BUDAPEST, 16 August 2004 — Michael Schumacher claimed a record 12th win of the season here yesterday as he led Ferrari to a world championship-winning one-two in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
German Schumacher displayed his dominance with a demolition of his rivals as he started from pole position and led every lap to claim his 82nd career win and hand Ferrari their sixth consecutive constructors’ title.
Brazilian Rubens Barrichello followed him home to secure Ferrari’s seventh one-two finish of the season and extend their points haul to an unreachable 202 as closest rivals Renault managed only third with Spaniard Fernando Alonso. Schumacher has outclassed Barrichello this season and can take his seventh drivers’ title with victory at the next race in Belgium after extending his advantage over the Brazilian to 38 points with 50 remaining.
Ferrari’s convincing success, on a track expected to give their rivals a good chance of victory, demonstrated their astonishing advantage but the dull race left Formula One still needing to take a close look in the mirror.
The Italian team’s dominance was such that they had time to display a pit board with the words “World No. 1” in yellow letters as Schumacher crossed the line victorious.
Behind the scarlet steamroller Alonso drove a lonely race to claim his fourth podium finish of the season while Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, in the revised Williams, finished fourth.
BAR-Honda duo Jenson Button and Takuma Sato finished fifth and sixth respectively to push the team one point closer to Renault in the chase for second place in the constructors’ championship.
Antonio Pizzonia, in his second race for Williams as a replacement for the injured Ralf Schumacher, claimed his second successive seventh place and Italian Giancarlo Fisichella secured the final point for Sauber in eighth.
The race was virtually decided by the first corner when Schumacher led comfortably from pole and Barrichello held off the fast-starting Alonso to keep hold of second.
Montoya made a strong start to move up three places to fourth ahead of fifth-placed Button while Sato was the biggest position loser as he dropped from third to eighth.
Trulli gained three places to move up to sixth and Finn Kimi Raikkonen moved up from tenth to seventh in his McLaren as home hope Zsolt Baumgartner slotted onto the back of the field after starting from the pitlane in his Minardi.
In the middle of the pack Brazilian Ricardo Zonta, making his race debut for Toyota after the team dropped countryman Cristiano da Matta, was knocked into a spin in the melee and dropped to the back.
Alonso was the first driver to stop, at the end of lap nine, Barrichello followed on the next lap and Schumacher, after setting several fastest race laps, stopped at the end of lap 11.
