2005 Hungarian Grand Prix Explained

Type:F1
Country:Hungary
Grand Prix:Hungarian
Details Ref:[1] [2]
Official Name:Formula 1 Marlboro Magyar Nagydíj 2005[3]
Date:31 July
Year:2005
Race No:13
Season No:19
Location:Hungaroring, Mogyoród, Pest, Hungary[4]
Course:Permanent racing facility
Course Mi:2.722
Course Km:4.381
Distance Laps:70
Distance Mi:190.552
Distance Km:306.663
Weather:Sunny, Air: 34C, Track 45C
Pole Driver:Michael Schumacher
Pole Team:Ferrari
Pole Time:1:19.882
Pole Country:Germany
Fast Driver:Kimi Räikkönen
Fast Team:McLaren-Mercedes
Fast Time:1:21.219
Fast Lap:40
Fast Country:Finland
First Driver:Kimi Räikkönen
First Team:McLaren-Mercedes
First Country:Finland
Second Driver:Michael Schumacher
Second Team:Ferrari
Second Country:Germany
Third Driver:Ralf Schumacher
Third Team:Toyota
Third Country:Germany

The 2005 Hungarian Grand Prix (officially the Formula 1 Marlboro Magyar Nagydíj 2005) was a Formula One race, held on 31 July 2005 in the Hungaroring circuit at 14:00 CEST (UTC+2).

Friday drivers

The bottom 6 teams in the 2004 Constructors' Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race.

Constructor Nat Driver
McLaren-MercedesAlexander Wurz
Sauber-Petronas-
Red Bull-CosworthVitantonio Liuzzi
ToyotaRicardo Zonta
Jordan-ToyotaNicolas Kiesa
Minardi-CosworthChanoch Nissany

Report

Background

The 2005 Hungarian Grand Prix was the thirteenth race of the 2005 Formula One season, and saw the beginning of the end of tobacco advertising in F1 due to the Europe-wide ban. McLaren (West) ran with tobacco livery just on Friday and BAR (Lucky Strike) ran with tobacco livery on Friday and Saturday before withdrawing it for the race, while Ferrari (Marlboro), Renault (Mild Seven), and Jordan (Benson & Hedges) ran full tobacco livery for the entire weekend. It was the last Formula One race to be sponsored by a tobacco company, this is also the only official Formula One race weekend for Chanoch Nissany, who drove for Minardi in Free Practice 1 and was just over six seconds behind the next slowest driver.

Qualifying

Michael Schumacher surprised the paddock by taking his first pole position of the season, causing speculation that he was running a light first fuel load in order to build a gap on a circuit on which overtaking is notoriously difficult. Beside him on the front row was Juan Pablo Montoya, nearly 9 tenths behind. Jarno Trulli continued his impressive qualifying form by taking 3rd place, while Kimi Räikkönen took fourth spot despite being the first runner out on the dirty circuit. Championship leader Fernando Alonso started in sixth position.

Race

Race day was hot, with the air temperature at 34 °C, and track temperature 47 °C at the start of the race. Both Michael Schumacher and Montoya got fast starts, while Räikkönen took Trulli off the line, and ended the lap in second place, having passed his teammate as well. Further back, Alonso was squeezed into turn one by Ralf Schumacher, the German's right-rear wheel making contact with Alonso's front wing and causing it to hang unevenly. Rubens Barrichello braked too late into the first turn, breaking his front wing on Trulli's diffuser. Further back, Christian Klien made contact with Jacques Villeneuve, with their wheels touching as they fought for position in the first turn. This sent Klien into a spectacular barrel-roll, before finishing the right way up, and unharmed. Red Bull Racing's race then went from bad to worse, with Alonso's front wing dislodging itself between turns 10 and 11, into the path of several drivers. Most managed to avoid it, but David Coulthard, apparently unsighted by Mark Webber's Williams, hit the debris, causing the Scot's right-front suspension to break and force him into retirement. At the end of lap 1, Schumacher led by 1.9 seconds over Räikkönen, who was a further 2.4 seconds ahead of Montoya. Alonso, Barrichello and Jordan's Tiago Monteiro were all forced to pit at the end of the lap for repairs.

Immediately, Räikkönen began pressuring Schumacher, the pair lapping Monteiro after just 4 laps. Räikkönen and Schumacher then began trading fastest laps, and the gap was cut down to just 0.792 seconds after 9 laps. Meanwhile, Barrichello, forced back due to his early damage, got past Minardi's Robert Doornbos, clear superior car speed meaning the Dutch driver could offer no resistance. Räikkönen entered the pits first, on lap 11, showing that his qualifying effort was significantly helped by the light fuel load, and leaving Schumacher to attempt to open a gap before his own stop. Barrichello also made his move on Christijan Albers, moving up to 14th, while Alonso finally dispatched Doornbos to move up to 16th place. Trulli became the second driver to take his scheduled fuel stop on lap 13, while Alonso made short work of Albers to move into 15th. Barrichello continued his charge, taking Narain Karthikeyan for 13th place on lap 14. The question of how much fuel was in Schumacher's car was answered on lap 15, with the German refuelling to leave Montoya in the lead. Schumacher rejoined reasonably comfortably ahead of Räikkönen, while his brother Ralf Schumacher managed to leapfrog teammate Trulli, who was still suffering with a damaged diffuser.

Montoya stretched his lead to over 16 seconds by lap 17, while Doornbos, Karthikeyan and Monteiro all made their stops from the back of the field. Montoya took his first stop on lap 22, but his lead was not large enough to allow him to stay in the lead, rejoining in 3rd place, behind Michael Schumacher and Räikkönen, and ahead of Jenson Button, who had yet to stop. Button took his pitstop alongside Giancarlo Fisichella on the following lap, while Räikkönen again closed in on Michael Schumacher, reducing the gap to just 0.6 seconds by lap 24. Alonso took his first scheduled stop on lap 26, rejoining the race in 14th, and still well out of the pointscoring positions. Lap 27 saw Nick Heidfeld and Jacques Villeneuve pit, the pair apparently on two-stop strategies, while Mark Webber showed that he was fuelled heavily during qualifying, becoming the last driver to take their first stop, on lap 29, from 7th position. Meanwhile, Robert Doornbos pulled off to retire, the team citing hydraulic failure for his early demise.

On lap 30, Michael Schumacher led by just 0.6 seconds over Räikkönen, the Finn apparently content to stay behind the German until their next stops. Montoya was in third position, ahead of Ralf Schumacher, Trulli, Button, Heidfeld, Takuma Sato, Fisichella, Barrichello and Webber. The Saubers of Villeneuve and Felipe Massa sat in 12th and 13th, both of their Petronas engines sounding rough. Trulli and Barrichello pitted on lap 33, followed by Michael Schumacher on lap 35. The German held just a 0.5 second lead over Räikkönen, who pitted on the following lap. The gap was enough for Räikkönen to take the position from Schumacher. Montoya then slowed considerably, and pitted at the end of lap 41 to retire from the race. This handed Räikkönen a comfortable lead over Schumacher, and pushed Ralf Schumacher into a potential podium position. Massa entered the pits on lap 42, spending several laps as the team attempted to fix the damage caused by a small fire due to a fuel spill. On lap 43, Fisichella ran wide at turn 4, losing 8th position to Webber.

Now released from behind Schumacher, Räikkönen was able to show the full speed of his McLaren. He increased the gap to over 20 seconds by lap 44. Button made his second and final pitstop on lap 47 from 5th place, rejoining the race in 6th. Räikkönen took his final stop on the following lap, with his lead large enough to allow him to comfortably rejoin still ahead of Schumacher. Most of the field took their final stops between laps 50 and 55, with little change in the front of the field, although Webber was able to leapfrog Sato to take 7th place. Michael Schumacher made his final stop on lap 57 from a distant second place, rejoining just 4.4 seconds ahead of his brother, who was showing impressive speed in the Toyota. By lap 62, Räikkönen had increased his lead to over half a minute, while Ralf Schumacher closed the gap to just 2.9 seconds behind Michael. Three laps later, the gap was reduced to 1.2 seconds, with all cars except the top 6 at least one lap behind the leader Räikkönen. Albers took a lengthy stop on lap 51, but rejoined the race a few laps later, while Villeneuve retired from the race on lap 57 due to yet another small engine fire on a Sauber. Fisichella took a quick "splash-and-dash" to the finish on lap 68, but was able to hold his 9th position ahead of 10th-placed Barrichello. Räikkönen took a very important comfortable victory ahead of Michael Schumacher who was able to withstand the late charge from Ralf Schumacher, who scored his first podium finish of the year, and his first for Toyota. Fourth place went to Trulli, ahead of Jenson Button, followed by the Williams' of Heidfeld and Webber, with Sato scoring his first point of the year in 8th. Alonso finished in a disappointing 11th position.

Winner Kimi Räikkönen declined the traditional champagne spraying as a mark tribute to 29-year-old McLaren chef Darren Hawker, who died on 27 July. Hawker fell from the eighth floor of the Marriott Hotel in Budapest. It was not the first time that such an event befell F1, as in 1991 a Lotus mechanic died in similar circumstances at the San Marino Grand Prix.[5] [6] [7]

The result meant that Räikkönen moved to within 26 points of Alonso with 6 races remaining, and a good result next race should give him a chance at the championship, given McLaren's apparent superior speed. Michael Schumacher sits in 3rd place on 55 points, while the following six drivers will all be out of the championship race if they fail to score in the Turkish Grand Prix. McLaren reduced the gap to Renault to just 12 points in the constructor's championship, followed by Ferrari, another 19 points in arrears. BAR took their fourth consecutive points haul of the year, but still lie a disappointing (by 2004's standards) 7th place.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos No Driver Constructor Lap Gap Grid
11 Michael SchumacherFerrari1:19.8821
210 Juan Pablo MontoyaMcLaren-Mercedes1:20.779+0.8972
316 Jarno TrulliToyota1:20.839+0.9573
49 Kimi RäikkönenMcLaren-Mercedes1:20.891+1.0094
517 Ralf SchumacherToyota1:20.964+1.0825
65 Fernando AlonsoRenault1:21.141+1.2596
72 Rubens BarrichelloFerrari1:21.158+1.2767
83 Jenson ButtonBAR-Honda1:21.302+1.4208
96 Giancarlo FisichellaRenault1:21.333+1.4519
104 Takuma SatoBAR-Honda1:21.787+1.90510
1115 Christian KlienRed Bull-Cosworth1:21.937+2.05511
128 Nick HeidfeldWilliams-BMW1:22.086+2.20412
1314 David CoulthardRed Bull-Cosworth1:22.279+2.39713
1412 Felipe MassaSauber-Petronas1:22.565+2.68314
1511 Jacques VilleneuveSauber-Petronas1:22.866+2.98415
167 Mark WebberWilliams-BMW1:23.495+3.61316
1721 Christijan AlbersMinardi-Cosworth1:24.443+4.56117
1819 Narain KarthikeyanJordan-Toyota1:25.057+5.17518
1920 Robert DoornbosMinardi-Cosworth1:25.484+5.60219
2018 Tiago MonteiroJordan-ToyotaNo time20
Notes

Race

PosNoDriverConstructorTyreLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
19 Kimi RäikkönenMcLaren-Mercedes701:37:25.552410
21 Michael SchumacherFerrari70+35.58118
317 Ralf SchumacherToyota70+36.12956
416 Jarno TrulliToyota70+54.22135
53 Jenson ButtonBAR-Honda70+58.83284
68 Nick HeidfeldWilliams-BMW70+1:08.375123
77 Mark WebberWilliams-BMW69+1 Lap162
84 Takuma SatoBAR-Honda69+1 Lap101
96 Giancarlo FisichellaRenault69+1 Lap9
102 Rubens BarrichelloFerrari69+1 Lap7
115 Fernando AlonsoRenault69+1 Lap6
1219 Narain KarthikeyanJordan-Toyota67+3 Laps18
1318 Tiago MonteiroJordan-Toyota66+4 Laps20
1412 Felipe MassaSauber-Petronas63+7 Laps14
NC21 Christijan AlbersMinardi-Cosworth59+11 Laps17
Ret11 Jacques VilleneuveSauber-Petronas56Engine 15
Ret10 Juan Pablo MontoyaMcLaren-Mercedes41Driveshaft2
Ret20 Robert DoornbosMinardi-Cosworth26Hydraulics19
Ret14 David CoulthardRed Bull-Cosworth0Suspension13
Ret15 Christian KlienRed Bull-Cosworth0Collision11

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
PosDriverPoints
1 Fernando Alonso87
2 Kimi Räikkönen61
3 Michael Schumacher55
24 Jarno Trulli36
15 Juan Pablo Montoya34
Source: [8]
Constructors' Championship standings
PosConstructorPoints
1 Renault117
2 McLaren-Mercedes105
3 Ferrari86
4 Toyota68
5 Williams-BMW52
Source:

See also

References

47.5789°N 19.2486°W

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2005 Hungarian GP. ChicaneF1. 8 June 2022.
  2. Web site: 2005 Marlboro Hungarian Grand Prix. Racing-Reference. 8 June 2022.
  3. Web site: FORMULA 1 Marlboro Magyar Nagydíj 2005 - Race. Formula1.com. 29 December 2020.
  4. Web site: 2005 Hungarian Grand Prix. Motor Sport. 8 June 2022.
  5. Web site: Grand prix tribute to Darren. somersetcountygazette.co.uk. 18 October 2021.
  6. News: McLaren chef dies in Hungary fall. news.bbc.co.uk. 27 July 2005 . 18 October 2021.
  7. Web site: Sadness at McLaren. grandprix.com. 18 October 2021.
  8. Web site: Hungary 2005 - Championship • STATS F1. www.statsf1.com. 18 March 2019.