From the moment the cars hit the track on Friday, most expected a McLaren victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix, but the manner in which it was achieved (and the driver who achieved it) will have surprised most.
Sean Kelly
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Posted August 03, 2008
Budapest, Hungary
Kovalainen finally got his chance to take a win for McLaren in Hungary. (LAT photo)
From the moment the cars hit the track on Friday, most expected a McLaren victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix, but the manner in which it was achieved (and the driver who achieved it) will have surprised most.
After upsetting the formbook by controlling the race, on a circuit where he’d never previously scored a top-six finish, Felipe Massa suffered cruel luck with just three laps remaining when his engine failed. This represents the biggest single moment in the championship so far, as what looked like being a three-point lead for Massa in the title race became a five-point lead for Hamilton, with Massa also being overtaken by Kimi Raikkonen in the table.
Massa’s misfortune made Heikki Kovalainen’s day, as he became the 100th driver to win a world championship event (including the Indy 500s from 1950-60). He is the fourth Finnish driver to take an F1 win, and all three previous drivers (Keke Rosberg, Mika Hakkinen and Kimi Raikkonen) went onto win the world championship.
Kovalainen is also the third different driver to take a maiden victory in the last six runnings of this race, following on from Fernando Alonso in 2003, and Jenson Button in 2006. Heikki overcame a jinx associated with the dirty side of the grid here, as races in Hungary have been won more often from third on the grid (5 times) than second (3 times). Of course, Massa was set to win from third on Sunday, until fate intervened….
Second-placed Timo Glock underlined the pace that Toyota had shown in their long runs on the prime tire during practice. He set the second-fastest overall lap in qualifying, and scored on a track other than Montreal for the first time in his career. It was Toyota’s best finish since Jarno Trulli finished second at the 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix, and meant that for the second race running, the top two spots on the podium were filled with former GP2 drivers.
In third, Raikkonen again had one of those afternoons where he appeared to be asleep, before suddenly coming alive at the end. Last year he set the fastest lap on the final lap of the race, and today he did so with 9 laps remaining – at Hockenheim two weeks ago he did it with 2 laps to go. It was Kimi’s 7th fastest lap in the last 8 races, and despite not having won since April, he is just 5 points behind the championship lead.
