The 2004 Hungarian Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Marlboro Magyar Nagydíj 2004) was a Formula One motor race that took place on 15 August 2004 at the Hungaroring, Mogyoród, Pest, Hungary. It was the thirteenth round of the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship.
Michael Schumacher of Scuderia Ferrari took pole position for the race and went on to take the race win ahead of teammate Rubens Barrichello and Fernando Alonso of Renault. It was Schumacher's twelfth win of the season and his seventh in succession, equalling Alberto Ascari's record. Ferrari's one-two finish meant that they secured their sixth consecutive Constructors' Championship.
Background Across the weekend of 13–15 August, the Hungaroring in Mogyoród hosted a Formula One Grand Prix for the nineteenth time in the circuit's history, with it being the nineteenth Hungarian Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship as well. It was the thirteenth round of the 2004 Formula One World Championship.
Championship standings before the race Going into the weekend, Michael Schumacher led the Drivers' Championship with 110 points, ahead of Scuderia Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello on 74 points and BAR's Jenson Button on 65. Ferrari were leading the Constructors' Championship with 184 points, from Renault (85 points) and BAR (76).
Driver changes Cristiano da Matta was dropped by the Toyota team because of his poor performance relative to teammate Olivier Panis. He was replaced by the team's third driver Ricardo Zonta but would stay on to perform marketing work while Toyota test driver Ryan Briscoe assumed Zonta's former position.
Practice Four free practice sessions were held for the event. The first session on Friday was topped by the Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello, ahead of Anthony Davidson, third driver for BAR. McLaren's Kimi Räikkönen set the fastest time in the second session, ahead of Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya of Williams.
On Saturday, Schumacher again set the quickest time in the third practice session, ahead of Williams drivers Antônio Pizzonia and Montoya. Finally, Jenson Button was fastest in the fourth session in his BAR, ahead of Schumacher and Barrichello.
Friday drivers The bottom 6 teams in the 2003 Constructors' Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race.
Constructor Nat Driver BAR-Honda Anthony Davidson Sauber-Petronas - Jaguar-Cosworth Björn Wirdheim Toyota Ryan Briscoe Jordan-Ford Timo Glock Minardi-Cosworth Bas Leinders
Qualifying Qualifying on Saturday consisted of two sessions. In the first session, drivers went out one by one in the order in which they classified at the previous race. Each driver was allowed to set one lap time. The result determined the running order in the second session: the fastest driver in the first session was allowed to go last in the second session, which usually provided the benefit of a cleaner track. In the second session, drivers were again allowed to set one lap time, which determined the order on the grid for the race on Sunday, with the fastest driver scoring pole position.
Despite lower track temperatures and a few drops of the rain, the front of the field saw little surprises. Michael Schumacher scored his seventh pole position of the season and the 62nd of his career, ahead of Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello and over half a second ahead of the BARs of Takuma Sato and Jenson Button.
Driver Constructor Q1 Time Q2 Time Gap Grid 1 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari1:19.107 1:19.146 — 1 2 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari1:18.436 1:19.323 +0.177 2 3 10 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda1:19.695 1:19.693 +0.547 3 4 9 Jenson Button BAR-Honda1:19.878 1:19.700 +0.554 4 5 8 Fernando Alonso Renault1:20.135 1:19.996 +0.850 5 6 4 Antônio Pizzonia Williams-BMW1:20.019 1:20.170 +1.024 6 7 3 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW1:19.821 1:20.199 +1.053 7 8 11 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas1:19.668 1:20.324 +1.178 8 9 7 Jarno Trulli Renault1:19.879 1:20.411 +1.265 9 10 6 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes1:20.066 1:20.570 +1.424 10 11 14 Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth1:21.452 1:20.730 +1.584 11 12 5 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes1:21.192 1:20.897 +1.751 12 13 17 Olivier Panis Toyota1:20.491 1:21.068 +1.922 13 14 15 Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth1:21.510 1:21.118 +1.972 14 15 16 Ricardo Zonta Toyota1:20.199 1:21.135 +1.989 15 16 18 Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford1:20.439 1:22.180 +3.034 16 17 19 Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford1:21.187 1:22.356 +3.210 17 18 21 Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth1:24.656 1:24.329 +5.183 18 19 20 Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth1:23.362 1:24.679 +5.533 19 20 12 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas1:19.658 No time 20 Notes – Multiple engine issues during practice, Sauber decided to save the Petronas engine and abort Massa's effort in the second qualifying session. – Felipe Massa received a 10-place grid penalty for an engine change.
Race Race report At the start, Michael Schumacher comfortably kept his lead, while second-starting Rubens Barrichello was under pressure from Fernando Alonso, who had jumped up from fifth position. Both BARs had a slow getaway: Takuma Sato fell down to eighth, Jenson Button to fifth behind Juan Pablo Montoya. Ricardo Zonta's first race for Toyota got off to a rocky start: he was pushed by one of the Jordans and could not avoid hitting the back of Mark Webber's Jaguar. Zonta spun and rejoined in last place. He would later retire from the race.
The Hungaroring's configuration had been altered over the winter, the organisers hoping to create more overtaking opportunities, but the layout still caused the field to spread out and there were very little overtakes. On lap 14, Kimi Räikkönen retired due to mechanical problems for the eighth time this season and on lap 43, the engine on Jarno Trulli's Renault failed. There were no other changes in the points-scoring positions for the remainder of the race. Button pressured Montoya for fourth place but never came closer than three seconds behind. Their respective teammates were fighting over sixth place but never went wheel-to-wheel.
Schumacher scored a dominant victory over Barrichello and Alonso. The German only needed to score two more points than Barrichello to clinch a record-breaking seventh World Championship. The 1-2 finish was enough for Scuderia Ferrari to clinch their sixth consecutive Constructors' Championship.
Race classification Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 70 1:35:26.131 1 10 2 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 70 + 4.696 2 8 3 8 Fernando Alonso Renault 70 + 44.599 5 6 4 3 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 70 + 1:02.613 7 5 5 9 Jenson Button BAR-Honda 70 + 1:07.439 4 4 6 10 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 69 + 1 Lap 3 3 7 4 Antônio Pizzonia Williams-BMW 69 + 1 Lap 6 2 8 11 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas 69 + 1 Lap 8 1 9 5 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 69 + 1 Lap 12 10 14 Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth 69 + 1 Lap 11 11 17 Olivier Panis Toyota 69 + 1 Lap 13 12 18 Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford 68 + 2 Laps 16 13 15 Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth 68 + 2 Laps 14 14 20 Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth 66 + 4 Laps 19 15 21 Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth 65 + 5 Laps 18 19 Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford 48 Gearbox 17 7 Jarno Trulli Renault 41 Engine 9 16 Ricardo Zonta Toyota 31 Electronics 15 12 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 21 Brakes 20 6 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 13 Electrical 10
Championship standings after the race Bold text and an asterisk indicates the World Champions.
Drivers' Championship standings Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 120 2 Rubens Barrichello 82 3 Jenson Button 65 4 Jarno Trulli 46 5 Fernando Alonso 45Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Constructor Points 1 Ferrari* 202 2 Renault 91 3 BAR-Honda 83 4 Williams-BMW 54 5 McLaren-Mercedes 37Source:
See also 2004 Hungaroring F3000 round
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