Hungarian GP: Wheel-banging battle between Verstappen and Räikkönen!

My summer holiday is coming to an end, and tomorrow I´m back to work after the 4-week holiday. I´m glad I got to end my holiday with a Formula 1 weekend! And what a race it was today! The Hungarian GP offered a great deal of entertainment and various emotions!

After a difficult qualifying yesterday, Kimi opted for a fresh set of yellow-marked soft tyres for the race. When the lights went out it seemed, that all top five drivers got an excellent start. It was very tight going into Turn 1; Rosberg had Ricciardo´s Red Bull in the outside and teammate Hamilton in the inside. Hamilton, however, got the upper hand on his rivals and snatched the lead. For a passing moment Ricciardo was second, but Rosberg managed to take the position back from the Australian. Verstappen was right at his teammate´s tail with Sebastian behind him in P5.

Button in his McLaren was having a serious problem with his car already at the beginning of the race. His brakes had failed and the team had no choice but to tell his driver, how to deal with the brake issue. That, however, was considered an unauthorised team radio communication by the stewards, and the Briton was handed a drive-through penalty due to the radio communication infringement. These new rules are so complicated, that they become ridiculous. Isn´t a brake failure a serious safety issue for the driver? I mean if teams are allowed to tell their driver about a puncture, isn´t a brake issue kind of a same thing? Button definitely had a point, when he questioned the new rules on the team radio after getting the penalty. Safety should come first in Formula 1!

By lap 11 Kimi had already made his way up to P8. Kimi had convincing pace right from the beginning and the Iceman seemed absolutely determined to make it in the points. His teammate Sebastian pitted for a fresh set of soft Pirellis and rejoined the track right ahead of his teammate. On the following laps also the Red Bull drivers and both Silver Arrows pitted for a similar tyre choice. After the pit stop roulette Hamilton was still leading the race with his teammate second. Kimí seemed to be on a different tyre strategy, as the Iceman had started to the race on the soft rubber. Verstappen had rejoined the track behind Kimi after his first pit stop. The flying Dutchman seemed extremely eager and impatient to get past the Iceman, but Kimi kept up his stunning work and didn´t give the Red Bull teenager any opportunities to get past.

Kimi pitted not until on lap 30 -for a fresh set of supersoft tyres. The Finn rejoined the track in P7, right behind McLaren´s Alonso. Only a lap later Kimi  made a staggering overtaking move on the Spanish McLaren driver and jumped 6th. Kimi´s pace on the fresh supersofts was absolutely breathtaking; he set fastest times on every sector and was almost 2 seconds per lap quicker than Red Bull´s Verstappen! Kimi was utterly on flames at Hungaroring!

In the second pit stops all top five drivers -Hamilton, Rosberg, Ricciardo, Vettel and Verstappen- opted for another set of yellow-marked soft tyres. The situation in the lead remained unchanged; Hamilton was still leading the race with his teammate second. Kimi, on the other hand, pitted not until on lap 51 -for a fresh set of supersoft tyres. The Iceman rejoined the track in P6, seven seconds off Verstappen. The chase was to begin! Kimi´s driving was entertainingly aggressive; he started setting fastest lap times and it took only about five laps to chase down the young Dutchman! It was the beginning of a thrilling, entertaining and wheel-banging battle between these two passionate drivers. On lap 57 there was a hair-raising moment, as Kimi tried an overtaking move on the Dutch Red Bull ace. Max defended his position aggressively as expected. The Dutchman´s move was maybe a bit on "the grey area" in terms of whether he changed his line once or twice. Nevertheless, Max maintained his 5th place, and Kimi ended up losing the end plate of his front wing due to his move. But it was such a pleasure to see the passionate racing spirit in these two drivers, as both of them were willing to give all in for the 5th position! I strongly believe, that without Kimi´s huge experience and down-to-Earth attitude the battle would probably have ended in the race-ending collision. After the race I´ve read a lot of judging comments on Twitter about Verstappen´s driving but I have to say I totally disagree! It´s true he may have been on "the grey area" considering rules, but I simply love his 100% racing attitude and the passion not to give up, although this may lead him into some contradictory situations sometimes.

Luckily the damaged end plate didn´t have too much influence on the aerodynamics of Kimi´s SF16-H. Kimi stayed at Max´s tail till the end of the race, but no chances for overtaking! Rosberg was two seconds down on his teammate, and the German was unable to challenge his teammate for the victory at any stage of the race. There was a tight battle for P3 as well between Red Bull´s Ricciardo and Ferrari´s Sebastian, but the Australian had the upper hand in the end. So Red Bull beat Ferrari fair and square, as Max managed to keep his 5th place, and Kimi had to settle for P6. Still I voted Kimi as the driver of the day, because he made a huge impression with his passionate driving today! Turning P14 into P6 is a very respectable achievement indeed. Sebastian drove a strong race as well, but to me it seemed that Kimi was the stronger one of the Ferrari teammates today. There was something extraordinary about his driving today! Alonso brought some valuable points for McLaren by finishing 7th today, Toro Rosso´s Sainz was 8th, Williams´ Bottas was 9th and Force India´s Hulkenberg scored the last point.

So Hamilton has now taken over in the drivers´ championship standings and is now leading by 6 points. It seems that Rosberg is now the under dog in terms of the championship battle. It´s very tight between Red Bull and Ferrari in the constructors´ standings, as Red Bull is now only 1 point off the Italian-based team! Luckily there´s one more race already next weekend before the much-too-long summer break! Roll on Hockenheim!

P.S. My article on the race weekend can be read also here: http://sfcriga.com/hungarian-gp-2016