Following his accidents at the Canadian, British and German Grand Prixs, Felipe Massa finds himself with less than a third of the points total of team mate Valtteri Bottas. The Formula One circus heads straight from Hockenheim to Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix – the scene of Massa’s life-threatening accident five years ago.
Williams now find themselves third in the Constructors’ Championship, following Bottas’ third consecutive podium last time out. They are currently 67 points behind Red Bull, so they will head into the summer break third at best, but they can attempt to start to chip away at that deficit here; a race at which the team has won seven times, most recently in 1997 when Jacques Villeneuve passed the wounded Arrows of former team mate Damon Hill on the last lap.
Realistically, a podium might be pretty tough at the Hungaroring, with the track being likened to an ‘eastern-European Monte Carlo’, meaning that downforce is absolutely vital here. While Williams have clearly found some downforce in recent weeks, it does seem likely that Red Bull and possibly even Ferrari could find themselves ahead here. The Mercedes powertrain won’t be as much of an advantage here, as there are only two straights of decent length here.
Williams Hungarian GP Preview
No. 19 Felipe Massa (BRA) – 10th
Form: 7/12/4/R/R
2013 (Driving for Ferrari): Q: P7, R: P8
Massa has had pretty woeful luck at Hungary. He had one of his finest races in 2008 when he was leading both McLarens that looked quicker on the day, when his engine blew up with just three laps to go. He had his horrible injury here in 2009, and has a best result of fourth, achieved in 2010. Last year he had a great duel with the Lotus of Romain Grosjean en route to eighth place. Massa has scored just 12 points in the last three races, so he really needs to start finishing races again.
No. 77 Valtteri Bottas (FIN) – 5th
Form: R/7/3/2/2
2013: Q: P16, R: Retired (Hydraulics)
The Hungarian Grand Prix was a race to forget for Bottas last year, as he was outqualified by then team mate Pastor Maldonado, and suffered the first retirement of his career as he came to a halt following a hydraulics failure. In the meantime, Maldonado went on to score the team’s first point of the season as he finished in tenth place. This race will be somewhat of a home race for the Finn, as plenty of his countrymen come down from Finland to cheer him and Kimi Raikkonen on.
Thank you for reading. Please take a moment to follow me on Twitter – @Craig_O_F1. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport and @LWOSworld– and “liking” our Facebook page.
For the latest sports injury news, check out our friends at sports injury alert.
Main image:
