the Ferrari and managed to stay in front of him for about a third of the race - Salo did not seem capable of wringing any speed out of the same Ferrari which was giving Irvine second place at the time

In the early laps the order remained unchanged as Hakkinen began to build up a lead over the rest. By lap seven, Mika was a full five seconds ahead of Irvine's Ferrari. Eddie was initially under pressure from Giancarlo Fisichella, but soon got clear. He did remain under pressure from both Frentzen and Coulthard though.

Zanardi was the first driver to retire, adding to Williams' terrible weekend. On lap 10 he came into the pits with a differential problem. Diniz spun out of his ninth place on lap 20. After the BAR team finished Jacque's first stop on lap 23 it became apparent that everybody was on either a one or a two-stop strategy. Fisichella ducked in first, followed by Irvine, Hill and Alexander Wurz. Frentzen pitted before Hakkinen, who retained his lead on exiting - a fantastic job by the McLaren pit-crew.

Coulthard stayed out until lap 33 and was able to run fast enough to go ahead of both Fisichella and Frentzen. Unfortunately for the Scot, he found himself stuck behind Barrichello, who was on a one-stop strategy, running in third place until lap 40. Herbert, Panis and Mika Salo were all on this strategy, but it did not seem to pay off. McLaren appeared to be worried at one stage as Salo went as far as lap 44 without a stop. The worry was Irvine - was he on a similar stategy? If so, after his initial stop, he could theoretically go to the end of the race - saving nearly a minute on pit-stops. This was not to be.

Hakkinen steadily built up his lead, with his team-mate pressurising Irvine behind him. Hill was the first to have his second stop. He went off the road shortly afterwards and it looked like he may finish another ominous race. Luckily he was able to rejoin and picked up 6th place for Jordan. Barrichello was not quicker, but slipped through while Damon was off-roading.

On lap 50, both Frentzen and Fisichella pitted. It was to be the en of Giancarlo's race though. He was distraught. The benetton had run so well up to this and was very competitive on the twisty Hungarian track. He explains what happened:

"The choice to use super soft tyres proved the right one: as the race progressed their performance stabilised and the car became very well balanced. I was in third position and I felt there was a good possibility we could get on the podium but then the engine suddenly lost power a few hundred metres before my second pit-stop. I managed very slowly to get into the pits, but the engine cut out and would not restart."

Bad luck hit Jean Alesi also. He pitted on lap 54, but was found to be speeding in the pit lane on exiting. He was called in for a 10 second stop-go penalty and commented after the race that this is his last year with Benetton. Rumours are that he will sign for the Prost team.

The final stops brought the last piece of excitement to the race. Hakkinen managed to stay in the lead of the duelling celts behind. Coulthard obviously had a better car, but he had no way past Irvine's Ferrari. Both rushed into the pits together and had near identical pit-times. The order was unchanged coming out, with the Ferrari and McLaren nose-to-tail. It looked to remain this way, until Eddie ran a little wide and off the track for a few seconds. I was enough for Coulthard to dart past and soar into the distance. He finished 17 seconds ahead of Irvine after some scorching laps.

Frentzen strengthened Jordan's third place in the championship with a strong, if uneventful 4th place. Hill challenged Rubens Barrichello in the closing stages but was unable to overtake. Barrichello was disappointed with the results, indicating that he may be more than just willing to drive a Ferrari next year.....

Designed & maintained by caint.com