I just want to pause for a moment to remember Jules Bianchi who sadly passed away just before the Hungarian Grand Prix after a nine month battle for survival after his horrendous crash at the Japanese Grand Prix last season. F1 has no doubt lost one of it’s greatest talents, my thoughts go out to Jules’ family and friends at this difficult time. R.I.P. Jules Bianchi, I hope you are winning on the great race track in the sky!
To say the result of the Hungarian Grand Prix was a surprise is an understatement, although maybe the bigger surprise is that Mercedes were not on the podium as Sebastian Vettel took his second victory for Ferrari this season followed by the two Red Bull’s of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo respectively.
After an aborted start because Williams’ Felipe Massa was out of position on the grid, both Ferrari’s made an amazing start from third and fifth place with Vettel leading and Raikkonen second by turn 3 as Hamilton dropped back to fourth behind team mate Rosberg before later going off track avoiding his own team mate which dropped him back to 10th place behind Massa where he stayed until lap 10.
Although Red Bull’s Ricciardo made a poor start dropping back to eighth place prior to being promoted to seventh because of Hamilton’s off track excursion, he was quick to make up places after being allowed to pass Kvyat on lap 10 to move upto fourth place by lap 13 with some spectacular dives down the inside.
Inevitably Hamilton used his superior Mercedes power to move up the field to pass Ricciardo for fourth place on lap 29 and onto Rosberg’s gearbox by lap 42. Raikkonen’s bad luck continued as he reported being down on power, which turned out to be a MGU-K failure and ultimately retirement on lap 55.
On lap 43, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg’s front wing failed in spectacular style sending carbon fiber everywhere, first bringing out the VSC and later the safety car which bunched the field up for the restart on lap 49. Rosberg took second away from the ailing Raikkonen on the restart while Ricciardo made a move on the outside of Hamilton and the Briton drifted into the Australian, Hamilton pitted for a new front wing while Ricciardo continued, Hamilton dropping out of the points with a drive through penalty.
Again, Hamilton fights his way back into the points to eventually finish the race in sixth place, ahead of team mate Rosberg who understeered into the front wing of Ricciardo after the Australian made an audacious dive down the inside, which meant a pit stop for both drivers, Rosberg with a left rear puncture and Ricciardo for a new front wing. Rosberg dropped back to 10th place after trundling around for nearly a whole lap while Ricciardo lost one place to team mate Kyvat coming back out in third.
It was a great day for McLaren with Alonso finishing in fifth place and Button in ninth, this must feel like a win for McLaren Honda after the disaster that has been 2015 so far, hopefully this is a sign of things to come. Props also go out to Max Verstappen who scored fourth place for Toro Rosso, the best finish of his young F1 career. Romain Grosjean scored six valuable points for Lotus claiming seventh place ahead of Rosberg in eighth place while Marcus Ericsson scored a single point for Sauber for 10th place.
I enjoyed the Hungarian Grand Prix, lots of excitement, even if it was created by drivers making mistakes, it’s refreshing to see a podium with no Mercedes drivers up there. Although I suspect normal service will be resumed after the mid-season break with Spa and Monza being the next two races after the break.
2015 Hungarian Grand Prix Results
1. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) 1:46:09.985 2. Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull) +15.748s 3. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) +25.084s 4. Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso) +44.251s 5. Fernando Alonso (McLaren) +49.079s |
6. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) +52.025s 7. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) +58.578s 8. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) +58.876s 9. Jenson Button (McLaren) +67.028s 10. Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) +69.130s |