2006 Stats Update: Hungary

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The title contenders tripped over each other allowing some new faces through to claim the big points. Take a look at how that has affected the championship battles.


Jenson Button’s win moves him ahead of the absent Juan Pablo Montoya into sixth position. But he’ll need some consistent high points finishes to mix it with the three drivers battling for third, fourth and fifth.

The Toyota drivers lost out on a day when they could have scored useful points. Ralf Schumacher was passed by Nick Heidfeld and Jarno Trulli by David Coulthard.

Very little changed at the top of the drivers championship as only three points were scored by the leading five drivers.

With five races left the title can now only be won by either Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher, or Felipe Massa. So there’s just two drivers left in it.

Nick Heidfeld’s points for second brought BMW level with Toyota. And they would have moved ahead of them had Robert Kubica not been disqualified from seventh.

Midland F1 and Super Aguri have only five races left to score some points – were either of them using Michelin tyres they could well have done that at Hungary.

Honda’s biggest points haul of the season arrived at a crucial time – it’s pulled them clear of BMW and Toyota. But, like McLaren, they now look unlikely to gain or lose a place before the end of the season.

Ferrari crept three points closer to Renault – the gap is now down to just seven, and won’t Renault be ruing Giancarlo Fisichella’s Hungaroring crash?

Comparing the average starting positions of team mates throws up some interesting results.

Midland F1 drivers Tiago Monteiro and Christijan Albers, for example, are very closely matched. But Mark Webber has started three places ahead of Williams team mate Nico Rosberg on average this year.

Jenson Button won from 14th at the Hungaroring – which oddly means that on average this year he has finished in the same place that he started.

Scott Speed, despite usually being overshadowed in qualifying by team mate Vitantonio Liuzzi, make up for it on average by gainng more than four places each race.

It just gets worse for Mark Webber – nine failures to finish from 13 starts. But poor Sakon Yamamoto has a 100% car failure record. Such things are alien to the Ferrari drivers who are yet to suffer a mechanical failure.

Fernando Alonso finally succumbed to one at the Hungaroring, his first DNF of the year.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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