The 2007 Formula One season was one dominated by the sport’s two grandest teams – McLaren and Ferrari, as their drivers – Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton for McLaren, Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen for Ferrari, took the spoils in every single race that year. Whilst McLaren asserted an early lead in both championships, as the circus headed to Hungary, it seemed as if only either a sudden resurgence from Ferrari or an intra-team battle which has had some sparks prior to the event reaches boiling point would change momentum. The 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix saw one of those well and truly occur, and would be a key moment in a season which proved to be one full of shame and near-misses for the McLaren team. Whilst one of their drivers won the race, the team could not leave satisfied at the result which was effectively decided during qualifying.
Prior to the race, Hamilton had his lead in the championship cut from 12 to just two points at the previous round at the Nurburgring. Hamilton was 11 and 18 points ahead of Massa and Räikkönen respectively at this point. McLaren were ahead of Ferrari by 27 points, with BMW-Sauber a distant third. Prior to the race, two driver changes were announced as former Super Aguri driver Sakon Yamamoto was announced as Christijan Albers’ full time replacement at Spyker. The second announcement was that Scott Speed was to be replaced at Toro Rosso by Red Bull junior driver Sebastian Vettel, who previously raced for BMW at the United States Grand Prix. It would be the first of well over a hundred Grand Prix for Vettel in a Red Bull-backed car.
Vettel however was unable to impress on his first Toro Rosso outing, being knocked out in Q1 along with the two Hondas of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, Takuma Sato’s Super Aguri and the two Spykers of Yamamoto and Adrian Sutil. The second part of qualifying saw a major name drop out after a refuelling error meant that Felipe Massa was left out of the top 10 shootout along with the remaining Toro Rosso and Super Aguri of Vitantonio Liuzzi and Anthony Davidson respectively, with David Coulthard, Heikki Kovalainen and Alexander Wurz also being knocked out.
The final part of qualifying was when the controversy occurred. Hamilton ignored a pre-session agreement to let Alonso through, so it appeared that Alonso retaliated by holding his team mate up in the pit lane, denying Hamilton the chance to set another time. Alonso set the fastest time of the session ahead of Hamilton, with Nick Heidfeld a fine third for BMW. Räikkönen was fourth for Ferrari ahead of Nico Rosberg’s Williams, Ralf Schumacher’s Toyota, Robert Kubica’s BMW, Giancarlo Fisichella’s Renault, Jarno Trulli’s Toyota and Mark Webber’s Red Bull.
The grid was not finalised however, as both Alonso and Fisichella were docked five places on the grid for blocking Hamilton and Yamamoto respectively. In addition, McLaren were to be docked any Constructors’ Championship points. Hamilton was subsequently awarded the pole position.
Hamilton led from the start however Räikkönen was the big mover, getting past Heidfeld’s BMW almost instantly. Alonso did not get away well however, and even made an error coming out of the final corner. Another driver who failed to make any impression at the start was Massa, who was struggling to make his way past Davidson’s Super Aguri. The first retirement came from Yamamoto, who crashed relatively lightly in the middle sector. Up at the front, Räikkönen showed much more pace than in qualifying or practice and was pushing Hamilton for the lead. At the time of the first pit stops, Heidfeld looked to be on a three-stop strategy whilst the two out in front pitted on the same lap for a clear two-stop. Alonso made some progress by passing the likes of Kubica however he struggled to make his way past the Toyota of Schumacher. By the final stint, he was able to make his way past the German, who made his way past the three-stopping Rosberg and Kovalainen late in the race, but the damage was done and he lost five vital points to Hamilton.
Three other drivers retired in the race, Button and Liuzzi retiring due to technical problems, whilst Davidson was wiped out by Fisichella. As Hamilton crossed the line to win the race, he had won from pole, leading every lap, and posting the fastest lap – his first Grand Chelem in Formula One and the youngest to do so, however he was to be denied cruelly by Räikkönen on the very final lap, who took the fastest lap just as the Grand Prix had finished. It not only signalled the beginning of the very public downfall of McLaren that season, but arguably the Finn’s resurgence at a key point of the season.
The fifteen points which McLaren were docked as a result of finishing first and fourth were set to be appealed prior to the Italian Grand Prix in two rounds time, however following that event the Spygate scandal took the headlines, and eventually McLaren would lose both championships to Ferrari, by one point in the case of both drivers in that championship, and what could well have been by one point in the Constructors’ as a direct result of this race. Räikkönen would start a streak of podiums finishes at the Hungarian Grand Prix which would extend to the end of the season, winning three more races and snatching the title at Brazil, whilst Hamilton would miss out by a single point and Alonso and McLaren would terminate the contract with the team after just one season.
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