It is very late to reflect on the Hungarian GP but last week was so busy with important events that I was not able to review the race until this weekend. It was a fairly typical Hungaroring race with overtaking almost impossible, only Hamilton and Webber managing to do so, mainly by virtue of taking very early opportunities rather than allowing themselves to become stuck in a pattern of following the car ahead.
Kazuki Nakajima in Hungary
In fact, that seems to be the lesson of the season when it comes to passing other cars - do it straight away or you will be stuck forever. All of Button's great overtaking moves this year have been within the first two laps of coming up to another car and I think the same goes for Webber. The patient drivers who wait for a good opportunity are just not getting it done.
Driver of the race has to be Lewis Hamilton. It was like watching the Lewis we became accustomed to in the last two seasons, the confidence and skill obvious in his complete control of the race. And that was before he hit the front - it was obvious from the way he closed on Alonso in the early laps that Fernando was not going to win this one. The Renault's lost wheel after the first pit stop was unfortunate for the Spaniard but the race was already beyond his grasp.
Both Raikkonen and Webber drove good races and it was in keeping with the nature of the Hungaroring that their duel should be decided by a sticking fuel rig in the Red Bull pit. Webber may have been able to close the gap to Kimi in the last laps but he was never going to get past the Finn on the track. Rosberg, too, did well, the Williams team timing his fuel stops rather better than of late, but they did their usual job of stopping Nakajima at the worst possible moments. The young Japanese driver spent the entire race locked up behind slower cars, only occasionally able to show his true pace when the road cleared ahead of him.
To me, the character of the circuit was epitomized by the Toyotas. Many have praised Glock and Trulli for finishing well after qualifying so poorly; for me, they were an irritating obstruction to the possibility of any real racing. Timo was slightly less an annoyance, being quick enough for fifth fastest race lap, but Trulli was slow and served merely to hold back faster cars (okay, I mean Nakajima).
It may be part of F1 racing these days that a very long first stint often allows drivers to leapfrog those ahead of them and I accept that Toyota played their hand as well as could be done. But the way it was always a Toyota that seemed to perform mobile chicane functions in Hungary spoiled the race entirely. It would have been a better race without them.
That is a very partisan view, I admit. But you should remember that I have longed for Nakajima to prove his detractors wrong and he is at last getting qualifying right. To see him drop down the order through being held up by both Button and Trulli was frustrating to say the least. You can say that he should have found a way past but few are capable of that these days. I might even counter that Kazuki's real weakness is not in the speed department but in what we might call "Vettel's disease" - an inability to pass the car in front. Kaz was never more than a second behind his various nemeses in Hungary but could not find a way to force a pass. Ninth was much less than he deserved after keeping up the pressure all afternoon.
Nick Heidfeld had pretty much the same problem, potentially quicker than the BMW's present form would indicate but always stuck behind someone else. And Kubica had an awful race, never managing to get any performance out of the F1.09. I have to console myself with Theissen's promised upgrades for Belgium, although it is too late for the team obviously.
Otherwise it was an unremarkable race, a fact that surprises me a little since it seemed better the first time I watched it. Second viewing was much more sleep-inducing, however, and I realise that it was the peripheral matters that made it seem so full of incident: Massa's accident, the intricacies of strategy, stewarding decisions and BMW's subsequent announcement of withdrawal, all stole the limelight from the actual racing.
And now we have the prospect of Michael Schumacher's return for the Valencia GP. By itself, that would have been enough to erase thoughts of Hungary from our minds and, thinking of it now, I wonder whether it might be the saving grace for Valencia. That would be especially true if the Renault ban is not rescinded on appeal, although I cannot imagine that the FIA, usually so aware of political ramifications, will not see sense and allow Alonso to race.