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| McLaren’s Juan Pablo Montoya after the qualifying session at the Hungaroring circuit outside Budapest on Saturday. (Reuters) |
My last race in Germany, at the Hockeinheim circuit, was eventful. But, the important thing was that we managed to bring both cars home. It was a circuit where I had never raced before, but I managed to get a grip of it quickly. It was good to finish in Germany after having failed in the earlier races. I managed to finish ahead of my teammate Tiago Monteiro who also had a very eventful race.
The Hungaroring circuit is another where I have never raced before. But unlike the others where it was easy to get a hang of the track, this one looks more challenging. The Hungaroring is a very technical circuit, which has one corner leading to another and doesn’t allow the driver to relax at all for the entire duration of the lap.
This circuit is used only once a year and clearly you can feel the slippery nature of the circuit due to the dust and other debris on the track. It thus becomes essential to follow the racing line to avoid collecting the debris.
Due to this, and the tight and twisty nature of the track, overtaking is virtually impossible here and it all depends on who takes the lead going into the first corner of the race. For us, it will get tricky when a car comes to lap us since that would mean moving over the racing line and collecting the debris and on this circuit it takes two full laps to clean your tyres and get them back to racing quality.
The FIA regulations allow only two hours of practice on Friday and Saturday. So the aim on both these days was to get as many laps under my belt as possible. I have to admit this is one circuit which is quite hard to learn. I expect this weekend’s race to be really hard for us.
The weather conditions also look really challenging. It is extremely hot here with the track temperature being around 50 degrees centigrade. It is physically very demanding and the drivers are always working due to the fact that there are no straights except the start-finish one.
Johnny Herbert has joined our team as the sporting relation manager. It is great to have his 11 years of Formula One experience with us. It was something the team needed and I feel it’s a big move. It was his first day in office on Friday and I am sure as time goes along he will prove to be very useful to us.
As usual, the Mclaren-Mercedes easily are the fastest cars on the circuit. However, reliability issues have, on some occasions, spoilt their party. If they can sort out that one issue, I am sure we will see them take the chequered flag at Hungary.
KARTHIKEYAN SO FAR...
In the Formula One world championship, so far, Narain Karthikeyan’s best result has been at US Grand Prix in Indianapolis where he finished fourth. Of course only six cars took part after the rest pulled out due to fear of Michelin tyres not being safe. His next best was at the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang where he finished 11th. The following is his performance in the first 12 races of the season:
• March 6, Australian GP (Melbourne): Finished 15th
• March 20, Malaysian GP (Sepang): Finished 11th
• April 3, Bahrain GP (Sakhir): Retired after two laps
• April 24, San Marino GP (Imola): Finished 14th
• May 8, Spanish GP (Barcelona): Finished 13th
• May 22: Monaco GP (Monaco): Retired after 22 laps
• May 29: European GP (Nurburgring): Finished 16th
•June 12: Canadian GP (Montreal): Retired after 28 laps
•June 19: United States GP (Indianapolis): Finished 4th
• July 3: French GP (Magny-Cours): Finished 15th
•July 10: British GP (Silverstone): Retired after 10 laps
•July 24: German GP (Hockenhiem): Finished 16th
COMING UP...
• July 31: Hungarian GP (Budapest)
• August 21: Turkish GP (Istanbul)
• September 4: Italian GP (Monza)
• September 11: Belgian GP (Spa-Francorchamps)
• September 25: Brazilian GP (Sao Paulo)
• October 9: Japanese GP (Suzuka)
• October 16: Chinese GP (Shanghai)
