F1: Prancing Horse may have bolted

Notwithstanding Lewis Hamilton’s victory in Budapest last night, his second for the McLaren-Mercedes team this year, and the stunning pace of the Lotus-Renaults, the Prancing Horse may have bolted. Indeed, it’s not hard to envisage, with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso 40 points clear already, the title being decided two or even three races before the end.

Australia’s Mark Webber remains second to Alonso in the championship, but less than 10 days ago he was only 13 points behind the Spaniard. Eighth places in Germany and Hungary in his Red Bull car have seen Webber lose another 27 points on Alonso, who won at Hockenheim and was fifth in Budapest.

Alonso was never a serious contender to win in Hungary, yet he picked up a handy haul of points (10), as he so often does when victory is out of reach.

None of his rivals is anywhere near conceding yet, but the simple fact is Alonso, already 40 points clear in a car clearly not the best in the field, wins more often than any other driver and scores good points more consistently. He’s the only three-time victor this season but he has now collected points in 23 straight GPs.

When the season resumes in Belgium at the start of September in all likelihood he will equal Michael Schumacher’s record of 24 consecutive finishes in the points – and he may win again.

Hamilton was clearly quickest in qualifying at Budapest and always had control of the race, even if the Lotus-Renaults of, first, Romain Grosjean, and, later, Kimi Raikkonen snapped at his heels. That pair shared the podium with Hamilton, Raikkonen in second (and with talk of him returning to Ferrari next year in place of Brazilian Felipe Massa) and the young Grosjean in third.

It will be no surprise to see either or both of the Lotus-Renaults winning in the remaining nine GPs this season.

Hamilton said his McLaren in Budapest was the best it had been all year, which could be a pointer to some thrills to come before the world title is decided. But Hamilton’s problem is that he trails Alonso by 47 points.

Webber’s Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel, world champion the past two years, was fourth in Budapest and is 42 points behind Alonso.

Raikkonen is one point worse off than Hamilton but, without winning a race, has been the second highest point-scorer over the past five rounds.

Since Webber won in Monaco in May, Alonso has scored 88 points, Raikkonen 75, Hamilton 54 (including wins in Canada and Hungary), Vettel 49 (without a win), and Webber (victor in Britain) and Grosjean 41 each.

Hamilton’s McLaren teammate Jenson Button has accumulated only 31 points in that time, although he’s rediscovered some form in the past two races (finishing second and sixth).

Red Bull is headed for a third straight constructors’ world championship, although its Renault-engined RB8 cars are coming under enormous technical scrutiny – perhaps because of, as team principal Christian Horner and Webber say, its success of the past couple of years and the fact it has the most innovative designer, Adrian Newey.

In the drivers’ championship it’s hard to see, even this far out, Alonso not adding to the titles he won in 2005-06.

And, now that he’s ensconced at Ferrari, it is almost as difficult to contemplate strings being pulled behind the scene to ensure the championship fight goes to the last round.

Webber reckons it’s still wide open
Mark Webber still seems upbeat about this season, but the enormity of Alonso’s 40-point lead may dawn over the month’s break.

Having mysteriously missed making the top 10 in Budapest qualifying, Webber was frustrated yet philosophical about his latest race result.

“We were hoping people would be in a bit more trouble with their tyres at the end,” he said.

“We were in fifth place and had a nice cushion, but we’ve had plenty of times this year where the tyres had stopped working towards the end of the race. Today it didn’t really work out that way and we lost places through trying something different [a stop for fresh rubber 12 laps from the end].

“I was quicker in the closing stages, but it’s hard to overtake here and I couldn’t get the job done. Still, we moved up three places from the start … [but] we left a bit on the table. Given where we started [11th], it was good to make up a few places and get some points.

 “We’ll just continue to take each race as it comes and deal with the championship situation later on in the season. It’s very open for the rest of the years,” stated the Australian.

Red Bull team principal Horner said Webber’s car showed “signs of a differential issue around lap 45”.

“Although he closed in [at the finish] on Senna [seventh-placed Williams driver Bruno Senna], he was unable to find a way past,” Horner said.

“Nonetheless we [Red Bull Racing] go into the [northern] summer break 53 points in the lead in the constructors’ championship and second and third in the drivers’ championship with nine races still to go and an awful lot of racing to do,” Horner said.

Ricciardo ahead of teammate at least
Australia’s younger F1 driver, Daniel Ricciardo, finished 15th in Budapest, again ahead of his Toro Rosso-Ferrari teammate Jean-Eric Vergne. The Aussie started 18th – two places behind the Frenchman.

“I had a reasonable start passing a couple of cars, after which I tried to stay in contact with Paul Di Resta [Force India-Mercedes] and managed to stay close enough to be in the DRS zone [where drivers are allowed to manipulate their rear wings] for a few laps. But after that he began to pull away gradually and, basically, we just did not have the pace to match our rivals," Ricciardo said.

“The earlier stints on the option tyres were not too bad, apart from a few balance issues here and there… We managed to improve the car as the race went on, but for the last stint on the medium tyres it took a while for them to work ¬– and maybe my set-up was too conservative for the start of the stint, as we had plenty of pace left at the end of it.

“I don’t think there was much more we could have done today…  I hope we can come back stronger in Spa [Belgium GP],”the young Aussie stated.

Johnson to the four at Brickyard and ‘Junior’ leads Cup
Jimmie Johnson dominated the Brickyard 400, leading 99 of the 160 laps of the NASCAR Sprint Cup classic at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to win it for the fourth time.

Equally significant though was Dale Earnhardt Junior taking the Cup series lead by finishing fourth in another Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Between the two Chevs were the Toyota of Kyle Busch and the Ford of Greg Biffle.

Australia’s Marcos Ambrose was 20th in his Richard Petty Motorsports Ford and remains 18th in the series as it now heads to Pocono, Pennsylvania, and then to Watkins Glen. The latter, a famous road course in upstate New York, is where the Tasmanian notched his only Cup race win last year.  

Johnson’s 58th win in the premier category of American stock car racing gave him membership of an exclusive club of four-time winners at The Brickyard.

He joined legendary Texan AJ Foyt, his fellow Californian idol Rick Mears and Al Unser Senior (who each had four victories in the Indianapolis 500 open-wheeler classic); Jeff Gordon who has had the same success in NASCARs; and Michael Schumacher who won the Formula One Grand Prix there four times in the seven years it was run last decade.

“I can remember watching the 500 on the couch with my grandfather, and I remember him telling me he came to Indy," Johnson said.

"It’s nice to create my own family memories here."

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