Mika Hakkinen won from third, moved to the top of the drivers' table and ended a Ferrari run of retirements in a hot, dusty race near Budapest.
The 2000 Hungarian Grand Prix was the 12th of 17 races in the 2000 Formula One World Championship, held at the Hungaroring on 13 August 2000. Mika Hakkinen won the 77-lap race from third on the grid, Michael Schumacher was second and David Coulthard third, and Hakkinen moved to the top of the drivers' table.
The 2000 Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring was a rare win for Mika Hakkinen in a season largely shaped by Ferrari. He started third, led almost the whole race and won by eight seconds, which took him to the top of the drivers' championship for the first time that year.
Where did the championship stand before Hungary?
Michael Schumacher led the drivers' table with 56 points, while Hakkinen and David Coulthard were tied on 54. Rubens Barrichello was fourth on 46 and Giancarlo Fisichella fifth on 18. Ferrari led the constructors' table on 102 points, four ahead of McLaren, with Williams third on 22.
Schumacher had retired in three races in a row, including first-lap collisions in Austria and Germany, which had cut his lead from 22 points to two. Entering Hungary he said his aim was to avoid any incident on the first lap and to score points. Ferrari's president, Luca di Montezemolo, also commented on Barrichello supporting Schumacher's title bid, and Barrichello said he had received backing to chase more wins of his own.
A win from third, a championship lead and a race won on the strategy calls and the heat at the Hungaroring.
How did the teams prepare for the Hungaroring?
Teams had three days of high-downforce testing at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo after the German Grand Prix on 30 July. The Hungaroring demands a lot of downforce, and heat management was a major concern because of the high track temperatures. Ferrari spent five days at its Fiorano test track, focusing on car development, practice starts and race simulations.
McLaren improved the aerodynamics of its MP4/15 to add downforce and brought revised nose wings, while also strengthening the steel rear suspension wishbones. BAR fitted one-off cooling parts to the monocoque, and Ferrari debuted an aerodynamic set-up similar to the one it had used at Monaco. Minardi redesigned its radiator intakes and exits to deal with the temperature problems of its Fondmetal V10 engines.
The test programme was not without incident. Alexander Wurz hit the tyre barrier and was taken to hospital before being passed fit to race the day after. Prost's Jean Alesi received clearance from his doctors and from Sid Watkins, the FIA medical delegate, after a high-speed accident with Pedro Diniz at the previous race had left him with abdominal pains, dizziness and vomiting. Prost had its test driver Stephane Sarrazin ready in case Alesi relapsed.
What did practice show?
Michael Schumacher was fastest in the first session at 1 minute 20.198 seconds, after waiting for other drivers to clean the dusty track. Coulthard set the fastest time of the second session at 1:18.792, while Barrichello led the third session at 1:18.268 with three minutes left. Michael Schumacher went quickest in the final session at 1:17.395, 0.630 seconds ahead of Coulthard. In the second session Trulli was fifth fastest, ahead of Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher and Button, while Frentzen and Irvine completed the top ten.
The track was slippery because it had seen little use for months, and several drivers lost control of their cars during the sessions. Pedro de la Rosa was unhurt after an accident against the tyre wall, and Gaston Mazzacane's Minardi suffered an engine failure caused by a differential fault. Diniz stalled his car in first gear at the pit lane entry during the final session.
How did qualifying decide the grid?
Michael Schumacher took pole with 1:17.514, his 28th in Formula One and his fifth of the season. Coulthard was 0.372 seconds slower in second, and Hakkinen took third after changing the rear anti-roll bar and front torsion beams to improve his balance. Ralf Schumacher was fourth with the newer Williams qualifying engine, which gave him his best qualifying result of the year.
Barrichello was fifth after struggling with handling and blaming Coulthard for blocking him. Frentzen sixth had excess oversteer in the final sectors, and Fisichella was seventh, claiming that Michael Schumacher had got in his way on his final lap. Ross Brawn, Ferrari's technical director, had pressed the wrong radio button and told Barrichello about traffic when he meant Fisichella, and Brawn apologised for the error.
Button was eighth, Salo ninth and Irvine tenth. Wurz narrowly missed the top ten, by two-tenths, after changing to Fisichella's set-up, and Trulli took twelfth. Diniz was 13th and Alesi 14th, with de la Rosa 15th as the highest-placed Arrows driver. Villeneuve was 16th, Herbert 17th after spinning late on, and Zonta 18th. Heidfeld switched to the spare Prost for his fourth run and was 19th, and Verstappen was 20th. Marc Gene took 21st and Mazzacane 22nd.
How did the race start?
Hakkinen had more momentum than Michael Schumacher off the line and passed him on the inside at the first corner, taking the lead from the Ferrari. Michael Schumacher slowed to avoid a collision and avoided retiring for a third successive race. Coulthard made a slow start on the dirty inside line, and Villeneuve and De la Rosa collided at the chicane, damaging their cars.
Ralf Schumacher tried to pass Coulthard for third on the inside in the first two corners without success. Villeneuve pitted for a new front wing and De la Rosa for a new set of tyres after a left-rear puncture. After the opening lap Hakkinen was ahead of Michael Schumacher, then Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher, Barrichello and Frentzen. By lap eight Hakkinen was 3.5 seconds ahead of his rival, and Irvine had passed Button for seventh.
How did the pit stops and the middle of the race unfold?
Alesi retired after his broken left-rear suspension, which had been made worse by a change in wheel alignment during a series of failed repairs. Heidfeld then retired after 22 laps when his battery voltage dropped after a pit stop. Fisichella, who had made a pit stop for brake repairs, later retired with a brake problem.
Michael Schumacher made his first stop at the end of lap 27, taking 7.3 seconds and rejoining fifth behind Barrichello. Soon afterwards he took third from his team-mate at the first corner. Barrichello pitted on lap 30 for 6.7 seconds, and then Hakkinen made his stop on lap 31 after his drink bottle failed about a third of the way through the race and he became exhausted. Hakkinen lost the lead to Coulthard, but Coulthard's 6.9-second stop for fuel and tyres handed it back.
Hakkinen then set the quickest lap of the race, 1:20.028, on lap 33, and he gradually pulled away from Michael Schumacher. Barrichello was running out of water and lost 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) of body weight, together with 3 litres (0.66 imp gal; 0.79 US gal) of fluid, by the 40th lap. He stopped again on lap 48, having been short of fuel.
Gene was given a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for holding up Irvine's Jaguar on the track. Michael Schumacher and Ralf Schumacher made their stops on lap 51, and Coulthard replied on the next lap with a 6.6-second stop. Hakkinen completed his final stop late in the race, having opened up a 21-second advantage over Michael Schumacher. Frentzen was the last driver to make a scheduled stop, on lap 56.
By the end of lap 57 the order was Hakkinen, Michael Schumacher, Coulthard, Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher and Frentzen. Herbert went off while fighting Villeneuve for 13th, and later retired with gearbox problems. Diniz's engine failed on lap 65, and Mazzacane retired on track on lap 73, when a visor caught in the radiator and overheated the engine.
Trulli passed Button for seventh on lap 75, and Irvine passed Button for eighth a lap later. Button was slowed in the closing laps by either a cracked exhaust or a throttle problem.
Top classification
| Position | Driver | Team | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mika Hakkinen | McLaren | Third win of the season, 17th career |
| 2 | Michael Schumacher | Ferrari | 7.9 seconds behind, first points in four rounds |
| 3 | David Coulthard | McLaren | Balance problems before his first stop |
| 4 | Rubens Barrichello | Ferrari | Ran short of water, lost weight in the heat |
| 5 | Ralf Schumacher | Williams | Fifth at the flag |
| 6 | Heinz-Harald Frentzen | Jordan | Jordan's only point of the race |
| Seventh to eleventh | Trulli, Irvine, Button, Salo, Wurz | Jordan, Jaguar, Williams, Sauber, Benetton | One lap behind the winner |
What did the result change in the championships?
Hakkinen's victory gave him the drivers' lead for the first time in 2000, with 64 points. Michael Schumacher was two points behind, and Coulthard third on 58, nine points ahead of Barrichello in fourth. Fisichella was 40 points adrift in fifth.
McLaren took the constructors' lead from Ferrari, 112 points to 111. Williams were third, six points ahead of Benetton, and Frentzen's sixth place gave Jordan a point that took them to 12 and past BAR for fifth. Ron Dennis expected McLaren's drivers to have the edge in most of the five remaining races, but warned that complacency could limit the team's chances.
The drivers were quick to explain their races. Michael Schumacher admitted he had been too cautious at the start, having lost momentum, and he said that a third place had been all he could expect from the early stages. Coulthard felt his car had balance problems before his first stop, and he said that time spent behind slower cars had kept him from catching Schumacher. He still described third as the best result he could have achieved. Barrichello blamed his fourth place on a poor qualifying session, and Fisichella said a brake problem had caused his retirement.
Norbert Haug of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport called the win one of Hakkinen's best drives, saying it had looked easy but was tough to achieve. Brawn said the pit stops and strategy had gone well, but that the team had not been quick enough. Ralf Schumacher and Frentzen were pleased to finish fifth and sixth.
