Formula One 2011

[GA!]

Yeah they do, on the red button.

Their services would still required but they would only be for race highlights on the non-BBC race weekends.

I see two problems with that as far as the pundits are concerned:

1 - Instead of commentating for three hours a race weekend they will likely do between 30 and 45 minutes, therefore they can't be expected to maintain the same pay packet.

2 - If the BBC are bending over backwards to cut costs, why bother sending them abroad to these races? Why not make them commentate and analyse from a studio Match of the Day style? I really can't imagine a Martin Brundle, Eddie Jordan, or David Coulthard being happy with that.

To be honest, all I was worried about was that there'd be ad breaks during the race if it moved to Sky. If there aren't, then I'm not bothered in the slighest. I imagine Brundle will jump ship, Sky would be fools not to since he's effectively become the new Murray Walker.

At this point, I see everyone but Jake Humphrey defecting over to Sky.

[Lineker]

BBC may want to keep features on their highlights such as the grid walks and EJ grabbing people in the pit land for inpromptu interviews. I'd have expected them to still attend the races but in a less prominent way, if that makes sense.

Just because they're cutting down on the amount of races covered, it doesn't mean they'll want to comromise their quality.

[Lineker]

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has promised that the sport's audience will grow with the onset of Sky's pay-to-view television deal from 2012.

A surprise deal was announced on Friday morning that the BBC and Sky Sports will share coverage of the sport in the UK from 2012 - with the satellite and cable broadcaster showing all live sessions while the BBC transmits only half on terrestrial digital television - prompting a wave of angry responses from license holders on internet forums and Twitter.

But Ecclestone, speaking after leaving a meeting to address the subject with F1's team principals, insisted that the deal is positive for the sport.

"It's good for Formula 1," he said. "For sure there are going to be a lot more people viewing, and a lot more opportunities for people to view, so from that point I'm very happy.

"I've been finalising this all night long and one or two things might change a little."

"Sky will broadcast everything, all the races, live. The Beeb will do 50 per cent live, and when it isn't live, they will be putting together a very good highlights package.

"They [bBC] may yet do the whole race deferred, we have to see."

Asked what he would say to fans who could not afford a Sky subscription, Ecclestone replied: "That's where the problem is, I know, but from what I understand Sky has enormous coverage, 10 million homes.

"For those who can't watch Sky, they can still watch on a Sunday night, which will probably be better than watching the whole race live half the time," he added.

Ecclestone added that the deal was not complicated by issues surrounding the current Concorde Agreement because the covenant comes to an end prior to the beginning of the Sky contract.

"The Concorde finishes in 2012," he said. "After then there may not be one, we don't need one. We'll see.

"But I think this is all positive, and having spoken to the teams, they think it's positive too."

Along with indicating that the deal was likely to mean more income for the teams, Ecclestone spoke about the general onset of pay-per-view television and how the media landscape affected F1 in the future.

"We do have to do the best we can, and I'm interested in getting the maximum coverage because we have to invest in the future for the good of the teams and for Formula 1," he said.

"I think in the end people will be more happy with this than they are at the moment."

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh says early indications about the detail of the deal for Sky Sports and the BBC to share Formula 1 television rights in the United Kingdom are encouraging for teams.

It was announced this morning that from 2012 to 2018 only half the F1 races will broadcast live on the free-to-air BBC as part of the new arrangement.

But despite initial concerns about the implications for viewing figures, Whitmarsh said after talks with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, he could see more positives for F1 - especially as Ecclestone had suggested that the BBC would still show full-length versions of its 'non-live' races rather than just highlights.

"From what Bernie has said it's better than expected," said Whitmarsh.

"The BBC will show every grand prix in full, half of them live and half of them deferred, so free-to-air is available to everyone.

"Sky sound like they are really going to commit to it as well, so it sounds like there is a little bit of competition between the BBC and Sky.

"So overall, from Bernie's view, it will increase the total viewership within the UK.

"Bernie assured me, and I asked him several times, the deferred coverage will not be highlights, it will be a full race.

"That, to some fans, will be very important, depending on exactly races they are, so hopefully that means it's a good deal for everyone."

Whitmarsh said teams were becoming more receptive to the deal as more details emerged.

"Based upon that, if it increases the total viewership, and it maintains the ability of free to air for all of the viewing public in the UK, then cautiously it's good news isn't it?" he said of the paddock's reaction.

He accepted that many fans were likely to be angry, but hoped the cost implications would be less severe than they feared.

"I can understand why," said Whitmarsh. "Based on what I've heard there won't be a premium for watching Formula 1 on Sky, so it sounds like it's good news rather than bad.

"We have to try and maintain the show, work harder, try and reach out to fans, listen to them, we'll continue doing that, hopefully we can all work together to make the sport much bigger."

The BBC insists that its share deal with Sky to broadcast Formula 1 in 2012 was the best possible solution that was available to viewers.

Although the move, which will result in the BBC broadcasting half the races with the other 10 on Sky's subscription channel, has prompted fury from fans, the channel reckons there was no other option available.

With the BBC under pressure to cut costs, Ben Gallop, the BBC's Head of F1, says that keeping half the races on free-to-air should be welcomed by fans - as it was impossible for the coverage to continue with the way it is currently being done.

"While our coverage from 2012 may not be as extensive as it has been up to now, the bare facts are that the BBC needs to save money," he wrote on a blog on the BBC.

"Given the financial circumstances in which we find ourselves, we believe this new deal offers the best outcome for licence-fee payers.

"In a sense this partnership with Sky is another example of how the landscape of sports broadcasting has been transformed in recent years. There was a time when the BBC and other public service broadcasters could expect to televise all the big sports themselves. Now though we have a 'mixed economy', with some events on satellite while others are on terrestrial."

He added: "This new F1 arrangement will allow us to tell the story of the whole F1 season for BBC viewers, while providing extended access to the biggest moments in the calendar: including the glamour of Monaco, the excitement of the last race of the season, plus the British grand prix at Silverstone, which remains one of the highlights of the UK's sporting summer."

The 2012 season will still kick off on March 18 next year, despite the Bahrain Grand Prix being moved to a November date.

As revealed by AUTOSPORT, Formula 1 bosses and teams are working on a revised calendar, quite different to that published by the FIA earlier this year.

As reported yesterday, the season will kick off in Australia rather than in Bahrain in order to give the country more time to clam the political situation down.

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone circulated a calendar among teams in Hungary to get their feedback, and it confirmed the season will still begin on March 18 - the date originally assigned to Bahrain - in Melbourne.

The calendar also confirms the United States Grand Prix at Austin will move to November 18 in order for the race to take place in cooler conditions. The race will be followed by the season finale in Brazil just a week later.

Ecclestone's proposed calendar - which will need to be approved by the FIA - confirms the Turkish Grand Prix will be dropped from next year.

Bernie Ecclestones proposed calendar:


18 March            Australian GP

25 March            Malaysian GP

8 April             Chinese GP

22 April            Indian GP

13 May              Spanish GP

27 May              Monaco GP

10 June             Canada GP

24 June             European GP

8 July              British GP

22 July             German GP

29 July             Hungarian GP

2 September         Belgian GP

9 September         Italian GP

23 September        Singapore GP

7 October           Japanese GP

14 October          Korean GP

28 October          Abu Dhabi GP

4 November          Bahrain GP

18 November         US GP

25 November         Brazilian GP[/code]

[Lineker]

Sebastien Buemi believes that the stewards were harsh to hit him with a five-place grid penalty for Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Scuderia Toro Rosso driver was found guilty of causing a collision with Nick Heidfeld on lap 10 of last Sunday's German Grand Prix after moving over on the Renault driver as they approached the chicane. The contact put Heidfeld out of the race, with Buemi surviving to finish 15th.

But Buemi claims that the TV footage used to make the decision was misleading. He insists that Heidfeld was not alongside him while they were on the power, but only pulled alongside once Buemi was committed to the braking area for the chicane.

"It was a hard penalty," said Buemi when asked by AUTOSPORT what he thought of the decision. "The images from the front are very difficult to understand because you can't really know where Nick is comparative to my car, especially under braking.

"If you look at some of the side and rear footage, you can understand. I strongly believe that before the braking, he was still behind me. I took my normal line and it was while we were braking that he threw himself into the space.

"I definitely wasn't expecting him to do this under braking because the chance for him to overtake without contact was very small."

Buemi added that the stewards' interpretation of events was that he moved over on Heidfeld while they were still on the power.

But he also accepted that the television images made it difficult for the stewards to see the relative position of the cars.

"The stewards decided something else," said Buemi. "When I looked at the front camera view, I knew it was going to be difficult [in the stewards' hearing] because you don't know where he is [relative to me]. But he was not side by side. The stewards had only the front camera and a side camera where you hardly see anything.

"They believed that Nick was already alongside before we braked. But I am sure that was not the case."

Heidfeld disagrees with Buemi's version of events, claiming that he could not have avoided the accident.

"I was next to him on the right and he just moved over and there was nowhere to go," said Heidfeld after the race. "So he pushed me on to the grass and there was an accident, that couldn't be avoided with what he did."

Despite the penalty, which is likely to leave the Swiss close to the back of the grid, Buemi is confident that he can still fight his way into contention for points.

He expects his STR06 to be competitive enough in the race to clear the cars at the back of the field quickly, leaving him close to where he would have qualified relatively early in the race.

"The penalty is definitely not the best way to start the weekend," he said. "But it's not the end of the world. Kamui Kobayashi started at the back last year and finished in the points.

"Maybe with Pirelli's super soft and soft tyres there might be more degradation. If the degradation is high, it could be more about speed in the race and strategy rather than where you start.

"The guys who are likely to be starting in front of me will be quite easy to overtake. Because of that, I don't think I'll lose too much time."

Adrian Sutil is confident that Force India can repeat its strong German Grand Prix showing in Hungary, describing his sixth place at the Nurburgring as the car's "true performance".

The Silverstone-based team has become increasingly competitive during the previous four races, with Sutil qualifying eighth and finishing sixth in Germany and Paul di Resta running in the top six in both the British and Canadian Grands Prix.

Sutil believes that the car is now a regular top 10 contender and that Force India is capable of putting together a good run of points finishes.

"We have made some steps during the last few races," said Sutil. "At Silverstone, we had the chance to be around the top eight with both cars, but we missed this opportunity because of the strategy. But we did it again at the Nurburgring.

"That was the true performance of the car. It was very strong in the race and in qualifying. Now we are looking quite strong and we want to keep this level of performance, or maybe even do better. There are a few good races coming up for us and we are on the right track."

The German, who has scored 18 points in the last five races, believes that his strong result in his home grand prix will give the team added impetus as it heads into the final nine races of the season.

After a slow start to the year, the team introduced a radical new aerodynamic package during practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, racing it for the first time in the next event in Monaco.

Sutil believes that this development path will allow it to continue its run of form in the second half of 2011.

"It's good for the team to have a good result finally so that everyone knows that we are at the beginning of a good run of races to the end of the season," said Sutil. "The momentum is there; sometimes you need a bit of success to build on.

"We are on the right course with the car, but we still have to catch up. We need to maximise all of our potential."

Rubens Barrichello believes only a fundamental improvement from Williams this year will allow it to make any progress in the Constructors' Championship.

The Grove-based outfit has had a disappointing start to the campaign, and is currently ninth in the Constructors' Championship with just four points.

The team ahead of it, Scuderia Toro Rosso, has 17, with Force India another three points clear.

Barrichello believes tinkering with the Williams car will not be enough to lift it into contention to beat its rivals - which is why he is hoping the team can soon find the answer as to why it is struggling.

When asked about the chances of closing the 13-point gap to Toro Rosso, Barrichello said: "If we don't improve what is the fundamental problem – that we keep on testing, experimenting, back to back and things like this, we are going to score points but not in that range – unless we go to the Adelaide type of race where there is a big bang, 15 cars go off and then you finish on the podium.

"The car has its problems, and if we don't go down under and cure the situation to start growing again, and we keep just changing the top, the top, the top, it is just like masking."

Barrichello has said there is no lack of effort from Williams to bring improvement to the car, but he says he is frustrated that updates are not delivering the steps forward that the team hopes for.

"It is not a lack of effort, as Williams is bringing new things," he said. "They are bringing lots of new things but they are not working. Last year some of them did work and then effectively our year improved so much. Right now it is a bit of a situation where we try new stuff, but we are not feeling that they working."

Sebastian Vettel believes his Red Bull Racing team will have to raise its game in order to fight with McLaren and Ferrari during this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.

The German, who endured his worst race of the season in the previous grand prix in Germany - where he was fourth - finished down in fifth position in today's second practice, over half a second behind pace-setter Lewis Hamilton.

Vettel, whose team dominated last year's race in Hungary, believes Red Bull will need to take a step forward in order to fight at the top this weekend.

"It was pretty slippery at the beginning, but later on I felt okay in the car but I think it is not like last year," said Vettel.

"It seems to be very tight. McLaren and Ferrari are very quick so I think we need to raise our game to make sure that we will find ourselves at the top as well."

The world champion admitted managing the tyres this weekend will not be easy given the track conditions and the fact that Pirelli has opted for its softest compounds.

"Obviously I just got out of the car so we need to see what the others did, how long the tyres actually last. The most important thing to look out for is managing the tyres for one lap but equally trying to get everything out of the tyres for the whole stint and not have them fall apart too quickly. It will be a tough one."

Team-mate Mark Webber was fourth quickest after recovering from a crash in the morning session, the Australian losing control of his car and making contact with the barriers.

Webber admitted the accident had been his fault.

"It was my mistake. I ran across the kerb - which has been there for a few years. Drivers still don't learn - we just go out there and push.

"I clipped the AstroTurf and hit the barrier but fortunately it was only the nose that was damaged. We recovered pretty well this afternoon and got a lot of mileage in. The car ran well. Obviously it is a pretty tricky venue with tyres, so there's lots of information to go through."

Jarno Trulli declared himself delighted with Lotus's new power steering system after free practice in Hungary.

The Italian veteran has been unhappy with the feeling from the car's steering throughout the season, and cited this is the main reason why he has struggled for pace.

Revised power steering has been introduced for this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, and Trulli said the improvement was immediately obvious.

"I'm very happy today," said Trulli, who stood down for last weekend's German GP to let test driver Karun Chandhok have a race chance. "I want to thank the whole team, everyone at the factory and in the race team because they have all been patient with me and have worked hard to give me the new power steering system and a car that I can really feel.

"As soon as I pulled out this morning it felt so much better than before so today I've been able to start rebuilding my confidence in the car, and working on all the little changes and improvements that help me to find a set-up I can really work with.

"It's been a really positive day and for that my thanks go to everyone in the team."

Trulli was 19th fastest today, half a second ahead of team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, and within half a second of Vitaly Petrov's Renault and Sebastien Buemi's Toro Rosso - to the satisfaction of Lotus' technical chief Mike Gascoyne.

"That was one of the best Fridays we have had this year," Gascoyne said. "We have made some modifications to the diffuser and those changes have definitely worked, and with Jarno immediately telling us the new power steering system is working exactly as we wanted it to we have been able to push closer to the cars ahead than we have for a while."

Kamui Kobayashi believes it will be hard for his Sauber team to beat Force India in this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Swiss squad is fighting with Force India to maintain sixth place in the standings, the Hinwil-based team 15 points ahead.

After finishing in 11th place in second practice, Kobayashi said it will not be easy to keep the Force Indias behind this weekend.

He said, however, that Sauber's form is better than in the last race.

"Although we look better than we did at the Nurburgring, I have the feeling it will be tough to catch the Force India cars, but we want to get in front of them in tomorrow's qualifying," said Kobayashi.

"The balance of my car is not really brilliant yet, but I think we can improve that. For me the soft tyre is the difficult one up to now, so I prefer the super-soft."

Team-mate Sergio Perez, 12th quickest, also believes Sauber is stronger than in Germany last weekend.

"I think we have a better pace here than we had recently at the Nurburgring, and I also believe the ambient temperatures, which are supposed to get higher, will help us to do a better qualifying as it is crucial to get the super-soft tyres to work then," Perez said.

"On the long runs I had degradation with both compounds, but with the soft the balance was better compared to the super-soft. For me the soft tyres were also more consistent than the super-soft. I believe it will become quite an interesting weekend for all of us in regard to the tyres."

Rubens Barrichello believes he is unlikely to challenge for a place in the top ten in tomorrow's qualifying for the Hungarian GP.

The Williams driver finished down in 13th position in today's practice, and Barrichello admitted his car had improved since the last race.

He said, however, that Williams was still not where it wants to be, and reckons making it to Q3 will be hard.

"We tested a lot of things today," said the Brazilian. "We had to run without KERS in the morning session because of a small problem but we reinstated it for the afternoon and it was fine. The car has improved a little bit, but P13 isn't where we want to be and it's going to be tough to break into Q3 tomorrow.

"Our goal today was to focus on set-up for the race as I think points are achievable here."

Team-mate Pastor Maldonado was 15th fastest after spending the day trying new parts for his car.

"We brought new parts to Hungary which we spent today testing," said Maldonado. "I was trying out a new cooling system and I have an updated rear wing coming tomorrow that was working well on the other car. I'll be working hard tonight with my engineers to improve the car. We've got plenty to do in order to have a good race."

Bruno Senna is hopeful that he will have further opportunities to drive for Renault on grand prix weekends after making his 2011 debut in Friday morning practice at the Hungaroring.

The 27-year-old Brazilian, who raced for HRT last season, completed 25 laps in Nick Heidfeld's race car during the 90-minute session, ending up 15th fastest. He set a best lap 0.762 seconds off team-mate Vitaly Petrov's time, which he hopes will persuade Renault to consider giving him more track time.

"For now, it is a one-off opportunity and I guess if I did well enough then they might consider doing it again," he said when asked by AUTOSPORT if any further chances to drive the car had been discussed. "I hope that I have given them the motivation to explore a little bit more.

"There were no mistakes and no excursions from the track. There was no point in trying to be a hero. I would loved to have had a lap that was closer to Vitaly, but the chances of that were pretty low considering that you only have one set of tyres, and they don't last very long."

Senna admitted that adapting to the Pirelli tyres having run on Bridgestones during his maiden Formula 1 campaign last year was the biggest challenge.

Having to learn how to apply the DRS rear wing and KERS also took time and meant that the rubber was past its best when he was able to focus fully on driving.

"Adapting to the care itself is not the biggest difficulty," said Senna. "You have to think so much about getting the DRS and the KERS activation in the right places because you're not used to it. Then, in my case, the tyres were a bit worn out so you don't get the most from them.

"You need more miles to understand what you can do with the car, because its behaviour is largely dominated by tyre wear. So adapting to the tyres was the most difficult thing."

He added that he was happy with his performance in difficult circumstances and content with his pace compared to Petrov given that his mileage for Renault was previously confined to a single winter test in the R31 in pre-season trim and private running in a two-year-old Renault.

"It was really good fun to be in the car and it reminded me what I am here for," said Senna. "I did my best lap on the 21st flying lap, which was pretty good considering how the tyres were.

"We got to the point where I was pushing on every lap because I needed to explore the limits of the car and that's worn the tyres more than normally. Overall, it was a good job. I think that the team was pleased and I enjoyed myself."

Paul di Resta is confident that Force India can carry its strong practice form into qualifying after setting the ninth fastest time on Friday.

The Force India driver ended the day 1.8 seconds off pace-setter Lewis Hamilton's time, and was a tenth-and-a-half faster than team-mate Adrian Sutil.

Despite the team traditionally being stronger on low-downforce circuits, di Resta believes that the team's radical new aerodynamic package, which it raced for the first time in Monaco, now means that it is competitive even on tracks like the Hungaroring.

Its pace represents a significant turnaround for the Force India, which has never scored a point in Hungary. The Silverstone-based team last did so in its Jordan guise nine years ago, when Giancarlo Fisichella finished sixth.

"I'm optimistic that we should be able to maintain that form this weekend," said di Resta when asked by AUTOSPORT about his hopes of staying in the top 10.

"The car has given us confidence everywhere we go. Last year, we started very strongly and dropped down, but this year we started averagely and the raft of improvements have been incredible."

The Scot is determined to have a clean weekend that isn't interrupted by the kind of bad luck that has cost him potential points finishes in the last four races, and believes that Friday practice represented a good start.

He is confident that there is more to come from the Force India, raising hopes that it might be able to challenge Mercedes, which was best-of-the-rest behind McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull in free practice, in qualifying and the race.

"We got through all of our objectives today," said di Resta. "We did a normal Friday's running and got long runs on both compounds, which was important. We got some valuable data. There are certainly some places where we can improve."

Fernando Alonso is adamant his Ferrari team will be fighting for victory once again in this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Spaniard has been the most consistent driver in the last three races, having finished second in Valencia and Nurburgring, and having won at Silverstone.

He reckons it will be very close between his team, McLaren and Red Bull, but he is optimistic of fighting on top yet again.

"I think it's going to be pretty close, so that's good news for us," said Alonso. "In the first races it was unthinkable that we could win. We tried to get podiums and get close to them.

"Now we approach the weekend as we approached the last two: knowing that in qualifying we can be up there in the top five, but we can be second, fourth or first as it's not very clear who can fight for pole.

"And then in the race I think we can be up there with them as it happened at the Nurburgring. It's going to be very tight between the three teams."

He said he was happy with his day's work after managing nearly 70 laps in total in both sessions.

"I am pleased I was able to do so much running, especially from the point of view of studying the tyre degradation, which at this track is always a significant factor.

"The track is still very dirty, as is the norm for a Friday at the Hungaroring: however, we know it will improve each day and by Sunday afternoon, it will be much more rubbered in than today. We saw that McLaren looks very strong, as indeed it was last weekend.

"Now we must try and improve the car, especially in the third sector of the track, where we seem to be suffering more than most."

Formula 1's engine makers wants reassurances that engine specialist Gilles Simon, who currently works with the FIA, will not take secret information with him to new employer PURE.

Simon will join Craig Pollock's PURE operation next month, and his move has caused concern among engine makers who are privately unhappy that the information he has on their future plans and designs could be advantageous to his new employers.

Renault's engine chief Rob White, who is the representative of the engine makers on the Formula 1 Commission, said on Friday in Budapest that the situation of Simon moving so quickly to a competitor was not ideal.

"First reactions are fairly predictable and understandable from my part," explained White. "On a personal and professional level, we've had good relations with Gilles for a long time in his present - for a couple more days – job, and in his previous job at Ferrari.

"Of course, it's of concern to all of us that in this close relationship with Gilles and the FIA over the past year, 18 months, that we've given unprecedented access to Gilles – we certainly have at Renault and I believe all of the engine companies have done so, particularly in respect of the state of progress in our respective engine development programmes alongside the rules package.

"And so, of course, we would be most concerned to be reassured that information to which Gilles has had access to in those very privileged circumstances as a representative of the FIA is not used in his new capacity as an employee of a competitor."

White added that there was a degree of trust that needed to be given to representatives of the governing body, that could not be handed to them if there was the possibility of them working for a rival.

"It's a very complicated sport," he said. "In order that the technical and sporting regulations can be administered successfully, then we require the governing body to have good people and they probably require to have access to the teams, and therefore there's an obvious risk that needs to be managed, if the same people can crop up in a different shirt very shortly afterwards."

Friday's press conference:

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES - Eric BOULLIER (Renault), Graeme LOWDON (Marussia Virgin Racing), Jonathan NEALE (McLaren), Adrian NEWEY (Red Bull), Rob WHITE (Renault Sport F1)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Rob, about the engine rules. Just exactly what does that mean to you, the new engine rules for 2014.

Rob WHITE: I think the first thing to say is that we are pleased now to have a fairly clear view of where we are going and the most important thing about the 2014 rules is that there are enough people who now understand them and know what we are getting into so that we can go ahead and do the work to deliver these engines in a sort of timely fashion and get all the cars on the grid prepared to go racing for the first race The fact that we made a bit of an adjustment from four cylinders in-line to six cylinders is, on one hand, a pretty major change. On the other hand it's a relatively modest change. The fundamentals of the rules stay as we had in mind with a double limitation on fuel consumption with a fixed amount of fuel for the race, a fuel flow limit, a big contribution from energy recovery systems, electric only traction in the pit lane. We have got many of the same fundamental building blocks, albeit with a different engine architecture and a programme timing that I think suits more people better than the original programme timing.

Q. Can you give us some sort of idea of what happens now from your point of view. How do you go about building those engines, designing them, what happens now? Has the programme already started?

RW: The first thing to say perhaps is that we were well underway with the previous programme, so substantial amounts of work from that go straight in the bin. Not all of it, thankfully. We try to recover what we can and re-orientate it to the new programme. As ever we may need to structure the engineering programme counting backwards from the first race in order to arrive in the most competitive possible state. Important to recognise that this is a massive technological change for the engine people in F1. Clean sheet of paper, new engine, fundamentally very different to its predecessor, hasn't happened really since we made a switch in the opposite sense from turbo to normally aspirated engines way back at the end of the 1980s.

Q. So the strategy from Renault's point of view: can you give some indication of that? Presumably you almost welcome this engine change as well, as you were a little frustrated with the V8?

RW: I think one of the conditions necessary for Renault to remain present in F1 was that F1 should move on and the family of, I prefer to say power unit, rather than engine, towards which we are now headed is something that creates a much clearer resonance with the products and the processes that we use for the cars that we sell to our customers in, I think it is, 118 markets worldwide.

Q. Graeme, quite a lot of announcements of late, particularly the McLaren tie-up. How is that coming along? Has it already started?

Graeme LOWDON: Yes, it has already started. We've known McLaren for a long time. We've worked with them in the past in Formula Three actually, with the Young Driver Programme, going right the way back to Lewis (Hamilton), so we know the people at McLaren really well and it's not been difficult at all to engage the project. It is quite a big project and it is one that obviously we are hoping will move the team forward in a short space of time so that project has already begun and it is going very well.

Q. What about your own Formula One technology centre? Tell us about building that up?

GL: Yes, Banbury is a site that we have been using for some time with our previous technical partner and so we are now building that facility up and obviously using some experience from both within the team and our partners to do that. We will still run the race team from Dinnington for the rest of this season. It is exciting times for the team. A lot of steps moving forward and these aren't things you just cannot make up overnight. They have been well thought through and well planned and there is a real air of excitement within the team. We have always had a very strong team spirit as I think most people know, but I think now we have got really a good technical direction and there was a vote of confidence from Timo Glock. He has committed to the team now for a long term and he has seen from inside the steps we are making so that was an important announcement for us as well that Timo is staying with us.

Q. We have had some interesting news from the UK today about the TV deal that is going to happen. What is your initial reaction to that, as I know it is very early stages?

GL: Yes, it is early stages. Obviously, like most people we found out about it this morning. I think it is going to be interesting to see how it unravels. There are different sides to this. I have read that Sky has said it is good news for fans and they have said there will be an unparalleled experience for them and that sounds very exciting. To be perfectly honest I think it is up to the fans whether they think it is good news or not and that is something that remains to be seen. Obviously, we hope that it is. I think that will unravel over time. For a team like us, we actually get very little of our revenue from TV rights and it is very, very important for our entire commercial strategy that we maximise the global fan base and the number of people who watch our team in action, so obviously there are concerns there but equally we are entering a new era potentially for a commercial model for Formula One as well.

Q. Adrian, interesting performance in the last few races and here as well. Was Nürburgring a blip for you? Maybe a downward blip slightly, but you have been so dominant so far this year.

Adrian NEWEY: Difficult to tell. Obviously the competition is extremely tough. As we all know, what marks Formula One out over the last 10 years or so is just the pace of development through the year, so exactly where everyone is is difficult to know. There are bound to be variations from circuit to circuit.

Q. Yesterday, Mark Webber said there would be no knee-jerk reaction from Red Bull Racing and he explained a little bit about how you basically have a programme. But is that the case, do you just run through a programme of development or is that fairly flexible?

AN: We try to keep the development programme flexible, but equally what drives our development programme is exactly that. It is not reacting to what's going on around us. I think as soon as you start doing that you get yourself in a muddle.

Q. And what about today? We saw this morning both drivers having slight incidents on the circuit. Mark hitting the barrier. How's the car been performing today?

AN: Yeah, normal Friday.

Q. No it's not! We saw Sebastian Vettel make two mistakes. He never makes two mistakes!

AN: I think if memory serves me well then in Turkey he made a fairly spectacular mistake early on, so it happens. He had, I cannot remember, he had one spin. I cannot remember what the other mistake was but if you say there was another one.

Q. He went over a chicane as well.

AN: Ok, but that's hardly a mistake is it.

Q. So you are feeling fairly confident then here?

AN: Who knows. It's a normal Friday, we don't know what fuel load people were on et cetera, et cetera, so we are just trying to get on with our programme.

Q. Jonathan, was it a blip upwards for you do you feel at the Nürburgring or can you maintain that? It certainly looks as though you were good enough today.

Jonathan NEALE: I would echo what Adrian says about Fridays. When you are at the top of the pile it feels very good and you convince yourself that it is a good omen for the weekend and when you are not you remind yourself that Fridays don't really matter. Certainly we were pleased with the race at the Nürburgring. The two previous races were quite painful for us. It was nice to return to form there and we have been successful at the German Grand Prix on multiple occasions so that was good. Fantastic drive for Lewis on that particular occasion and, I think, well deserved, and a good tonic for him and the team. We look forward to this weekend. I think we have got our work cut out. These guys are pushing very hard and so are Ferrari so we don't expect anybody to take this one easily, but we will see what happens tomorrow morning.

Q. How's it working with Virgin? That side of things.

JN: Well, for us you have to remember the deal is with McLaren Applied Technologies, not with McLaren Racing that I am Managing Director for, so I am not deeply involved with it. But we are very excited about having the guys come and work with us. It's small steps at the moment. We have got some trackside software running with them this weekend but later on in the year we will see them starting to use the McLaren wind tunnel, so exciting times but as I say early days.

Q. Also a question to you about the TV deal in the UK. You were nodding your head just now about the fans to decide.

JN: Well, I think the views and needs of the fans are of prime importance to Formula One. It has been very pleasing during the course of this year that the exciting racing that we have had has been matched by a growth in the audiences throughout the UK and across the globe. Some of that certainly is that the BBC has done a fantastic job in promoting that. I think we would welcome interest from other forms of media. The devil, of course, is in the detail. Mindful that there is a lot of heat in the air about that at the moment but we just don't know the detail so it would be improper to comment beyond that. But what the fans need and want and a mass audience is something we need to pay attention to.

Q. Is it true that your drivers have been banned from talking to Niki Lauda?

JN: No, not at all.

Q. Eric, your thoughts on the 2014 regulations?

Eric BOULLIER: I think Rob described very well the Renault position. As a team we are happy that now we found a consensus which pleases everybody.

Q. We have read a certain amount about your thoughts on the electric engine as well.

EB: I just made a comment. There is clearly in the published rule on the FIA website, there was a statement saying the car should not be moved by an electric mode in the pit-lane and, obviously, I just made a comment that I could raise a safety concern about the lack of noise in the pit-lane which could be dangerous.

Q. Today you used Bruno Senna as the third driver. And I think you have mentioned that you might use Romain Grosjean, is that the case?

EB: No, I didn't.

Q. You said he was ready for F1?

EB: Yes, but I didn't say when.

Q. So is he under consideration for later on in the season.

EB: No, it is too early to say this, obviously. We wanted to give a little bit of track time to Bruno as the reserve driver and we are happy so far to keep Nick (Heidfeld) in the car. Yes, I think Romain is on our radar maybe for next year but there is absolutely no consideration to give him some track time now.

Q. Are there any plans for other third drivers later in the year?

EB: Maybe.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Ian Parkes - Press Association) Question to Eric, Jonathan and Graeme. You have talked about the Sky/BBC deal. Jonathan, you specifically mentioned about the wants and needs of the fans. Point number one is that it really doesn't matter what the fans want does it, as the deal is already done. Bernie (Ecclestone) has got the deal all signed and sealed. And, secondly, going on the reaction this morning on Twitter, on fans forums, the overwhelming majority of those fans are wholly against this deal. Can I just get your reaction to those comments.

EB: With the latest I have been told actually about this deal, I think it is rather good news. It should be positively welcomed by the fans, even if they have not been maybe calling into a forum to discuss the idea. My understanding is there will be more TV viewers, there will be more access to F1 and F1 will broadcast much more through two different channels that are BBC, on free-to-air, and Sky, so with the latest info I have got it is a good deal, as it is good for Formula One and it is definitely much better for fans.

JN: I am not sufficiently aware of the detail of quite how that is going to operate. What I can say is that if you look at the last two or three years then Formula One, whether through the teams' association, or whether through the FIA, has taken a number of steps to try and keep the racing exciting and grow that audience. I think everything from the fans' forum to the amount of digital content that we are now pushing out into the networks says that we are extremely interested in what the fans are doing. They are the backbone of the global reach that we have and we do listen to them, so I disagree with your first assertion that it is just riding roughshod over that, but I can understand some of the concerns when the detail isn't there.

GL: I agree completely with Jonathan that the fans are the most important aspect as ultimately it's a very, very important part of the cycle of the commercial side of the sport that we are in. I am a great believer that the fans will tell us what they think and I think it is very difficult for us to speak on behalf of fans, that's for sure, and I think that's the same for any commentator. Time will tell whether it is good for the fans or not and I am absolutely certain, especially in this day and age, that the fans will make their view pretty clear. Q (Mark Meadows - Reuters) Just a quick follow up to that. There is a bit of talk around that it is in fact in breach of the Concorde Agreement. What would be the situation with that, if indeed that is the case.

GL: I would be pretty surprised if it was. I think Bernie knows the Concorde Agreement pretty well.

JN: I think that is a fair comment. I am sure it has been closely scrutinised and will be the subject of much debate.

Q. (Dieter Rencken - The Citizen) Rob, as the only engine company executive here and also the representative of engines on the Formula One commission, I wonder if you could give us your comments regarding the move of Gilles Simon from the FIA to a competitor from 2014 onwards, considering that he was the man who drove the engine regulations through the FIA?

RW: I guess the first remark is that it is very fresh news. We haven't had much of a chance to reflect on it. First reactions are fairly predictable and understandable from my part. On a personal and professional level, we've had good relations with Gilles for a long time in his present – for a couple more days – job, and in his previous job at Ferrari. Of course, it's of concern to all of us that in this close relationship with Gilles and the FIA over the past year, 18 months, that we've given unprecedented access to Gilles – we certainly have at Renault and I believe all of the engine companies have done so, particularly in respect of the state of progress in our respective engine development programmes alongside the rules package. And so, of course, we would be most concerned to be reassured that information to which Gilles has had access to in those very privileged circumstances as a representative of the FIA is not used in his new capacity as an employee of a competitor.

Q. (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) So to all five of you, about ten years ago Charlie Whiting considered a move from the FIA to one of the teams and that was ultimately blocked. Should a similar situation be blocked, and should safeguards be put in place for the future?

RW: I think that is the kind of question that is the immediate extrapolation of my previous remarks, Dieter, I think Formula One as a whole needs to be conscious of. It's a very complicated sport. In order that the technical and sporting regulations can be administered successfully, then we require the governing body to have good people and they probably require to have access to the teams, and therefore there's an obvious risk that needs to be managed, if the same people can crop up in a different shirt very shortly afterwards.

Q. (Miguel Sanz– Marca) Mr Newey and Mr Neale, I want to know if it's possible for a person like you, with your responsibilities, to stop working, or even thinking, in the forthcoming summer break?

AN: Yeah, definitely. I think you have to be able to, otherwise it would be completely allconsuming and probably not healthy because I think for most people creativity and so forth is part of the job and if you do nothing but think about the job, you probably lose that ability.

JN: Yeah, I think that's a good point. When we first agreed to do the shut-down, there were a number of us who thought that was going to be problematic. Now most of us think that it's a blessing, when you look at the length of the season and the hard work, not just for the teams, or even Adrian or myself, but also the FIA and the number of people who keep the show on the road. I think everybody looks pretty tired and they could do with a break.

Q. (Tony Dodgins – Tony Dodgins Associates) I take on board what Graeme has said about potential new platforms and also Eric's comments, but at the moment we have all races live on free-to-air in the UK and presumably we will have half of them in the future. If that's replicated in other markets, other countries, are there concerns about the impact of that on sponsorship?

GL: Yes, obviously. The model has to reflect the commercial model of the sport, there can't be a disconnect in the commercial model, it's really quite clear. I doubt whether the commercial model in Formula One... everything in Formula One changes, everything moves forward and so I will imagine that the commercial model will as well. It's vitally important that the requirements of the fans are reflected in that and I would anticipate that if there were this kind of move on a global scale instead of one specific market, then the overall model would have to change for the teams, not just to be profitable but to be sustainable and obviously the sustainability of Formula One is very important. It's a sport with great tradition and it has a fabulous future and it's important that that future plays out.

EB: I don't have much to add, Graeme just told us what he thinks and I also believe the same. Based on this business model today, which is only free-to-air, we can obviously sell to the sponsors the great access to fans and TV viewers. If you start to reduce the free-toair broadcasting you obviously have to change the business model and it will affect the sustainability of the sponsorship. In the case of this deal, I think we need to wait to have more details because my understanding is that it will still be free to air and that there will be better access to Formula One for the fans which will, in the end, be much better.

Q. (Rainer Melch – Rhinegger Tageblat) Eric, can you tell us how pleased you were with Bruno's performance this morning?

EB: Considering he didn't do any races so far this year, and he just did a couple of demos, he did quite well and adapted quite well to the car. He had a safe approach this morning and was building up his speed through the session. I'm quite pleased with what he has been doing and what he was expected to do.

Q. (Yelda Canci - TRT) We heard that the Turkish Grand Prix will be dropped from the 2012 calendar; what are your personal opinions about the Turkish Grand Prix and did you share your opinion with Bernie Ecclestone?

JN: I think it's always sad when we lose a grand prix from the calendar. I think we've had terrific support from the Turkish people when we've been there. We've enjoyed our racing there very much but the sport is popular and there is a limited number of sessions that we have, so we have to accept that the sport has to move forwards but we are sorry to see Turkey go.

EB: I feel the same. It's obviously very difficult to lose any Grand Prix. I guess there were some reasons to change the calendar. It is very sad not being there, to give the show to the Turkish fans and especially at this very nice track, but we have to deal with some changes in Formula One sometimes, and we can just expect and hope that we will be back there.

GL: I agree completely with what Eric and Jonathan have said. I think you've also said from a personal point of view that we will certainly miss going there, really thoroughly enjoyed both the destination and the culture and certainly had a lot to offer Formula One. The calendar has 20 races next year and 21 – certainly talking as one of the smaller teams – 21 would have been too many and so the reality is that there had to be some give somewhere.

AN: It's a shame, Turkey is a good circuit, a circuit that was enjoyable from a car perspective, the drivers' perspective. I think the key thing is that we don't go too far down the temporary tracks route, that Formula One as an industry supports the permanent tracks. I gather there's a danger that Barcelona could be lost relative to Valencia, and I think that would be a tragedy, to end up going to a temporary Valencia rather than a permanent Barcelona.

RW: I think Turkey's a great driver's track and everybody enjoys it. A bit of an anorak fact to throw in, just at the end, it's also got the finest dust of any track on the F1 calendar, and therefore to be an air filter engineer, it's the most difficult race.

Q. ( Peter Farkas – Auto Motor ) Follow-up on the PURE question: I'm not sure that anyone took this PURE business really seriously at the beginning, but now that Gilles Simon has gone there, I think it might be a different story. Do you really think there is a place for a new engine manufacturer in F1, someone like PURE which has no history, no background? Do you think there are potential teams which will switch? What are your thoughts about new engine manufacturers coming into the sport?

GL: Unlike Rob, we don't make engines, so I will really answer it in a very simplistic way. From our point of view, we really don't mind about the new engine as long as – first of all – it adds to the show, secondly, it provides a cost-effective solution for the teams, both in terms of how much the engines cost to buy and to run and also we certainly don't want to see this turn into an engine formula. As I say, we don't make engines, we run a racing team and that's what we're about. So from our point of view, it's nice to see a wide selection of engines but the primary concern from our point of view is cost and availability and that's really key.

Q. ( Peter Farkas- Auto Motor) Have you been approached?

GL: Yes, yes, I think every team has.

Q. (Frederik Af Petersens – Honorary)You said earlier that the new TV contract in England, which is 50-50, as far as I know there has been no increase of viewers for pay TV anywhere so why should it be better for the viewers that they suddenly have to pay to watch, when a lot of people are hanging on to the dollar that they earn because of the financial crisis, so why should it be better when they have to pay for something that's free today?

EB: With the latest understanding that I have from… the good added value is that Sky will broadcast much more information and show any reports and that's extra information that we will share with the public and with the fans. This is where the added value is. RTL? Your argument is that this is Germany, not England. I'm not sure that we understand RTL in England.

GL: Also, we haven't seen all of the detail. I haven't read about pay-per-view. In the UK, you still have to pay for a television licence if you don't watch… People pay for everything.

JN: I just think it's a little bit premature to be completely judgemental about this until we've seen the detail.

Q. (Matt Coch – pitpass.com) Now that the 2012 calendar is set in stone a little bit, I'm curious to learn how much that dictates the design of next year's car. Losing a circuit like Turkey, does that change anything, given that there are more slower circuits?

AN: Not really, because it's an incremental change so yes, if you consider the changes in the calendar perhaps over a five or ten year period, the general trend towards slower circuits then that would change your car, but losing one race on its own doesn't change the overall philosophy of the car.

[Rich]

I am sorry, but in what way is this good for viewers?

I have been watching Formula One since I was 2 Years Old in 1989. I have watched almost every race in that time live... How is limiting live viewing to those who can pay £40 a month a way of increasing viewership, instead it feels like bernie has made a decision based on a short-term cash bottom line, and he has then sold this to FOM and FOTA is such a way as it seems like the best outcome.

It upsets me so much to think that I will not be able to see my favourite sport when I want to.

And if I do end up Paying for Sky so I can watch it, I will not be watching any BBC coverage. What is the point in me paying that money and then watching the BBC coverage half of the year? Everything about this deal seems to shoot the BBC in the foot, nothing good will come of this. I have never felt this disillusioned and let down by the BBC and I am tempted to refuse to pay the licence fee in protest seeing as this was announced out of the blue with out public consultation.

I for one am so disappointed I am close to not watching the coverage this weekend.

[Lineker]

lol, loopholes.

Formula 1 teams will have to accept Bernie Ecclestone's decision to put some races on pay television only next year, AUTOSPORT has learned, with there being no protection in the Concorde Agreement against taking it off free-to-air viewing.

Although it had been widely believed there were clauses in the Concorde Agreement which prevented Ecclestone taking the sport off free-to-air television, it has been revealed that the wording of the deal does not stop him activating the kind of share deal that has been put in place with the BBC and Sky.

High level sources have revealed that the wording of an Appendix in the Concorde Agreement relating to the broadcasting of the sport states: "The Commercial Rights Holder may not permit Formula 1 events to be shown only by pay television in a country with a significant audience if it would materially adversely affect audience reach in that country."

As well as Ecclestone's deal ensuring that not all the races are shown 'only' on pay television, there would be no way of challenging the move to Sky as potentially 'adversely' affecting the audience ahead of the move happening.

Although the Sky/BBC deal has resulted in an angry reaction from fans, who are furious that they will have to pay to continue watching every race from next year, teams' concerns have been placated by the financial benefits of the new deal.

Ecclestone met with teams on Friday afternoon to inform them of the details of the deal - which could net each outfit a extra benefit of around £1 million per season over its duration - with the Sky/BBC deal bringing in around £55 million per year, compared to the estimated £40 million per season that BBC currently pays for exclusive rights.

HRT team boss Colin Kolles said any F1 squads criticising Ecclestone for the move were wrong, because of the huge financial benefits the new deal brings to teams.

"If you would ask my colleagues after the meeting with Bernie Ecclestone, everybody is very happy," Kolles told AUTOSPORT. "Bernie has shown again to his people, who are criticising him, what fantastic deals he has done.

"He has also done fantastic for the fans because it is not only 10 races on BBC live, you also have the other 10 races on at prime time, at 6pm, on BBC - which is even better because I don't believe that someone likes to wake up at 4am to watch an F1 race.

"This will bring much increased viewership and it brings a quite amazing deal to the stakeholders of F1. I think Bernie has shown again what a fantastic job he is doing and this has to be really appreciated."

But although the teams will enjoy financial benefits from the new BBC/Sky deal, other stakeholders in the sport are not totally convinced about the situation.

Pirelli's director of motorsport Paul Hembery said he was eager to know whether F1's viewership would be hurt by the move to pay television.

"It is more to do with viewing figures from our point of view, as we look at it from the sponsors' view," he told AUTOSPORT. "The more people that watch it, the better it is for us.

"I am quite sure that medium term, such a move will have a great impact on the viewing figures because you have improved the product given to the fan, and that will still bring great viewing figures.

"Teams will be worried about income streams and other sponsors, like us, will want to know what impact it has on viewing figures. That is how you calculate your return on being in the sport. It is the equivalent of the advertising rate card. You need seconds on the screen multiplied by the number of people watching it. It is a very simple calculation."

Hembery said he was not surprised that fans are angry about the move – and said he expected many casual fans to simply turn away from the sport.

"You can understand the fans' point of view," he said. "They have had something for free and now they have to pay for it. It is human nature to say 'I had it for free'. As a licence payer I just hope there aren't more reality shows.

"Tuning into a free-to-view channel, or getting yourself a dish and signing up to a financial contract is very different. You reduce the chances of the casual viewer tuning in, but it might be one of those cases where you have to go back a step to go forward. We will be disappointed if the great work that has been done this year to the sport is lost, particularly in a key market such as the UK."

Red Bull Racing broke Formula 1's curfew limit for the first time on Friday night ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix as team members worked extra hours to make set-up changes to its car.

After a first day that had left Sebastian Vettel adamant that the outfit needed to raise its game, the team elected not to stop work during the restricted 2am-8am limit in a bid to improve its performance ahead of final practice and qualifying.

Teams are allowed four curfew exceptions during the season, the allowance having been put into the regulations in case outfits are forced to work late for unexpected repairs following accidents or reliability problems. Any team breaking the curfew for a fifth time will be punished.

Red Bull Racing's decision to break the curfew simply for car improvements could be viewed as evidence that the outfit is on the back foot against McLaren and Ferrari – which led the way on the opening day of practice.

Vettel, who had ended second free practice down in fifth place and half a second adrift of Lewis Hamilton, has said: "It seems to be very tight. McLaren and Ferrari are very quick so I think we need to raise our game to make sure that we will find ourselves at the top as well."

Sebastian Vettel suggested that Red Bull's hard late-night work might have paid off as he beat Fernando Alonso's Ferrari to the top spot in final practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

After Vettel was unhappy with the car on Friday, Red Bull used its first curfew exception of the year to work into the night trying to improve the set-up.

Vettel then led most of the middle part of the session this morning, having set a 1m22.021s early in the running on harder tyres. Even though he ran wide on his first flying lap on his next outing and took the best out of his tyres, he was still far enough clear of the field that he set a lap that would have been good enough for second next time around.

Alonso was then the first driver to set a good time on the super soft tyres, jumping to the front with a 1m21.469s with 10 minutes to go.

But Vettel's qualifying-style lap was even faster, the world champion clocking a 1m21.168s to end the session on top by 0.301s.

Although Jenson Button took third for McLaren, his team-mate Lewis Hamilton did not get a chance to show what he could do at the end.

The Friday pacesetter ran wide at Turn 1 at the start of what would have been his first flying lap on super softs, reported over the radio that the brakes "did not work" and pitted after one more lap. That left Hamilton in seventh.

Mark Webber was just behind Button in fourth for Red Bull, ahead of Felipe Massa - the Ferrari driving having made some small mistakes on his super soft run. He had earlier narrowly avoided the barriers at the chicane during a trip over the grass.

Nico Rosberg's Mercedes completed the top six, with Hamilton, the second Mercedes of Michael Schumacher, Vitaly Petrov's Renault and Paul di Resta's Force India next up. Nick Heidfeld was just outside the top 10 in the other Renault after losing time parked in the garage with a fuel system problem.

At the tail of the field, the Virgins and Hispanias were all outside the 107 per cent rule cut-off had it been applied to this session - although the leading drivers are unlikely to use super softs in Q1.

FP3


Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time       Gap       Laps

 1.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m21.168s            17

 2.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m21.469s  + 0.301s  13

 3.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m21.639s  + 0.471s  14

 4.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m21.645s  + 0.477s  18

 5.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m22.002s  + 0.834s  14

 6.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m22.534s  + 1.366s  22

 7.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m22.667s  + 1.499s  14

 8.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m23.037s  + 1.869s  19

 9.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault               1m23.175s  + 2.007s  19

10.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m23.276s  + 2.108s  18

11.  Nick Heidfeld       Renault               1m23.281s  + 2.113s  13

12.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m23.375s  + 2.207s  18

13.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m23.626s  + 2.458s  25

14.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     1m23.663s  + 2.495s  17

15.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Cosworth     1m23.894s  + 2.726s  17

16.  Adrian Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1m23.966s  + 2.798s  18

17.  Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m23.998s  + 2.830s  15

18.  Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m25.061s  + 3.893s  19

19.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus-Renault         1m25.141s  + 3.973s  20

20.  Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus-Renault         1m25.501s  + 4.333s  20

21.  Jerome D-Ambrosio   Virgin-Cosworth       1m26.955s  + 5.787s  20

22.  Daniel Ricciardo    HRT-Cosworth          1m26.991s  + 5.823s  19

23.  Timo Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1m27.174s  + 6.006s  16

24.  Vitantonio Liuzzi   HRT-Cosworth          1m27.713s  + 6.545s  20


All timing unofficial[/code]


Pirelli expects drivers to opt for a three-stop strategy in the Hungarian Grand Prix, but much will depend on how hot race day is at the Hungaroring.


Initial running of the super soft and soft tyres indicates that there is an eight tenths of a second per lap difference between the two compounds, with degradation issues suggesting that the prime tyre will be the one used most in the race.


Paul Hembery, Pirelli's director of motorsport, told AUTOSPORT: "It is looking like a three-stop strategy. The current estimates are for about 24 laps on the soft, and then possibly 14 on the super soft - but that will go down as the temperature goes up.


"If it is like that then that suggests the drivers will just do qualifying on the super soft, start the race, and then get on to the soft tyres."


With Ferrari and McLaren having made good progress in recent races to lift their form, Hembery admitted that there was also little difference between the top three teams in terms of tyre wear.


"They are closing up a lot," he said. "And that will be particularly true on a circuit like this, which is slightly unique. It is like a fast road circuit. The Nurburgring was much smoother than we had anticipated and the top three teams are very close together, with similar wear characteristics on the tyres."

[Lineker]

Sebastian Vettel maintained Red Bull's 100 per cent pole position record this year as he stormed to the head of the Hungarian Grand Prix grid with a flying late effort in qualifying.

The world champion had been trailing behind Lewis Hamilton as he began his second and final effort at the end of Q3, but saved his best until last as he lapped the Hungaroring in 1m19.815s, just 0.163 seconds ahead of the McLaren driver.

Jenson Button made it two McLarens inside the front three while a superb late effort by Felipe Massa gave him fourth spot, demoting his Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso to fifth and the Red Bull of last year's race winner Mark Webber to sixth.

Adrian Sutil was a superb eighth for Force India, splitting Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher as the trio - unlike the top six - only undertook a single flying lap in Q3. Sergio Perez, who will start 10th for Sauber, did not bother going out at all.

There was a gap of almost two seconds from first to 10th with a couple of minutes of Q2 remaining, the result of which was that the top seven at that moment - led by Button - did not undertake second runs.

All of those drivers had done enough to make it into Q3, but behind them the order was constantly changing. Late flyers for Sutil and Schumacher brought the Force India and Mercedes drivers into the top 10 after the chequered flag had come out.

The big loser was Sutil's team-mate Paul di Resta, who was bumped back to 11th. The Renaults of Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld were 12th and 14th, split by Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber, while Rubens Barrichello and Jaime Alguersuari were next up for Williams and Toro Rosso.

Barrichello's team-mate Pastor Maldonado did not venture out in Q2, after the Venezuelan pulled himself into the session at the very end of Q1 with a flying lap. The Williams driver knocked Sebastien Buemi's Toro Rosso out of the reckoning.

The star of Q1 was Heikki Kovalainen, who put his Lotus 19th and just over 0.3s behind Buemi.

Behind him were his team-mate Jarno Trulli, Virgin's Timo Glock and Hispania drivers Vitantonio Liuzzi and Daniel Ricciardo, all of whom will move ahead of Buemi once his five-place grid penalty for colliding with Heidfeld in German last weekend is applied.

Qualifying


Pos  Driver                Team                 Time          Gap   

 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m19.815s

 2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m19.978s  + 0.163

 3.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m20.024s  + 0.209

 4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m20.350s  + 0.535

 5.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m20.365s  + 0.550

 6.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m20.474s  + 0.659

 7.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m21.098s  + 1.283

 8.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m21.445s  + 1.630

 9.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m21.907s  + 2.092

10.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       No time

Q2 cut-off time: 1m23.067s                                   Gap **

11.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m22.256s   + 1.994

12.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m22.284s   + 2.022

13.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m22.435s   + 2.173

14.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault              1m22.470s   + 2.208

15.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m22.684s   + 2.422

16.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m22.979s   + 2.717

17.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    No time

Q1 cut-off time: 1m23.285s                                    Gap *

18.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m24.070s  + 2.492

19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m24.362s  + 2.784

20.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m24.534s  + 2.956

21.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m26.294s  + 4.716

22.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         1m26.323s  + 4.745

23.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth         1m26.479s  + 4.901

24.  Jerome D-Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m26.510s  + 4.932


107% time: 1m27.288s


* Gap to quickest in Q1


** Gap to quickest in Q2[/code]


Sebastian Vettel claims his confidence is back after securing pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday.


The world champion, who endured his worst race of the season last weekend in Germany, returned to the top spot today, as he secured his eighth pole position of the year so far.


The Red Bull driver beat Lewis Hamilton by less than two tenths of a second, bouncing back from a difficult Friday.


Vettel admitted he was full of confidence again.


"I think it was a very good session for us," said Vettel. "Yesterday I think these boys were a little bit quicker than us. It seems like we've done the right thing as it was much more comfortable this morning.


"I'm very pleased with the result, we changed a lot on the car overnight. The boys were working very hard and they didn't get much sleep. To have a result like this today is the best way to say thanks.


"I've got the confidence back, today I felt much more comfortable in the car, now I'm looking forward to tomorrow."


Red Bull broke F1's curfew limit for the first time as the team worked extra hours to make set-up changes to the car after struggling on Friday.


Vettel admitted the decision had paid off.


"I think they got back to the hotel around 5am," said Vettel. "Straightaway I noticed the difference and was happier. If you are happier it is usually because car is better, and if you are confident you are also able to get more out of yourself.


"So I think that is a good sign and very important for tomorrow's race. If you struggle with the balance of the car here or there, you reach a certain edge and you try to work on the car, which we did and we improved it. But finally overnight we released the note and it was much better today."


Mark Webber found it "bizarre" that he was unable to qualify higher than sixth for the Hungarian Grand Prix, especially with his Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel on pole position.


Webber won last year's Hungaroring race and had been on pole for the previous two grands prix in 2011, but the Australian's best effort in Q3 was a full 0.659 seconds adrift of Vettel's pole time.


Afterwards, Webber said that he believed that not working his tyres correctly could have been the trigger for his worst starting spot of the year and the gap to his team-mate.


"[There was] no way I could do that [Vettel's] laptime, absolutely no way," he said.


"We had a few KERS issues in the middle of the session but we had it back for the last run in, but in the end the 1m19s is a different zone to me so... It's strange, really bizarre.


"Fernando [Alonso, who qualified fifth] didn't have the best day either. We see how sensitive the tyres are and today we didn't extract enough out of them to be further up the grid."


Webber said that while there was no one reason for his being so far off the pace, a number of smaller factors had contributed to an overall lack of grip.


"It felt okay," he added. "If you have a gap of six tenths its just overall grip. I need to look through it obviously, but it's a big step compared to the last few races so I need to analyse it. I need to do my best tomorrow."


McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said that getting the cars of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button inside the first three grid spots for the Hungarian Grand Prix was "not the result we wanted".


Hamilton had taken provisional pole with his first flying lap midway through Q3, despite his McLaren appearing to suffer from excessive oversteer through the final couple of corners.


However, Sebastian Vettel's final lap gave the Red Bull driver the top spot and relegated Hamilton to the outside of the front row - and the dirty side of the track for Sunday's race.


Despite Button then coming through to take third spot from Fernando Alonso's Ferrari a few seconds later, Whitmarsh said he had been hoping for more.


"It was tight. Just disappointing," he told BBC television. "But we've got both cars on front two rows so it should be an exciting race. It's not result we wanted.


"He [Hamilton] ran little wide at the last corner on the last lap, but neither were bad laps. It would just have been nice for him to have got pole.


"At least we should be competitive in the race. Both drivers had good runs on Friday, and we're not in a bad place. We'll try to make it exciting."


Hamilton, who could have given McLaren its first pole since Canada last year, said he was unconcerned about being beaten by Vettel.


"It's still a great achievement," he said. "We knew from the last race that we have good pace. Yesterday was good, but today they [Red Bull] picked up the pace.


"To be on the front row is good though and we can pick up some good points from three tomorrow."


Jenson Button was happy to return to the fight for the top spots after securing third place on the grid for the Hungarian Grand Prix.


The McLaren driver had endured a series of difficult qualifying sessions in the previous races, having started from outside the top two rows in last four grands prix.


Button posted his best qualifying performance since Monaco today, after finishing in third, just two tenths of a second off pole position.


"I'm pretty happy with that," said Button. "You always, after a lap, think there was a little bit here, a little bit there, but to be fair it was a pretty good lap. I'm happy to be up in third.


"That's been my issue of late, and it makes it very difficult in the race to make up the time. It's nice to be in the position we are and hopefully tomorrow we can have a pretty good fight."


The Briton said that overnight set-up changes and further tweaks during qualifying had made his car a lot better, allowing him to gain around half a second in his final run.


"We made some good set-up tweaks overnight, and the car felt pretty good this morning and we played with a bit through qualifying and came good on the last run. We gained half a second on the previous lap by getting more front end on the car.


"I am happy with where we are starting, for us - and mainly for the tyres. We'll see what strategy we can throw at it and go for the victory."


Jarno Trulli says the new Lotus power steering system has "transformed" his car, the Italian delighted with his performance after qualifying.


Trulli had struggled with the previous power steering, which was not giving him enough feedback to feel the car properly, and so Lotus introduced a new version for this weekend's race.


The Italian has been more competitive with it, and he finished less than two tenths behind team-mate Heikki Kovalainen in qualifying today, despite claiming he did not extract the best from his car.


The Lotus driver qualified in 20th.


"This has been a very good day, even though in qualifying I didn't manage to get everything I could out of the car," he said.


"On the first run we went with the prime and the car was oversteering a little. On the second run we went onto the super softs and found more understeer than I'd had all weekend so I wasn't really able to find the pace I'd had yesterday and this morning.


"Despite that I am really pleased with how this weekend's gone. The new power steering system has transformed the car for me and I'm so much happier now - it's really like night and day, and I can't wait to get back in tomorrow and see what we can do in the race.


"The difference between the two tyre choices means strategy will come into play in a big way, so let's see what we can do."


Kovalainen was also pleased with his day after turning his car around following difficult practice sessions.


"After a bit of a tough weekend so far I'm really pleased with how qualy finished up," he said. "I've not been able to find a balance I'm happy with all weekend and we made a couple of changes for qualifying that finally took us in the right direction.


"On the first run I couldn't get a clean lap together, but I was quietly optimistic we could hook it all up on the second run and that's how it ended up. I had to work pretty hard to get it all right and it's very pleasing to see it come good in the last minutes of Q1.


"The updates we've brought here are working very well for us and it looks like we've made a gain relative to the guys ahead, and with Jarno clearly much more competitive here the mood is really good across the whole team."


Fernando Alonso says he is not disappointed with his performance in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, despite failing to reach the first two rows of the grid.


The Ferrari driver, the man who has scored the most points in the last three races, will start tomorrow's event from fifth position after finishing over half a second off the pace of pole position.


Alonso admitted third place could have been possible had he managed a perfect lap, but said his position did not come as a surprise.


"It's the same result as a week ago, so yet again today, we're neither surprised nor disappointed," said Alonso. "It's true I did not do a perfect lap in Q3 and I'm happy to admit that, but I don't think I could have made it to the front row.


"Third place was within our grasp and it would have been a great place from which to start the race, but others did better than us, including my team-mate who drove a nice lap: it's important that both our cars are in positions from which we can fight for a place on the podium.


"All the same, better fifth than fourth as it means at least I start from the clean side of the track. It seems that when it's time for Q3, Red Bull has a magic button that suddenly makes them go faster, but then it seems the button switches off in the race."


The Spaniard believes the race is still very open, but predicted overtaking will be very hard, even with DRS.


"It's always very difficult to overtake here and I don't think DRS will change that much: maybe a good tow and a gust of wind will be of more use," he said.


"We will try and move up a few places tomorrow: we will need to maintain a good pace, doing a perfect job at the pitstops, of which I think there will be a lot, maybe three or four, because tyre degradation is significant.


"It will also be important to get the timing of the stops right. I reckon anything could still happen: it will be a very open race."


Alonso was outqualified by team-mate Felipe Massa for the first time this season, the Brazilian finishing in fourth.


Massa is hopeful his Ferrari will be stronger in race trim after also finishing half a second off the pace today.


"Usually our rivals find something extra for qualifying and we make a step forward in the race: we will see tomorrow if this unwritten rule will also be confirmed at this track," Massa said. "I hope I have a car that is competitive, as it was in the final part of qualifying."


Pastor Maldonado is hoping his decision to not run in the second qualifying segment will pay off in tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix.


The Venezuelan took the unusual decision to not run in Q2, a move usually reserved for the final part of qualifying.


Maldonado will start from 17th position and the Williams driver is hoping to benefit from saving so many super soft tyres.


"We decided not to run in Q2 to save a set of options," said Maldonado. "It is essential we get the best result we can from the race and so for our strategy it was important to save some tyres today.


"I think there will be a big fight tomorrow with the cars starting around us, but we have one more set of super softs. I am looking forward to seeing what we can do now."


Team-mate Rubens Barrichello qualified in 15th place after suffering problems with his KERS.


"Everything was running so well and we had a promising strategy in place, but I couldn't engage KERS in sector one of my last lap, and that compromised my time," he said.


"I still had a pretty good lap, but I'm disappointed because we had a competitive run earlier on with the primes and so were thinking that 11th or 12th was possible on the option. Still, we've saved enough tyres and with a solid strategy we can have a better race tomorrow."


Nick Heidfeld conceded Renault is not where it wants to be after another disappointing qualifying in Hungary.


The German driver will start from 14th position, claiming he found it very hard to extract anything else from his car.


Heidfeld is hopeful his race pace will be stronger, however, and says he will attack right from the start.


"Today was again not what we would have hoped for; P14 is not in our line of thinking when we step into the garage for qualifying, though perhaps it's an indication of where we stand right now," said Heidfeld.


"At the moment, we are finding it tough to extract more from the car. We'll still be going into tomorrow absolutely fighting for higher positions; gaining some places in the race is very achievable.


"For this to happen, we will need a good start and the right strategy, so we'll be grafting to make both those happen when we line up here tomorrow afternoon."


Team-mate Vitaly Petrov struggled with tyre warm-up during the session, finishing in 12th position.


The Russian conceded Renault has to take a step forward as soon as possible.


"The difficulty we had was warming up the tyres because the weather was so changeable," he said. "I also encountered quite a lot of understeer, especially in turn nine, which cost me two-tenths and practically put an end to my chance of getting in Q3.


"It is this, combined with traction problems that have been our main problems so far this weekend. Sauber is looking increasingly competitive with us now so we need to understand where the problems lie and rectify them because qualifying where we have been recently is not enough; we are more ambitious than that, so the focus will turn to how we make the best out of the situation tomorrow."


Adrian Sutil was a delighted man after securing eighth place on the grid for the Hungarian Grand Prix, the second time in succession the German has qualified there.


"I'm very pleased with my qualifying and it feels great to be starting from eighth for the second race in a row," said the Force India driver, who scored his best result of the season in last weekend's German Grand Prix with a sixth place finish.


"This morning in final practice things did not look so good because I was struggling with a general lack of grip.


"We changed quite a few things for qualifying - obviously the right things – and this afternoon the car felt really good and I found the lap times we felt were possible.


"In the past the Hungaroring has not been a track where we have been very strong because it's a maximum downforce track, so it feels great to show once again that our car is competitive everywhere. The race tomorrow will be all about getting the strategy spot on, but we're starting in a good place and I'm looking forward to it," added the German.


Team-mate Paul di Resta qualified in 11th place, the Scot admitting he was hoping for a better result.


Di Resta said nonetheless that he was optimistic of a strong race given his pace during practice.


"Starting in eleventh place is not too bad, but I was hoping to be a little bit higher up," he said. "I'm still in a good position to score some points tomorrow and it's nice to be starting from the cleaner side of the grid.


"We had a bit of a messy run in Q1 on the supersoft tyre, but other than that our prime run was very good and I was happy with the car. It's just my final lap in Q2 wasn't quite there so maybe I should have been a bit more adventurous.


"In practice we've shown that we can be competitive over longs runs and I'm optimistic that we can carry that through to the race."


Post-qualifying press conference:

[spoiler]TV UNILATERALS


Q. Sebastian, you picked the right moment didn't you to set your fastest lap of any of the qualifying sessions: right on your final flying lap.


Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, I think it was a very good session for us generally after yesterday, where these boys were a little bit quicker than us. It seems we have done the right thing and I felt much more comfortable this morning. Q1 and Q2 was just about to get through to the last section of qualifying and very pleased with the result. We changed a lot on the car overnight and the boys were working pretty hard and they didn't get much sleep but to have a result like this today is the best way to say thanks. I am very happy. I have got the confidence back. Today I felt much more comfortable in the car and now I am looking forward to tomorrow.


Q. Lewis, we saw your delight with a front-row start at the Nürburgring. Your second successive front-row start, but is there as much delight here, as you had provisional pole at one stage.


Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, still I think it is a great achievement for us. We knew from the previous race that we had good pace and yesterday was a good day. Today they seemed to pick up a little bit of pace but to still be on the front row I think from me and Jenson it was a good job by us so I am quite happy. I think we can collect some real good points from here.


Q. Jenson, at one stage it looked like Fernando Alonso was going to make it a threeway fight and now you are here third on the grid. A satisfactory qualifying session for yourself?


Jenson BUTTON: Yep, I am pretty happy with that. Always after a lap you think there is a little bit here and a little bit there but to be fair it was a pretty good lap, so I am happy to be third. It has been my issue of late and it makes it very difficult in the race to make up the time so it is nice to be in a good position and hopefully tomorrow we can have a good fight.


Q. Sebastian, we saw Adrian Newey looking at the rear of your car throughout the session. Was there a problem with your rear wing or with your DRS?


SV: No, I saw they were working a little bit on the rear wing. I saw that on TV actually, but I don't know, I don't think there were any problems. If any they fixed it, so the car was fine on the track. I never felt something being wrong, so a bit of maintenance maybe.


Q. Not enough to give you a few nervy moments?


SV: No, not really. I trust in them. I trust in what they do and I think they know what they are doing. I don't know what was the problem. I will ask later on, but on track there were no issues. Everything was fine and the car was very quick so very pleased with today.


Q. Lewis, you mentioned the good work done by Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and your car, but was there anymore you felt you could have given on that flying lap to try to get pole.


LH: I think as Jenson said you can always look back on the lap and think you should have found some more time. In hindsight I was two-and-a-half-tenths up through the first sector and then to hold onto it through the rest of the sectors was very tough. I went wide on the exit of turn nine, maybe lost half-a-tenth or so there and then through the last corner pretty much lost whatever small advantage I had there so I think it would have been very, very close. But at the end of the day they did a better job than us.


Q. Jenson, we have seen in the past the front-row start being absolutely imperative at the Hungaroring. But maybe with the new Pirelli tyres it could be a more interesting race and your 200th grand prix start. What is achievable for you?


JB: Well when you are that close to the front you have got to go for victory. I think a lot of races this year that we thought were going to be straightforward because of the front-row start haven't been because you have got the tyres, the KERs is playing a big part as well and obviously the DRS. Obviously, going for the win tomorrow. It's a big day for me. If I start the race tomorrow it will be my 200th grand prix and hopefully it is going to be a good one. PRESS CONFERENCE


Q. Sebastian, a great bounce back after yesterday and a lot of hard work by the mechanics overnight.


SV: Yeah, indeed. I think they got back to the hotel around 5 o'clock, so we went a little bit longer than the curfew but it is the best way to show on the track straight in the morning that we made an improvement. Also today in qualifying, Q1 and Q2, was mainly to get through and we were a little bit behind. I was surprised by the lap times in Q2 but then in Q3 I think we were right on the pace. Lewis had a very competitive first run, especially in the last sector, but I was able to squeeze out a little bit more on the last run to get pole so very pleased.


Q. Not that you had a specific problem that I know of, unless you did have a specific problem with the car, but did it really start last weekend. Was it already there last weekend?


SV: It is difficult to say, I think the conditions last weekend were very different to what we had all year. To be fair Silverstone wasn't very hot, Germany wasn't at all and also here it is not as usual. Usually it is 10 degrees warmer than what we saw today. Nürburgring is hard to judge because of the very different conditions, but I didn't feel comfortable at the Nürburgring and struggling to match the pace of the guys at the front, so for here, yesterday was not ideal. It was already a bit better but today. I could feel much more comfortable in the car and back to where we have to be, so I am very happy.


Q. It did seem to be right from the word go, virtually from the first flying lap this morning.


SV: Yeah, indeed. Straight away I noticed the difference and I was happier. If you are happier it is usually because you think the car is better and if you feel confident then you are also able to get more out of yourself. You are more consistent. It is not just one particular place where you find the time, it is just all around the lap a little bit everywhere, so I think that is a good sign and very important for tomorrow's race.


Q. And does that come from confidence?


SV: As I said half-half. If you struggle with the balance of the car a little bit here and there you reach a certain edge. Then you try to work on the car, which we did, and I think we improved it but finally overnight I think we released the knot and it was much better today. Then you gain the confidence back on top and you just go faster everywhere.


Q. Lewis, not perhaps where you wanted to start but it's your equal best grid position this year, four second places on the grid so far, you're a previous winner here, so do you feel you start from a position of strength?


LH: Yes, I think it's a good day, I can't complain. We've come off a good race in Germany and we've come here and it's very similar to how competitive we were in Germany, so that's a positive for us. It's also a positive to have Jenson up here with us, and I think we can hopefully challenge Sebastian tomorrow.


Q. Is it an advantage to be a previous winner here?


LH: Zero.


Q. We've seen you have a couple of offs down at the first corner, is that an issue or do you reckon you've sorted that out?


LH: We've sorted it out. I just have a problem with my brakes so we put some new ones on for qualifying and so it should be fine from now on.


Q. And has the car changed much over the last couple of days?


LH: No, not at all. It's exactly the same as the last race. No updates, no we haven't.


Q. Jenson, when you won here, you started from 14th on the grid so it is possible to overtake here. Are you feeling in a fairly strong position in third on the grid?


JB: It's very different to back in '06 when we had wet weather. I think it's supposed to be dry this weekend, or tomorrow. Third place is a good starting position here. I agree that P1 is better, that's what we do qualifying for, and that's why we get excitable on pole position - or this one does (indicates Sebastian) – but P3 is pretty good. I think we can race well from there. SV attempts to reply


JB: Sorry. Your microphone's off, mine's on!


SV: He said that he wants to bite my finger off.


JB: Yeah. He put it up and I almost grabbed it, outside with the cameras.


SV: Was that Holyfield, the boxer with the ear?


JB: Yeah, yeah. I was going for it but couldn't get there in time. I was actually just going to straighten it up. It was falling over.


Q. Jenson, third is your best qualifying here. Yesterday you said that set-up tweaks were needed.


JB: Yeah, we made some good set-up tweaks overnight. This morning the car felt pretty good. We were just playing with it a little bit through qualifying and it eventually came good on the last run. I think I gained about half a second on the last run in comparison to my previous lap, and it was just getting a bit more front end on the car, because I've been struggling with not getting the front end in. The car felt pretty good in qualifying so I'm happy with where we're starting and it's a very, very long tough race tomorrow, for us and also mainly for the tyres so we will see what sort of strategies we can throw at it and obviously go for the victory.


Q. Do you see a multi pit stop race tomorrow?


JB: It's definitely a multi pit stop race. I don't know. We will see. It won't be five, it possibly could be two, three or four. We will see. This place is pretty tough on tyres but so far this weekend I think people have been doing reasonably long runs. Lewis's was pretty good yesterday. I'm not really sure how the race is going to go. It's always different than testing.


QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR


Q. (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Lewis, you've saved one set of super soft tyres, which is obviously an advantage. How big is the advantage on this particular circuit?


LH: It's always a plus but it's not huge. It might be one or two laps longer. We will see what we will be able to do with them tomorrow. As Jenson was saying, it's probably two or three pit stops tomorrow and it could be important to be able to look after your tyres at this track, as it always is. It definitely will hopefully be... even if it's a small advantage. Hopefully I will be able to use that.


Q. (Marco degl'Innocenti – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, can you tell us a little more precisely what your mechanics did to your car during the long night?


SV: It worked. No. we haven't brought much new stuff so in the end, as I said, we have been testing a lot on Friday and I think we just put the car to the spec where we think it is best. Sometimes it's not so easy because you have to take some parts off the car. It's not a big secret: you change the engine and the gearbox overnight and it just took a little bit longer.


Q. (Mat Coch – pitpass.com) Sebastian, last year yourself and Mark were quite evenly matched. This year it seems as though you've got a couple of tenths on him at pretty well every qualifying session. Is that a result of the renewed confidence you had from the World Championship, do you think?


SV: No. I don't think so. Last year I felt very comfortable here and we had a very good qualifying session as I remember. In the race it was a bit of a different story. I had a very good start and then a mistake which cost me the win but I think last year our car was very competitive here. This year again, but maybe the advantage is not that big. Last year we were much quicker than everyone else, I remember, so I don't think it's down to that. I haven't had the chance to talk to Mark. Q1, Q2 I think he was there and then in Q3 the gap was obviously a little bit bigger. We will talk about qualifying later anyway and then I will find out, but I don't think that it has much to do with last year. Sure, with experience, things become a little bit easier. You have a certain routine, but I don't think it's because of winning the championship that I'm on pole now.


Q. (Gary Meenaghan – The National) I think this year this circuit's been on the calendar for 25 years. I was wondering if you have any comments on why it's been so enduring, what's the secret?


SV: This is the 26th. I don't know. I like this place, I like coming here. Obviously, as an Austrian team, we get a lot of support, a lot of Austrian people come. The border isn't very far away, so it's kind of a home Grand Prix for us and yes, the circuit might be a little bit Mickey Mouse in places but it's different to most of the circuits we race on, so I quite enjoy that. It's quite tough, there are a lot of laps tomorrow. Usually it's very tough on tyres, on the car and on the drivers as well.


LH: It's one of the best tracks we have on the calendar and it's a fantastic city. The weather's always good, great crowd and whilst you don't have too much overtaking it's a great place to race, so I think that's probably why it's quite a historic circuit for us.


JB: It is a great circuit to drive, especially when the car's on the edge in qualifying. It doesn't really give you any rest, but personally I don't think that's the reason. I think it is probably the fans. We have a lot of support here, outside the hotels, in the grandstand. It's pretty full, which is good to see. It obviously goes up and down through the years but generally there's been good support here. Probably the main reason is that there's a road called Bernie Avenue leading into the circuit. Possibly.


Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) To Lewis and Jenson, as I understand it, most of the time you are going to use the soft tyre tomorrow. Comparing your performance to Red Bull's on this type of tyre, do you think you can compete with them?


JB: I really don't know. It's very difficult to tell on a Friday because you don't know what people are doing, you don't know what fuel people are running. Previously, when it's been very, very hot - I can really only think of one race which is Valencia – I think we found it a little bit difficult, but I think things have changed since then, and also we're not going to have such a hot race tomorrow.


LH: We don't have any problems with it.[/spoiler]

[Lineker]

Mark Webber blamed having no DRS and cold tyres for his disappointing qualifying performance ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Australian will start from sixth position, his worst qualifying since the Chinese Grand Prix, after finishing over six tenths off the pace in the final shootout.

Webber explained after qualifying that he had done the main straight of his final Q3 run without DRS enabled because of an error when activating it.

He had also been held up for Jenson Button during his out-lap, which means his tyres were not at the perfect temperature.

The Red Bull driver said his times after Turn 5 had been the same as team-mate's Sebastian Vettel, on pole today.

"It wasn't the smoothest session," said Webber. "Basically if you look at the last lap, which is the most important one I was very optimistic about doing a pretty good job.

"The problem really started on the out-lap because the McLarens were too slow. We need more pace than that and I couldn't go any quicker because Jenson wouldn't let me pass, which is fair enough. It's all fair game and I would do the same thing.

"Because it was my first lap onto the start/finish with KERS and DRS, it looks like I tried to activate the DRS a bit early and it didn't respond, so I did the whole straight without the DRS and I didn't notice because I used the KERS.

"That, in combination with Jenson, meant my first sector was a complete disaster. And from Turn 5 until the end of the lap it was identical to Sebastian."

Formula 1 teams are set to ask Bernie Ecclestone to rethink his plans for the 2012 calendar amid fears that the end of season run of races will prove a logistical nightmare.

As AUTOSPORT exclusively revealed earlier this weekend, Ecclestone has undertaken a major reshuffle of the original schedule that was published by the FIA in June.

As well as Bahrain moving to the tail end of the season and Turkey being dropped, the United States Grand Prix in Austin is set to become the penultimate round of the season as part of a back-to-back with Brazil.

Ecclestone submitted his idea for the calendar to the teams ahead of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix to get their feedback, and it understood there is some concern about the final flyaway portion of the calendar.

In particular, the teams are worried about there being seven races at the end of the season in just 10 weekends - with the back-to-back events in Japan/Korea, Abu Dhabi/Bahrain and the United States/Brazil all taking place in quick succession on different continents.

Renault team principal Eric Boullier has revealed that teams now plan to ask Ecclestone to reconsider the plans to make it easier for the teams

"We plan actually to ask for a rethink for the logistics," he told AUTOSPORT. "It is to make it a little bit easier for the task force and a bit cheaper by way of moving logistics differently."

Boullier declined to talk about the details of what the teams want to see, but said that they had formulated a plan.

"We have a thought between us already and we would like to suggest a couple of ideas," he said. "We are not involved in the final decision of the calendar, but I understand it is not definite so we have room to ask for discussion and to make suggestions."

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh added: "The calendar is tough, but I understand it is going to change again. So, until we have the final calendar, there is no point complaining about a provisional one."

Felipe Massa fears that starting on the right-hand side of the grid could cost him positions at the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix, despite putting in his best qualifying performance of the year relative to his Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso.

The Brazilian qualified ahead of the Spaniard for the first time since last August's Belgian GP, but with the Hungaroring notoriously dusty off-line he is concerned that a bad start could drop him behind the double world champion.

Despite this, he hopes to fight with the pace-setting McLaren and Red Bull drivers in the race.

"I'm not very happy to start on the bad side of the grid," said Massa. "There is a big difference between the good side and the bad side so I hope that we can have a good start.

"We saw a very strong Red Bull and McLaren and it was difficult for us to fight with them. The race tomorrow is going to be difficult, but tyre degradation is hard here so hopefully we can do everything right and try to gain more positions.

"I hope we can be better in the race than in qualifying and try to fight with McLaren and Red Bull."

Massa, who was 0.5s slower than pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel in Q3, has not ruled out the possibility of Sunday afternoon's race requiring as many as four pitstops per car.

He does not expect to be sure how many stops he will make until the end of the first stint, which all of the runners in the top 10 will complete on option rubber.

"It's difficult to say how many pitstops," said Massa. "I don't think four stops is impossible. It will be between three or four depending on how the tyres behave.

"We need to wait for the first stint to see how many laps we can use the super soft for. That will give you the direction to follow for the next stops."

Paul di Resta has set his sights on beating Mercedes drivers Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Di Resta qualified 11th, two places behind Schumacher and four behind Rosberg. But the Scot believes that he and Force India team-mate Adrian Sutil have the potential to make one less pitstop than the Mercedes pairing.

"We go into the race targeting them," said di Resta when asked by AUTOSPORT whether Mercedes is beatable. "It is realistic for us to get them should everything else go right.

"On the long runs yesterday, we looked fairly competitive against Mercedes, so let's see where they are on tyre degradation.

"It's important for us to be fighting for the points. We are 11th, on the good side of the track, and we are definitely within fighting range."

The Scot is anticipating a race dictated by tyre degradation, with a variety of different strategies. He added that the way the Pirelli rubber drops off could also boost overtaking in the race.

"It's tough to get through the last corner when you have degradation and that leads into the DRS zone," said di Resta. "If you are a little bit better than someone in front, it will have a big impact.

"If they have extreme degradation, they could easily lose a chunk of time going onto the straight."

Sergio Perez expects Sauber to continue its trend of being more competitive in race trim after earning the best starting position of his career in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The 21-year-old Mexican made Q3 for the second time since arriving in Formula 1 and will line up 10th on the grid alongside Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher. He also made the top 10 in Monaco, but withdrew from the race after crashing at the chicane during Q3.

The Sauber C30 is very gentle on its tyres, raising hopes that Perez and team-mate Kamui Kobayashi, who will start 13th, will be able to complete the race with fewer pitstops than the other teams in contention for points positions. Most anticipate a three or even four-stop race, although Sauber appears to have the potential to stop only twice.

"Tomorrow is a very good chance to score some big points if we can get the strategy right," said Perez on Saturday evening when asked by AUTOSPORT about his expectations for the race.

"We know that our race pace is more competitive than in qualifying and we are already starting in a good position. If I can make some places in the first corner and have a good strategy, we will be in a good position."

Perez added that he was very pleased with his qualifying performance. He credited getting the best out of the Pirelli option rubber for his form, which continues his run of showing good pace on Saturday afternoon despite tyre warm-up problems often making life difficult for the Sauber drivers.

"The window with these tyres is so narrow if you want to get the maximum out of them," said Perez. "This was one of those days when I did a very good lap. Everything came together.

"Monaco was also very good, before I had the accident. The lap at the Nurburgring was also very good, but in terms of performance here was as well."

Fernando Alonso has tipped the McLarens as his favourites for victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix - although which of its two drivers succeeds will depend on the run to the first corner, he feels.

Despite Sebastian Vettel maintaining Red Bull Racing's lock-out of pole positions this season at the Hungaroring, McLaren has looked to be a serious threat for victory, with Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button qualifying second and third.

And Alonso, who will start from fifth on the grid, thinks it is McLaren that is looking stronger overall than Red Bull Racing.

"Looking at the whole weekend, the McLarens are a bit quicker than the Red Bulls I guess," he said. "I think Hamilton can be the one that has the better pace in the race, but it is true also that he starts from the wrong side of the grid, so maybe Jenson could overtake him.

"We need to see how the first laps develop and how the starts are for everybody. It is true that Red Bull is dominant in qualifying and in the races they struggle quite a bit. Here, they struggle in qualifying so I expect McLaren to be very strong."

Alonso said he was not too surprised to start from the third row of the grid, even though many had expected the Ferrari to be right at the front.

"We were fourth and fifth at the Nurburgring a week ago, and we are fourth and fifth here," he explained. "In the first two sectors we look always okay, but in the last sector we lose a lot of time.

"There is not much we can do there. Our competitors did a better job than us. In qualifying we are behind but hopefully we can recover."

Although Alonso's recent run of good form has resurrected hopes that he can still fight for the championship, the Spaniard insists that his only thought at the moment is to go on maximum attack to try and win as many races as possible.

"The championship is not in our hands, it is in Sebastian's hands," he said. "We need to put pressure on him every weekend. We need to enjoy every weekend, race like it is like the last race, race for fun and not think of the championship.

"We need to take risks, be aggressive in the first corner, and in the last corner. Don't think of the championship; just be very aggressive. We have nothing to lose.

"So it is the same approach we took a couple of races ago, and we will keep doing it. No one thinks of the championship now when you are 90 points behind. It is not our job now; our job is to win every race we go to."

McLaren duo Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton say that recent successes for their team and Ferrari have lifted hopes that Sebastian Vettel can be beaten to the world championship this year.

Although Vettel still has a comfortable lead in the title standings, he has won only one out of the last four races as both McLaren and Ferrari have closed the performance gap to Red Bull Racing.

And, with McLaren lining up second and third on the grid in Hungary, both its drivers say there is still every reason to keep piling the pressure on Vettel.

Button said: "For me it is a little bit more difficult. The last two races have hurt me quite a bit in a sport where reliability seems to be so good these days.

"It is tricky having non-finishes, and I think Sebastian has twice as many points as I do, but it doesn't mean I am going to be giving up. We will keep fighting, and you never know what can happen.

"Over the last four races he has only won one of them, so there is hope and we will push every race we are in to get the best results. And then we will see at the end of the season what happens."

Hamilton added: "It is a very, very long season. Me and Jenson are the two that the team look to to take what they have built and designed, and put it at the front and get the best points with it.

"What we say and what we do is used as motivation, and there are times when we don't always say the right things. But sometimes when you have races like the last one it kind of answers all the hard work they have put in. It makes it that much more worthwhile, so they are ready to do round two and continue to push for that next step.

"I am glad we had that. All the team have been saying we will win races this year and we are pushing as hard as everyone in the team, so I think that is a great sign."

Hamilton believes that McLaren is well in the hunt for victory in Hungary - despite Vettel having secured yet another pole position.

"We are pushing and we are improving, and it is great to see," he said. "I am massively happy that we are here in the fight.

"At some point we were behind the Red Bull and the Ferraris and now we are splitting them, plus me and Jenson are able to be ahead of Ferraris as well.

"It is a massive push from the team, an improvement, and we were saying today how nice it is to drive the car. We will continue to work on that and hopefully it will be like that for the rest of the season."

Edited July 31, 2011 by Lnkr

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Pretty gutting for Hamilton, a super drive from him but he got cost the race with a rather silly drive through penalty and the wrong decision to switch to intermediates.

[Summers]

Silly drive through penalty? Why does the world seem to think it's okay for Hamilton to be reckless and endanger others?

[Gazz]

Stone wall drive through as far as I'm concerned. At least Hamilton showed a bit of humility and admitted he was in the wrong though.

Superb drive from Jenson though, throughly deserved victory. Buemi had a stormer to, going from 23rd to 8th. I don't know who works in the Sauber race strategy team is, but they need sacking. Staying out 7-8 laps after your tyres have fallen off is not a strategy.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Silly drive through penalty? Why does the world seem to think it's okay for Hamilton to be reckless and endanger others?

I didn't mean it in that way, I meant it could of been avoided and shouldn't of happened. The decision itself is debatable, could of gone either way, but that was only part of what played a downfall in Hamilton losing the race. And really, that move Hamilton did didn't exactly put everybody in danger and just stopping and sitting in the middle of the road would of been verging on just as dangerous to others, not a great deal he could do and as he said, he didn't see Paul.

[Gazz]

Yes, but the middle of the road is off the racing line, Hamilton spun his car back onto the line, which is why he got the penalty.

[LUKIE]

He got the penalty because he forced Sutil off the track by spinning in front of him.

It was a dumb move.

[Katsuya]

Why is nobody talking about Heidfeld's car exploding

[Matt]

Silly drive through penalty? Why does the world seem to think it's okay for Hamilton to be reckless and endanger others?

Because he's English and can do no wrong. I don't think there's a sportsman I like less at the minute.

[Summers]

I hate him, self-serving tosser.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

It rains and Jenson wins.

I am happy.

200th GP as well. Groovy.

[Gazz]

He got the penalty because he forced Sutil off the track by spinning in front of him.

It was a dumb move.

Di Resta.

And Heidfeld's car exploding was a proper 'Holy Shit!' moment, as was the fire in general.

[Lineker]

Just watched the highlights. Hamilton collapsing always makes me smile. How it's being defended is astonishing! The explosion was quite frightening really - glad nobody was hurt. Also a phenomenal effort from Buemi today - think Ricciardo may have to settle for an HRT seat for 2012. More on the Sky TV deal, with Adam Parr commenting below:

Jenson Button claimed victory in his 200th grand prix as he perfectly judged an absorbing race in changeable weather in Hungary.

McLaren could have had a one-two, with Lewis Hamilton leading much of the race, but a tyre strategy misjudgement and a penalty ruined Hamilton's afternoon.

World championship leader Sebastian Vettel had to settle for second, ahead of Fernando Alonso's Ferrari and the recovering Hamilton.

McLaren had taken the advantage early in a race that began on a damp track with everyone on intermediates, Hamilton attacking Vettel relentlessly through the opening laps as both slid around in a dice more reminiscent of a karting scrap than Formula 1.

The lead finally changed on lap five, when Vettel ran wide at Turn 2 and Hamilton breezed past and pulled away, soon extending a four-second lead over the championship leader, who was at least able to drop Button at this stage.

Laps 10 to 13 saw all the leaders decide the track was ready for slicks, and coming in one lap sooner than Vettel paid off for Button, who made the most of his warmer tyres and greater confidence to take second place into Turn 2.

Mark Webber pulled off the same move on Alonso for fourth at the same time. The Ferrari had lost ground through the first corner on the opening lap, then charged back up the order despite two minor trips off the road.

The relatively serene middle phase of the race saw Hamilton holding a comfortable gap over Button, who had a similar 5s advantage back to Vettel, while Webber fended off Alonso 10s behind them.

Alonso decided to make a relatively early third pitstop and take another set of super softs, while all the other leaders except Hamilton switched to the harder softs at this point.

The burst of pace on fresh Pirellis allowed Alonso to jump both Red Bulls during his rapid laps before they pitted, though the tyres then began to wear and he lost third to Vettel again.

Hamilton followed the same strategy as Alonso, which left him looking very vulnerable to Button as he looked unlikely to pull out enough of a gap to pit again for the softs, but in the event the return of the rain rendered these tactics rather irrelevant.

The sudden shower hit on lap 47, causing Hamilton to spin at the chicane. He tried to rejoin as quickly as possible, but could not prevent Button taking the lead - and also forced Paul di Resta's lapped Force India off the road as he rotated, a move that would ultimately earn Hamilton a penalty.

With the rain increasing, Button slipped up at Turn 2 four laps later, allowing Hamilton back into the lead. Button retaliated on the following lap and briefly regained first place on the pits straight, only to go wide again at Turn 2 as the top spot was exchanged yet again.

But just as Hamilton moved back into first, he made what turned out to be the costly decision to pit again for intermediates. It was obvious almost immediately that this was the wrong call, as the rain rapidly vanished, and the Briton was soon back in for slicks. His drive-through penalty for nearly wiping out di Resta soon followed, dropping him to sixth and leaving Button clear to win.

The 2009 champion briefly came under pressure from Vettel, but had the pace to pull away again and clinch his second victory of the year.

With Webber also switching to intermediates unnecessarily, Alonso regained third, which he held despite a quick late spin.

Hamilton battled back to fourth ahead of Webber, with Felipe Massa recovering from an early spin to sixth in the other Ferrari.

Kamui Kobayashi tried to go the distance on just two tyre stops and held seventh heading into the closing stages, albeit with a massive queue of cars chasing his Sauber. The plan did not work, and he had to pit for fresh rubber after tumbling down the order, as di Resta came through to seventh and Sebastien Buemi turned 23rd on the grid into an eighth place for Toro Rosso.

Mercedes only took ninth place, Nico Rosberg having also pitted for intermediates late on. Michael Schumacher had a gearbox problem shortly after spinning while dicing with Massa in the opening stages. Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso) clashed with Kobayashi during their late battle but still took 10th.

Adrian Sutil (Force India) and Sergio Perez (Sauber) saw their great qualifying results wasted in a first lap incident that delayed both.

One of the most spectacular incidents of this highly eventful race befell Nick Heidfeld, whose Renault caught fire in the pit exit after a long stop, with a minor explosion on its left-hand side as the marshals dealt with the blaze.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS


The Hungarian Grand Prix

The Hungaroring, Hungary;

70 laps; 306.663km;

Weather: Mixed conditions.


Classified:


Pos  Driver        Team                       Time

 1.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           1h43:42.337

 2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +     3.588

 3.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +    19.819

 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +    48.338

 5.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +    49.742

 6.  Massa         Ferrari                    +  1:17.176

 7.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +     1 lap

 8.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap

 9.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +     1 lap

10.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap

11.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +     1 lap

12.  Petrov        Renault                    +     1 lap

13.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +    2 laps

14.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +    2 laps

15.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +    2 laps

16.  Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth          +    2 laps

17.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +    4 laps

18.  Ricciardo     HRT-Cosworth               +    4 laps

19.  D-Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth            +    5 laps

20.  Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth               +    5 laps


Fastest lap: Massa, 1:23.415


Not classified/retirements:


Driver        Team                         On lap

Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault                56

Schumacher    Mercedes                     27

Heidfeld      Renault                      24

Trulli        Lotus-Renault                18



World Championship standings, round 11:                


Drivers:                    Constructors:             

 1.  Vettel       234        1.  Red Bull-Renault          383

 2.  Webber       149        2.  McLaren-Mercedes          280

 3.  Hamilton     146        3.  Ferrari                   215

 4.  Alonso       145        4.  Mercedes                   80

 5.  Button       134        5.  Renault                    66

 6.  Massa         70        6.  Sauber-Ferrari             35

 7.  Rosberg       48        7.  Force India-Mercedes       26

 8.  Heidfeld      34        8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         22

 9.  Schumacher    32        9.  Williams-Cosworth           4

10.  Petrov        32       

11.  Kobayashi     27       

12.  Sutil         18       

13.  Buemi         12       

14.  Alguersuari   10       

15.  Di Resta       8       

16.  Perez          8       

17.  Barrichello    4       


All timing unofficial[/code]


Jenson Button is confident that he has the capability to win another world championship before he leaves Formula 1, having celebrated his 200th grand prix start in Hungary this weekend.


The milestone achievement makes Button the eighth most experienced driver in F1 history, and the fourth among the current field, behind Rubens Barrichello, Michael Schumacher and Jarno Trulli.


Having spent a long time in midfield equipment before his breakthrough world championship season with Brawn in 2009, Button's career path has been unusual compared to most title-winners. He said that championship campaign had totally changed his outlook on F1.


"Since I won the world championship I have enjoyed racing a hell of a lot," Button admitted.


"It is not the pressure other people put on you, it is the pressure you put on yourself to win. I still, obviously, would love to win another world championship and that is why I am here, to win another world championship."


Asked if he felt he had another title win in him, Button replied: "Definitely, 100 per cent. I don't think any driver who wins a world championship suddenly isn't interested in fighting for a victory or another world championship, or isn't capable. There has only been one world champion since me."


The McLaren driver said he did not attach too much significance to anniversaries like this weekend's, beyond them being a chance to take stock of his career so far, and did not have any particular ambition for how many grands prix he would ultimately contest.


"I am not going to aim for 300, 200 is just a number but because it is a milestone in most people's eyes it is good because you can ask questions about our past," said Button.


"You look back and you remember the good, the bad and the ugly of what you have been through.


"I don't think we do that enough; we are always living in the moment or looking forward too much. Especially in the world of Formula 1, every year rolls into the next. So it is nice to take a step back and look back at what I have achieved."


Asked if he suspected his next F1 contract would be his last, Button replied: "I don't know. You might say it is but when you get to the end of it you might think 'Wow, that's it then. What am I going to do now?'


"There are lots of possibilities but nothing quite like racing in Formula 1. Maybe I'll start my own team, what do you reckon? That worked well for so many other people! Wherever I am they will have to pay me a lot more than I am on now, if I could afford to run a team..."


[center][/center]


Jenson Button celebrated what he labelled as an amazing weekend after clinching a superb victory in his 200th Formula 1 start.


The Briton handled the tricky conditions perfectly to grab his second win of the season, finishing ahead of world champion Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.


Button hailed his McLaren team for making the right calls during a difficult-to-read race, and the Briton admitted he is delighted to go into the summer break on a high.


"For some reason I like these conditions, don't ask me my why, but it worked out again," said Button. "A great call from the team to put me on the prime tyre when they did, a great call from all of us. All round it has been an amazing weekend.


"I want to say a big thank you to the team. Everyone has worked so hard to produce the car we have now. I think we are going into the break on a nice high. Every day we are on holiday we'll be thinking about Spa."


Button, who made three stops during the grand prix, admitted he felt he had the race under control most of the time, and said he had enjoying fighting with team-mate Lewis Hamilton.


"It's very easy to say now, but personally I felt that I was able to look after the tyres for the remainder of the first stint," he added. "I think about halfway through people started struggling but I was able to push on and the car felt really good.


"I knew I was in good shape, the car was working well for me. I thought it was a matter of time in the dry conditions to get the jump on Lewis because at the end of the stints he was struggling.


"It turned out a little bit different with the rain coming down, but I had a lot of fun all the same. It's always fun racing with Lewis. It's great to come away with a victory this weekend."


The McLaren driver is now 100 points behind championship leader Vettel.


Williams chairman Adam Parr believes Bernie Ecclestone did the right thing in putting together that BBC/Sky shared broadcast deal for next year - because there was a risk of Formula 1 coverage being off free-to-air television entirely.


While British fans remain angry about the prospect of not being able to watch every race live on the BBC from 2012, Parr says that those unhappy about the move should actually be happy that Ecclestone has managed to keep at least some races on the channel.


Although sympathetic that fans will feel they are worse off in 2012, Parr says that they must take into consideration that they could have been even worse off if the Sky/BBC share deal had not come together.


"I can understand why a British fan who has had free non-advert coverage, amazing content, and brilliant presenters will be saying that anything else is going to be less good," explained Parr.


"I am sorry that the BBC could not carry on doing what they are doing, but they made that decision. I don't think that the fees being charged to the BBC are unreasonable compared to Wimbledon or any other major sports event.


"I am sympathetic, but to be fair the teams have not had any involvement in this. We don't negotiate these deals, but when Bernie briefed us as a group about this, the universal view was, okay we get it. We understand why you've done it. We see the benefits; we know where you are coming from - fair enough."


When asked by AUTOSPORT if there was a prospect that F1 could even have been off free-to-air television totally with the BBC unable to continue its current contract, Parr said: "I think that is true. I think Bernie put this deal together to ensure that the fans would have as much of what they have been enjoying as possible."


He added: "If you are Bernie, and you are looking at the situation where your current partner is stopping – what do you do? I think he has sat back and put together something which is the best that could be done under the circumstances."


Amid scepticism about claims that the Sky/BBC deal could actually boost viewing figures in the UK, as Ecclestone has argued, a number of sponsors have expressed private concern about the impact the deal could have on the sport's popularity in 2012.


McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh insisted, however, that he was not too worried about the situation.


"I don't think there are any [concerns] here. I think that is just speculation," he said when asked if he had any fears of dwindling sponsorship revenue because of smaller viewing figures.


"At the moment we have to do a careful analysis of it, but the view yesterday was that the viewership would increase as a consequence of the amount of time and coverage that F1 will present – because you have got BBC and Sky competing.


"You have got deferred coverage as well, and for a lot of grands prix it will frankly probably be better to have it in the UK a few hours later in any case.


"I think we have to be aware of that. It is important in the UK market that we have as much coverage as possible."


Lewis Hamilton said radio communication issues led to his errant switch to intermediate tyres late in the Hungarian Grand Prix.


The McLaren driver was engaged in a spectacular battle for victory with his team-mate Jenson Button in the final part of the race when he opted to pit for intermediates amid a rain shower.


But the track dried almost immediately and he had to make an additional pitstop.


"We were having radio issues," Hamilton explained. "I could hear my engineers, but they couldn't hear me, so I was constantly asking for information but they couldn't hear me. So it was a very difficult call for them.


"I think there was perhaps one point when they got some information from me but maybe it was a little bit of info. I heard them say it was going to rain and it was already spitting, so we opted to go for the wet tyres. I think they called me in and I did the lap. Anyway the tyres went off and it wasn't necessarily the best call, but that's motor racing."


Even if he had not made the tyre decision, Hamilton's hopes of victory were set to be dashed by a penalty for forcing Paul di Resta's Force India off the road as the McLaren did a spin-turn to rejoin after an error at the chicane.


"I made a big mistake," Hamilton admitted. "My left front tyre was pretty worn so I went a bit wide at the chicane and spun, which is very, very rare.


"Then after that I honestly have to apologise to Paul di Resta. I didn't see him. I had absolutely no clue. I don't know what happened but I got a penalty for something, which is to be expected, I guess, sometimes. So I apologise to him."


Button went on to win the grand prix, which Hamilton felt was a fair result.


"Congratulations to Jenson, he was pushing me hard the whole race and the better man won today," he said.


Hamilton was confident that McLaren would have had a one-two on pure speed, which he felt was an ideal way to head into the break between now and the Belgian Grand Prix at the end of August.


"I think we can definitely say the team have done a fantastic job," said Hamilton. "For us to both be the most competitive this weekend I think is a fantastic way to go into the break.


"Of course we would have loved a one-two. I feel like I let the team down a little bit. But we'll bounce back at the next race."


Sebastian Vettel believes victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix was possible, the German conceding he was not 100 per cent happy with second place.


Vettel, who was starting from pole position, crossed the finish line over three seconds behind race winner Jenson Button.


It was the third race in a row that Vettel, winner of six of the first eight races of the season, did not win.


The Red Bull driver says his team must react and fight back at Spa after the summer break.


"I think that win was in reach today so it was not impossible," said Vettel. "The emotions are going through right now. In the championship it was a good race with a lot of people finishing behind us apart from Jenson.


"I think the most important message is that especially McLaren in the last two races are very competitive. We are not happy with that, I am sure Jenson is, so we need to come back for Spa."


He added: "Today I am not 100 per cent happy. I started from pole and felt I could win race, it was not impossible, with many drivers doing small mistakes. So I' mot 100 per cent happy because the target is to win and not be second.


"We got good points today but there is a long, long way to go. We have seen how quickly things can change so we need to make sure we see the chequered flag.


"Yes, I am happy but not entirely. We go out there, we try to get pole on Saturday, we did yesterday and we try to win on Sunday, which we didn't do today. There was a chance and we didn't use it, so we need to look into that."


Despite finishing second, Vettel managed to increase his lead in the standings to 85 points to team-mate Mark Webber.


But the German claimed he is still not thinking about the title, but rather about winning as many races as possible.


"I think second in the championship is Mark but I don't know how many points, I don't care, I don't calculate them," he said. "I see Fernando ahead of me on a different set of tyres and I don't think about the championship when I am racing, I think about trying to win.


"Jenson scored more points today, other people scored less, but that is not really important. Our target has to be to win races and I can tell you - we still feel very hungry. I feel hungry, hungry in Hungary, to win races."


Mark Webber was left lamenting a wrong tyre call during the Hungarian Grand Prix, after finishing a distant fifth in the race.


The Australian decided to switch to intermediates when it started to rain again late in the race.


The decision, however, backfired, as the rain stopped quickly and Webber was forced to pit again for slicks.


Webber, who crossed the finish line nearly 50 seconds off winner Jenson Button, admitted it had been his call.


"It was quite an enjoyable grand prix up until when you make the wrong decisions from the cockpit," said Webber. "I made the right one to go to the slicks when I did, which worked out well, but you look completely stupid when you are only on the intermediates for two laps.


"If it rains heavier, for another three or four minutes, then that's the right decision. So that's the roll of the dice you've got to make. Obviously the difference between the slicks and intermediates when it was wet was a lot.


"It was my call. I decided to roll the dice and, if it worked, obviously you win big. If you lose - I lost some positions. That's the way it was today."


Webber said he was also hurt by the rain at the start of the race, having to start from the dirty and wetter side of the track.


"It was pretty slippery on that side of the grid I think. I got away reasonable. I saw the Mercedes and those guys got a very good start - better than me for sure. That was the first part of the race, but you knew it was going to be some more decisions late in the race. I got some right, some wrong."


Fernando Alonso believes Ferrari can be very confident for the final part of the season after taking another podium finish at the Hungaroring - his fourth straight top three result.


The Spaniard had an eventful race on the way from fifth on the grid to third, with two trips off the road and a spin during the grand prix, and said that given the Ferrari performs at its best in much hotter conditions, he had to be content with another podium.


"I think we are confident we can do a good second part of the championship," said Alonso. "The car has improved a lot, we are fighting for podiums, pole positions.


"July was a fantastic month. I am the driver who scored the most points in July, in three different conditions, at three different tracks. The team did a step forward and McLaren also did a good step forward so competition is quite fun.


"Unfortunately it was not very hot in July. We love high temperatures so hopefully August and September will be better for us."


Alonso said he did not have a proper chance to show the Ferrari's pace in Hungary, having lost places to the Mercedes at the start and then had to battle back from his brief excursions.


"I think in these type of conditions the race is very, very long - you need to be always focused with so many pitstops and so many weather conditions," he said.


"The start did not go as predicted, both Mercedes GP cars overtook us at the start, so I had to overtake Nico [Rosberg] and Michael [schumacher], then with pitstops I was stuck behind [Mark] Webber. After that I was able to push with free air, and was quite quick, but for the first 20 laps we were behind Mercedes and Mark."


Nick Heidfeld confessed that his fiery escape in the Hungarian Grand Prix was much scarier than the similar incident he suffered in Spain earlier this year.


The Renault driver's car erupted in flames shortly after his second pitstop, which was longer than usual due to a wheelnut problem. The team believes its forward facing exhausts overheated while it was stationary - which in turn set the bodywork on fire.


Heidfeld exited the pits, hoping that getting up to racing speed would put the fire out, but it simply exacerbated the situation - with the side of the car igniting. He quickly pulled off the track before jumping out the car. As marshals attended the blaze, the car's sidepod exploded - spreading debris over the side of the track.


Although uninjured in the incident, Heidfeld admitted that it was much worse than his fire during free practice at the Spanish Grand Prix.


"It was a lot more scary," Heidfeld told AUTOSPORT. "At Barcelona I looked left, saw a small fire and had time to stop. This one, I looked straight, saw the fire and it got hot.


"I really felt the temperature. It was a bit scary – much more than Barcelona."


Heidfeld said that the team was still investigating why the exhausts ignited the bodywork, because the stop had not been dramatically long.


"They are still looking into it. The stop was a bit longer, so that might be one of the reasons, but it is not like the stop was very long – it was not that I was stationary for 20 seconds or something. We are still investigating."


[center][/center]


Paul di Resta admits that ending his eight-race point-less streak with seventh place in the Hungarian Grand Prix has relieved the pressure that was building on him.


The Force India driver prevailed in a tight midfield battle with the Toro Rossos, Nico Rosberg and Kamui Kobayashi to claim the best result of his 11-race F1 career.


But although he was pleased to end the barren streak, he was not too concerned about the recent lack of results because his performances in recent races has been strong enough to achieve similar results had bad luck not intervened.


"I was under a bit of pressure to score points," said di Resta. "But at the same time, I didn't make any mistakes in the last three races that have cost me anything.


"If we had come here and something had happened, it would have been very disappointing. I've always said that there are going to be highs and lows and I hope we've had a low and are rebuilding to a high."


Di Resta, who has now scored eight points in his rookie season, did have a close call during the race when Lewis Hamilton recovered from a spin at the chicane in front of him.


The Scot was forced to take to the grass at the exit of the corner to avoid collecting the McLaren.


"It was close," said di Resta. "But there are no hard feelings. He said that he didn't see me. He was puzzled as to why he got a penalty even after the race.


"Had he hit me it would have been a disappointing end. If I hadn't taken avoiding action, it would have been a disaster.


"He did apologise. But I can understand why he did it."


Sebastien Buemi felt his charge from 23rd on the grid to eighth in the Hungarian Grand Prix was one of his best ever performances in Formula 1, as he pulled off a points finish despite a five-place grid penalty.


The Toro Rosso driver was given the punishment after he was adjudged to have caused the collision that ended Nick Heidfeld's race at the Nurburgring.


He made rapid progress in the damp early stages in Hungary today, and although he was less happy with his set-up as the track dried, he said mid-race adjustments were key to allowance him to continue his charge into the points in the closing stages.


"A fantastic race, one of my best," said Buemi. "Starting right from the back row I got a super start and I passed around 10 cars on the opening lap. After that, I got into a good rhythm and was able to pass more cars on the damp track.


"Then, as it began to dry, I felt the set-up was not perfect and I had too much understeer. I tried not to get upset about it and then the team did a very good job, working at the pitstop to change the wing angle which helped me to save the tyres better and the stop was quick enough for me to jump up a few places.


"When the rain returned, I again felt the car was working very well and I was able to run at a good pace again, which helped me get into the points. It's nice to go on holiday now with another four points in the bag, especially starting with that five-place grid penalty."


Buemi cited his pass on Kamui Kobayashi for eighth place into the first corner as one of the highlights of his battle through the field.


"There were plenty of exciting moments, especially my passing move on Kobayashi," he said. "I was too slow to catch up with him on the straight so I had to pass him under braking which was right on the limit. It's great to have this result, which owes something to such a good strategy."


The second Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari clashed with Kobayashi as part of the same shuffle into the first corner, and finished 10th. He felt that collision and a moment on the damp track had cost him a much better result.


"Today, it was clear in my mind that I could have finished seventh," said Alguersuari. "I made one of my pitstops just as it began raining slightly again. With the tyres not yet up to temperature, at that point it was hard to stay on the track and I went off.


"But I carried on fighting and towards the end, it was unfortunate that I lost another place after the collision with Kobayashi, but as a team performance we can consider we did a good job today, so it is a nice way to go into the short break, although I can't wait to start again in Spa."


Team boss Franz Tost was thrilled with the result, which came in the squad's 100th race in its current guise.


"With some help from two excellent performances from our drivers, the team gave itself the best possible present to celebrate Scuderia Toro Rosso's 100th grand prix, since we first took to the track in Bahrain in 2006," said Tost.


"A combined eighth and 10th place finish is our best result of the season so far and from a strategy point of view, the team did an excellent job in difficult and changeable conditions, while the drivers made the most of that, delivering faultless drives without making any mistakes. Their lap times were also impressive this afternoon, so there are plenty of reasons to look forward to the rest of the season."


Post-race press conference:

[spoiler]TV UNILATERALS


Q. Jenson, what a way to mark your 200th grand prix. Finally, you can start to mark the occasion and start the party.


Jenson BUTTON: Yeah, it is good having a couple of weeks break, as it might take me that long to get over tonight! This is the first place where I won a grand prix, back in 2006 in these sort of conditions, and it is my 200th race and I have won here again, so a great moment. For some reason I like these conditions, don't ask me why, but it worked out again. A great call by the team to put me on the prime tyre when they did and a great call by all of us when we decided not to go to the inter. All round, amazing weekend, and I want to say a big thank you to the whole team, the mechanics, the engineers, everyone within the team that has worked so hard to produce the car that we have now. We are going into the break on a nice high, but I think every day we are on holiday we are going to be thinking about Spa already and excited about coming back and hopefully doing the same again.


Q. Sebastian, you got the start you wanted today but sometimes staying on the track in the early stages seemed impossible. Holding onto the lead even more impossible.


Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, indeed, I was struggling a bit in the first stint with the intermediate tyres. Lewis was a bit faster and then I lost it down into turn two. Yeah, quite tricky. He was pushing quite hard and I tried to be on the edge and at some stage I realised it would be too late, so I opened the car as I know the white lines, and in particular the green paint afterwards, is very slippery. It is easy to have a spin and lose the lead. After that the circuit was drying. I think we could maybe have come in a lap earlier, and then on the super softs I was feeling quite good initially but there was quite a lot of drop off. I think it was the same for all of us with the track being quite green. I think both times I would have loved to come in a lap earlier, but it was quite good fun to see all of a sudden both of the McLarens very close again. But then in the last stint I had to let Jenson go. I did feel I had more speed in the car but I had a couple of problems with the brakes and it was difficult to know, 20 laps to go, how the car would be in the end, so I couldn’t push as hard as I would have liked to. But still, second today is an important step. Nevertheless, I think the win was within reach but we didn’t get it. We need to work hard as both of the McLarens are very, very strong in all sorts of conditions, so it is clear now for a couple of races that they have done a step forward and we need to make sure we come back, definitely.


Q. Fernando, with yourself, Ferrari went for an aggressive four-stop strategy in the race and third place is the reward for that. Did you ever feel that a podium was on in the early stages of the race when you were struggling as well?


Fernando ALONSO: Well, in this type of conditions the race is very, very long. You need to be always focused, as with so many pit stops and so many weather conditions anything can happen, so I stayed focused at the beginning. Unfortunately, the start didn’t go as we predicted and both Mercedes overtook us on the start, so I had to overtake Michael (Schumacher) and then (Nico) Rosberg two times. Then with the pit-stops we found ourselves behind (Mark) Webber for half of the race. After that we were able to push in some free air and we were quite quick, but the first 30 laps we were behind the Mercedes and behind Mark so it was a little bit too much, the price.


Q. Jenson, at what stage did you feel the victory was on today? When you got to the chicane and saw your team-mate suddenly right ahead of you or did you feel that as you were catching him at that stage the win was always on?


JB: It is very easy to say now but, personally, I felt at the end of the first stint. I felt I was able to look after the tyres for the remainder of the first stint. I think about half way through people started struggling and I was able to push on and the car felt really good. I think I was about three seconds behind Lewis when he pitted for the first stop. I think I had pulled in about a second a lap up to that point, so at that point I knew I was in good shape. The car was working well for me and I thought it was a matter of time in the dry conditions for us to get the jump on Lewis because at the end of the stints he was struggling. Obviously, it turned out a little bit different with the rain coming down. It was pretty difficult on the prime tyre. Those aren’t the conditions for that tyre, but a lot of fun all the same. It is always fun racing with Lewis. I think we are pretty fair. I don’t think we touched this time and great to come away with a victory this weekend.


Q. Sebastian, for yourself, not the victory but you do increase your lead in the championship. Is that what matters most at this stage?


SV: As I said I think the win was in reach today. Not impossible, but that’s the emotions I am going through right now. Looking at the championship it was a good race with a lot of people finishing behind us, except Jenson, so we will see. Still a very long way to go and we see with the races like this especially, how quickly things can change. I think the most important message is that especially McLaren in the last two races were very competitive and we are not happy with that. Surely Jenson is. But we need to come back so we are pushing hard for Spa.


Q. Fernando, Sebastian mentions that McLaren have been competitive in the last couple of races. How competitive do you see Ferrari now for the final part of the season?


FA: I think we are confident that we can do a good second part of the championship. The car did improve a lot and we are fighting for podiums, for pole positions, now in the last few races. For us, I think it was a fantastic July month because I think we are still the drivers that have scored more points in July, in these three races, with three different conditions, three different tracks. We are happy and I think the team did a step forward. I think McLaren also did a step forward so the competition is quite fun for you to watch with three teams able to win races. Unfortunately, it was not very hot in July. We love high temperatures for whatever reason in our car so hopefully August and September will be better for us.


PRESS CONFERENCE


Q. Jenson, it was certainly a fantastic race from the outside. I don’t know what it was like from the inside?


JB: Well, it ended in the right way I think, but it was a very tough race. The first stint on the inters in the wet, it felt like there was no grip at all. It felt like we were on the drys. Then we put the dry tyres on which was definitely the right call but in some places it was very, very slippery. Then with the rain towards the end you just couldn’t find any grip out there. We were skating around and it was hard enough keeping the thing on the round let alone trying to overtake and fight your team-mate. But a wonderful race. It is just perfect for my 200th grand prix. This is where I first won in Formula One and here we are again for my 11th win so I am going to enjoy this evening.


Q. Around about lap 47 it got really lively when your team-mate spun. You went off the road. You were battling wheel-to-wheel. It was fantastic stuff.


JB: Yeah, it was good fun. I was really struggling though, as I was on the harder of the two tyres and to try and keep heat in the tyre was really difficult in the second corner of the lap as it was so, so wet there. Everywhere else it wasn’t too bad. I think I kept them in pretty good nick. I came round the corner and saw Lewis facing the other way. I went to the inside and I was just about to overtake Adrian Sutil and had to hammer the brakes on, as it was a yellow flag. He had backed off to let me by, so I almost stopped the car, he almost stopped the car and Lewis was able to turn the car around and he was on my bumper before the next corner, so it made it very tricky. I came out on top today. One of my most enjoyable races I would say, but I would like to win one in the dry please.


Q. In fact you went wide shortly afterwards and he took the lead back.


JB: Yeah, that was in turn two and I passed him again and then he passed me again and then the team said we are going to pit for inters. To me that was a big surprise, so when we got to the pit entry the team suddenly said 'no, no, stay out. Stay out as Lewis is coming in’. He came in and I stayed out. Personally I was never going to come in anyway as it was nowhere near inter conditions, Braved it on the slicks and it was definitely the right call.


Q. Obviously you jumped Sebastian as well at the first stop?


JB: Yeah, it wasn’t the stop was it, it was after the stop. He came out of the pits on cold tyres and I overtook him a lap later out of turn one. But at the start of the stints in the dry I didn’t have the pace. I was also asked to sort of look after the car and look after the fuel as well, which didn’t help my situation. But at the end of the stints the car was working great, really, really well and I was able to pull in Lewis by a second a lap I think if not more. But it was really working well, so it was looking good for the end of the race.


Q. Sebastian, it just didn’t seem that you had the pace of the McLarens today. Would that be a fair judgement?


SV: Yeah, I think it is fair to say that. Start of the race I was struggling a little bit on the intermediates. I tried to keep Lewis behind but most important was to move away from the pack behind and build up a gap, so tried to defend and ran a little bit wide into turn two. Opened the car, as it is very easy to do a mistake on the paint. It is very slippery. Managed to stay ahead of Jenson and then pulled away slightly at the end of the stint. Arguably we maybe should have come in a lap earlier. But both times then on the super soft I was feeling reasonably confident in the beginning of the runs. Tyres saw some wear but it was the same for everyone. But then in the end of the stint I was struggling to keep up with Jenson. Second stint I think overall was a little bit better. I was able to change a little bit the car during the pit-stop. Both times I think a lap earlier could have helped us a bit and it would have gained us some time. We have to look into that, but, all in all, I think the last stint I felt the pace was there. I had some issues with the brakes and Jenson wasn’t slow either. He was still some three or four seconds ahead at that stage, so first of all I have to close the gap and then overtake him and if you don’t have the confidence it was more important to bring the car home. I think the pace was not so bad but fair to say Ferrari in race pace and McLaren for the last couple of events seem to have made a good step forwards. We need to have a look at why but then we need to look at ourselves as I think there is plenty of stuff to learn and things we can improve without looking at the others. That has to be the target for the next race and for the second half of the season.


Q. There’s still a long way to go, isn’t there?


SV: Yeah, there is. Today I’m not 100 per cent happy because I started from pole. I had the feeling we could have won the race, but pace-wise it was not impossible. It was a difficult one, especially with the conditions as Jenson said, with the rain, very, very slippery at some stages, many drivers making small mistakes here and there. I saw Jenson nearly lose it two corners from the end. It always depends, obviously but yeah, as I said, not a hundred percent happy. The target is to win and not to come second. Still, I know it’s good points today, everyone except Jenson finished behind us but as you said, there’s a long, long way to go. Always remember, last year we’ve seen how quickly things can change so we need to make sure we see the chequered flag.


Q. Fernando, given your pace, were you happy with third or a little frustrated, because you were catching towards the end?


FA: Yeah, but I’m happy with third having started fifth. Again, we recovered two positions in the race and we were able to jump on the podium for the fourth consecutive race, I think. This is good again for us. The weekend was maybe not as expected: we maybe expected hotter temperature and more problems with degradation for our main competitors, but in the end it didn’t go like that. I think we have another - for the third consecutive time – difficult conditions for us, cold conditions and I think we reached another podium which is a good target for us every weekend.


Q. During the drivers’ parade, the track was wet and everyone was wondering why they had saved a set of supersoft option tyres, but they were pretty useful, weren’t they?


FA: Yeah. It’s always important to save tyres this year. Even if the conditions were a little bit damp at the beginning we saw we switched to dry tyres quite quickly this year. It was good to have some good sets. I think there was always the possibility to run with supersoft. Different teams chose different strategies and we need to see which one was the best but we tried to do our race, always trying to avoid the traffic. At the beginning with the two Mercedes cars, I overtook Michael and then Rosberg and then with Webber for maybe 20 or 30 laps behind Mark. That was probably when the win possibility – the little chances we had for victory – disappeared in the first thirty laps. QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR


Q. (Bob McKenzie – The Daily Express) Jenson, well done.


JB: Is that all you’ve got?


Q. (Bob McKenzie – The Daily Express) At one point they did ask you – invited you – if you want to come in and you said no, I think. When was that? I wanted to cover this more.


JB: That was when Lewis came in and put inters on. They said ‘in this lap for inters’ then round the second to last corner they said ‘Lewis is coming in, stay out, stay out’. I was never really going to come in for inters anyway. I didn’t think it was the right choice personally. We weren’t going slowly enough, to start with. We were struggling on the tyres, it was difficult keeping the car on the circuit but we weren’t that slow, it wasn’t inter pace really. And when you put the inters on, you’ve got to put the dries back on as well, so you’ve got to stop twice. For me, it wasn’t the right decision. The team made the right call earlier on, we put the prime tyre on at the second stop which was definitely the right call. We could have run to the end of the race on that, whereas Lewis was on the option tyre. I don’t know if he would have made it to the end, or he would have had to stop but for me the car was working very well and I personally didn’t think it was ready for inters. These guys didn’t either.


Q. (Joris Fioriti – Agence France Presse) Jenson, you were the only one of the top drivers – unless I missed something – who didn’t make a mistake today, in tricky conditions. Would it be fair to say that you are more careful or less crazy than others when it’s raining, which allows you to win.


JB: For me, I lost the lead twice because I made a mistake. You obviously didn’t watch the same race as we just did. Yes, I’m crazy as well. I went straight on at turn two twice and Lewis got past me.


FA: Crazy.


Q. (Joris Fioriti – Agence France Presse) Sebastian, at a certain point, when you were fourth, with Fernando and Lewis in front of you who were your most serious rivals for the championship, how were you feeling and do you feel a relief in that regard because you overtook them?


SV: Yeah, you should be watching closer. I think my toughest rival is... I think Mark was second in the championship before this race. I don’t know how many points… and I don’t really care and I don’t care in the race, I don’t calculate… I see Fernando ahead of me and he’s on a different set of tyres, obviously struggling so I could get past him fairly straightforward but I don’t think about the championship when I’m racing. I think about trying to win. As I said earlier, that’s why I’m happy but not entirely so. We go out there, we try to get pole on Saturday, we did so yesterday and we try to win on Sunday which we didn’t do today. As I said, I think there has been a chance and we didn’t use it, so we need to look into that. As I said earlier, Jenson scored more points today, other people scored less but that’s not really important. There are still so many races to go so our target has to be to win races and I can tell you that we still feel very hungry, I feel very hungry – hungry in Hungary – to win races, full stop.


Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Jenson, what my friend wanted to say was more or less like this: in 2006 here, last year in Australia and China, this year in Canada and here again today: all races in similar conditions and you won all of them.


JB: All lucky. Always lucky in these conditions.


Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) My question is if there is any feeling as to the right moment to stop and change tyres. What elements are there to judge it and take the decision?


JB: You’re not always going to make the right call in these conditions, and I haven’t always made the right call in these conditions. But I feel that I’m pretty good at making the right call when it comes to tyre changes, but I’m not the only one. These two guys did exactly the same as I did, so I’m not alone in my decisions. We had good pace today, very good pace and on the option tyre, I was able to make the tyre last for a long time. I was really looking after them. Towards the end of each stint the pace was very good. The reason why we won today was because we were quick and that’s the reason. If it didn’t rain, it wouldn’t have made any difference at all.


Q. (Istvan Simon Auto Magazine) There was a pretty nasty-looking accident at the exit of the pit lane. One of the Renault cars was actually on fire. Don’t you think a safety car would have been required or wasn’t it that dangerous?


JB: It wasn’t on the circuit. I don’t know the full extent of the fire, but we could see the smoke, but it was well off the circuit. He didn’t crash into that position. He pulled off and the car caught fire, so no, I don’t think a safety car was necessary.


Q. (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Fernando, you had one pit stop more than Jenson and Sebastian. Do you think, with hindsight, it would have been better to switch to soft and then do the rest of the race like Jenson did?


FA: I don’t know really. Yeah, looking now, after the race, maybe the soft tyre was better than the supersoft, especially for second or third stint, looking at the very high degradation but we found ourselves behind Mark for two stints and we had to anticipate the stops a lot so we came to overtake him and coming in that early, it was impossible to go to the end of the race, because you chose four stops already, just to overtake Mark. I don’t think it changes your tyre choice too much.


Q. (Carlos Miquel - La Gaceta) Question for Jenson, what this does symbol mean (touching thumbs in shape of W)?


JB: It means winner, it’s a W. Something me and my girlfriend have got going on.


Q. (Carlos Miquel - La Gaceta) Fernando, was the key to your podium just staying out on slick tyres on the wet track?


FA: Obviously there were some conversations going on, as I think there were for these guys as well. It started raining, we were like eight or nine seconds slower than the normal lap, but you never know if that rain continues, so I think you stop, you put on intermediates and you are much quicker. If that rain stops, it’s better to keep on the dry tyres, so you have to toss the coin in the air and gamble: whether to chose the dry tyres or if you chose the inters. And it depends only if the next cloud brings some more rain or if it stops so it’s completely unpredictable and completely out of teams’ and drivers’ control. So there is a luck factor that sometimes goes your way and sometimes doesn’t. I think that’s what happened to Lewis today. He was leading the race, maybe heading for victory and if the next cloud had more rain, maybe he would have won the race because he was the only one on intermediates.


Q. (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Jenson, when you had that really entertaining fight with Lewis, did you get any kind of instructions from McLaren, like keep your position, or please be careful or anything?


JB: No, they didn’t say anything. I think they thought we had to concentrate on what we were doing at that moment in time. No, I didn’t hear anything on the radio, which is nice.


Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, you spun in the last part of the race when you were following Sebastian. Without that, was it possible to fight for second place?


FA: Maybe, I don’t know. I touched white lines in damp conditions on dry tyres and I spun, I lost a couple of seconds but luckily I could engage first gear and continue. I don’t know, maybe yes, but there I lost maybe four seconds. I think I lost half a minute behind Webber at the beginning of the race.[/spoiler]