The third of the 2011 season’s four sets of back-to-back races continues this weekend in Budapest with Round 11 of the Formula One World Championship, the Hungarian Grand Prix, taking place at the Hungaroring.
• The Hungarian Grand Prix will be the 100th race for the Mercedes 2.4 litre V8 engine.
• The Hungarian Grand Prix has been won from pole position just once in the past five years (Hamilton in 2007).
• Ten of the Hungaroring’s14 corners are taken at 155 kph or below.
• The average lap speed of 196 kph is the lowest of any permanent circuit on the calendar.
Michael Schumacher
“We have had two home races in a row now, and Hungary too feels like it is linked with me in a way. I will obviously never forget that I won one of my world titles there, and I always enjoyed the support of a lot of fans travelling to Budapest. Ideally we can help them enjoy their weekend, and I am hopeful we can as we have seen some progress lately with our car. I am impressed with the effort the team and the guys back in England are constantly putting into it and it is good to see developments. I am looking forward to travelling there.”
Nico Rosberg
“Hungary will be my 100th Grand Prix which seems crazy when my father completed 114 races over his whole career. It’s a nice number but statistics aren’t that important to me. I’m looking forward to the weekend in Budapest as I like the Hungaroring very much, and I’m hoping for a better time than in 2010 when unfortunately I didn’t finish the race. We need to work on our race set-up to see what improvements we can make as the car that I had in qualifying in Germany was better than the one that I had in the race. I’m sure we can do it and take another small step forward.”
Ross Brawn, Team Principal
“An extremely busy few weeks for the team come to a conclusion with the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest next weekend, before the well-deserved break of the summer shutdown gives the opportunity to recharge the batteries. The Hungaroring is renowned for being a technically challenging track and it will be very useful for us to gain further experience of our latest developments there. It’s not a track where overtaking has been easy in the past, so it will be interesting to see how the combined effect of DRS and KERS improves the possibilities this year. Our recent performances in Silverstone and Germany have been encouraging, although the pace is still not there to compete with the front-running teams, and we will keep working hard to continue to find improvements.”
Norbert Haug, Vice-President, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“The Hungarian GP can be described as a medium-speed challenge, with 40 per cent of the lap spent in corners at or below 150 kph. The 70-lap race is long and demanding, and usually held in very hot conditions – which would make a pleasant change after the past two race weekends! Our aim in Budapest will be to take some positive momentum into the summer break. The Hungarian Grand Prix will also mark the 100th race for the Mercedes-Benz 2.4 litre V8 engine since its introduction at the start of 2006: in the 99 races so far, our V8 has taken a total of 32 wins.”
* Official photo and details courtesy of MERCEDES GP PETRONAS *
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