Hungaroring - Qualifying Report
Session 1
The weather was pretty much as expected, a few clouds in the sky, it is Hungary after all. The first quali session was a closely faught affair with a number of drivers within 0.5 seconds, one of the drivers however was not Guillaume Dubois who's Williams never appeared after a Saturday Practice crash in the spare car ment he was without a ride for the rest of the day.
Midland's Pete Reynolds set the session's fastest time with a 1:11.348, however close on his tail was the Honda of Davidson, the two Toyotas and in-form Jamez Shepherd in the sole Williams. Joining Dubois in the Session 1 dump was Both Toro Rosso's with LeSabre starting 21st and Vanwall 20th, a dissapointing showing from both. 19th was a much bigger suprise however as Allman's terrible season continued, the Ferrari driver complaining of poor tyre performance from his Bridgestones, Hutchison also complained of the same problem as he dragged the McLaren to a distant 18th. Tag Schwartz was the final casulty of the first session, missing out by only 0.009 of a second.
Session 2
With 16 runners, everything was up for grabs, the weather was still warm with a few clouds in the sky as the Session got the green light. Honda and Toyota both duked it out but it was Chang in the Renault that took P1 for Session 2 with a 1:11.018, quickly followed by the Toyota of Graham, the Honda of Horton along with team mate Davidson and Machiels rounding out the top 5. Eliminated was Luke Mason (16th) who also complained of incredible tyre graining, Narayan (15th) who is still trying to recapture the form that got him a win at Bahrain. 14th was Jessica Weiland in one of her better qualifying performances, she shares row 7 with Renault-bound Will Whitcomb who again found the Michelins failing him. Row 6 consists of Australian Brett Edwards (12th) and reigning champ, Bruno Domingues (11th), who was norrowly beaten out of the top ten by champion-elect, Jef Beyens.
Session 3
The final session consisted of 2 Hondas, 2 Toyotas, 2 Spyker-Midlands, 1 Williams, 1 Renault, 1 Ferrari and 1 McLaren, the track had infact cooled after the second session, but that seemed like a good thing after the amount of complaints about tyre wear. The Toyotas were fast all day and after the dust had settled, it was Bram Machiels who took pole with a fantastic time of 1:10.310, although some teams do believe he is light fueled. Joining the Belgian on the front row is Jamez Shepherd in the Williams, continuing his strong performances, surely he is looking good for the win. Row 2 saw the pairing of future team mates as Herman Chang took his Renault onto P3, Lee Davidson will start from P4, the last driver in the 1'10's.
Row 3 was seperated by only 4 hundreths of a second as Danny Graham in the second Toyota took P5 rounding out a great day for the Japanese team, Pete Reynolds continued Midland's resurgent form with 6th place on the grid. Starting behind him in P7 will be his team mate, Yuuji Kawasie, yet to sign a contract, maybe a good performance here will open up a fast drive for next season, Australian Blake Haswell joins him in the McLaren 8th. Rounding out the top 10 are Jef Beyens, who is showing signals of a heavy fuel load and Brad Horton in the second Honda, also possibly one stopping.
Race Preview
The Hungarian GP is usually a bore-fest as it's often described as Monaco without the barriers due to it's lack of overtaking possibilities. Lee Davidson won here last season for Ferrari and will be looking to make it a hat-trick of Hungarian victories, but the bookie's favourite appears to be Shepherd. Jamez has been in blistering form jumping to 4th in the championship thanks to brilliant performances in the past 8 races, meanwhile pole-man Machiels will be looking to end his drought of 5 races without a point in style.
Odds:
Shepherd: 3/1
Beyens: 4/1
Davidson: 8/1
Kawasie: 8/1
Horton: 11/1
Reynolds: 11/1
Machiels: 16/1
Haswell: 20/1
).
Damn my leaving BATracer twice!)
I wish.
(until a wall comes in the front of the car )
