Button wins drama-filled F1 Budapest race 2011

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	70	46:42.3	3	25
2	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	70	+3.5 secs	1	18
3	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	70	+19.8 secs	5	15
4	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	70	+48.3 secs	2	12
5	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	70	+49.7 secs	6	10
6	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	70	+83.1 secs	4	8
7	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	69	+1 Lap	11	6
8	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	69	+1 Lap	23	4
9	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	69	+1 Lap	7	2
10	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	69	+1 Lap	16	1
11	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	69	+1 Lap	13
12	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	69	+1 Lap	12
13	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	68	+2 Laps	15
14	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	68	+2 Laps	8
15	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	68	+2 Laps	10
16	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	68	+2 Laps	17
17	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	66	+4 Laps	20
18	22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	66	+4 Laps	22
19	25	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	65	+5 Laps	24
20	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	65	+5 Laps	21
Ret	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	55	Water leak	18
Ret	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	26	Gearbox	9
Ret	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	23	Fire	14
Ret	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	17	Water leak	19

Great victory by Jenson Button

McLaren's Jenson Button emerged the fairy tale victor in his 200th Grand Prix, after a gripping Hungarian race had seen Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton take turns leading early on before the 2009 champion pushed irresistibly to the fore.

Budapest has always been special place for Jenson Button: it was here that he took his first Grand Prix win five years ago - and it is here that he has taken victory in his 200th Grand Prix. Button is well known as a driver able to triumph in difficult conditions, but today he insists the conditions had little to do with it - McLaren's MP4-26 has simply got the measure of Red Bull's RB7…

Q: Jenson, it is not often that big days go as you want them to go, so how does it feel having completed your 200th Grand Prix - and to have won it?
Jenson Button: To be fair, amazing! You couldn't write any better story in a history about me. (laughs) I had a great day. I really enjoyed fighting with Seb (Vettel) and Lewis (Hamilton) out there. It's been such tricky conditions and to be honest those spits of rain didn't help my cause really, despite what people probably believe. At each stint I looked after the tyres and was hoping that it would dry - but it didn't and that obviously made the racing very exciting. I had a very good battle with Lewis again - very fair - and finally got away with the victory on my 200th Grand Prix.

Q: Obviously there are not many teams - and drivers - out there who might be so respectful to each other. When you fight with Lewis, do you know that it will be a clean fight?
JB: It is always respectful and I hope that it will stay that way. You know, when he spun for one moment I thought that I would wait for him… (laughs) 

Q: When looking at this race and the one a week ago at Nurburgring, do you have the feeling that McLaren are closing in on the Red Bulls?
JB: Well, we've won three out of the last five races, so yes, it is looking pretty good for us. It is just a pity for me that I had these reliability issues at the last two races and that probably ruined my championship. I am a long way behind Seb, so actually I've got to beat him at every race - and that is exactly what I am going to do. Red Bull should be really worried because I think that we are closing in on them in the race and in qualifying. I am very thankful to the team, as they've done a brilliant job - not only in the race but also for qualifying. They've done a fantastic job over the last couple of races, so this victory is a good way of going into the summer break. 

Q: Your prime tyre lasted for 28 laps. That looked like a gamble…
JB: It was not a gamble at all. I looked after my tyres very well the whole race long.

Q: When you say that you were looking after your tyres, how difficult was it not to get distracted by the changing conditions and just do your own race?
JB: It was tricky indeed, particularly the first stint when it was really slippery. So in the end I wouldn't say the conditions made my day, but the speed of my car (did). 

Q: You were on primes when it started to rain at the end of the race. How tempted were you to pit for inters?
JB: I wasn't - even though the team had called me in. When I first put the prime on I was shocked that we pitted so early and I asked the team why they pitted me so early. Lewis had even pitted a lap before me. But they told me that it was okay, that it was the plan, and very soon I understood why they'd done it. The car felt really good and I knew that it would go on. It was, of course, the right strategy, but the car was also very fast - without that no strategy helps.

Q: Two McLaren wins within a week - does that mean that McLaren is in the race again?
JB: Looks like it. Probably it looks a bit bleak for me, but believe me the guys will do anything to get a great car for the next race in Spa after the summer break and I am sure that we will have a great package there. 

Q: You must be up for a serious party tonight. What's the plan?
JB: I am sure that the 'Team Button' will spend a great evening: my family, close friends, and of course my girlfriend.

Practice 2 - Hamilton stays on top in Budapest

Mc Laren continued their dominance of practice in Hungary on Friday afternoon, as Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button set the fastest and third fastest times to sandwich Fernando Alonso's Ferrari.

The track temperature rose seven degrees - from 24 to 31 Celsius - during the course of the 90-minute session, and the times got slower after the first hour and a quarter when very few significant improvements were recorded.

Hamilton lapped in 1m 21.018s, 0.241s faster than Alonso's 1m 21.259s, with Button a little further back on 1m 21.322s.

The times suggested that Red Bull really might be struggling against their main rivals, even allowing for the usual confusion over fuel loads and strategies on a Friday. Mark Webber was fourth on 1m 21.508s, with Sebastian Vettel fifth on 1m 21.549s.

The German was one of many to explore and exceed the limits in Turn Seven - Timo Glock, Nico Rosberg, Tonio Liuzzi, Sebastien Buemi, Pastor Maldonado, Fernando Alonso, Jaime Alguersuari and Lewis Hamilton all kept him company there at various times.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa just failed to break 1m 22s, with 1m 22.099s for sixth ahead of the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher on 1m 22.121s and 1m 22.440s respectively, then came the Force Indias of Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil on 1m 22.835s and 1m 22.981s, the Saubers of Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez on 1m 23.030s and 1m 23.399s, Rubens Barrichello's Williams on 1m 23.679s and Nick Heidfeld's Renault on 1m 23.861s.

Pastor Maldonado trailed his Williams team mate on this occasion with 1m 24.181s, fractionally ahead of Alguersuari's Toro Rosso on 1m 24.182s. Vitaly Petrov was 17th for Renault on 1m 24.546s, with Buemi on 1m 24.878s and an on-form Jarno Trulli completing the runners in the 1m 24s with 1m 24.994s.

This time Heikki Kovalainen had to play second fiddle to his Lotus partner, recording 1m 25.447s, then there was the usual gap to the Virgins of Timo Glock (1m 26.823s) and Jerome D'Ambrosio (1m 27.2761s), as Daniel Ricciardo headed Vitantonio Liuzzi this time at HRT, 1m 27.730s to 1m 28.255s.

Friday practice - Selected team and driver quotes

Lewis Hamilton made the most of his quick-running McLaren to set the practice pace in Budapest on Friday, leading both sessions. All 24 drivers and senior team personnel report on the opening day of action at the Hungaroring…

McLaren
Lewis Hamilton, P1 - 1:23.350, 1st; P2 - 1:21.018, 1st
"It's a great feeling to start the weekend on a high. We had a much smoother Friday here than we did at the Nurburgring, so I'm pretty happy. The car looks reasonably competitive, given the balance and the fuel load that we had.

"It's important not to read too much into Fridays, though. The track may be different tomorrow, as may the temperatures. Having said that, I think we've probably got about the same pace as we had in Germany, which is encouraging.

"The guys have been pushing very, very hard back at the factory. We've got a couple of upgrades here this weekend and it's a great achievement by everyone to have got them here in such a short space of time."

Jenson Button, P1 - 1:23.772, 5th; P2 - 1:21.322, 3rd
"A trouble-free day, which is nice. We managed a lot of good runs and did a lot of useful set-up work, so it was a good day. I'm very happy with the direction we've taken with the car.

"We're strong in the first and last sectors. I'm quickest in the first sector and Lewis is fastest in the last. If we can put it all together, we'll be looking pretty good.

"I enjoy driving at the Hungaroring. With a few more set-up tweaks, I think we can be competitive. I hope to challenge for victory, but I'm not the only driver thinking that. Ferrari and Red Bull will also be looking to have good weekends, but that's great for Formula One."

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal
"We've had a pretty straightforward day. It's good to see Lewis topping the time sheets, and both drivers have been pretty competitive on their long runs.

"There's a huge amount of evolution in the track here, from Friday morning through to Saturday morning. It only therefore starts becoming representative on Friday afternoon, so there are still some question marks.

"But it's definitely a better feeling to go back to the hotel on a Friday night at the top of the timesheets rather than in the middle somewhere. So far, so good."

Ferrari
Fernando Alonso, P1 - 1:23.642, 3rd; P2 - 1:21.259, 2nd
"First of all thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes on my thirtieth, especially to Bernie, who came along to wish me the best along with you journalists during the press meeting! It's nice to celebrate here with Ferrari, a team I will definitely be with at least until I am thirty five…We finished the planned work programme and that's always a positive start to a race weekend. Now we will analyse all the data gathered and make the best choices for qualifying and the race. 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."

Felipe Massa, P1 - 1:24.115, 6th; P2 - 1:22.099, 6th
"We got through a lot of work, especially in terms of comparing the two Pirelli tyres. The first signs are that degradation is significant, both on the Prime and the Option, which will be a decisive factor when it comes to strategy. I think we will witness a very close contest between the usual three teams, Red Bull, McLaren and ourselves. It will be not be easy to get a useful grid position, but it will be very important to do so, because I think that, despite everything, overtaking at this track will still be very difficult. I was not able to do a quick time on my first lap with the Super Soft, because I ran wide at Turn 9, so today's lap time is not totally representative of the potential at my disposal: the tyres degrade easily so you have to give it your best immediately. I told Fernando this morning, "you are getting old like me!" Joking apart, it's an important day for him, so he gets all my best wishes again!"

Pat Fry, Ferrari chassis director
"As usual we had a packed programme to get through, including an evaluation of various configurations both on the aerodynamic front and in terms of the management of the exhaust gases. We concentrated principally on the updates to the 150º Italia in the morning and then in the afternoon, we switched more towards finding the best set-up on the car and on a comparison between the two types of tyre Pirelli has brought for this race. As you can imagine, there is nothing new under the sun: really just a Friday like so many others. The obvious consequence of that is it's very hard to say where we are compared to our closest rivals. The only thing we can be sure of is that Red Bull and McLaren both seem very competitive, irrespective of the fuel levels they were running. Tyre degradation is more or less what we expected but we have to take into account that track conditions change a lot over the course of the weekend as the track rubbers in. Predictions? It will be a very close qualifying and even the race looks like being hard to read, especially as there could be various strategies implemented."

Red Bull
Mark Webber, P1 - 1:23.666, 4th; P2 - 1:21.508, 4th
"I made a mistake this morning when I got on the damp kerb. I've seen a few of those over the last few years, but drivers still don't learn - we still go out there and push! I clipped the 'turf and hit the barrier, but fortunately only the front wing was damaged. We recovered pretty well this afternoon and got a lot of mileage in. The car ran well and we have lots of info to go through tonight. The tricky thing is the tyres. Ferrari and McLaren are certainly performing well, as they have done at the last few races - it's no big surprise that they are doing decent lap times and it's a race between all of us."

Sebastian Vettel, P1 - 1:23.564, 2nd; P2 - 1:21.549, 5th
"I felt a little bit better in the car, but it's not like last year, it seems very tight and McLaren and Ferrari are quick. I think we need to raise our game if we want to be at the front. I am not sure if KERS and DRS will have such a big effect this weekend, but I think the new tyres will be a major factor. I've just stepped out of the car, so haven't seen what the others did - I think they will be the most important thing to look out for, in terms of managing the tyres for one lap, but equally for getting the most out of them for a whole stint. It will be a tough one. The bandage on my hand? It's just a little thing, but you know how it goes with us men, we like to make a big fuss!"

Mercedes
Nico Rosberg, P1 - 1:24.250, 7th; P2 - 1:22.121, 7th
"This circuit is really challenging, and it's very satisfying when you get your laps together cleanly around here. We had two decent sessions and the short and the long runs on the super softs were reasonable. However there is still a lot of work to do to improve our package for qualifying and look at how to manage the tyre degradation. It's interesting to see how the top six positions are changing from race to race, and we'll keep pushing to get even closer to, and maybe into, that group."

Michael Schumacher, P1 - 1:24.369, 8th; P2 - 1:22.440, 8th
"Coming to the second race of a back-to-back series means that you are not able to do a great deal to the car between the two weekends so the practice sessions today went pretty much according to our expectations. We do have the developments from the last couple of races to work with but they obviously do not mean we can make up some positions. We will certainly try to make the best of what we have in our hands for qualifying tomorrow and the race on Sunday."

Ross Brawn, Mercedes GP team principal 
"We had two reasonable sessions today with a lot of mileage achieved on both cars. It's clear that the tyres are degrading a fair amount with the track in its current state so we have gathered lots of good information on this to work with overnight. Having such a short time between this race and Germany last weekend, there are no further major developments on the car so we are focusing on getting the best from our recent upgrades and improving their performance."

Norbert Haug, vice-president, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport 
"We did a lot of laps today, and only both Ferraris achieved a higher mileage during both sessions amongst the top eight placed cars. We learnt a great deal as well which we now will try to translate into a more consistent performance during the race stints on Sunday. Our single lap performance looks quite decent, taking into account our current level of performance, and the fact that the layout of this track is certainly one of the most challenging ones for the current concept of our car. Tomorrow it will be about optimising what we have learned today in order to be in our best possible form for the race on Sunday."

Force India
Paul di Resta, P1 - 1:25.336, 12th; P2 - 1:22.835, 9th 
"The morning was quite positive and we completed the programme and managed to learn a bit more about the package we ran at the Nurburgring last weekend. That set us up quite nicely for the afternoon when we did the usual performance runs and long runs to get data on the two tyres. It was good to get 40 laps in during the second session and it helped get me up to speed with the track, which is still quite new for me. The circuit was very green to begin with and tyre wear was high, but it was still consistent and improved quite a bit by the end of the day."

Adrian Sutil, P2 - 1:22.981, 10th 
"A fairly normal Friday for me and we did most of the things on the job list. I was struggling for grip a bit today, especially at the start of the session and I was having to fight the car. But I think most of that was due to the fact that the track was quite green today. We know it always gets better with each session so I don't think it's anything to worry about. In the afternoon the longs runs went well and gave us plenty of information on the soft and supersofts for the race."

Nico Hulkenberg, P1 - 1:25.357, 13th
"I started my programme by trying out a different front wing concept to collect data on its characteristics. Then, we switched back to the usual set-up and I did a proper baseline run and the car felt pretty good straight away. I struggled a bit with brake warm-up today, but overall it was another good session and the soft tyre lasted pretty well for me."

Dominic Harlow, Force India chief race engineer 
"There were two themes to the programme today, aero development and tyre evaluation for the race. As usual Nico ran some development items in FP1, whilst Paul worked on some areas of the car we felt could be improved after the last race. In the afternoon, with rain showers popping up around us, we were fortunate to collect the tyre information as intended and now have to analyse that. The circuit grip was not high, and we expect to improve the balance a bit more before qualifying."

Sauber
Kamui Kobayashi, P1 - 1:25.113, 11th; P2 - 1:23.030, 11th
"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. 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."

Sergio Perez, P1 - 1:24.620, 9th; P2 - 1:23.399, 12th
"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. 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."

James Key, Sauber technical director
"It was a reasonably productive day. The weather conditions changed as the day progressed. We expected rain this afternoon, and in the end it was quite the reverse. The track temperatures went up to what probably will be more relevant in relation to what we expect tomorrow and on Sunday, so it was a useful session in that respect. We've been working pretty much the whole day on the set-up of the cars, and we found several good directions from what we did both in the morning and afternoon. We've got some work to do in the middle sector just to get the balance a little bit better. We collected a lot of data, and we just have to continue to work hard over night to make more progress."

Williams
Rubens Barrichello, P1 - 1:25.836, 14th; P2 - 1:23.679, 13th
"We tested a lot of things today. 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."

Pastor Maldonado, P1 - 1:26.124, 18th; P2 - 1:24.181, 15th
"We brought new parts to Hungary which we spent today testing. 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."

Sam Michael, Williams technical director
"We tested different diffusers and a new rear wing with Rubens today and new bodywork and a revised suspension system on Pastor's car. Although we had a KERS issue in P1, both cars will have KERS for qualifying and we will have the new rear wing for Pastor's car in time for tomorrow's last practice session."

Renault
Nick Heidfeld, P2 - 1:23.861, 14th
"As I only drove in the second session, we tried to make full use of this time and we made good progress with the car. We initially had a lot of oversteer but we made changes which rectified this. We're heading in the right direction but there is still time to be found from the set-up. The grip level from the circuit seems quite low and there is quite a big difference between the tyres, so tomorrow will be interesting."

Vitaly Petrov, P1 - 1:25.093, 10th; P2 - 1:24.546, 17th
"We had some difficulties with the car, because the floor and rear wing were not performing efficiently. As a result, we lost some time and a chance to do more running, as we spent a lot of time fixing the problem. This was also the reason for the lack of grip we experienced out there. We also struggled to get sufficient temperature into the soft tyres. That said, we managed some good track time and completed quite a few laps, and we'll now look ahead to tomorrow to improve on this and give us a good shot come Sunday."

Bruno Senna, P1 - 1:25.855, 15th
"It was a great session for me in the car this morning; I learnt more about the car, and the evolution of it. I would have liked to have run on another set of tyres to get in a quicker lap time but it was still a great experience and very beneficial. Ideally, I would like to have achieved a faster time, but I had a productive time out there. I'm glad the weather held out as it allowed me to take what I wanted from the 90 minutes. It was a fantastic opportunity and I enjoyed every moment, no doubt about it."

Toro Rosso
Jaime Alguersuari, P1 - 1:26.099, 17th; P2 - 1:24.182, 16th
"It was a busy day, in which I did a lot of laps, especially in the morning, when I completed the most of any driver. We concentrated on car set-up for the race, looking at solutions to improve its pace. It is not so clear where we stand just yet, although I think we can expect qualifying to be tough again, while in the race we can be better. I tried both types of tyre, but I do not feel I have a clear picture of the different qualities of the two of them. I think on Sunday, the behaviour of the Supersoft will be one of the key elements that decides what sort of race we can have."

Sebastien Buemi, P1 - 1:25.890, 16th; P2 - 1:24.878, 18th
"We ran a different strategy to normal in terms of our work programme, running the Supersoft tyre right from the morning session. I was not very happy with the handling of the car at first and, during the day we made some quite drastic changes to the set-up. Towards the end of the afternoon, I was getting near the limit, so I think the next step is to go back very slightly on these set-up changes to do better tomorrow. In terms of performance, I would say we are in a similar position to where we were at the last two races, which means we lack a little bit of pace. It was good that the track conditions did not seem to change much over the day, which will make it easier for us to analyse the data we have gathered."

Laurent Mekies, Toro Ross chief Engineer
"Both drivers completed their programme for the day, Jaime ahead of schedule which is why he stopped early this afternoon. We ran the day slightly differently to many Fridays, already doing long runs in the morning session, as we were concerned there was a chance of rain in the afternoon. We focussed mainly on race set-up, doing long runs with both tyre compounds, so that we can now aim to have a good race pace for Sunday. Both the super-soft and soft tyres behaved well, possibly aided by the relatively low ambient temperature today and I think this will mean we could see various different strategies applied during the race. Today, the track remained quite stable compared to previous Fridays here, so I do not expect too many surprises from that point of view tomorrow or Sunday."

Lotus
Jarno Trulli, P1 - 1:27.352, 20th; P2 - 1:24.994, 19th
"I'm very happy today. 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 setup I can really work with. It's been a really positive day and for that my thanks go to everyone in the team."

Heikki Kovalainen, P1 - 1:26.878, 19th, P2 - 1:25.447, 20th
"It feels like we have taken a step forward with the updates we've brought to the back end of the car but I still need to work on finding a balance I'm happy with. We tried a few different setup options today but I couldn't really find the best solution on either compounds, but we've completed a lot of mileage so I'm sure we'll find the right way forward tomorrow."

Mike Gascoyne, Lotus chief technical officer
"That was one of the best Fridays we have had this year. 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. On Heikki's car we need to work on finding him a balance he is happy with and we will see how we have got on with that tomorrow, but overall this has been a very positive Friday."

Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 support leader for Lotus
"A good Friday for the team. We have completed a very decent number of laps and worked through all the engine maps we will need to use here. Driveability is the key to maximising engine performance at this circuit and with the amount of data we have generated today on both cars I am sure we can find more time for qualification tomorrow for both Jarno and Heikki."

Riad Asmat, Lotus chief executive officer
"I am very pleased with today's work across the whole team. Back at the factory we have put in a lot of hours on the updates we have brought here, both on the diffuser and the new steering system, and it is clear from both drivers' lap times that those efforts have closed the gap to the teams ahead more than we have seen for several races. Jarno in particular has been able to push today and he reported that as his confidence increases he will be able to find more time, so I think quali tomorrow could be very interesting."

Virgin
Timo Glock, P1 - 1:28.533, 21st; P2 - 1:28.533, 21st
"This morning was all about aero runs, which is always useful as we are able to collect plenty of data. In the afternoon we worked on the set-up and on some ideas for tomorrow. The main issue at the moment is the tyres, as they are proving to be quite difficult to handle this week, so we will have to have a good look before tomorrow."

Jerome d'Ambrosio, P1 - 1:28.903, 22nd; P2 - 1:28.903, 22nd
"It was a pretty good Friday today. We had some useful testing this afternoon and it was good that we didn't see any of the rain that we were expecting. This morning we didn't really work on set-up and instead I concentrated on collecting aero data, but this afternoon we had a good programme and we'll have a lot of data to go through tonight. Overall it was a good day so let's see what tomorrow brings."

John Booth, Virgin team principal
"It's been a busy Friday for us. In the morning we completed plenty of pre-planned aero tests on both cars. Unfortunately, Jérôme's changes took longer than expected and he also had a small issue with the set-up of his steering, but in general it was a positive first session. In the afternoon fortunately the weather remained dry and we were able to continue the set-up work on the two cars. At times in the session, we have had the two cars set up quite differently and we need to analyse carefully the data gathered in order to decide how we approach tomorrow. This weekend the tyres are going to play a big part and this will also influence the decisions we take. It's clear that our pace is not quite what we've been used to for the last few races, so we need to try to add some significant performance to the cars overnight."

HRT
Daniel Ricciardo, P1 - 1:29.904, 24th; P2 - 1:27.730, 23rd
"It was ok this morning, I was just feeling my way into it. There was a bit to learn for myself but also the car was not to my liking so it was a combination of me getting into it and finding a good balance between the car and myself. We went a step closer this afternoon with that but not enough. We can improve with the prime tyre. As for the option, it was my first time on super-softs and I liked the amount of grip you get from them. The balance is a bit closer to what we need but we still have some work to do with the primes, we'll try and solve it for tomorrow."

Vitantonio Liuzzi, P21 - 1:29.059, 23rd; P2 - 1:28.255, 24th
"In the morning I was very happy with the car, which was responding really well. We had good pace and understood a few things about the setup. Then we changed a few things for the afternoon but it didn't work, so we put everything back to how it was. However the car wasn't reacting like in the morning. We had some problems with the rear end which caused over steering. Now we have to understand why this occurred and work hard to try and get things right for tomorrow."

Colin Kolles, HRT team principal
"HRT F1 made good progress in the two ninety minutes free practice sessions. Neither Vitantonio Liuzzi nor Daniel Ricciardo encountered any problems in the first session and could continue to work through the team program in the second session. The track was dirty this morning, so the team decided to experiment and try a few things, with the intention of doing more intensive set-up work when the track had cleaned up this afternoon. The weather forecast looked unstable for the afternoon, so by precaution the team tested some components in the morning that they would normally test in the afternoon."

Pirelli
Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director
"It's been an interesting day of free practice, where as we expected, we've seen that there is about eight-tenths of a second of difference between the soft and the supersoft tyre: a combination that we also used in Monaco and Canada. Nonetheless, the supersoft clearly does have a small advantage, which will mean that those aiming for pole position are going to use it. Depending on the track and weather conditions, I think we'll see about 15 laps out of the supersoft tyres during the race and around 25 laps from the soft tyres: we saw them being used for 24 laps today. There are a wide variety of cars looking very competitive, which is going to make the order in qualifying hard to predict. But after analysing our tyre data tonight, we should have a better idea of where everybody is at."

German Grand Prix Race Report about Force India

Force India delivered another excellent performance today as Adrian Sutil raced to a superb sixth place in the German Grand Prix. Teammate Paul Di Resta was the victim of a first lap crash, but recovered to finish P13. The eight points scored today move the team into 7th place in the Constructors' Championship. P6 Adrian Sutil, VJM04/04 Tyre strategy:option, option, prime  Adrian:  "It was a great race today and I'm so pleased to get this result for the team because we really deserved it. We had a great car all weekend and everything just went perfectly. The tyres lasted well and we definitely made the right calls with the strategy, which helped me beat Nico [Rosberg] in the final stint. It was actually quite a lonely race for me because I spent most of the time running in clean air so I could really show the potential of the car. To get this result in my home race also makes it extra special and I'd like to thank the fans for their support this weekend. But this is just the start because we still have lots of work to do in the coming races to score lots of points and catch up with the teams ahead of us."  P13 Paul Di Resta, VJM04/02 Tyre strategy: option, option, prime Paul: "Once again it's a frustrating end to my weekend because I had a great chance to score some points today. I made a reasonable start, maintained my position and I was racing with Michael into the first corner. Then I got hit from behind, which must have been Nick [Heidfeld], and that spun me around and compromised my race. It's a shame because we came here with a great package and we had a good strategy for the race. I pushed hard to recover, but points were just out of reach today. The good news is that Adrian has brought in a lot of points and shown just how competitive the car is." Dr. Vijay Mallya, Chairman and Team Principal "Today has been a wonderful team performance and I'm delighted to see Adrian finish in sixth place – a result that everybody has been working hard to achieve. We have been a bit unlucky in the last few races, but today we demonstrated the true pace of the car and delivered the result to match it. The only frustration is that Paul was the unfortunate victim of a first lap accident with Heidfeld. Without this, I'm sure we could have had both Force Indias finish in the points. Even so, we welcome the eight points scored today – points that are important for our championship position and move us ahead of Toro Rosso."

German Grand prix 2011 win by Lewis Hamilton

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	60	37:30.3	2	25
2	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	60	+3.9 secs	4	18
3	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	60	+9.7 secs	1	15
4	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	60	+47.9 secs	3	12
5	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	60	+52.2 secs	5	10
6	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	60	+86.2 secs	8	8
7	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	59	+1 Lap	6	6
8	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	59	+1 Lap	10	4
9	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	59	+1 Lap	17	2
10	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	59	+1 Lap	9	1
11	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	59	+1 Lap	15
12	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	59	+1 Lap	16
13	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	59	+1 Lap	12
14	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	59	+1 Lap	13
15	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	59	+1 Lap	24
16	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	58	+2 Laps	18
17	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	57	+3 Laps	19
18	25	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	57	+3 Laps	21
19	22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	57	+3 Laps	22
20	21	Karun Chandhok	Lotus-Renault	56	+4 Laps	20
Ret	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	37	Electrical	23
Ret	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	35	Hydraulics	7
Ret	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	16	Oil leak	14
Ret	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	9	Accident	11

 

Hamilton surprises with German victory

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton hit back emphatically at his critics with a beautifully judged drive to victory at a mostly dry Nurburgring on Sunday afternoon, in a race which he described to his crew as 'easy' during his slowing down lap.

Hamilton grabbed the lead from Red Bull's Mark Webber at the start as Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel scrapped over third place on a track that was slightly slippery in places from a very light shower just as the grid formed. Vettel took third when Alonso made a mistake, but the Spaniard later repassed him and Vettel lost time first with a half spin in Turn 10 on the ninth lap, then with a rear brake problem.

Hamilton momentarily lost the lead to Webber on the 12th lap after a slow exit from the chicane, but immediately overtook him going into Turn One. Later, however, the Australian took the lead after an early pit stop on Lap 14. The reshuffled order saw Webber ahead of Hamilton, with Alonso very much in play.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa and McLaren's Jenson Button had meanwhile lost time at the start and had ground to make up.

Webber was again the first to make his second stop, again for soft Pirellis, on Lap 30. Hamilton and Alonso stopped on Laps 31 and 32 respectively, and this time McLaren got their man out ahead again to set the pattern for the race. All three ran as fast and as long as they could on their second sets of soft tyres, which were faster than the harder compounds. Behind them, Massa fought a great battle to keep a recovering Vettel at bay for fourth.

Hamilton clearly had the pace to keep Alonso behind, as Webber appeared to fade for a while. As the countdown began to the final stops, McLaren turned Hamilton round quickly again, as he was the first to stop on Lap 51, and though Alonso went two laps later and Webber another three beyond that, there was never any doubt about the outcome as the 2008 world champion won by 3.9s. Alonso crossed the line 5.8s ahead of Webber, but hitched a ride home on the Red Bull's sidepod after running out of fuel on the slowdown lap.

The Massa/Vettel duel was settled by Ferrari's crew on the penultimate lap as both dived into the pits together but Red Bull got their man out quicker, handing him fourth place. Massa was a hugely disappointed fifth.

Behind them, Adrian Sutil made tremendous use of a two-stop strategy to take an excellent sixth place for Force India after a measured drive, beating the three-stopping Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher who, like Vettel, spun in Turn 10. The two silver cars were hounded throughout by Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber after the Japanese driver made a superb start, and he took ninth place just ahead of Vitaly Petrov who had tough battles with Button, Schumacher and Kobayashi on his way to 10th and the final point.

Sergio Perez was 11th in the other Sauber after an off-course moment, while Jaime Alguersuari was Toro Rosso's top finisher in 12th ahead of Force India's Paul di Resta who had to fight back from a spin in the third corner after the start. Pastor Maldonado was Williams' sole finisher in 14th after Rubens Barrichello hit mechanical trouble early on, the Venezuelan heading home Sebastien Buemi who survived a clash at the chicane which put out first-lap spinner Nick Heidfeld. After a post-race investigation by the stewards, Buemi was handed a five-place grid penalty for the next round in Hungary.

Heikki Kovalainen had an uneventful run to 16th for Team Lotus, ahead of the battling Virgins of Timo Glock and Jerome D'Ambrosio. Tonio Liuzzi chased them hard, having overcome a challenge from HRT team mate Daniel Ricciardo, but the Italian retired with electrical problems, leaving the improving Australian rookie to finish 19th ahead of Lotus debutant Karun Chandhok who had a few off-course adventures.

The highest profile non-finisher was Button, who got stuck behind Petrov early on and lost a lot of ground before finally finding a way by. He was running sixth on the road when he was called in to retire on Lap 35, due to hydraulic problems.

Hamilton's win moves him to third in the title chase on 134 points to Vettel's 216 and Webber's 139, with Alonso on 130 and Button grounded on 109. Red Bull extended their constructors' points score to 355, with McLaren on 243 to Ferrari's 192. Mercedes pulled further ahead of Renault, with 78 to 66.