Kimi Räikkönen & Sebastian Vettel

Kimi Räikkönen & Sebastian Vettel

sunnuntai 27. heinäkuuta 2014

Hungarian GP: Ricciardo took the second win of the season!

Already before the start it became obvious that the weather was about to play a key role in the race. There was a rain shower, which made the track wet just before the lights went out. Everyone started to the race on the intermediate tyres. Rosberg on pole didn´t get a perfect start but the German still managed to maintain the lead. Bottas in his Williams had a stunning start and the Finn managed to get past Vettel and made it in P2. Also Alonso managed to overtake Vettel but the German snatched his position back only a few corners later. Hamilton, who started to the race from the pitlane had a dreadful start: the Briton went wide because his brakes were still cold but managed to continue the race. Vettel in P3 gave huge pressure on Bottas ahead of him but the Finn drove stubbornly and didn´t give any chance for Vettel to overtake him.

On lap 8 we saw the first crash of the race as Caterham´s Marcus Ericsson lost control of his car and crashed to the barriers nose first. Safety car was deployed due to the dangerous looking crash and action in the pits started immediately. This was an unlucky event for the top four drivers Rosberg, Bottas, Vettel and Alonso as they had just passed the pit entry and they couldn´t pit until a lap later than their rivals. This meant Ricciardo was leading the race with Button 2nd, Massa 3rd and Rosberg 4th! Bottas dropped down to P11 due to the safety car episode! The safety car was just about to come in when Grosjean at the wheel of his E22 lost control of his car in turn three and crashed to the barriers. So the safety car stayed on the track a few laps longer until Grosjean´s Lotus had been removed from the track.

Button in his McLaren had chosen a different tyre strategy compared to his rivals. He was the only driver who had put a fresh set of intermediate tyres whilst all the others had chosen the slicks. When the safety car came in the track was still damp especially in the second sector and Button could quite easily take the lead from Ricciardo. McLaren was expecting more rain to come but that didn´t come so Button´s strategy didn´t pay off and the Briton had to pit again some laps later.

More crashes were to come! On lap 16 the Force India team-mates Hulkenberg and Perez collided with each other, which lead to Hulkenberg´s retirement from the race. Only some seven laps later Perez crashed his Force India into barriers, which caused the safety car to come out again. Alonso in his F14T had now made it in the lead with Toro Rosso´s Vergne 2nd and Vettel 3rd!

On lap 33 I nearly got a heart attack when Vettel suddenly span 360 degrees on the straight and gently touched the pit wall with his tyres! Luckily his RB10 didn´t get any damage and the German could keep racing in spite of losing a couple of places. What a scary moment that was!! I couldn´t help screaming out loud when I saw the spin on TV!

When there were still 20 laps to go there was intense battle between the Mercedes team-mates for the third place. I found it quite unbelievable that Hamilton had been able to make it through the field up to P3 at Hungaroring after starting from the pitlane and after the difficulties at the beginning of the race! Rosberg was in DRS distance and the German was clearly faster than his team-mate. Hamilton was told on the team radio to let Nico through as the German had to pit once more. This message was told to Hamilton several times but Hamilton didn´t obey but persistently kept Nico behind. That cost Rosberg valuable seconds.

The closing stages of the race were absolutely thrilling! Alonso was leading the race with Hamilton 2nd and Ricciardo 3rd. Soon they all were within DRS distance from each other! Ricciardo had the freshest tyres and three laps before the chequered flag the Australian made a staggering overtaking move on Hamilton and got past the Briton! Soon after this he attacked on Alonso, who had no chance to defend his lead with the old tyres. So Ricciardo was leading the race and was driving towards the second victory of the season! Meanwhile Rosberg had stormed like a hurricane after his late pit stop and caught Alonso and Hamilton but couldn´t make a move to overtake. I guess there will be some tight discussion in the team about the team order episode as it clearly cost Rosberg a possible podium finish today. So Alonso finished 2nd and Hamilton 3rd and Rosberg had to settle for P4, which must be a bitter disappointment after starting the race on pole... Massa ended up being the better Williams driver today by finishing 5th whilst Bottas couldn´t make it higher than 8th. Kimi had a very decent race without any problems and finished 6th, which is the best result for him this season. Vettel finished 7th, which I have to admit was a disappointment for me. I so expected to see him on the podium today but instead I saw his team-mate once again winning the race... I have nothing against Ricciardo, it´s just that I would have preferred to see Sebastian up there on the top step today! But in motor racing everything doesn´t always go to plan and the first safety car episode in addition to the 360-degree spin cost Vettel a podium finish today.

So now it´s time for the summer break and there´ll be four long long weeks without Formula 1 action! And this means only one thing: the silly season gets properly underway! As there are no races for a month there´s plenty of time for all the gossip and rumours in terms of next year´s driver line-ups... Well, I don´t mind that because as long as there are F1 related news I can read I´m happy :D Spa still can´t come soon enough!

   

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