This race was incredible and with the sheer twists and turns as the pit-stop strategies played out, it proved that it would be one to remember for Lewis and the Mercedes team.
Last night, he gave himself not a great deal of a chance to bring home the win despite qualifying in pole position, yet here he stands, on the top step winning by a comfortable margin
Elsewhere on the grid, Mark Webber was left to rue the performance of his team in qualifying resulted in a change of gearbox and a busted K.E.R.S. system (again!) leaving him languishing in 10th position and unable to set a time in Q3.
Let's see how things unfolded...
Qualifying
Once again it was assumed that the battle for pole position would be between the Mercedes team and the Red Bull Racing team, with others offered an outside chance to take up slots on the sharp end of the grid.
With just 0.5 seconds separating the top six contenders at the end of Q3, it was down to Seb Vettel to set the initiative clocking in at "1:19.426". This seemed to be enough until Hamilton once again turned up to steal the show by shaving off 0.38 of a second to take pole position.
Yet again, it seemed the McLaren team were to be on the outside looking in with Jenson Button languishing down in 13th position, only for Sergio Perez to, again, out qualify his team-mate making it into Q3 only to qualify just ahead of Webber in 9th position.
The Race
I did, admittedly, miss the first seventeen minutes of this race so was left to scramble together the pieces in my mind of what had happened at the start and when I heard that Hamilton had turned out his pole position into an excellent start, I was relieved to hear this (yet still apprehensive somewhat given the events in the British GP with the tyre compounds, albeit different to what were used here at the Hungaroring).
Pit stop strategies were key here with the teams each vying to outbid one another, Red Bull and Mercedes, Ferrari and Lotus and multiple times were places swapped as the cars came and went from the pit garage.
The new regulations given what happened last time out when Mark Webber's car lost a wheel would prove to be a necessity to make sure that sort of thing does not happen again. Still, best wishes again to the BBC cameraman...
Who would I say looked like the race was in their hands? Maybe Romain Grosjean at one point, as the French driver (whom I said just needed to keep his head again recently) and he looked in very impressive form until a silly mistake cost him a position on the podium.
This was despite overtaking Ferrari's Felipe Massa on lap 29 at turn 4 in quite some style!) saw him drive his car outside the boundaries of the track. This cost him a drive-through penalty. Before this though, there was an incident on lap 24 involving McLaren's Jenson Button, so we'll see if Grosjean gets a penalty for this now that the race is over. He was battling with Vettel at the time for what was going to be a guaranteed second placed position.
Kimi Raikonnen was the next driver to impress today and, though he did not really look like taking the win, it was pretty much a given that he'd still be trying his best to be pushing his team-mate, Grosjean, and nearest rivals to a podium position.
Onto the Driver of the Day and I'm going to have to say that the star attraction is, unsurprisingly none other than...
Lewis Hamilton
He started off not at all confident that he would be able to peg down a win despite claiming another pole position this time. It is little surprise too because of the way the Mercedes has performed exquisitely in Practice and Qualifying, yet when it comes to race, the way it handles the tyres is none-too-short of poor.
Until today that is, because this day heralded the start of a brand new composition of tyre and it would prove to be one that Hamilton could work with as he fought to hold off Vettel & co throughout this 70 lap race.
Following Hamilton home was Kimi Raikonnen whose race, like others for him earlier this season, seemed to click as it headed toward the close. This allowed him to close in on and take second position ahead of Vettel thus being able to take full advantage of Red Bull's woes.
I wish I knew what it was that was so off about the RBR car today, as I heard more errors & warnings for Vettel than I've heard so far this season, at one point being urged to watch the temperature of the engine thus meaning no harsh acceleration.
Eliminating errors like these are impossible as this is a competitive sport and things often happen in the heat of the moment, but all they can do is to crack on with the development of the car and bring it back to form for the next race in nearly a month's time. Such is life sometimes and you really have got to learn how to make lemonade when life gives you lemons (or lemon meringue pie as I've so often quoted in other entries on this 'ere blog of mine!).
This was certainly a disappointing race for Ferrari as despite Fernando Alonso looking impressive going into this race, he was left languishing in 5th position and half a minute off the pace.
So with Hamilton and Raikonnen making up the first two steps of the podium, who would be third?
Step forward Sebastien Vettel, the guy who again looked like he'd done enough yesterday to warrant a safe bet on today's race, but with the aforementioned errors aside, that wasn't ever likely to be possible now, was it?
Let's see what the Championship looks like now: -
1
|
Sebastian
Vettel
|
Red Bull
Racing
|
172
|
2
|
Kimi
Räikkönen
|
Lotus-Renault
|
134
|
3
|
Fernando
Alonso
|
Ferrari
|
133
|
4
|
Lewis
Hamilton
|
Mercedes
|
124
|
So as you can see, that win today for Lewis Hamilton has kept him in touch with those directly above him, whilst Vettel's third placed position was still enough to see that Räikönnen was still more than a race win behind. For his sake though, Räikönnen will be glad to see that those extra three points went his way rather than the RBR driver's, as in the end it could all come down to differences like this the closer to an end the season gets.
A quick mention of Daniel Ricciardo, the guy I've tipped to be rookie of the year at this point. He had a real downer today as he finished outside of the top ten (in 13th position to be exact) meaning that his up's and down's continue as we head onto the summer break now. I just wish he could be a little more consistent as he'll need to be if he wants to bank that vacant Red Bull seat for next year ahead of Räikönnen!
Next time out it's my all-time favourite Grand Prix track (before even Monaco I'll admit!) and that's Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, just because of the Radillon/Eau Rouge corner after the start/finish line. It is quite simply the best and most hair-raising corner to take at speed of all tracks (though admittedly the corkscrew at Laguna Seca is a close 3rd)!
Until then, I bid all ye petrolheads a fond farewell...
Peace out!
The Lanky Penguin
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