In a race that was dominated by McLaren and Ferrari, Robert Doornbos was forced to retire on lap 28 after suffering with a hydraulic problem. Up until that moment, the Minardi debutant drove an excellent race in which he got the better of his teammate, Christijan Albers.

Just like the previous round in Germany, the start of the Hungaroring event didn’t go off without incident as Christian Klien, Rubens Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher, Fernando Alonso and David Coulthard were all involved in first lap accidents and Doornbos saw his chance to move up to P15, close behind his teammate. Because the pace of both Barrichello and Alonso was quicker than the Minardi racer, they both fell back two places just before their first stops.

Doornbos’ strategy (to start with a heavier fuel load) seemed to work just fine as the Dutchman was able to overtake his teammate during his stop. From that moment on, Doornbos was catching up with Narain Karthikeyan lap-by-lap, while at the same time building up a gap over his teammate. However, his advance was brought to an early halt on lap 28 when he was forced to retire due to a hydraulic problem.

“It’s a pity we were not able to finish the race,” he said. ‘My race pace was good, and so was our strategy and tyre choice. While chasing the Jordan of Karthikeyan, I suddenly lost the hydraulics, and I had to retire from the race. But no hard feelings as Formula One is a mechanical sport in which these things sometimes happen. For now, I look forward to the ‘Monaco on the Maas ’event in my hometown of Rotterdam next Sunday. I’m planning to make it a great show in my Minardi, so I hope all Dutch F1 fans will be there to enjoy it!”