Hungary quotes & stats round-up

Lewis Hamilton expects Lotus to soon have the pace to win races, but Kimi Raikkonen says they need to improve in qualifying for that to happen.

Raikkonen finished second at the Hungarian Grand Prix, behind Hamilton, with his Lotus team-mate Romain Grosjean third.

7 - Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher 5 - Damon Hill, Kimi Raikkonen, David Coulthard 4 - Nigel Mansell "It's a bit disappointing that we cannot [win]," said Raikkonen.

"We have not been so strong in qualifying and we keep making it very hard for ourselves on Sundays."

Lotus are still searching for a first victory in 2012, but Raikkonen has come close, finishing second on three occasions.

"We still keep putting ourselves in a good position to at least have a chance to win and get good results, good points for the team," added the 2007 world champion.

2012 - Lewis Hamilton 2011 - Sebastian Vettel 2010 - Sebastian Vettel 2009 - Fernando Alonso 2008 - Lewis Hamilton 2007 - Fernando Alonso "If it comes it's great, if not, we keep trying. I've been in the business long enough that I don't really worry about things too much. We improved our position, our situation in the championship for myself and for the team."

For a while, it had looked like Raikkonen's team-mate Grosjean would be Hamilton's main challenger, but traffic on the circuit saw his fight for first place ultimately fade away.

"The worst moment for me was with Michael Schumacher who wouldn't let me pass and cost me one-and-a-half seconds," said the Frenchman. "But we have to take the positive.

"I am pleased with the way we came back from nowhere in Germany to on the podium before the [summer] break."

4 - Michael Schumacher 3 - Ayrton Senna, Lewis Hamilton 2 - Jenson Button, Damon Hill, Mika Hakkinen, Nelson Piquet, Jacques Villeneuve Grosjean was being hunted down by Sebastian Vettel for much of the race. The German was determined to snatch a place on the podium, especially after missing out in Germany last week when he was demoted from second to fifth after being penalised for an illegal overtaking manoeuvre on Jenson Button.

"I think our overall speed was better than the actual result we got," said Vettel.

"I was stuck behind Jenson Button in the first stint; he was slower and we lost some time there, but of course you can't just pit and come out in clean air, there's traffic, so there's not much we could have done. The race pace was very good, so now it's up to us to do better in qualifying and at the start; then it's a different race."

Fernando Alonso saw in his 31st birthday by finishing fifth, a result that increases his lead over Mark Webber at the top of the championship to 40 points.

It was the 23rd consecutive race that the Spaniard has finished in the points, and he was more than happy with the result.

"It was a good race in terms of the points and 23 consecutive races in the points is impressive," said Alonso.

11 - McLaren 7 - Williams 5 - Ferrari "As was the case in qualifying and in Germany, the Red Bulls and McLarens are in front of us and we need to catch up. In Spa we need to be more competitive and quicker."

Webber had made a storming start to the race, quickly moving up from 11th to seventh before eventually crossing the line in eighth place.

"I am not doing much hunting at the moment," said the Australian.

"Fernando is still putting some good points together but let's see how the next few races go. We can talk about the championship when there are just a few races to go, but now we focus on the next race."

For Michael Schumacher , it was a race that he will want to quickly forget.

Track temperature: 45C Air temperature: 31C Ave wind speed: 2.3 metres per second Humidity: 39% Fastest lap: Sebastian Vettel (lap 68): 1 min 24.136 secs Fastest Speeds: Sector 1: Lewis Hamilton 278kph (172.74mph) Sector 2 : Fernando Alonso 235kph (146.02mph) Sector 3 : Bruno Senna 254kph (157.83mph) Speed Trap: N Hulkenberg 307kph (190.76mph) The seven-time world champion has won the Hungarian Grand Prix more than any other driver, with four wins, but this year's race was a hugely disappointing one for the German as he retired early following a series of problems.

First, Schumacher caused the start of the race to be aborted when he stopped in the wrong grid slot, before switching off his engine when the lights flashed amber after becoming concerned it was overheating. He was subsequently wheeled back to the garage and started from the pit-lane.

Then, he was given a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pits, before eventually retiring with a telemetry problem.

"The race this weekend was done before it was started," said Schumacher. "Luckily Nico [Rosberg, who finished 10th] was able to grab a point and that shows in certain races and certain conditions we are competitive, and that is something we have to work on.

"Developments have probably kicked in better for other teams than they have for us in recent weeks. There are certain circumstances that at the moment means we are not competitive yet."

Vettel

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Germany quotes & stats round-up

Sauber's Sergio Perez believes he had the pace to challenge for a third career podium at the German Grand Prix.

The Mexican qualified 12th but a penalty for impeding meant he lined up 17th on the grid.

An early problem with his car also did not help matters, but Perez shrugged off the issue to storm into the points and finish sixth.

1 Fernando Alonso 2 Jenson Button 3 Kimi Raikkonen 4 Kumi Kobayashi 5 Sebastian Vettel* 6 Sergio Perez 7 Michael Schumacher 8 Mark Webber 9 Nico Hulkenberg 10 Nico Rosberg

*Vettel penalised for passing Jenson Button off the track

"I think with the pace we showed, we could have fought for a podium," said Perez.

He continued: "I had a problem in my first stint, I had to stop early because of a problem with the left of the car. I felt a puncture but the team didn't know. We need to analyse what happened.

"But it was a great result for the whole team after such a bad day on Saturday."

Perez's team-mate Kamui Kobayashi finished fifth to cap a fine grand prix for Sauber, but was promoted to fourth after Sebastian Vettel was penalised 20 seconds for an illegal pass on Jenson Button.

"We struggled in qualifying, but I am glad to get points," said the Japanese driver.

"We were confident for a dry race and that we would have the pace for those conditions. I think I had a great race. I really enjoyed it."

Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher gave himself a great chance of a podium finish at his home race by qualifying third, but was unable to keep up the pace with the front-runners as he dropped down the field.

7 - Michael Schumacher 6 - Ayrton Senna 5 - Gerhard Berger, Alain Prost 4 - Fernando Alonso, Nigel Mansell, David Coulthard, Jacques Laffite "There are nicer ways to finish a home race than falling back from third to seventh place," said Schumacher.

"I squeezed everything I could out of the car but, unfortunately, that's everything we could manage."

He added, cryptically: "We take the result and see what happens in future. I think we might see some interesting happenings in the future that does not concern just one car but several cars. It will be interesting."

Nico Rosberg started 21st on the grid but picked up a point for Mercedes by crossing the line in 10th place.

"It feels OK to have scored one point after such a bad qualifying and starting right at the back," he said.

21 - Ferrari 9 - Williams 8 - McLaren "We had a good strategy and I had great fun out there at times overtaking so many people to move up to 10th place."

Kimi Raikkonen was promoted to third after Vettel's punishment, but did not have the chance to celebrate on the podium as the stewards conducted their investigation.

Nevertheless, the Lotus driver felt any chance of challenging for a higher finish was prevented by a relatively disappointing qualifying session in the wet.

"Maybe if we had found a bit more pace in the wet on Saturday we could have started higher and pushed the leaders, but it is what it is," said Raikkonen.

"For sure we were hoping for a bit better here, but the car worked well all through the race and we still brought home some good points for the team, so there are some positives to take to the next race."

Force India enjoyed their best qualifying performance of the season as Nico Hulkenberg secured fourth place on the grid, with Paul di Resta lining up ninth.

They were both unable to build on that during the race, though, as Hulkenberg took ninth while Di Resta finished 11th.

"We always knew it was going to be tough to hang on to fourth place because we did not look especially strong in the dry conditions on Saturday morning," said Hulkenberg.

The circuit was reduced by around 2km in 2002 to give the circuit its current length of 4574m Number of corners: 13 (9 right-hand & 4 left-hand) The long sweeping left-hander named Parabolika sees the drivers reach speeds of almost 200 mph before braking for a sharp hairpin (Spitzkehre) "So it's good to come away with some points, but I was certainly hoping for a bit more from my home race."

Di Resta shared his team-mate's opinion, adding: "It was a bit mixed for me. I really struggled, certainly at the beginning. I was strong at the beginning and end of stints but not in the middle for some reason.

"We will go away from here certainly having to do a bit of work and aim to do better. Hopefully in Hungary we will be able to get on top of things a bit better."

German GP 2012: Alonso wins at Hockenheim

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