Team McLaren Mercedes driver David Coulthard finished ninth in yesterday’s 70 lap Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring. David was on a three-stop-strategy and completed his pitstops on laps 11 (7.5 seconds), 32 (8 seconds) and 53 (7.9 seconds). Team mate Kimi Raikkonen retired on lap 14 with an electrical problem. David remains seventh in the Drivers’ World Championship with 19 points whilst Kimi is eighth with 18. Team McLaren Mercedes remains fifth in the constructors’ rankings with 37 points.
DAVID COULTHARD “We have been suffering from making the wrong decision with regards to tyres and continued to do so today as the ambient temperature remained relatively low. There was not a lot I could do in the race as we started so far back, and it’s almost impossible to overtake on this track. I think we will just forget about this weekend and look forward to the Belgian Grand Prix in two weeks time.”
KIMI RAIKKONEN “I gained a few positions on the first lap to be seventh and was getting into the race. I’m not sure what the problem was, but the engine kept cutting out for a few laps, so there was nothing for me to do but retire. It’s a shame as we could have been in the points, but I look forward to Spa where I think we will be more competitive.”
RON DENNIS “Kimi made a good start and had a strong opening lap which saw him moving up to seventh. Unfortunately he suffered an injector drive powerbox failure causing the engine to cut out, which we were unable to rectify and consequently we took the decision to retire him. David’s race was hampered by a poor grid position, which was a result of the team making the wrong decision with regards to race tyres. However his pace was comparable to the other Michelin runners. We now look forward to Spa, which should play to the strengths of MP4-19B.”
NORBERT HAUG “A very bad weekend with a wrong tyre choice and an electrical failure of the injection system on Kimi’s car. Our team will now work hard in order to achieve a much better result at the Belgian Grand Prix and demonstrate the performance we showed in the past three races.”
Pos - Driver - Team - Race Time
1 Michael Schumacher Scuderia Ferrari 1h35m26.131 2 Rubens Barrichello Scuderia Ferrari 1h35m30.827 3 Fernando Alonso Renault 1h36m10.730 4 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams BMW 1h36m28.744 5 Jenson Button BAR Honda 1h36m33.570 6 Takuma Sato BAR Honda 1h35m26.613 7 Antonio Pizzonia Williams BMW 1h35m27.748 8 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber 1h35m53.595 9 David Coulthard Team McLaren Mercedes 1h35m55.652 10 Mark Webber Jaguar Cosworth 1h36m21.740 11 Olivier Panis Toyota 1h36m38.075 12 Nick Heidfeld Jordan Ford 1h35m59.009 13 Christian Klien Jaguar Cosworth 1h36m37.631 14 Gianmaria Bruni Minardi Cosworth 1h36m46.632 15 Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi Cosworth 1h36m04.389
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