Turkish GP @ Istambul Park - 26 August 2007

Race weekend report , Q1. Q2 . Q3 and race times click here

The RACE
Felipe Massa was rightly voted "driver of the day" after leading from start to finish and making it his second Turkish Grand Prix win in a row. Kim Raikkonen kept in second place throughout, closing on the Brazilian, but never looking a threat, although he did put in the fastest lap towards the end to "make a point". Lewis Hamilton held third place, but never seemed in a position to overtake either of the Ferrari's who had started on the soft compound, only changing this after the second pit stop. This with the higher down force possibly gave them the advantage over the McLaren´s. Fernando Alonso, like Hamilton, on hard tyres and on the dirty side, lost two places at the start to the two BMW's and for 17 laps had to look at the rear wing of Nick Heidfeld, a frequent view for him this year. Kubica came into the pits on lap 13 and he managed to leapfrog the other BMW of Heidfeld at the first pit stop holding fourth place until with just 15 laps to go Hamilton´s right front went elevating Alonso to third and a podium finish, narrowing the gap down to just points with just 5 races remaining. Michael Schumacher was 21 points down (I think) before last years Turkish Grand Prix so the Championship is not over with Ferrari instructing their drivers to have one/two finishes for the remaining races. Lewis Hamilton held on to sixth place with a badly handling car (only they blown tyre being changed) just holding of the ever improving Kovalainen who had even briefly led the race in the first stint just prior to his first stop. The only incident was Giancarlo Fisichella touching Jarno Trulli and causing his fellow Italian to spin his Toyota from which he was not to recover at the first corner on the first lap. Mark Webber was the only retirement.

Turkish Grand Prix on ITV
Live qualifying Saturday 25 August 1130-1315 ITV1
Live race Sunday 26 August 1145-1505 ITV1
Highlights Sunday 26 August 2315-0015 ITV1
Highlights re-run Monday 27 August 1800-1900 ITV4

Hungarian Grand Prix @ Hungaroring Budapest - 5 August 2007

Race weekend report , Q1. Q2 . Q3 and race times click here

The Race

"Penalty severe and inappropriate", say McLaren so were the public robbed of a race between Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton by the decision to drop the Spanish driver five places on the grid for which really was an internal McLaren matter. Under the circumstances of the weekend Lewis Hamilton drove superbly to win leading from start to finish, but really this race does not have a "driver of the day" as more than one could qualify for this honour. Nick Heidfeld at the start was caught out by Kimi Räikkönen who challenged Hamilton throughout the race and seemed to be catching him in the last few laps. Alonso was boxed out at the start, dropping 2 places to eighth and then was held up by the
Toyota of Ralf Schumacher for many laps and finally by Nick Heidfeld as it is a well known fact that at the Hungaroring there is only one line. Grand Prix´s venues are being canceled so as the American Grand Prix and Silverstone under threat until as recent as last week. Bernie might it not be an idea for this circuit to be redesigned to allow more overtaking. Today was a bit boring and processional! Anthony Davidson drove a good race until being knocked off in a racing incident with Giancarlo Fisichella and today Felipe Massa could not charge through the field (due to
the circuit design?) as he has done in other races, the bad qualifying yesterday in fact being down to a pit mistake and not a bad handling car. McLaren have appealed about the decision not to award Manufacturers Championship points for this race so we will not update this section of our website until the outcome is known. The tension between Alonso and Hamilton that I have sensed since the start of the season finally came to a head this weekend. As I commented to a friend yesterday evening "there are always two sides to a story" and today it was revealed by the team that Hamilton was not faultless.

Qualifying (Saturday afternoon)

Lewis Hamilton made a statement in Q1 - Q2 and Q3 that he was the man to beat and in Q3 set the provisional pole time. Fernando Alonso´s first visit to the pits in Q3 had been disastrous with the string on the tyre warmer delaying his planned departure from the pit lane. On the second visit to change tyres for his last attempt to claim pole he stayed in the pits despite his "lollipop" being raised. When he eventually left he snatched pole position from Lewis Hamilton who had been waiting behind him, Fernando´s actions not allowing Lewis time to complete a full flying lap, Hamilton having changed his soft tyres for another set of soft tyres. It is said that the rear view mirrors on a Formula 1 car on the circuit has very limited visibility. Nick Heidfeld took third place away from the only Ferrari in the top ten - that of Kimi Raikkonen who could manage no better than fourth fastest, his team mate Felipe Massa struggling in Q2 with a badly handling car and not being able to go higher fourteenth, despite being the fastest car in practice 3 this morning. Nico Rosberg was a promising fifth ahead of Ralf Schumacher, Robert Kubica, Giancarlo Fisichella and the second Toyota of Jarno Trulli and Mark Webber, his team mate David Coulthard starting eleventh. Both Hondas were knocked out in Q1 but Anthony Davidson in the Super Aguri Honda really shone with a seventh fastest time.

Practice 2 (Friday afternoon)
This morning it was Robert Kubica super soft bridgestone BMW that showed the two Ferraris followed by the two McLaren´s how to set the fastest lap, but this afternoon it was Fernando Alonso (1m20.919s) that was the boss with Heikki Kovalainen (1m21.283s) splitting the two McLaren´s, Lewis Hamilton (1m21.338s) having a late spin when in traffic on the back section of the circuit. Nico Rosberg (1m21.485s) put his Williams ahead of the BMW of Nick Heidfeld (1m21.517s) with the two Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen (1m21.589s) and Felipe Massa (1m21.620s) only managing sixth and seventh best times this afternoon. Giancarlo Fisichella (1m21.698s) was eighth quickest 0.4s slower than his team mate with Jarno Trulli (1m21.857s) and this mornings pacesetter Robert Kubica (1m21.906s) completing the top 10.

Kimi Raikkonen - "Everybody says that McLaren has to be stronger than us here; but I don't think that this will be the case. We have taken a big step forward since the race in Monaco and it will be really interesting to see how competitive we are over the weekend. The Hungaroring is very slow and winding; so the two most important things here are the right angle entry into the corners and the traction: if these two things work out, then you have good cards in your hand.”

Nick Heidfeld - "Last year I came third in Budapest - it was the first podium place for our team. It was a chaotic race. Normally Budapest in August means very hot weather, but last year it was raining. The circuit was wet at the start of the race, and it remained cool throughout the weekend. The circuit itself is short, twisty and usually very dirty at the start of the weekend. The races there are often pretty exhausting as there are no long straights where you can catch your breath. But I enjoy driving there and hope we will be as strong again as in 2006."

Giancarlo Fisichella - “Hungary is quite a selective circuit, and the very high temperatures often make things a bit more complicated, especially for the drivers and also the powertrain. To be quick here, you need an effective high downforce set-up, good grip and good traction out of the slow corners. We will be working on those areas as soon as we start running on Friday morning.”

Jenson Button (Last years winner) - “It was never really one of my favourite races before, but for obvious reasons that all changed last year. It will always be a special place as the scene of my first win. Obviously it will be quite a different race for us this year but hopefully we can keep up the steady progress we have been making and take another step forward.”

Hungarian Grand Prix on ITV
Live qualifying Saturday 4 August 1230-1415 ITV1
Live race Sunday 5 August 1200-1530 ITV1
Highlights Monday 6 August 0045-0145 ITV1
Highlights re-run Monday 6 August 1800-1900 ITV4