Christian Horner, Team Principal: "A very hot and tough afternoon. Probably the decisive moment in Sebastian's race was after the first stop when he emerged behind Jenson Button. We weren't able to get past quickly and sustained a bit of wing damage. That then effectively released Lewis and put us back into the realms of fighting with Kimi on a two stop. However, despite the damage, Sebastian was able to maintain a very strong pace and pushed all the way to the flag. Mark's recovery from tenth was excellent today, a very strong first stint put him back into contention and to recover from tenth on the grid to fourth was a very good performance. So heading into the summer break, we've extended our lead in the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships and everyone now deserves a well-earned rest to recharge their batteries for when we come back at the end of August."
Thierry Salvi, Renault: "We would have liked to finish the race in higher positions, but the weekend has been strong and we improved the car during all sessions. Seb and Mark did a fantastic job in the race, Mark was able to come back towards the front and Seb pushed like hell until the end. We are happy with the third and fourth places which increases our positions in the both Championships."
Stefano Domenicali: "Going into this race weekend, we knew we would be struggling a bit. Today's result cannot put a smile on our faces because at no point in the race were we competitive. After a promising start to the season, we are experiencing a drop in competitiveness. Now we need to stay calm and not give up, which is what we are used to doing, especially in the most difficult times. We must use the next few weeks to gather some ideas and act promptly. I expect the whole team to react strongly with the intention of improving the car to allow our drivers to express all their potential."
Pat Fry: "The result of this race is in line with our current potential: we knew this cycle of races would be difficult and that the fight for the podium at this track would be out of our reach. Car performance on both compounds did not give us any margin to attack, not even with a more aggressive strategy. For this reason, we preferred to defend our positions from attacks from those behind and from those caused by traffic, opting for a more conservative strategy. Both drivers did their utmost, especially Felipe, who from first lap onwards had to drive with a damaged front wing. Even if we have managed to limit the damage, now we need to make significant progress if we want to fight for the title. The next two races after the summer break take place on circuits that are very different to the Hungaroring and so we will work on various fronts in the hope of seeing our efforts rewarded as soon as possible."
"Moreover, he was quick in his middle stint, on Options, which underlined the decent race pace that MP4-28 was able to produce on this tricky and idiosyncratic racetrack.
"Checo was very unlucky to get boxed in at the start, losing places as a result, but thereafter he did a very solid and professional job, hanging on in there to bag two useful world championship points also.
"Moreover, both Jenson and Checo deserve plaudits for their great professionalism here today, driving very cleanly in challenging circumstances made even trickier by the proximity of drivers on three-stop strategies who were obviously able and willing to push harder than they were.
"Now, as we go into the mid-season break, I want to say two things: first, that it goes without saying that we'll continue to do our utmost to score as many points as we can in the second half of the season, and, second, that everyone at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes richly deserves a good holiday after having worked spectacularly hard so far this year. Well done, guys.
"Last but not least, I want to say ‘congrats' to our old friend Lewis [Hamilton], who drove very well indeed to score his maiden victory for Mercedes-Benz AMG F1 here today."
Kimi Raikkonen took second place at the Hungaroring to jump back into second in the Drivers' Championship after a hot and hard-fought Hungarian Grand Prix. Kimi used a two-stop strategy for his sixth podium of the season, spurring the advances of Sebastian Vettel in the final laps. Romain Grosjean drove a storming race, withstanding a drive-through penalty and a twenty second addition to his race time to finish in sixth position. Kimi is now second in the Drivers' Championship with 134 points to Sebastian's 172. The team was the second highest scoring in the Constructors' Championship today, remaining in fourth place on 183 points, but closing the gap to Ferrari on 194.
Kimi started from P6 with a scrubbed set of soft tyres, changing to new medium compound tyres on laps 13 and 42. Romain started from P3 on a scrubbed set of soft tyres, changing to new sets of medium compound tyres on laps 13, 25 and 47. He made a pit lane drive-through on lap 37.
Eric Boullier, Team Principal: "Another good result for Kimi today. He drove very well and was backed up by a strong strategy to help him make the podium. Romain was very unfortunate in that we couldn't quite jump Fernando [Alonso] in the pits which cost him a lot of time, plus the drive-through penalty cost him a far better result. He made a great move at a circuit where overtaking is difficult and he had no room to do anything else. For us the Stewards' decision was harsh. The most important thing to take from the weekend has been the pace of the car; this circuit is a bit special, and I think there will be some circuits where we have to work a bit harder, but I'm confident we'll be consistently fighting for podiums at every race weekend in the second half of the season. Red Bull are a long way ahead, but we've shown today that they can be beaten so we want to keep pushing them all the way."
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: "It was a great race today from Kimi – as always. We started the race intending a three-stop strategy, but as the race played out it became clear that a two-stop would give us better possibilities so we switched over to that strategy. Kimi drove superbly to look after his tyres but deliver exactly the pace we needed at the appropriate time. He was rewarded by returning to second in the Drivers' Championship. I feel really sorry for Romain for what appears to be a very harsh penalty for a fantastic overtaking move on Felipe Massa. Yes, he ran off the track, but he had nowhere else to go. It certainly seemed like good racing to me; were it not for the drive-through penalty, we would have had two cars on the podium again."
Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader: "We had high expectations after our strong qualifying positions. Kimi drove a fantastic race with an aggressive strategy of two pit stops which was successful with a podium second place. Romain was very fast all the weekend but with his penalty he lost any chance to get to the podium. We controlled the engine temperatures during all the race and we demonstrated one more time that the Lotus-Renault package is really very fast. The summer break will be very good and we are looking forward to come back on track at Spa."
Lewis' win was the 13th Formula One win for a Silver Arrow and the third victory in five races for the team. Lewis' fourth win at the Hungaroring also took the tally of wins for Mercedes-Benz F1 engines to 99. Lewis completed three pit stops on laps 9, 31 and 50, running option/prime/prime/prime. Nico tangled with Felipe Massa in turn 5 on lap one and dropped to P12. He also made three stops but retired with an engine failure on lap 65. Lewis' victory strengthened the team's second position in the Constructors' Championship at the season's halfway point.
Ross Brawn: We went into this race not really knowing where we stood in terms of tyre performance and behaviour but as the race unfolded, it became clear that we were able to stay competitive with both cars and drivers. Lewis drove an absolutely perfect race and didn't put a foot wrong all afternoon. He was able to race aggressively and keep the tyres alive to make our strategy work. Nico was unfortunate to get tangled up with Massa on the first lap and then suffered an engine failure, which was a little worrying in the closing laps as we hadn't seen any signs of overheating. Overall, this has been a very encouraging weekend. In extremely hot conditions, we maintained our Saturday afternoon competitiveness on Sunday afternoon and it certainly feels like we have made a good step forward today. Now we need to get our heads down before the well-deserved two-week shutdown so that we arrive in Spa as well prepared as we possibly can.
Toto Wolff: What an outstanding drive from Lewis this afternoon - he got a clean getaway and then executed the race strategy perfectly, including some really strong and aggressive overtaking moves when he needed to. He did a great job, just like the team with six clean pit stops for our drivers and the right race strategy. Nico lost positions on the first lap tangling with Felipe and then was making up places when his engine failed near the end of the race. That gave us a nervous few closing laps but we were able to bring Lewis' car home safely. We came into this weekend with a lot of discussion over how the new tyres would affect us. We did our homework in practice, found the right set-up and managed to take a good step forward this afternoon with how we managed the tyres in race conditions. It is only halfway through the season and our rivals have been consistently competitive while we have experienced some ups and downs in the first ten races. Our target for the second half of the year must be to consolidate our performance and deliver this kind of speed consistently. We are still the underdogs right now but we are on an upward trend and we will keep working hard. Thank you to everyone at our factories back in Brackley and Brixworth for their hard work and enjoy a well-deserved summer break. Congratulations as well to our customer sport team-mates who took victory for Mercedes-Benz in the Spa 24 Hours. It's been a good day for the three-pointed star!
Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: "We expected to get one or two points today. Unfortunately, we knew early on this wasn't going to happen. Esteban had to retire because of a gearbox problem. Nico had a good race, however, an unfortunate issue with the pit lane speed limiter earned him a drive through penalty. This ruined any chance we had of getting into the points. On the positive side, we now know we are more competitive. We are optimistic going into the second half of the season."
Tom McCullough, Head of Track Engineering: "Starting from P12 and P17 on this kind of circuit always makes it a hard race. Unfortunately, Nico also lost positions on the first lap, having had a good start initially. He ended up P15 at the end of the first lap. With Esteban's car we had a gearbox problem, which we need to investigate. Unfortunately when exiting the pit lane, Nico had a problem with the activation of the pit limiter, resulting in a drive through penalty, therefore ruining any chance of points today. Going forward, we can take positives from the better tyre management and pace we showed today. We'll return after the summer break more competitive than we started the season."
Dr Vijay Mallya, Team Principal and Managing Director: "It's not been the easiest of weekends for us and it's disappointing to come away from Budapest without any points. Adrian celebrated his 100th Grand Prix this weekend, but he remained out of luck in Hungary and had to retire early with a hydraulic problem. His strategy was looking good so he missed a chance of points today. Paul's race was quite straightforward, but we did not have the speed to make his three-stop strategy work – despite his superb start. With a few laps to go we noticed a similar hydraulic issue with his car and he also had to retire. With the next race coming up in four weeks' time, we will analyse our performance and work hard to recapture our form in Spa."
Xevi Pujolar, Chief Race Engineer: We knew it would be a challenge with the high temperatures today, but we stuck to our three-stop strategy which worked well for us. Pastor made a great start which put him in straight into contention to fight for points. It looked like Perez was too far ahead towards the end, but with Rosberg's late retirement Pastor was able to collect an important point for us. Valtteri drove well but unfortunately had a hydraulic problem which caused him to stop on track. Our first point gives us a good motivation going into the summer break to come back even stronger for the remaining races of the season.
Laurent Debout, Renault Sport F1 team support leader: We were a lot more competitive during all practice sessions this weekend and so we are very happy to score our first point. Pastor drove a great race finishing 10th while Valtteri retired with a hydraulic issue. We continue to make some significant progress and we are looking forward to scoring more points in the next few races.
Franz Tost: "A difficult race for us, as it highlighted what appears to be our weak point at the moment, namely racing in hot conditions and with track temperatures exceeding 50 degrees, this was the hottest Grand Prix of the year. The opening stints were tricky on both cars, but towards the end, we picked up a bit more pace which saw us close on the Saubers and Force Indias. Hopefully, when we return to race in cooler conditions, we can once again get back in the points. However, there will be more hot races, so we must investigate ways of improving our car for these conditions. We have demonstrated again this weekend that the car is fast, as we secured a fifth consecutive top ten grid start, but of course there are no points for that. We still have one week to work before the enforced factory summer shutdown and we will be working flat out to ensure we come back in better shape for Spa."
This afternoon’s Formula 1 Magyar Nagydij 2013 proved to be every bit as challenging as the Marussia F1 Team anticipated as the Hungaroring basked in temperatures reaching 35 degrees C air and 51 degrees C track.
Having started from the back of the grid, the team adopted a bold strategy, starting Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton on the Pirelli Medium tyre whilst their nearest competitors ahead were on the Yellow Softs. Both drivers were struggling with the balance on this initial stint and this was relieved slightly following their first pitstops on laps 21 and 22 when they were able to switch to the Softs. Two further stints each on the Medium tyre gave rise once more to their balance woes and for much of the second half of the race they were both fighting the car whilst working hard to manage tyre degradation.
The Marussia F1 Team now heads into the sport's summer shutdown still holding 10th position in the Constructors' Championship, having maintained this placing since the season-opening race in Melbourne.
John Booth, Team Principal: "Given the pace deficit we saw yesterday in qualifying it was always going to be tough to make progress today. We knew we had to do something different on strategy but we didn't expect to drop back as far as we did on the Medium tyre at the start of the race. The stints we were able to achieve today weren't quite enough to complete our planned two-stop race and so in the end we had to move to a three-stop race, which doesn't help the gaps shown on the timing sheet at the end. Overall a tough weekend and one we will want to move on from quickly. The next series of races coming up after the break will play to more of the strengths of our car and we will be pushing to ensure we learn every lesson we can from this race to come back from the break with renewed vigour. Finally I would like to thank the race team for their hard work in the heat today, we reacted well to the situations seen on track and the boys executed good pit stops, which was the most we could do."
All the drivers apart from Sergio Perez and Jenson Button (McLaren), Mark Webber (Red Bull), Adrian Sutil (Force India), Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) and the two Marussias started the grand prix on the P Zero Yellow soft tyre, nominated together with the P Zero White medium this weekend.
The first of the frontrunners to stop for new tyres was pole-sitter Hamilton on lap nine, switching to the medium compound and promoting Vettel into the lead, who pitted two laps later and re-joined behind Hamilton.
By lap 14, Webber - who had started on the medium tyres - was in the lead, pitting for the first time for more mediums on lap 23. Button, who also started on the medium tyres, went for a different strategy by using the soft tyres for his second stint. Webber was the only driver to use soft tyres for his final stint, exploiting the superior speed of the softer compound to finish fourth from 10th on the grid, while Button finished seventh from 13th on the grid.
Hamilton pitted from the lead once more on lap 31 and lap 50, maintaining his cushion over the following Red Bull drivers on each occasion by taking the initiative when it came to pit stops. His closest challenger at the end of the race was Raikkonen, who finished 10 seconds behind the Mercedes driver despite stopping for tyres only twice. The Finn and the two McLaren drivers were the only top 10 finishers to adopt a two-stop strategy.
Paul Hembery: "The extremely high temperatures meant that everything on the cars, including the tyres, was put through a tough test but nevertheless both compounds performed extremely well. We saw a wide variety of strategies, which relied on close racing and some brilliant overtaking manoeuvres. Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes used their tyres perfectly, in some of the hottest conditions of the year so far, to take a deserved win from pole position. A well-thought tyre strategy certainly contributed to his win when he gained track position at the beginning of the race and then pitted before his direct rivals, controlling the pace of the race. Congratulations also to Kimi Raikkonen and Lotus, who showed what is possible with a two-stop strategy and optimal tyre management."
For a three-stopper we predicted: start on the soft tyre, change to the soft again on lap 13, change to medium on lap 26, and finally medium again on lap 48.
In the end, Lewis Hamilton's strategy was different: start on the soft, change to the medium on lap nine, then medium again on lap 31 and lap 50.
However, the two-stop strategy we predicted worked perfectly for Raikkonen: we said start on the soft tyre, change to the medium on lap 14, change to the medium again on lap 42. Raikkonen did more or less exactly that, except his first stop was on lap 13 with his final stop on lap 42.
