The week leading up to the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) Race of Hungary was very pleasant.
I arrived in Budapest on Monday (18 April) and there were then three days of being a real, civilised tourist, exploring the city and enjoying the sights.
I love the Hungarian capital and I’ve had a lot of fun there over the years, especially with my old teammate, James Thompson. It’s just a beautiful place to be.
Then you arrive at the Hungaroring to an absolutely amazing reception. It was very special to be Norbert ‘Norbi’ Michelisz’s teammate for his home race, but I also get a lot of Hungarian support – a legacy of my former role as Chevrolet’s representative in Hungary – and I was flattered to receive such a loud and positive reaction every time I exited the pits.
However, much like France and Slovakia, the on-track build-up was trying. My Castrol Honda Racing team and I were faced with a few inconvenient hurdles during testing, but, happily, we improved and it all came good in qualifying.
In fact, the Honda Civic Type-R was initially awesome and I came out of Q2 in P1. Weirdly, the track changed drastically between Q2 and Q3 and I realised when I arrived at the first corner that I had a completely different car underneath me.
Excessive oversteer lost me approximately four tenths through the first two corners and that was enough to take me out of contention for pole position, with Jose Maria Lopez pumping in an amazing lap to take top honours.
But third is my best qualifying result in Castrol Honda Racing colours and that was pleasing, especially as the Civic Type-R was laden with 70kgs of ballast following a post-Slovakia shift in the WTCC’s Balance of Performance.
You definitely notice the extra weight under power and the car is a bit lazy in the corners – that’s not such a bad thing through the Hungaroring’s sweeping, long-duration turns – and my skilled Honda engineers did well to ensure we carried the weight well.
I enjoyed the extra speed afforded by the Hungaroring’s freshly laid asphalt in the dry practice and qualifying sessions and I have to praise the circuit for doing such a great job; it’s no small feat to refresh the circuit so extensively with a brand new surface and revised kerbing, and to get it all done ready for the WTCC’s arrival was impressive.
Cars ran on the circuit all week and there were zero problems. The surface was silky smooth and I feel the kerbs are much nicer than the ‘sausages’ that preceded them.
It’s no secret that racing drivers like to straighten out corners and there’s now a good margin for that at the Hungaroring, but the kerbs also give the circuit a certain fluidity and flow that is very pleasant in a touring car.
Of course, the Hungaroring is also the highest downforce circuit we visit and it’s pretty difficult when you’re behind other cars, therefore the ‘Manufacturers Against the Clock’ time trial was always going to be an uphill battle.
We went out for our run knowing both LADA and Citroën were under investigation for track limit infringements and it was late on Saturday evening that Honda was confirmed as the winner after a penalty dropped the French cars to second.
It was Honda’s first outright victory and the team’s second maximum score in MAC3, having tied on time with Citroën in Slovakia. It was something to celebrate, although it was absolutely imperative that we consolidated on the result in Sunday’s races.
Ultimately, that was easier said than done. The main focus of the Opening Race was tyre choice. Heavy rain saturated the circuit in the morning but eased off and it was a lottery between wets, slicks or a wet-slick combination.
The very experienced drivers among us, including me, made the wrong decision by fitting slicks. It was the right call on the grid, but the rain returned on the formation laps and it was only Gabriele Tarquini who made an inspired decision to switch to grooved Yokohamas at the start.
The wet-shod guys excelled while the rest of us tumbled down the order. We would have lost too much time by pitting and you just had to do the best you could, and to finish as the highest slick runner was good, but 11th is a point-less result.
Then came race two, in which I got well and truly ‘Mullered’. To set the scene, I was third and bearing down on the leading Citroëns of Lopez and Yvan Muller after a Safety Car.
Dropping down to Turn 2, I was to the inside, Yvan jumped across my bows to defend his position and the tiniest of touches caused him to slide wide. The door was open, I slipped into P2 and I was giving Lopez a hard time by the end of the lap.
Curiously, the stewards saw something different to everybody else and, after Yvan aired his displeasure over his team radio, handed me a drive-through penalty, destroying my race and denying the trackside and television audiences of a titanic battle for the victory.
It was a difficult decision to swallow and a missed opportunity to win a Main Race, but I’ve been in the game long enough to not dwell on them. It’s racing.
Having said that, other more severe incidents were ignored and the Race of Hungary demonstrates a need for consistent stewarding.
A lot of stewards have never sat in a racing car and it was some five years ago that the WTCC drivers placed ex professional racer, John Cleland, in the panel to ensure fairness.
Driver stewards are now a thing of the past in the WTCC, but it’s something we should have as an FIA World Championship, because it’s crazy when you have countless outraged fans failing to understand penalties and calling to question the competence of the decision-makers.