Even though Nico Rosberg was the pole-sitter, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo won the Hungarian GP and only one of Mercedes drivers could climb the podium this time.
The Hungarian Grand Prix was held 20 km away from Budapest at the Hungaroring track. This circuit was built in 1986 when Bernie Ecclestone wanted a race in the USSR. However, the Iron Curtain turned out to be a hard obstacle to overcome and they had to build a track in Budapest instead.
At the moment, the track is 4,381 m long and comprises 16 turns. The Hungaroring is tight, slow and narrow and overtaking is a challenge here. One would think that the fate of the race had to be determined in qualifying, as it usually is; however, the Hungarian Grand Prix was full of surprises.
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) scored three victories at the Hungaroring after seizing pole position for all of them. However, this time it was quite a nailbiter. During the qualifying session, his race car caught fire due to a fuel lick. That was the end of qualifying for Hamilton. Maldonado (Lotus) ran out of luck as well due to energy store issues. Magnussen (McLaren) managed to crash his car when braking in the end of qualifying session.
Nico Rosberg became the pole-sitter with the time of 1:22.715: “Unfortunately, my teammate faced some problems, which is definitely bad for the entire team. It means we should work on improving reliability. Apart from that, I prefer competing with Lewis on the track as it puts me in a special fighting mood”. Next came Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) and Valtteri Bottas (Williams).
The Russian driver Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) had tenth starting position. His time was 1:24.706.
It was a regular Sunday day except for the fact that is started raining 45 minutes before the race. Right after the start, Maldonado and Pérez (Force India) went off the track during the formation lap. Fortunately, there were no severe consequences. Daniil Kvyat’s Toro Rosso shut down all of a sudden: “The engine just stalled. There is no explanation so far, it has happened for the first time”. As soon as all problems were solved, the race has finally begun.
Time for the race. Rosberg kept the lead, Bottas overtook Vettel, Ricciardo lost two positions. Hamilton had a pit lane start and went off the track on lap 1; however, he continued the race.
Part of the track was still wet and the field stretched out. Hamilton was overtaking one competitor after another. On lap 8, Ericsson (Caterham) ran out of luck and crashed the car: “I was having a good fight with Chilton and Maldonado, trying to line them up through turn three and I was just a bit too eager in the throttle. The back stepped out and I couldn't catch the car and that was it, I was in the wall”.
That was a heavy frontal impact but the driver was fine, though he still had to visit the medical centre. Safety car was sent out. Grosjean (Lotus) crashed his car a few laps later: “We made the right call to move to slicks when the safety car came out — like most of the grid did — but I made a mistake when I was trying to keep the tyres warm. Unfortunately, I touched the white line and spun and that was it”.
Almost right at this time, the rear brakes of Rosberg’s Mercedes started smoking. The engineer asked to shift the balance to the front. The race was restarted. After that, Button (McLaren) overtook Ricciardo and took the lead in the race, while Vergne (Toro Rosso) and Alonso (Ferrari) overtook Rosberg.
Next came a collision between two Force India drivers. Hülkenberg went off the track and dropped out of the race: “I lost my front wing and went straight on into the barrier. It was my mistake and I’ve apologised to the team”.
There was another collision between Bianchi (Marussia) and Maldonado (Lotus), sending both of them to mechanics.
Then Pérez crashed his car and spread the debris all over the straight section: “Conditions were very difficult, the track was drying and improving, and it made you want to push to the limit, but there were some wet patches that could catch you out”. Safety car came out again.
Kobayashi (Caterham) stopped at Turn 12 and dropped out of the race as well: “An issue with the fuel system meant I had to stop the car as I had no power… That was the end of the race for me”.
Once again, the race was restarted. There was a keen and intense struggle unfolding on the track. Alonso was keeping the lead. Gutiérrez left his car in the pits.
By lap 50 Ricciardo was in the lead with Alonso, Hamilton and Rosberg behind him. Mercedes engineer asked Hamilton to ease aside for Rosberg, however, the distance between them was getting bigger and bigger. Rosberg also asked a few times whether Hamilton was going to let him through but apparently, he wasn’t. Nico was lagging behind so there was no more point for Lewis to move aside. The drivers were fighting till the very last turn. Ricciardo was the first to cross the finish line: “It feels as good as the first win, it really does. The safety car at first played to our advantage but the second one didn't really help us, but we got there in the end and I had to do the overtaking at the end which was fun!”
Fernando Alonso was the second to fly across the finish line: “We took a gamble to try to get the victory and we got very close… We need some crazy races to get a podium and we took our chances today”.
Lewis Hamilton rounded off the podium: “I was just pushing as hard as possible to get as high as I could. On the other hand, I’m glad I could make it to the podium after what happened yesterday and on the first lap today. Coming back through shows how great this car and team is, and this result is much more satisfying than an easy win”.
It’s been a long time since Formula 1 race has had so much keen struggle and so many retirements. What concerns the Russian driver, Daniil Kvyat was 14th: “I got stuck behind slower cars and my tyres have worn out fast. The safety car wasn’t of much help either. The tyres cooled down and it became even harder. But the most important thing is that I haven’t dropped out of the race”.
The next Grand Prix will be held only in the end of August so there is time for the drivers to catch their breath.
Photo: f1fanatic.co.uk
