Sunday, July 28, 2013

Hamilton Wins Record-Tying Fourth Hungarian Grand Prix, NASCAR at Indianapolis, Schneider's Endurance Dominance

Lewis Hamilton won a record-tying fourth Hungarian Grand Prix today, matching the mark set by seven-time World Driver's champion Michael Schumacher. This was Hamilton's first win since the United States Grand Prix last year and his first win for Mercedes. Hamilton defeated 2007 world champion Kimi Räikkönen by 10.9 seconds and defending world champion Sebastian Vettel by 12.4 seconds. Mark Webber climbed six positions from his starting position of tenth to finish right behind his Red Bull teammate in fourth. Fernando Alonso started and finished fifth with Romain Grosjean falling to sixth from third after a drive-through penalty for putting four wheels off course. Jenson Button picked up six positions to get seventh place ahead of Felipe Massa and his McLaren teammate Sergio Perez who finished where he started in sixth. Pastor Maldonado finished tenth, scoring his and Williams F1's first point of the season. 

Vettel extended his championship points lead to thirty-eight points over Räikkönen with Alonso thirty-nine back. Hamilton remains fourth, forty-eight behind Vettel. Webber is fifth in the standings ahead of Nico Rosberg, Massa, Grosjean, Button and Paul di Resta. With his first point of the season, Maldonado is the sixteenth driver to score this season. In the Constructors' standings, Red Bull has a sixty-nine point lead over Mercedes. Ferrari is fourteen back of the German manufacture with Lotus in fourth. Force-India is fifth, two points ahead of McLaren. Scuderia Toro Rosso is seventh ahead of Sauber and Williams. Marussia and Caterham have yet to score. 

GP2 and GP3 at Hungary
Britain's Jolyon Palmer and France's Nathanaël Berthon won the GP2 races in Hungary. Despite not scoring any points this weekend, Monaco's Stefano Coletti keeps the points lead but his gap to Brazilian Felipe Nasr is only six points. Americans Alexander Rossi and Jake Rosenzweig scored no points this weekend. Rossi finished thirteenth and sixteenth, Rosenzweig twenty-fifth and fifteenth.

In GP3, Aaro Vainio of Finland and Romanian Robert Visoiu won. Same as Coletti, Cypriot Tio Ellinas scored no points this weekend but kept the points lead, however he owns only a one point lead of Argentine Facu Regalia. Vainio, Brit Jack Harvey and Estonian Kevin Korjus are all tied for third in the standings with seventy-five points. Vainio owns the tiebreaker with two wins to Harvey's one and Korjus none. American Conor Daly is sixth in points, four off the three-way tie. Daly finished in the points in both races in Hungary. He finished second, only a little over a quarter of a second off Vainio in race one and finished eighth in race two. 

NASCAR at Indianapolis
Hoosier Ryan Newman is on pole for the Brickyard 400. It is Newman's fiftieth career pole, putting ninth on the all-time list ahead, breaking a tie with Bobby Isaac. Next to Newman will be four time winner at Indianapolis, Jimmie Johnson. Carl Edwards starts third, Ford has not won at Indianapolis since Dale Jarrett in 1999. Chevrolet has won the last ten races at Indianapolis, with Bill Elliott winning in a Dodge in 2002 being the last time another manufacture won. Denny Hamlin starts fourth driving a Toyota. Toyota has one win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That was the 2003 Indianapolis 500 when Gil de Ferran won driving for Penske Racing. Two-time winner at Indianapolis Tony Stewart starts fifth ahead of Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, 2000 Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya, four-time winner at Indianapolis Jeff Gordon and Marcos Ambrose. 

Penske Racing's two entries start eleventh and twelfth with Joey Logano ahead of Brad Keselowski. Matt Kenseth starts thirteenth ahead of AJ Allmendinger and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Other notable drivers: Kyle Busch starts nineteenth, Kevin Harvick twenty-fourth and Mark Martin twenty-sixth.

Yesterday, Kyle Busch held off Brian Scott and Joey Logano to win the Nationwide Series race. Austin Dillon jumped from third to the points lead, six ahead of Regan Smith and thirteen ahead of Elliott Sadler. Sam Hornish fell to fourth from the points lead, fourteen back of Dillon. Brian Vickers is fifth in the standings.

Bernd Schneider's Endurance Dominance
Five-time DTM champion and Mercedes driver Bernd Schneider has had a dominant year in endurance races in 2013. The forty-nine year old German driver won the 24 Hours of Spa earlier today with co-drivers Maximilian Götz and Maximilian Buhk, it's Schneider's fourth win in races twelve hours or longer in 2013 alone. He won the 24 Hours of Dubai in January, the Bathurst 12 Hours in February and Nürburgring 24 Hours in May.