Dennis (left) and Kovalainen survey the view from the top in Hungary. (LAT photo)
Sunday afternoon in Hungary was a rollercoaster of emotions for the McLaren and Ferrari teams, and after the race Ron Dennis had the look of a man who’d been given a “get out of jail free” card. After a great qualifying session for the team all that good work was undone when Felipe Massa jumped ahead at the start, and then the team’s hopes that Lewis Hamilton could jump him at the second stops were ended when the Briton suffered a puncture. Then Heikki Kovalainen came to the fore and ensured that Massa could not back off as much as he might have wished. That pressure may or may not have contributed to the Brazilian’s engine failure. But whatever the case, Kovalainen was certainly due a win soon. After the race, we spoke to Dennis about a dramatic afternoon.
Q: What are your overall thoughts on the race?
“At the end of the day, the first corner really made life difficult for Lewis, and we knew then we had to conserve fuel, stay in touch, stop after Ferrari, which was important, so that we could then go longer than him. Really, if strategy had unfolded as expected we should have had a few laps more fuel. Running into the last sector I think we would have talent the lead there. Lewis was hampered a little bit by a flat-spotted tire, but it wasn’t actually anything to do with the puncture. The puncture was in the sidewall, and it appears to just be one of those things.
“But Heikki’s race was brilliant, really. It’s classic motor racing, to finish first you first have to finish. He’s had some great qualifyings this year, and deserved to be in a position to win this race, because he’d driven the best race of his time with McLaren, and the result was well deserved.”
Q: Lewis had to do a long stint on those tires. Was that difficult?
“Everybody was going for a relatively short stint on those tires. We didn’t have any tire problems. We just had to be careful not to push too hard in the opening laps, although that was when we needed to close on the bunch in order that when they started to make their pit stops we emerged ahead. At one stage we thought we could get past Fernando and Heikki and Kimi, but unfortunately we got terrible trouble with some traffic, but that made life very difficult. At the end of the day, for a bad day, it was a great day.”
Q: Any thoughts on the start?
“Well, it was one of those things. They made a slightly better start and won the first-corner battle, but that’s motor racing.”
