06/08/2006
NEWS STORY
Pedro de la Rosa finished today's 70-lap Hungarian Grand Prix in second place, scoring his first ever Formula 1 career podium in his fourth race for Team McLaren Mercedes. Kimi Raikkonen retired on lap 26 whilst in second place following a coming together with Vitantonio Liuzzi, which resulted in the Mercedes-Benz safety car being deployed. Pedro was on a three-stop strategy, pitting on laps 16 (11.8 seconds), 26 just as the safety car was deployed (11.0 seconds) and lap 51 (7.9 seconds). Kimi pitted on lap 17 (11.0 seconds). With rain falling at the Hungaroring all morning most of the race was run in wet conditions. Kimi fifth in the Drivers' Championship with 49 points and Pedro is 12th with 10 points. Juan Pablo Montoya is seventh with 26 points, and Team McLaren Mercedes is third in the Constructors' standings with 85 points. Formula 1 now enters a three week break from on-track activity until the Turkish Grand Prix at the end of August, however development of the MP4-21 will continue intensively in Woking, Brixworth and Stuttgart.
Pedro de la Rosa: "I am extremely happy to score my first Formula 1 podium today, and it is great to score eight points for the team, who have all worked so hard for this. It was a very interesting race with the wet conditions, so I just tried to keep my head down, push all the way and stay out of trouble, as I knew if I got to the end we had the speed to be on the podium. The Michelin tyres worked really well today in all the conditions, especially the dry tyres at the end. We backed off a little in the middle section as we were very heavy on fuel and we wanted to conserve this and go as long as possible, but in the end the track conditions changed, and we pitted earlier to change the tyres. This really is a great feeling and it is down to all the team that we were able to achieve this today."
Kimi Raikkonen: "I could do nothing to avoid the collision with Liuzzi. He really slowed down on the racing line and there was just nowhere for me to go except into the back of him. The start of the race was really good for me with my first set of Michelin tyres working really well, but after the first stop I was really struggling with grip on the front, and as a result Fernando Alonso was able to build on his lead. It is never great to end a race like that especially when there was every opportunity to win it, but we just have to move forward, and I really appreciate the gesture of Liuzzi coming to apologise. Well done Pedro for a strong performance."
Ron Dennis: "I would like to congratulate Pedro on a tremendous, measured and effective drive today scoring a great second place. The team and I are personally delighted for him, and it is a much deserved result and demonstrates the racing quality of a great driver. Whilst the race, I am sure, was exciting to watch it was tinged by some disappointment that we should lose Kimi in such a way. Understandably we feel a race win that should have been eluded us today."
Norbert Haug: "A first class performance by Pedro mastering tricky conditions throughout the race. His second place is well deserved, and he kept his cool in every circumstance. It is a pity that Kimi dropped out after having a misunderstanding followed by a crash with Vitantonio Liuzzi who backed off to let Kimi through. We will now during the summer break continue to work hard to further improve our package, and we want to demonstrate our upwards trend at the next Grand Prix in Turkey. Congratulations to Honda and Jenson Button for their first win.
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