Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3

1.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:45.102  1:44.667  1:46.308

2.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:45.140  1:44.503  1:46.395

3.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:45.566  1:44.709  1:46.500

4.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:45.237  1:44.834  1:46.513

5.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:45.655  1:44.557  1:46.586

6.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:45.579  1:44.953  1:46.633

7.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:45.450  1:44.877  1:46.677

8.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:45.372  1:44.592  1:46.761

9.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:45.350  1:44.924  1:46.788

10.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:45.486  1:45.047  1:47.362

11.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:45.486  1:45.119

12.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:45.239  1:45.122

13.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:45.767  1:45.136

14.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:45.707  1:45.251

15.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:45.761  1:45.259

16.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:45.705

17.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:45.951

18.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:46.032

19.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:46.307

20.  Badoer       Ferrari               (B)  1:46.359

All Timing Unofficial

Post Qualifying Car Weights

01 Giancarlo Fisichella: 648 kg
02 Jarno Trulli: 656.5 kg
03 Nick Heidfeld: 655 kg
04 Rubens Barrichello: 644.5 kg
05 Robert Kubica: 649 kg
06 Kimi Räikkönen: 655 kg
07 Timo Glock: 648.5 kg
08 Sebastian Vettel: 662.5 kg
09 Mark Webber: 658 kg
10 Nico Rosberg: 670 kg
11 Adrian Sutil: 678.5 kg
12 Lewis Hamilton: 693.5 kg
13 Fernando Alonso: 684.4 kg
14 Jenson Button: 694.2 kg
15 Heikki Kovalainen: 697 kg
16 Sébastien Buemi: 685 kg
17 Jaime Alguersuari: 704.5 kg
18 Kazuki Nakajima: 706.1 kg
19 Romain Grosjean: 704.7 kg
20 Luca Badoer: 691.5 kg

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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Luca Badoer - 20th: “I’m not happy, because this morning, at the end of free practice, I had hoped to make it through to Q2. Unfortunately, partly because of traffic and partly because of a few small problems, I didn’t manage to put together a perfect lap. I was counting on doing so on my final run, but there was the incident with Vettel which then led to me going off the track and that put an end to my qualifying. I have made another step forward in terms of performance, but it’s still not enough: for me the hardest thing is getting into a rhythm and finding the limits of the car. Unfortunately, there’s no opportunity to do the testing that would put that right. I am sure that tomorrow, I will perform better than I did in the Valencia race. I will try and do my best.”

Kimi Raikkonen - 6th: “Of course I would have preferred to have started from further up the grid, but I think we did our best today. We knew it would be hard to be at the front, but all the same, this is a good position, especially as the gaps between the front runners are pretty tight. With more fuel on board, the car handles better than on a light load and that was the case again in this qualifying session. Such an unusual grid makes it even harder to make any predictions for tomorrow and we will have to make the most of any opportunities that present themselves. The final outcome will depend a lot on the first two corners after the start. The fact the car handles differently at various sections of the track can be explained by the lack of aerodynamic downforce we have this season.”

Stefano Domenicali: “One could certainly say the starting grid order is unexpected. As we have already seen several times this season, the pecking order between the teams can change really suddenly from one race to the next. For our part, we would have liked to be a little bit higher up with Kimi, but all the same, we are in a position that will allow us to fight for a podium finish, especially when looking at the F60’s performance over a long run. As for Luca, once again we could see an improvement in his performance, but unfortunately, it was not enough to avoid him ending up last on the grid again.”

Chris Dyer: “We are a bit disappointed because, after yesterday’s showing, we expected a better result. Sixth place for Kimi must be assessed in the light of the different fuel loads of all the cars in the top ten. We believe we have come up with a good strategy and, given the car’s performance over a long run, we expect that,yet again, we can fight for a place on the podium. As for Luca, everyone can see that, day by day, his performance level is improving: unfortunately, it is not yet at a sufficient level to see him through at least to Q2.”

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Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development

What was significant about today’s running?

“Today we saw a further improvement from the track, even though we did lose almost half an hour of running in the morning practice session. There was a good improvement in tyre performance from both tyres related to the track improvement so we have good confidence for tomorrow. To see a KERS car on pole makes things interesting, as it is difficult to imagine a non-KERS car getting ahead at the start.”

What are the tyre strategy considerations for tomorrow’s race?

“The super soft tyre is around 0.3-0.4 seconds faster than the soft tyre, however it is more susceptible to the lateral graining that we see here. The track improvement today however means that the super soft looks better than it did yesterday for its race duties, so actual strategy choices tomorrow will be interesting. To assist us with data we will analyse the strategies in today’s GP2 Series race too. Looking at today’s skies, I do not think we will have need of Bridgestone’s intermediate and wet tyres for the race.

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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Luca Badoer - 20th: ”Obviously, I’m a bit disappointed as it’s never nice to be last in any situation, but I always knew it would be tough. As I’ve said before, this weekend is a sort of test for me and the team and that is how we are tackling it. However, I do feel the situation is better than yesterday as the more laps I do, the more confidence I gain and the better it gets. Tomorrow it will be important to finish the race and that will be my target. I feel good physically and I have no problems on that score. For sure, if I’d had two days testing under my belt, it would have been a different story.”

Kimi Raikkonen - 6th: ”Honestly, this was one of the best qualifying sessions of the season, even if we are not as quick as those on the front row. Our final result will depend basically on how the start goes. It will be very important to make up a few places, because if we end up behind a slower car, then the race is compromised. I think we are reasonably competitive in race trim, as could be seen in Q3, while we are struggling a bit on light tanks. So far, it’s been a good weekend and I am happy with the performance of the F60.”

Stefano Domenicali: ”Sixth place for Kimi Raikkonen can be judged as a positive result, because it probably reflects our current potential, while Luca’s last place was widely predicted: returning to racing after so much time, furthermore on a track not known to him and one that is difficult to get to grips with, is a daunting task for him. Tomorrow, our race will be divided in two: on one side we will be aiming for a positive result to defend our third place in the Constructors’ classification, which should be within our ability, while with Luca we will try and finish the race, to obtain sufficient experience to tackle the forthcoming rounds in a different fashion.”

Chris Dyer: ”Qualifying had two sides to it for us. It was a very difficult day for Luca, who continued the process of learning about the car and the track. Lap after lap his confidence increased, but it was not enough to get him off the last place on the grid. The situation was definitely not helped by the red flag in FP3 which cost him valuable time. On the other hand, Kimi performed well, especially in Q3, where he did a great lap. Starting from sixth on the grid is a solid base from which to have a good race tomorrow.”

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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Budapest , 25th July 2009

After the accident during the qualifying session of the Grand Prix of Hungary , Felipe Massa was airlifted to the AEK hospital in Budapest . Felipe was conscious at the arrival at the hospital and his general conditions remain stable. Following a complete medical examination it emerged that he had suffered a cut on his forehead, a bone damage of his skull and a brain concussion. These conditions need to be operated on after which he will remain under observation in intensive care. Further information will be released later.

Source - Ferrari Press Release

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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26 July, Hungaroring, Hungary

Bridgestone Motorsport’s Hungarian Grand Prix Report

Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) used a super soft – super soft - soft tyre strategy to score his first race win of the season after a thrilling and tactical Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring.

Hamilton finished over 11 seconds ahead of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver Kimi Raikkonen who used the same tyre strategy to achieve his best finish of the season. Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing) used a super soft – soft – super soft strategy for his second third placed finish of the year.

Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development

What was significant about today’s running?

“Firstly, we send our very best wishes to Felipe Massa. We hope he makes a quick recovery.

“Lap times were exceptionally close today and we saw an interesting battle through the qualifying sessions. There was plenty of suspense even after the sessions had ended. Congratulations to Fernando Alonso for his first pole since Monza in 2007. Starting first is a very big prize here, as overtaking is so difficult. I am very interested to see the starting weights of the cars as I think we will have a fascinating race.”

What are the tyre strategy considerations for tomorrow’s race?

“The track surface continues to improve here, even though there was very heavy rain last night, and this improvement allows both tyres to work far better than we saw on Friday. Our data suggests that the super soft Bridgestone could be the favoured race tyre for many. We didn’t see much running of the soft tyre in the afternoon today, but in the morning there were some driver comments that there was not as much grip from this tyre and the lap times are slower. This means that how to use the soft tyre is likely to be the key consideration for tomorrow’s race.”

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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Alonso will start tomorrow’s Hungarian GP from Pole Position after an action packed Hungarian GP. The timing screens failed at the end of Q3 so we had to wait (along with the teams and drivers) to see what the final results were.

Sadly Massa had a very nasty accident at the end of Q2, when he was hit by debris from Rubens’ Brawn GP car. He will not be fit to race in Hungary and has successfully undergone surgery

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3     

 1.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:21.313  1:20.826  1:21.569

 2.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:21.178  1:20.604  1:21.607

 3.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:20.964  1:20.358  1:21.741

 4.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:20.842  1:20.465  1:21.839

 5.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:20.793  1:20.862  1:21.890

 6.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:21.659  1:20.807  1:22.095

 7.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:21.500  1:20.647  1:22.468

 8.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:21.471  1:20.707  1:22.511

 9.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:21.407  1:20.570  1:22.835

10.  Massa        Ferrari               (B)  1:21.420  1:20.823

11.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:21.571  1:21.002

12.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:21.416  1:21.082

13.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:21.558  1:21.222

14.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:21.584  1:21.242

15.  Piquet       Renault               (B)  1:21.278  1:21.389

16.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:21.738

17.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:21.807

18.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:21.868

19.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:21.901

20.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:22.359

All Timing Unofficial

Below is the weight of each car following qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, sorted by qualifying position.

Pos  Driver                             Weight (kg)

 1.  Alonso       Renault                637.5

 2.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault       655.0

 3.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault       652.0

 4.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes       650.5

 5.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota        654.0

 6.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes       655.5

 7.  Raikkonen    Ferrari                651.5

 8.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes         664.5

 9.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota        658.0

10.  Massa        Ferrari

11.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari     671.5

12.  Trulli       Toyota                 671.3

13.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes         689.0

14.  Glock        Toyota                 679.2

15.  Piquet       Renault                667.7

16.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber             658.0

17.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes   680.5

18.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes   683.5

19.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber             666.0

20.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari     675.5

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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In a session affected by light and intermittent rain, both Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers made it through to the third and final part of the session, ending up eighth and ninth on the grid with Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen respectively. “All in all, especially in light of the changing weather conditions, this is a reasonable result,” commented Stefano Domenicali. “Getting both cars into Q3 was our primary objective. It was not at all easy, because apart from the two teams fighting for the title, all the others are very evenly matched, with some teams seeming to have made a significant and surprising step forward. Tomorrow’s race could be rendered even more uncertain by the weather: realistically, we would like to get both our drivers home in the points and we will have to exploit every eventual opportunity that might present itself.”

Felipe Massa:

“This qualifying was a bit of a lottery: first dry, then rain then dry again. It could have gone better, but it could also have gone much worse. I’m not jumping for joy over eighth place, but it’s not so bad. We have a good strategy aimed at getting us into the points, although a podium seems hard to reach to be honest.”

Kimi Raikkonen:

“It was a pretty complicated session, with track conditions changing all the time. Therefore, it’s difficult to say if this result reflects the real standings down the order. Clearly, we were penalized by not having a single set of new tyres for Q3. I believe that in normal conditions we could have got a better grid position. Having said that, we are not in bad shape for the race: we have a good strategy and we will try and make the most of it.”

Chris Dyer:

“This morning, we were fairly satisfied with the performance of the car in the dry. Then, in qualifying, we found ourselves up against rapidly changing conditions and it was therefore a good result to get both cars into Q3. At that point however, we no longer had any more new soft tyres available and that cost us very dear. We therefore opted to start with a good amount of fuel on board to try and make up ground in tomorrow’s race, when I think we will nevertheless be competitive, whatever the weather. We also hope to make the most of the KERS at the start, given that the main straight is very long.”

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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01 M. Webber Red Bull 1:32.230
02 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:32.357
03 J. Button Brawn GP 1:32.473
04 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:32.480
05 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:32.616
06 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:33.859
07 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:34.316
08 F. Massa Ferrari 1:34.574
09 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:34.710
10 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:34.803
11 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:42.310
12 F. Alonso Renault 1:42.318
13 K. Nakajima Williams 1:42.500
14 J. Trulli Toyota 1:42.771
15 N. Rosberg Williams 1:42.859
16 R. Kubica BMW 1:32.190
17 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:32.251
18 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:32.402
19 T. Glock Toyota 1:32.423
20 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:33.559

Post Qualifying car weights, sorted by qualifying position:

Pos  Driver                             Weight (kg)

 1.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault       661.0

 2.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes         647.0

 3.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes         644.0

 4.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault       661.0

 5.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes       654.5

 6.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes       664.0

 7.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes   678.5

 8.  Massa        Ferrari                673.5

 9.  Raikkonen    Ferrari                674.0

10.  Piquet       Renault                676.0

11.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber             681.0*

12.  Alonso       Renault                668.2*

13.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota        683.6*

14.  Trulli       Toyota                 683.7*

15.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota        689.6*

16.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber             673.5*

17.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari     674.5*

18.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes   662.5*

19.  Glock        Toyota                 662.3*

20.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     689.5*

* declared weight

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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