The weather gods intervened to throw last weekends Grand Prix in Hungary wide open and provide plenty of drama for F1 fans going into the summer break. Before the pre race downpour it had looked as though Mercedes and Hamilton would have a relatively easy afternoon, the Mercs had had the fastest package all weekend and RedBull had looked a bit out of sorts. Any thoughts of the reigning champions walking away with it were washed away by the rain though as plans had to be torn up and thinking on your feet became the order of the day. What was to follow will be remembered as one of F1’s crazy afternoons.
With all cars being forced to start on the inters because of the rain strategy variations caused by qualifying didn’t matter any more and the first lap was new territory for everyone. Heading to the first corner some got it right but two people in particular got it terribly wrong. Bottas completely misjudged the grip available and outbraked himself straight into the back of Lando Norris who in turn was sent careening into Verstappen causing mayhem at Turn 1. Bottas also caught Perez as well who would retire latter in the lap after losing all water pressure as a result of the damage. It was the end of the road for Bottas and Perez but Max was to live to fight another day, although with a heavily patched up car after the resulting restart.
The other to make a mess at turn one was Lance Stroll in the Aston who was never going to make the corner and tried to take the inside curb to avoid trouble but instead clattered into LeClerc and put him out on the spot. Lando Norris retired the car during the race stoppage as the damage couldn’t be repaired and so that meant a bunch of cars would not restart the event. Both Bottas and Stroll received five place grid penalties for their misdemeanors which will impact their weekend at Spa. Mercedes in particular you would think will be hurt by that the most in their title battle with RedBull.
The restart itself saw something very strange itself as Lewis Hamilton was the only man to line up on the grid as all other drivers elected to pit for slicks as the track had dried significantly. This was really the moment that Merc lost the race as when he stopped for slicks the next lap he ended up at the back of the field, if he had followed everyone else in he would have come out sixth according to the teams calculations. From sixth place he would probably have made his way to the front quite easily but instead he was stuck in traffic. Mercedes pitting Lewis to get him out of the train of cars and into free ait at his next two “regular” stops is what allowed his fight back to third (second after Sebs DSQ) so the team did respond well after the initial error but on a day when your title rival is only in the lower points positions you really need to scoring the maximum.
Having said that the win was still on for Hamilton until he came up against Former team mate Alonso after he final stop. Fernando used all his experience and prodigious race craft to keep Lewis behind for long enough that once he was by he no longer had enough time or tyre advantage to reach Ocon and Vettel. The battle between the two was a joy to behold and while it was very hard racing it was fair game. Alonso knew he had to keep Lewis behind tp help his team mate win the race and played the team game to perfection. For me this on track fight was probably the moment of the race. If any young drivers want to know how to defend just study Alonso from last weekend. Brilliant stuff.
Lewis once by was able to demote Sainz from third after the Ferrari driver was making up for his quali error the day before by could go no further.
All this meant that the fight for the win was fought over by Ocon in the Alpine and Vettel in the second Aston Martin, on one would have thought that if asked pre race but they were able to avoid the turn 1 carnage and make their way through. Ocon stopped with everyone else at the restart and lined up at the end of the pitlane at the head of the pack only to be overtaken by Russel at the getaway. The Williams team though elected to give those places back to avoid a penalty for unlawful overtaking and from there Ocon controlled things beautifully while under pressure from Sebastian who was probably a bit faster at this point. Despite putting in fast in and out laps Vettel emerged behind once both men had stopped, not helped by a mistake into the box that slowed the wheel change.. Following this Seb only had one real chance to take the lead while Ocon negotiated back markers exiting turn 1 but Estaban never put a foot wrong and scored a well deserved win for Alpine and team Enstone.
You can’t fail to be happy for them, smaller teams taking a win on such days is always great to see. I have to admit during the race I was hoping that Vettel may find a way past and take his first win since Singapore in 19 but given what was to happen post race I guess it was best that he didn’t. Either way welcome to the Grand Prix winners club Estaban!!!
Sunday evening brought the news that Vettel had been excluded for not having the mandated 1 litre of fuel left in his tank at the end of the race. After such a good result for him and the team it was disappointing news. The team have appealed and we wait on the results but I cannot see how the team can overturn the sanction. Such issues are normally a slam dunk DSQ so I don’t expect things to be overturned. We will wait and see.
Apart from all that though any fan with a heart felt over joyed to see Williams get a double points finish and George Russel get his first points with the team. They have looked close on a couple of occasions but it has worked out so a 10 point haul for the team was absolutely brilliant to see. It is days that like where Williams have to make hay and they certainly did that.
So Hamilton us now seven points to the good the title race after being 32 behind going into the British GP, things really have swung around after two poor races for RedBull. It is a good position to be taking into the summer break for Merc but there is a hell of a lot more racing to be done yet and much more drama to come. I cannot wait. Bring on Spa……
My F1 talk 