Grand Prix 2015 Hungarian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

It is not the most popular of Grand Prix circuits. It is tight and twisty, staggeringly difficult to overtake on, and not especially scenic. Its nicknames hardly inspire confidence - "Monaco without the walls", "the Dustbowl", "Hungaboring". They're also not especially fair.

This is the circuit of the first Grand Prix of the Eastern Bloc, still the only one in that huge area of land between the Berlin Wall and the Black Sea. It is a circuit where the dominant team often fails to dominate: not the only circuit where Red Bull and Mercedes shared the wins between 2013 and 2014, but the only one where they won in the wrong order!

It has been the scene of some drama in the last 10 years as well! 2006 saw Alonso and Schumacher gain separate and equal time penalties before qualifying, and both fail to finish as Button took his inaugural spoils in the rain. 2007 saw the spark which lead to the McLaren implosion. 2008 saw Massa recover his form from a tough summer, but his engine to fail allowing in Kovalainen. 2009 saw the slowest circuit in the world see KERS big break through for Hamilton's McLaren. 2010 was the year of Vettel and 10 car lengths, handing Webber an underserved win. McLaren had a wet battle royale in 2011, when Button made the right calls to take the honours. 2012 saw Grosjean piling on the pressure on Hamilton for half the race, before losing out to both the Englishman and Raikkonen. 2013 was Hamilton's first win for Mercedes. 2014 saw Ricciardo and Alonso hold off the Mercedes.

Hamilton, of course, could well count this his best circuit. He's had 4 victories - each time with Raikkonen second. Vettel has never won here - there's been no German win since 2004. Raikkonen has had to wait since 2005. McLaren have secured a lot of the victories in the last 10 years, but they're obviously going to need divine intervention here. Both of their drivers won their only victory before their respective title years here.

I doubt there'll be too much overtaking, but it often delivers intrigue and interest. Budapest is now a circuit with true history in F1. Will it be a Mercedes win? Well, it doesn't always follow...
 
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It's worth remembering Hungary has been CTA's race of the year for the last 2 years on the trot

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In fact ever since it its first edition in 1986 there has been plenty of classic races held there, both in the wet andthe dry. Five out of the first six GP's held there were absolute crackers and they were all in the dry. Piquet V Senna in '86, Senna V Prost in 88, Patrese/Senna/Mansell in 89, Boutsen V everybody else in 90, etc.

The Hungaroring favours a kind of train-effect kind of race because the track is so dusty off-line anybody putting a wheel off the racing line can lose several seconds over a couple of laps while the tyres clean themselves up. And Anybody who does manage an overtake can make themselves vulnerable again from simply geting their tyres dusty while overtaking.
 
Also the venue for a lot of first-time winners: Hill, Alonso, Button are the first 3 that spring to mind...

(Edit: Kovalainen too, but it's not as if he ever went on to score more, is it?)

(Further edit: I realise that TBY alluded to this in his OP, but it was a while between reading it, and committing my sudden thought to the page)
 
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That's even better when you watch the entire build up, with Piquet chasing Senna down corner by corner. Pretty magical. And people think the Hungaroring is boring!

Like many here, it happens to be a circuit I quite like. With all the dust off the racing line, it rewards the brave and those with skill on marginal tires/slippery conditions, and penalizes the timid.
 
Anyone think Mclaren can get a podium then they don;t need the HOnda engine on this circuit to get around.

I'd say though Williams and Sauber will struggle due to their cars.

I think Red Bull and Toro Rosso could seriously split Mercedes and Ferrari around this track
 
Anyone think Mclaren can get a podium then they don't need the Honda engine on this circuit to get around.[/

That's true. If they took the Honda engine out and replaced it with a couple of bike pedals they would go faster. LOL
 
I love Hungary and you can get great racing on it. You only have to have seen the WSR 3.5 races there this year to see that.
 
By the way the Hungaroring is only second to Monza as being the longest running track on the F1 calendar. This will be the 28th visit in a row to the track by the F1 circus.
 
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