Grid Crasher’s Budapest report card

Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari (finished 3rd)
Somehow managed to luck into a spot on the podium, despite being off the pace all weekend - his team must take some of the blame for that. Who knows why they loaded his car with so much fuel in qualifying, and on a track where overtaking is almost impossible. 6/10

Felipe Massa, Ferrari (DNF)
Shocking luck for the Brazilian, who had earned his lead after a stunning start. Still very much in the title race. 7/10

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren (5th)
Made pole position look easy, but ran out of luck in the race and might have defended better against Massa at the start. In terms of damage limitation, Lewis will be happy - and surprised - to have extended his championship lead, despite not ending up on the podium. 7

Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren (1st)
At last, some luck for Heikki! (Yes, this GP was as much about luck as judgment.) No doubt buoyed by the pre-race news that McLaren had chose to retain him in 2009, the Finn drove a solid race. It’s unfair to say he didn’t deserve his maiden win. Yes, he took advantage of another driver’s misfortune, but he’s not the first F1 driver to do that. 8

Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber (8th)
More than 20,000 Poles turned up in Hungary to see their man, but he couldn’t repay their support with a podium, despite qualifying well. Ever since BMW hinted that they would be concentrating on their 2009 car, Kubica’s title challenge has faded. BMW were mystified by their lack of pace in Hungary, but perhaps they have to accept that other teams - Toyota, Red Bull, Renault - have made more progress in recent weeks. Still, as Bobby said, “one point is better than nothing”. 6

Nick Heidfeld, BMW Sauber (10th)
Had an awful quali - although he was impeded by Seb Bourdais (not the Frenchman’s fault, we stress) - and so never had a real chance of scoring points. 4

Mark Webber, Red Bull (9th)
A “meh” weekend for both Red Bull drivers. 5

David Coulthard, Red Bull (11th)
At least he finished. 4

Nico Rosberg, Williams (14th)
A shocking weekend for Williams - their car had no pace in quali, and weren’t much better on Sunday. 4

Kazuki Nakajima, Williams (13th)
Kazuki may be losing out to Rosberg in quali more often than not, but he has an uncanny knack of keeping his nose clean - did reasonably well to finish ahead of his team-mate. 4

Fernando Alonso, Renault (4th)
Another solid drive. Deserved a podium finish, but Kimi jumped him in the pits. 8

Nelson Piquet Jnr, Renault (6th)
Nelsinho is starting to get the hang of this F1 lark. 7

Jenson Button, Honda (12th)
Nothing to see here, move along. 5

Rubens Barrichello, Honda (16th)
Outperformed for the whole weekend by his younger team-mate. It now seems likely that this will be the Brazilian veteran’s last season with Honda. 4

Sebastian Bourdais, Toro Rosso (DNF)
No points but at least the Frenchman finished. 5

Sebastien Vettel, Toro Rossi (DNF)
A weekend to forget. 4

Adrian Sutil, Force India (DNF)
Yet another retirement for Sutil, his seventh in 11 grands prix. 4

Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India (15th)
Did a decent job to finish ahead of Barrichello and Bourdais. 5

Jarno Trulli, Toyota (7th)
More solid points for the experienced Italian. 6

Timo Glock, Toyota (2nd)
One of the most stunning drives of the season. Glock has been something of a figure of fun on Grid Crasher - we mocked his world champion aspirations not so long ago - but this performance proved that maybe he does have the potential to drive for a top team. 9 MAN OF THE RACE