LEWIS HAMILTON IS BACK!
Well, I think everyone in FI has stopped fighting with each other. Maybe. Anyway, moving on, we had some more racing to watch, and a new F1 driver to welcome. Torro Rosso decided to ditch Sebastien Bourdais and replace him with their 19 year old Spanish reserve driver Jaime Alguersuari who'd been competing in the Renault 3.5 series earlier this year. In the meantime, well while Budapest is pretty cool, the Hungaroring doesn't produce many classic races. Still, the Brawns were hoping to return to form here and with McLaren looking competitive again, this race looked like it would play a crucial part in the title race as the season entered it's later stages.
In qualifying, well Q1 certainly turned out to be hectic but both Brits managed to survive without any real scares. Kubica got eliminated though. Q2, again no serious problems for the Brits, proving that Lewis was returning to form but Barrichello had mechanical trouble for the first time and got KOd. In Q3 Alonso was the first guy to hit the front then Rosberg of all people took provisional pole. Then Alonso replied before Lewis staked his claim, then Webber...and then the timing computers went down! Alonso was asking everyone in parce ferme "what time did you do?" and eventually found he'd picked up his first pole since Italy '07! Vettel got P2, Webber P3 and Lewis P4, the best grid slot for the reigning world champion this season! Jenson was never really in it after Brawn were overcautious after Barrichello's problems. He started P8!
The big story of qualifying though was Massa's crash in Q2. The first anyone saw of it was the shot of his car in the tyre wall, with Felipe motionless, reminding me of Michael Schumacher's crash in '99. Then came the suggestion that something had come off Barrichello's car. Sure enough, the next guy round that corner had been Massa and that piece of suspension had flown into his chin. Eventually he was taking into hospital with a fractured skull - it's the type of accident you don't want anyone to have. Technically, Massa had qualified for Q3 but there was no question of him taking part in that session or even, as more details became known, the race itself. Ferrari decided to run Raikonen solo on race day. Massa will get out of hospital and people are increasingly optimistic about him returning to F1 at some point but other than that, all bets seem to be off.
In the meantime, well. This was meant to be Brawn's recovery race. It didn't look like it from where I was sitting. He immediately slid back to 9th before retaking Nakajima and after that had to hope that his heavy fuelling would allow him to leapfrog some of his rivals. His mid-race rant suggested that his car certainly wasn't going to be of much help - now it's the Brawn that seems to be graining its tyres. Crucially though, he was able to take advantage of late pitstops from his rivals and finish 7th, at least picking up some points. Problem is, that those aren't the sort of results that get you a championship and Jenson knows it. Brawn need to get their act together before the next race.
As for Lewis though, well he picked up 3rd after Vettel had a seriously bad start. Then he just burned up Webber halfway through lap one and I couldn't help but say "Oh yes...he's back". The only remaining problem was his old rival Alonso...but a moron in the Spaniard's pit crew released him with a loose wheel which then flew off! You had to laugh...untill you remembered how dangerous a loose wheel could be. That was the last we saw of the Renault driver at the front. After that, it was just like old times - Lewis reminded us all why he's the reigning world champion and just cruised his way to the chequered flag for his first win of the season and one that allows him even now to write a few more(albeit minor) lines in the F1 history books. Like him and Jenson being the first pair of British drivers to win Grand Prix in the same season since Eddie Irvine and DC in '99. And being the first Brit since James Hunt in 1977 to win a Grand Prix as reigning world champion(Hunt won three races that year). For Lewis to become the first Brit to defend at F1 world championship would take a miracle but he is most certainly going to be a competitive force for the rest of the season.
In the meantime, it's still Jenson that's leading the world championship. He's now on 70 points but his lead has been cut to eighteen and a half points. Further down, Lewis has leapt to 8th place with 19 points.
It's a long wait till the next race.
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