Hungarian GP Race Report

It was a party time in Hungary with Alonso’s 30^th birthday, Button’s 200^th race, Rosberg’s and Toro Rosso's 100^th. And as it befits such occasions, Hungaroring delivered a race to remember! Who would have expected...?

It was an intense festival of fights, overtakings, drama, strategic gambles and errors. Yes – errors, as there wasn’t a single driver on the grid last Sunday, who was flawless. Some mistakes were harmless (like Button’s who left the track a few times, as he himself confessed in the post-race press conference, but still won), some were dangerous (like Hamilton’s who nearly collected Paul di Resta on his way back to racing), some were numerous yet innocent (like Alonso’s who seemed to be all over the track, but still secured a podium finish) and some were costly (like Massa’s, who damaged his rear wing when hitting a barrier). I don’t know how it was with you, but for me the awareness that in those tricky conditions every single driver could make a mistake any moment and lose not only valuable time, but also places made it even more fascinating and nerve-wrecking up till the chequered flag.

Red Bull must have felt endangered with the speeding up McLaren and Ferrari as they decided to break the curfew for the first time this season, working long night hours before Saturday. It paid off and Sebastian Vettel got another pole, beating Lewis Hamilton by a small margin. Sunday brought some rain and so the teams decided to start on the intermediate tyres. When the lights went off, top 3 drivers maintained their positions. Behind them, the two Ferraris had a good start at first with Alonso jumping Massa (the Brazilian outqualified his team mate for the first time since Spa 2010 to grab P4), but they were soon overtaken by the two Mercedes drivers (who started P7 and P9). Further behind, Mark Webber lost position and found himself in P8 (starting P6). The Aussie was in fact lucky not to be overtaken by both Force Indias. Nick Heidfeld, who was knocked out in Q2 on Saturday, wasn’t lucky right from the beginning and after the first lap he was at the back of the pack.

Having lost places, the Ferrari drivers started fighting their way up the order right from the beginning. They both overtook Schumacher and Alonso even got in front of Rosberg only to make two mistakes and lose places to the German and Massa. However, the Brazilian decided to play it gentle and let Alonso through without much fight. Thanks to DRS, the Spaniard was soon in front of Rosberg again. Meanwhile, at the very front, we witnessed an intense battle for the lead between Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton. The German succumbed on lap 5, made a mistake and let Hamilton through.

Massa was soon another driver to make a costly error as he spun his car and hit the barrier. Luckily, he was able to continue and the damaged rear wing didn’t seem to affect his pace (he managed to secure race’s fastest lap). At the back of the pack, Sebastién Buemi was making good progress: the Swiss started the race from the very back, having been handed a 5-places grid penalty for his collision with Heidfeld in Germany, but by lap 10 he was already 12^th.

As the track was now drying out, the drivers changed the tyres to super soft slicks around laps 10–12. The leading order was now Schumacher (who was still on intermediate tyres), Hamilton, Vettel, Button, Alonso. Sebastian Vettel lost the pace and was now overtaken by Button, while Webber evened out Red Bull’s balance and got past Alonso, only to leave the track soon while lapping one of the Virgin cars (without any consequences though). Soon, the stewards were called into action: Pastor Maldonado was handed a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane, while Lotus Team was under investigation for an unsafe release of Heikki Kovalainen’s car.

With his race compromised by the penalty, Maldonado tried hard to fight his way through, but lost a few further positions instead: he left the track during his attempt to overtake Kovalainen and was overtaken by a few other cars. Nick Heidfeld followed this pattern not much later: his overtaking manoeuvre on one of the Lotus cars saw him outside of the track and losing places. It wasn’t the end of Heidfeld’s misfortunes: the German wasn’t allowed to finish the race. On lap 23, he left the pit lane in fumes and as his car was set on fire, he was forced to jump out of it (something he’s already experienced in).

Spain 2011:



Hungary 2011:



Perhaps with a possibility of a safety car deployed, some of the drivers ducked into the pit lane for their second pit stop and fitted option tyres yet again.

By lap 28 the front runners lapped already the 17^th driver in the order (Adrian Sutil, who started the race in top 10, but lost many places right at the beginning and finished the race outside of points and behind his rookie team mate Paul di Resta, who managed to climb to top ten and finished 7^th, having started 11^th). The following laps brought us some entertaining battles: Vettel was chasing the leading McLaren duo, Massa was fighting Kobayashi (successfully after a few laps), while Jaime Alguersuari didn’t show any respect for the most experienced driver on the grid and overtook Rubens Barrichello.

The supersoft tyres which were used in Budapest were expected to be much faster than the other – soft – compound, yet much less durable. Alonso, who chose an aggressive 4-stop strategy, went for his 3^rd pit stop already on lap 36, around lap 40 Sebastian Vettel reported bad condition of his tyres (just about 12 laps after his pit stop), while Lewis Hamilton was told to stay out for 8–9 more laps, but couldn’t do it and visited his mechanics as soon as lap 40. During this round of pit stops some of the drivers (Button, Vettel) opted for the apparently much slower, but more durable prime tyres. However, the majority of the drivers still preferred the options. As the supersoft compound was being worn easily and most of the teams ran out of the available sets of these tyres, it meant that the drivers would have to visit the pit lane yet again and tackle the harder tyres eventually.

Laps 40–50 provided us with lots of entertainment engaging yet more close battles with inter alia Massa fighting with Alguersuari and Rosberg. Surprisingly, it turned out that the prime tyres are at this stage faster than the option tyres and so Sebastian Vettel (primes) was able to breeze past Fernando Alonso (options) in the DRS zone. However, the most entertaining battle was at the front: Button was like a shadow – right behind Hamilton. The 2008 World Champion spun on the wet surface which opened the door to the lead for his team mate. Rushing to rejoin the race, Hamilton spun the car back right in front of di Resta, who had to save himself by driving to the grass. Hamilton was later penalised for this behaviour.

This wasn’t the end of the battle for the lead: just a few laps after overtaking Hamilton, Button left the track himself and... let Hamilton through. Vettel too decided to make an excursion to the tarmac following Button closely. Button didn’t give up and the McLaren drivers provided us with a great battle with Hamilton being its eventual winner. Alas, it wasn’t enough to win the race.

With 20 laps to go, the drivers went for their final pit stops and the finishing order seemed to be established with Hamilton controlling the race. But it wasn’t to happen as the rain came. While most of the drivers decided to wait it through on the slick tyres, Hamilton and Webber gambled and took intermediate tyres. It could have been a great move if the rain had become heavier, but the weather had different plans and the rain turned out to be only a small shower. As a result of this gamble, Hamilton lost his place being overtaken by Alonso and was forced to switch back to slicks just a few laps later. His loss was intensified even more by his drive-through penalty. On lap 57 he was already in P6.

As a result, Button regained the eventual lead in front of Vettel and Alonso, who spun again harmlessly. Behind the podium finishers, Webber and Hamilton overtook Massa for P4 and P5 respectively. 7 laps from the end the Brit used the hustle on the track, when Webber was lapping backmarkers and claimed P4. The closing laps saw a few more battles, Sebastién Buemi managed to climb as high as P8 and finished the race 2 places in front of his team mate, despite starting it 7 places behind.

Another driver making a significant step forward was Force India’s Paul di Resta, who pitted only 3 times and managed to score 6 more points for his team.

On the other side of the scale were Renault and Mercedes. The Enstone-based team was off the pace for the whole weekend and with Heidfeld’s fire it was up to Petrov to deliver a result. However the Russian, like everyone around him, made some mistakes, spinning here and there and finished outside of points. Mercedes on the other hand, had a great start with their drivers in P4 (Rosberg) and P5 (Schumacher) after the opening lap. It wasn’t as good later on: Schumacher had a gearbox problem and retired on lap 26, while Rosberg vanished in the crowd and scored only 2 points for his 9^th place.

It is also worth noticing that HRT’s Daniel Ricciardo, finished 18^th in his only third race in F1, 2 places higher than his more experienced partner, Vitantonio Liuzzi and in front of one of the Virgin cars (the one of d’Ambrosio, who lost some valuable seconds when he spun in the pit lane heading for his box). Team Lotus still didn’t resolve their reliability issues as neither of the drivers made it to the finish line.

Sebastian Vettel might not have won the race, but his lead in the WDC is now bigger than it has ever been before: from his perspective, the victory went to the best driver possible, that is the one who is the smallest threat: before the Hungarian GP, Jenson Button was 5^th in the standings (still is), while all the drivers that were between Vettel and Button (Hamilton, Webber and Alonso) finished the race behind the German, letting him extend the lead - he is now 85 points ahead of second Mark Webber.

Full race results here.

Full WDC standings here.

Full WCC standings here.

The 4-weeks break is now on and as the forces of the leading teams seem more or less equal, we may expect a thrilling second half of the season. I am personally left with some mixed feelings: on the one hand, I’m ecstatic that the first half ended on such a high note, on the other hand I’m vastly disappointed that we have to wait a whole month now to see more of the great racing.

German GP Race Report

There’s something strange about the so called home races. Whether it’s the pressure or some kind of a curse, the fact remains: drivers can’t win their home GPs lately. Webber didn’t do it in Australia, Alonso had two chances – in Barcelona and Valencia, but failed as well. The Brits had 3 drivers in top 10 on the grid in Silverstone, but none of them made it even to the podium. The Germans had 6 compatriots on the grid at Nürburgring (that’s 25%!), but even they couldn’t capitalise on it.

And so the German GP was won by Lewis Hamilton, followed by Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber. All three podium finishers were involved in close battles between themselves and each of them led the race for some time and seemed in a good position to win it.

On Saturday Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton ended Sebastian Vettel’s series of 14 consecutive front row starts: Mark Webber took the pole, while Hamilton separated the Bulls by claiming P2.

On Sunday the biggest question mark was the weather and even a few minutes before the start we could expect a wet race as the drops started falling down. Teams however decided to start on option tyres, which proved to be the right choice – the rain never came. Mark Webber (almost traditionally) failed to start well and was overtaken by Hamilton into turn 1. Behind their back, Vettel was squeezed between two Ferraris and while Massa was slightly pushed off the track by the German, Alonso took the best racing line and jumped from P4 to third.

Further down the order, Nick Heidfeld had a calamitous start and was sent to P18 (from P11). It wouldn’t get any better later on: Heidfeld attempted an overtaking move on Buemi on lap 9, but the Swiss pushed him to the grass, launching the Renault into the air and then into the gravel. This ended Heidfeld’s race and earned the Toro Rosso driver a 5-place grid penalty in Hungary next weekend.

Alonso didn’t enjoy his third place for a long time and made a mistake on lap 2 when he left the track for a brief moment allowing Vettel through. However he regained the place 6 laps later into the first corner and as Sebastian Vettel struggled to find speed, but also made a mistake spinning around, he was able to escape the WDC leader fast and build a gap. The opening laps brought us a few entertaining battles: Webber and Hamilton were engaged in intense battles and were soon joined by Alonso, while Massa, urged by his engineer Rob Smedley, made attempts (finally successful) at passing Rosberg, who got in front of the Brazilian at the start.

After first pit stops the leading trio was Webber, Hamilton and Alonso. These three would lead practically all the way to the chequered flag, only exchanging the positions from time to time. Vettel, in the meantime, found himself behind Massa – a position he would stay in until the last lap of the race. The two were separated by fractions of a second for majority of the race, overtaking one by one other drivers (Kobayashi and Petrov), who chose to pit later and thus had tyres in worse conditions. However, despite being very close, Vettel was unable to find his way past Massa. Problems with rear brakes in the Red Bull didn’t help either.

Webber, who was still leading,  was the first to pit for the second time on lap 30, but the decision cost him two positions: Hamilton went to change his tyres one lap later and emerged from the pit lane right in front of Webber. Despite tyres not warmed up, the McLaren driver fiercely fended off the Aussie, pushing him slightly off the track and maintaining P2, now behind Alonso, who had only one pit stop until then. The Ferrari kept their driver out one more lap attempting at leapfrogging Hamilton and they nearly did it: Alonso rejoined the track just in front of Hamilton, but wasn’t as aggressive towards his former team mate as Hamilton had been a while before towards Webber and thus, the Spaniard lost his lead to the Brit.

While Hamilton was fastest man on the track, escaping the others and building the gap, his team mate Button fought with Rosberg for P6. The 2009 World Champion managed to complete the move finally, but was hit with hydraulics problems soon, ending second race in a row with a DNF not out of his fault.

Nico Rosberg gained a place on Massa when the lights went off, but was unable to make a use of it in the latter part of the race and finished one place lower than started. His team mate didn’t have a smooth race either, but even with a spin on lap 24 which cost him a few valuable places, he managed to finish the race right behind Rosberg.

By lap 40, most of the front runners visited their mechanics twice, each time opting for the much faster soft tyres. Vettel however was still out with only 1 stop to his name and as his lap times started to drop down rapidly, he changed the tyres on lap 41 only to find himself behind his dear old friend Felipe Massa again. Both drivers made small mistakes here and there and so their order wasn’t to change for a few more laps, even when Vettel was informed that his brakes were finally working well. At this point of the race, the other closely matched pair of drivers, who should be very familiar with each other, were Michael Schumacher and Vitaly Petrov fighting for P9. The Russian made a mistake finally, missing the chicane and so Schumacher made his way through.

With 10 laps to go it was clear that the battle for the win would be between Hamilton, Alonso and Webber. The important factor were the tyres. With the hard compound much slower than the soft ones, one could have expected that the drivers would do anything to stay on the option tyres as long as possible. Hamilton was the first one to duck into the lane and he came back behind Alonso and Webber. Alonso stayed two laps longer aiming at building the gap sufficient enough to jump Hamilton in the pits, but the plan failed as the Spaniard rejoined the track between Hamilton and Webber. Webber was now the only driver from the leaders not to have changed the tyres for the hard compound yet. However, Red Bull’s plan to regain positions with a well-timed pit stop didn’t work out. Webber’s times at the end of this stint weren't as good as Hamilton's and Alonso's and so he had to settle for P3 after he finally pitted on lap 56.

As Hamilton was cruising to the finish line safe and Alonso was maintaining the gap over Webber, the podium was set. Yet, it wasn’t the end of emotions. Felipe Massa, who is apparently keen on spectacular finishes lately, was still fighting Vettel and holding his position. The duo went for their last pit stops on the penultimate lap of the race and as Red Bull’s mechanics turned out to work faster, Vettel finally found himself in front of Massa in P4.

Right after crossing the finish line, Fernando Alonso was informed about the shortage of fuel in his car, which forced him to park on the lawn. Luckily, Mark Webber was close and so the Ferrari driver was able to take a cab to parc fermé (raising questions about the safety of spontaneous gestures like Webber’s and causing doubts whether his car would pass the FIA control after the race). The friendly and rare image indispensably brought some old memories to the fans minds...

Force India’s Adrian Sutil and Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi deserve a mention as well: they both went for a 2-stop strategy (compared to the more popular 3-stopper) and won on it: Sutil finished 6^th, having started 8^th and was the last driver not to be lapped, while Kobayashi gained as much as 8 positions: he started P17 and crossed the finish line in 9^th spot.

Despite having a race below standards he set for himself lately, Sebastian Vettel (216 pts) is still the clear leader of the WDC. The reigning World Champ is 77 points clear of second in the standings Mark Webber (139 pts). The next three drivers are packed pretty closely together, which can provide us with some interesting battle for the second place in the WDC (at least for now): third in the standings in Lewis Hamilton with 134 points followed by Fernando Alonso on 130.

There are no major changes in the WCC with Red Bull Racing (355 pts) way ahead of McLaren (243) and Ferrari (192).

Full race results here.

Full WDC standings here.

Full WCC standings here.

British GP Race Report

With the diffuser ban discussion in the background, the drivers decided to do what they do best and showed on the track what they’re made of, delivering a race to remember with all the men engaged in some great battles. A few days of arguments over the exhaust rules left the teams, drivers, but especially fans unable to state clearly where it is all heading to and what the rules really say. However, these are politics dealt with behind the closed door and when the clock struck 1 p.m. (UK time), we were left with what we really love – fast cars, best drivers in the world… and unpredictable British weather.

The rain kept on coming and going every now and then all weekend long and when the race was about to start, half of the circuit was wet and half was dry, forcing the drivers to start on the intermediate tyres.

Prince Harry was about to give trophies (probably wishing to give them to the Brits) and though especially McLaren didn’t deliver the result the team and fans hoped for in their home race, there were still 3 British drivers in the top 10 on the grid (Button P5, di Resta P6 and Hamilton P10). Canada in particular taught us earlier, that nothing is impossible in F1, so the crowd gathered in thousands could still hope for a great result for their beloved drivers. Unfortunately for them, a combination of bad luck and bad pit stops didn’t let the Brits achieve success in the F1’s birthplace (even Lewis Hamilton’s ever fighting spirit wasn’t enough to get to the podium). Nevertheless, I’m sure the fans gathered in the stands, on the lawns and in front of TVs couldn’t moan about lack of entertainment.

On Saturday, Mark Webber walked his dog at home nearby Silverstone and went to the track to beat his team mate for pole. However, he was unable to capitalise on it on Sunday and lost the start, letting Vettel through. Behind the two Red Bulls we saw two Ferraris and then two McLarens with Lewis Hamilton having a stellar start which prompted him soon to P6. This wasn’t enough for Lewis as he soon attacked Button. With lesson from Canada learnt and no wall in the vicinity, he was successful and willing to overtake Massa too. His aggressive style brought him to the grass at one point but as he had pulled away from Button already, he didn’t lose anything. Lap 9 saw a collision between Kamui Kobayashi and Michael Schumacher who managed to get to P9, though starting 13^th. Schumacher lost front wing and some valuable seconds as he was forced to visit his mechanics straight away and was later penalised with a 10-seconds stop & go penalty.

At this point Schumacher was the first driver to opt for the slick tyres, a move the other drivers would soon copy as the track was getting drier with every lap. Before most of the drivers ducked to the pit lane around lap 11–12, Alonso/Webber and Hamilton/Massa pairs entertained us with some pursues. Hamilton even managed to get in front of Massa, but went too wide and lost the place immediately. After the first pit stops the leading order was: Vettel, Webber, Alonso, Hamilton, Massa, Button with the Brazilian losing place to Hamilton in the pits. Soon he was overtaken by the second McLaren as well. Next few laps brought us a battle between Lewis Hamilton and his rival Fernando Alonso. The Briton overtook the Spaniard with ease, but it wasn’t the end of their duel this day. Alonso would repay his former team mate and would overtake him back on lap 24.

Meanwhile, Jaime Alguersuari, who (due to bad strategy) was knocked out in qualifying in Q1 alongside the other Toro Rosso driver Buemi, was making a good progress and by lap 20 he was already P12 to finish third race in a row in the top 10.

After being overtaken by Hamilton, Alonso lost some time at first, but decided not to give up too easily and started to chase the McLaren driver. This duo was now fastest on the track, beating each other’s fastest laps records lap after lap. Alonso caught Hamilton finally and overtook him thanks to DRS and KERS on the Wellington Straight. Lap 26 brought us a small tragedy for one more local hero – Paul di Resta. The Scot managed to beat Adrian Sutil in the second Force India car on Sunday yet again to start the race 6^th. He had a good race until lap 26 when a faulty and thus, long pit stop cost him points finish. As if this wasn’t enough, he later clashed with Sebastien Buemi damaging the front wing of the Toro Rosso.

As it turned out, the race win was decided on lap 27, when Alonso and Vettel went to change tyres. Red Bull had some problems and so Alonso emerged from the lane in P1, while Vettel was sent to P3 behind Lewis Hamilton and in front of Mark Webber. 

Vettel was now all over Hamilton, but was unable to overtake him – a grist to Alonso’s mill: by lap 35 the Spaniard’s gap over Hamilton was already around 9 seconds. Unable to overtake Hamilton despite being very close, Vettel went for his last pit stop, probably hoping to beat others due to strategy. However, it paid off only partially: with this decision Vettel managed to gain a position over Hamilton, but still lost to Alonso.

Jenson Button retired on lap 39, when his team released him from the pits with right front wheel loose. Button made it to the end of the lane and stopped on the lawn there. After the race McLaren was fined for this unsafe release with 5,000 euro*.

10 laps from the end, Alonso’s first win this season seemed already safe as he was pulling away with constantly fastest laps and gaining advantage over Vettel. However the excitement wasn’t over. After all, there were still 2 podium spots to fill in and at least a few willing to take them! McLaren informed their only remaining driver (now in P3) that he was running out of fuel and had to save it. Red Bull were concerned that it might be a trick played in order to encourage Webber (P4) to chase Lewis and therefore, ruin tyres. It turned out they weren’t bluffing, but were in real trouble and so Webber overtook Hamilton on lap 46 with no particular problem, despite Lewis Hamilton being told not to make it easy for him. Now Webber started to chase Vettel and caught him a few laps from the end. The team decided to keep it safe and ordered Webber to maintain the gap. The Aussie didn’t listen and attacked his team mate, but without success.

Meanwhile Massa (P5) scented his chance to grab P4 from struggling Hamilton. The two drivers fought till the chequered flag and ended the race side by side with Massa crossing the finish line fractions of seconds behind Hamilton, on the grass and without a few parts on his front wing.

 Fernando Alonso became only the third driver this season (in third GP, after Hamilton in China and Button in Canada) to beat Sebastian Vettel, leading the Red Bull duo home 60 years after Ferrari’s first ever F1 victory (on 14^th July 1951 Jose Froilan Gonzalez won British GP for Ferrari in a car Alonso drove earlier on Sunday). He climbed to 3^rd in the WDC, but is still 92 points behind the runaway leader Sebastian Vettel (now 204 pts), who managed to end all the races so far this season in top 2 (6 victories and 3 second places). Second in the standings is now Mark Webber (124 pts). Silverstone’s top three drivers are followed in the WDC by the McLaren boys, who are on par with 109 points.

Full race results here.

WDC standings here.

WCC standings here.

 

* Sauber was another team to receive a fine: on lap 11 they released Kamui Kobayashi right in front of Williams’ Pastor Maldonado. The Japanese managed to avoid a collision, but the team didn’t manage to do so with the penalty and now has to pay 20,000 euro.

My first ever media accreditation at a sports event. Verva Street Racing, Warsaw 2011

It’s the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend, but not all of us can participate in it. Having in mind those who cannot travel to West Sussex, I decided to finally provide a small taste of another motorsport event that was organised 2 weeks ago (18 June) in Warsaw – Verva Street Racing.*

The event has taken place for the second time. For this partially sunny, partially stormy Saturday afternoon, the streets of Warsaw turned into a racing circuit where crowds of cheering fans could see various types of racing vehicles starting with old F1 Lotus cars, through sports cars such as Ferraris and Porches and finishing with NASCAR cars.

To be honest, I didn’t think about going there at first, but a fellow co-blogger kept her finger on the pulse and suggested we applied for media accreditation. We did and we luckily got them.

Having found media centre (a tiny hut behind the corner), equipped with our passes, we headed to Pit Party – a kind of a paddock set on one of the biggest squares in Warsaw (a place where all the official national ceremonies, like the Independence Day celebrations, normally take place). Polish drivers and motorcyclists were wandering carelessly around: you could ask for an autograph, take a picture with your idol or have a little chat if you were lucky enough.

Huge green tracks of Classic Lotus team caught our eyes immediately.

Ben Collins the way he looks today

There we found Ben Collins (ex Stig) signing autographs on his autobiography The Man in the White Suit. As crowds were gathering around him, we let it go and went to take a photo with the nearby men from Classic Lotus team in their green t-shirts. They turned out to be lovely and charming chaps, absolutely ecstatic that someone wanted to take their pictures. I would meet them a bit later, when I’d be waiting to talk to Ben Collins. They’d be talking about engine revs and types of fuels and I’d be standing there listening. I bet they wouldn’t even mind if I actually joined in the conversation.

Walking around the paddock filled with various types of cars we finally got to the best tent – one full of old Lotus F1 cars…

Happy with what we’d seen, we went to the nearby hotel for a press lunch with all the invited drivers and guests. After a short moment of hesitation we decided to go to Ben Collins for a chit-chat about the difficulties of Stig’s mysterious life. There was only one problem – we weren’t really prepared for this conversation! I personally went for Verva to have fun, not even thinking about making interviews.

Ben Collins the way you might recognise him better

And so suddenly there I am, facing the prospect of talking to Ben Collins. I tried to get myself out of it, but my colleagues had already decided: you speak English best, you go and talk, while we record it.
Damn! Luckily, Ben was outspoken and had some cheeky sense of humour straight from Great Britain. As there were lots of people wanting to talk to him, I asked him only one question concerning the challenges of living under cover and whether his family and friends knew about his secret life. Here’s what he said (please note the F1-like for sure phrase at the beginning ;)):

We ended the conversation with ex Stig assuring me that streets of Warsaw are in a pretty good shape and would suit a street circuit well, but I still take this assertion as courtesy of a foreign guest rather than a real opinion.

No matter how nice Ben Collins was, lesson learnt – if you have a press accreditation, don’t treat it as fun only. You never know what happens, so better ALWAYS prepare yourself!

Krzysztof Hołowczyc in his element - in the spot light

Taking the opportunity given to us by the press accreditation, my companion M. decided to talk to Krzysztof Hołowczyc (a Polish rally driver, multiple champion of Poland, 1997 European Rally Champion, frequent participant of Dakar Rally with various results ­– 60^th in 2005, DNFs in 2006, 2007 and 2010 but also 5^th in 2009 and 2011). I’ve never been his huge fan, but I must admit he’s handsome and very outspoken – a dream partner for a conversation for any journalist. As motorsport is still overcrowded by men, M. couldn’t resist but ask Hołowczyc for his opinion about women in the sport (in various areas). Female fans will be pleased to hear that the driver experienced competing against a few women and he admits they aren’t easy opponents. In fact he acknowledged their skill ensuring that there’s not much of a difference between a female and a male racer as they are all same tough and difficult to beat.

Enough of the talk. Let's have some on-track action! The street circuit set for this one day only was quite short and led mostly around the National Opera and National Theatre buildings. What a sophisticated combination… the classical buildings representing the higher culture and the popular sport for masses!

The every day National Opera building

The way it was on the 18th of June 2011

 As a representative of the media community, I had a seat on one of the best stands – very close to the start/finish line just in front of the spot on the track where all the stuff like drift or stunt shows were taking place.

The action started with Red Bull X-Fighters Jam – motorcyclists breaking the laws of gravity with their sky-high, breathtaking evolutions.





 Then we saw an F3 race of 3 drivers enriched with a pit stop competition. Each of the drivers was obliged to change tyres once and each of them had a special crew of celebrities doing the pit stop. The beautiful and famous did their job just fine, but I think they should still stick to singing/dancing/playing football/being famous. The programme provided for races of other cars as well: DTM, Le Mans, Porsche Supercup. I’m sorry to admit I missed the presentation of F1 Legends, that is old F1 cars (including the wonderful Lotus cars we’d seen earlier in the paddock) due to going for a snack. However, it wasn’t that bad after all as the rain started the moment we got our bruschettas (under the roof). It was raining cats and dogs, but not for long and soon the weather allowed us to come back to our stand. Lesson for the male fans watching us with disbelief: always take an umbrella when the weather is uncertain and a spare shirt (theoretically in case it gets cooler) – you can always use it to dry your seat after the rain.

Some people who apparently weren’t as far-sighted as me (no umbrellas and no spare shirts!), left during the rain, but there were still considerable crowds of diehard fans, who didn’t care for the hectolitres of water pouring down on them. When the sun came back, we watched some more shows: drifters showed how to take a corner in an unconventional manner,  then came time for a parade of the most beautiful sports cars like Ferraris and Porsches, followed by American sports cars show. I must admit I prefer the European style. All the parades were led by Mercedes SLS – the famous F1 safety car, alas without Bernd Mayländer behind the wheel.

Tomasz Kuchar, a Polish rally driver, took on a NASCAR car (for the first time in his life). He was so determined to show the public how to burn rubber that he ruined the tyres entirely and was forced to come back to the pits on the rims. I’m sure Lewis Hamilton would appreciate it!

As I had to leave and couldn’t stay till the very end, I was able to watch one more race only, the motorcycle one. The winner was Kuba Przygoński – 2^nd in 2010 Cross-Country World Championship. However, it must be noted that not all of his rivals were interested in winning. While some were fighting it out really hard, one was more engaged in investigating the arcanes of driving on the rear wheel and showing the outcomes of his investigation to the public. Not that I complain!

Though there were still a few more surprises (and some time more to spend with the annoying presenter shouting something all the time on the stage hanging over the start/finish line**), I already had to leave missing, amongst others, Dakar cars or the ending parade. Nevertheless – quite a productive and cool day. I love to be a media girl!

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* A short background: the host of the event was PKN Orlen, Poland’s biggest oil refiner. Orlen is an owner of Verva Racing Team (hence the name of the event, Verva Street Racing) – a team that takes part in Porche Supercup. What’s more, in 2002 Orlen created Poland’s biggest rally team called, naturally, Orlen Team. They take part in Dakar Rally, Cross-Country Rallies and competitions organized by International Motorcycling Federation.

** My favourite quote of the afternoon by the presenter: I’d love to stop talking and just listen to the wonderful sound of the engines, but I’ll do my best to talk a bit more for a while!

I'd like to thank Margo, Paulina and Paweł for their lovely company.
Pictures: partially mine, partially courtesy of Margo and Paulina :).