Hungarian Grand Prix Live

The Formula One Championship will hold the Hungarian Grand Prix this week, a race that is the tenth of the season, and will be held in Budapest from July 29^th through the 31^st. The previous race on the calendar was the German Grand Prix which happened July 22^nd through the 24^th and happened in Nurburgring. That race was won by Lewis Hamilton with McLaren-Mercedes. Coming up in the next few months on the Formula One Calendar, the Belgium Grand Prix, next on the calendar, as well as stops in Italy, Singapore, Japan, Korea and Brazil.

Right now in the driver's championship, Sebastian Vettel leads with 216 points for Red Bull Racing Renault while teammate Mark Webber comes in second. McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton is third with 134 and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso is fourth. Jenson Button comes in fifth. For the teams, RBR-Renault comes in first with 355 points while McLaren is in second with 243 and Ferrari is in third place with 192 points. You can watch the Formula One Championship live from your computer or mobile device from anywhere in the world just by signing up.

Fresh from the German Grand Prix we head to the Hungarian Grand Prix, July 30^th through August 1^st, the 12^th stop on the Formula One Championship Circuit. We are heading towards the back end of the Championship and you don't want to miss a single second because there is much more to come. Still on the schedule, Italy, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Brazil and Abu Dhabi. If you want to watch Formula One racing then you need to click on the banners on this page to get your membership. Simply sign up for year long access to high quality video coverage.

Let's take a look back at the last event, the Formula 1 Grosser Preis Santander Von Deutschland 2010, or better known as the German Grand Prix. It was held on July 25^th and the top spot on the podium went to Fernando Alonso, with Ferrari, with second place being won by Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa. Sebastian Vettel with Red Bull Racing Renault took third place. Fourth and fifth were Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. The rest of the top ten included Mark Webber, Robert Kubica, Nico Rosberg, Michael Schumancher and Vitaly Petrov.

Now let's check out the standings right now for the Formula One Championship. For the drivers Lewis Hamilton leads with 157 points. Jenson Button is second while Mark Webber is in third place. Sebastian Vettel is in fourth and Fernando Alonso is fifth. In the teams Mclaren Mercedes takes first with Red Bull Racing Renault in second. Ferrari is in third place. Get your membership now to watch in high quality video right from your computer. Click on the banners on this page for access to high quality video.

The Hungarian Grand Prix started in 1936 and was first held in Budapest on a 5.0 km track. Three teams sent in one car each for the event, Ferrari, Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz, and this very first event brought in a huge crowd. However, the oncoming war and the politics that were associated with it made Grand Prix racing a secondary concern and in fact, did not reappear in Budapest for 50 years time. The 1986 Hungarian Grand Prix was the premier Formula One race after that and it took place at the Hungaroring near Budapest. Now, the race is a large part of the racing schedule and is the only current venue for GP that didn't have a rained on race until 2006 because of the temperatures of the Hungarian summer.

The track is a narrow one, often dusty from rare usage, and has many twists and curves. The Hungarian GP will often have many cars right behind each other because they are unable to pass on the narrow track. This does well for the drivers out front, as they use the narrow road to their advantage to keep their lead. Another strategy that driver's use is to carefully schedule their pit so that they are able to move from whatever position they are in to take, or retake the lead quickly. Several drivers have had their first wins on this track, including Damon Hill in 1993, Fernando Alonso in 2003, who also happened to be the first GP winner from Spain, and became the youngest ever driver to win a Grand Prix race. Another two that had their first in Hungary are Jenson Button and Heikki Kovalainen.

Michael Shumacher likely considers the Hungaroring one of his favorites as he has broken several records there, including his 4^th World Title win in 2001, also rivaling Alain Prost's 51 GP wins that year. In the year of the rain, the first wet condition race at the Hungarian GP, Jenson Button took first place from fourteenth starting on the grid, which broke a record set seventeen years ago from Mansell, who had won from twelfth. Hungary plans to continue to host the F1 Grand Prix until at least 2016. As far as drivers with multiple wins go on this track, Schumacher is king, with four wins, the most recent in 2004, and the rest in 2001, 1998 and 1994. Ayrton Senna has three, the most recent in 1992, and Nelson Piquet, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve and Mika Hakkinen all have two wins each.

In recent years it was Lewis Hamilton, the Brit with McLaren who took the 2007 race, while another British driver, Jenson Button took it the previous year with Honda. Kimi Raikkonen with McLaren-Mercedes took the title in 2005 and of course it was Schumacher setting records in 2004. The list for the rest of the decade include Fernando Alonso, Rubens Barichello and Mika Hakkinen, who took the win for McLaren in both 1999 and 2000. Last year's winner was Heikki Kovalainen again with Team McLaren, who won the title of the 2008 Hungary Grand Prix Winner.

The current circuit is 4.831 km with a total race length of 307 Kilometers. Last year, Lewis Hamilton took Pole, driving for McLaren with a time of 1:20.899, but it was teammate Keikki Kovalainen who was at the top position on the podium holding the big trophy. His race time was one hour and thirty-seven minutes and 27.067 seconds, with a speed of 188.790 km/h. Timo Glock came in second, driving for Toyota, while Kimi Raikkonen with Ferrari came in third place with a time of 16.8 seconds over Kovalainens. However, the third place winner did snag the fastest lap with a time of 1:21.195.

If you are wondering exactly what happened last year, then read on because I will give you all the juicy details. No one was expecting Heikki Kovalainen to take first at the Hungarian GP with the field including names such as Felipe Massa, Timo Glock and Lewis Hamilton. However, Massa, who had been leading, suffered engine failure with only three laps to go in the race. Lewis Hamilton could have taken it too, but he was forced to retreat and turn the top car positions over to the other drivers, namely Koyalainen, Glock and Kovalainen.

Felipe Massa had actually had the top position from the get go, even through the weekend had seen Lewis Hamilton dominating. Massa moved to the front immediately after the start. He passed Kovalainen, who had been the second place qualifier, and pulled up on Hamilton just outside of the first turn. It was nearly a wipeout as he turned the corner, but just barely managed to pull ahead.

After a stop, Lewis Hamilton ended up behind Alsonso and Raikkonen, neither of which had stopped yet, and was struggling to make up the four seconds that he had fallen beind Massa with when he had a blowout. His left front tire had a puncture of some kind, and he was forced to fall back into the pit area. When it was fixed he ended up in tenth place, and although he made up several places throughout the rest of the race it wasn't enough to earn a spot on the podium.

Hamilton's tire problem wsa good news for Felipe Massa who had a great lead over Kovalainen. Kovalainen had been unable to maintain position with the two leaders during the race and all Massa had to do was sit back and wait for the victory. That was when his engine suddenly flared up in a cloud of black smoke. So it was Kovalainen, surprising everyone including himself and Glock as runner up.

This year's race will likely be just as exciting as the last from the narrow circuit at the world famous Hungaroring. The race is July 26^th and you can watch all the action right here. Get your membership today and you'll have exclusive live feeds from the track as these drivers once again compete for the top podium position of the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix.