In the round-up: Sergio Perez believes he should have qualified on the second row of the grid for today’s Hungarian Grand Prix
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In brief
Perez “should have been fourth”
Red Bull driver Sergio Perez ended his streak of five consecutive rounds without a Q3 appearance in Hungary yesterday but believes he could have been higher than ninth on the grid.
Perez was four tenths of a second slower than pole winner Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in the other Red Bull but only qualified ninth. However, Perez says he should have been further up the order.
“We showed very strong pace at times,” he said. “Unfortunately with this [Alternative Tyre Allocation] format we just played around a little bit too much with the tyre prep.
“I had a bad first sector, losing a tenth-and-a-half. So I think without that I should have been P4, but never mind. I believe that we’ve got a good car underneath us.”
Stroll spared penalty for impeding
Lance Stroll avoided a penalty for impeding Valtteri Bottas during Q1 as the stewards ruled several other drivers contributed to the Alfa Romeo driver’s delay.
“While it was clear that car 77 [Bottas] was impeded, Article 37.5 required that the car not be “unnecessarily” impeded by another car. Here, given the situation on track and the fact that the driver and the team representative of Car 77 did not feel that there was a single other competitor that unnecessarily impeded, we decided that there would be no further action,” the stewards ruled.
Haas fined over tyre error
Haas were fined a total of €10,000 (£8,650) for failing to electronically return a set of intermediate tyres from each of their cars during Friday practice at the Hungaroring. Both sets had been physically handed back to Pirelli.
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Novalak hit with grid penalty for Boschung clash
Trident driver Clement Novalak will start five places lower on the Formula 2 feature race grid than he qualified after stewards deemed him “wholly responsible” for colliding with Ralph Boschung in yesterday’s sprint race.
Novalak locked up under braking for turn one and tagged the right-rear of the Campos driver, causing him damage that ended his race. The stewards held Novalak responsible and handed him a five-place grid penalty for today’s feature race, that will drop him from 15th on the grid to 20th.
Formula 3 feature race shortened over tyre fears
The FIA has shortened today’s F3 feature race due to concerns with tyre wear.
Originally 24 laps, the race has been reduced to 19 laps (or 45 minutes, plus one additional tour) after a recommendation from tyre supplier Pirelli due to the “level of wear experienced” during yesterday’s sprint race.
Hitech fined after battery breach
Hitech have been fined for releasing Gabriele Mini’s car in an unsafe condition before yesterday’s F3 sprint race.
The battery fell off Mini’s car after turn three at the Hungaroring when the Alpine junior driver was making his way from the F3 paddock to the Formula 1 pit lane.
Mini ultimately won the sprint race by 4.2 seconds and avoided losing his victory after the stewards ordered Hitech to pay a €500 (£432) fine instead.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
‘Sir Jackie is still working well beyond retirement age and shows no sign of putting his feet up. After the summer, he is due to attend the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort. Yet the recent transient ischaemic attack appears to have slowed him down, possibly for the first time in his long and eventful life.’
Mike on… the Hungarian Grand Prix (Aston Martin)
‘I’m pleased that we’re trying this (the Alternative Tyre Allocation). I think the sport has to stay open-minded and open to new ideas. We can’t have too much of a purist mindset. We have to work together, try new things, evolve the sport. Not everything we try will work, and not everything will stay forever – but that’s okay: it’s important to try these things and if they don’t work, we say okay and try something else.’
Read every word from F1 engine guru Mario Illien’s Beyond The Grid interview (F1)
‘The other thing Mika was impressive in: I remember a race in Hockenheim, we were leading the race and they fuelled him short, they didn’t get all the fuel in. He had to do a lot of fuel saving to finish the race. And he managed to reduce the fuel consumption by around 10% and not lose much of the lap time. That was extremely impressive.’
Pourchaire dreaming of Budapest Feature Race victory as Championship turning point (Formula 2)
”Today starting from the paddock to go to the F1 pit lane, I was just behind Fred (Vesti) and in my head, I was thinking this situation is like the Tour de France. He’s the man with the yellow jersey and I’m right behind him. I’m Tadej Pogacar and he’s Jonas Vingegaard – he’s Danish. So, I need to be right behind him and as soon as I feel great, I need to do a great race, take a lot of points from him and tomorrow can be a great opportunity.”
‘Since 1982, King has done everything from sitting behind the wheel to captaining the garages. His brief career as a racer has been invaluable for communicating the physical impact of data. As the shock technician, King will monitor and work out any kinks on the shocks of Christian Lundgaard’s green No. 45 car this weekend in Newton.’
Juju Noda takes historic win at Paul Ricard (Euroformula Open)
‘Juju Noda made history today at Circuit Paul Ricard by winning race one and becoming the first woman to take a win in the Euroformula Open. Unlucky a few weeks ago at the Hungaroring, the Japanese driver took advantage of the events in France to secure a well-deserved first victory which confirms her constant progression.’
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it to us via the contact form.
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Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Matt and Lalit Palaparthy!
On this day in motorsport
- 35 years ago today Ayrton Senna took pole position for the German Grand Prix with Nigel Mansell’s Williams a surprise second
