Grand Prix 2017 Hungarian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

For the 32nd time in a row the F1 circus rolls into Mogyorod just outside Budapest for another race at the Hungaroring. 11 out of the last 13 F1 world champions have won a race in Hungary making it a badge of honour. The two that never won at Hungary by the way are Nico Rosberg and Alain Prost. The circuit now has to be regarded as an F1 Classic and unlike Silverstone and Monza there never seems to be any talk of it dropping off the calendar. This suggests to me they have a pretty dam good contract. I don’t even know who backs it but I don’t see it making more money that Silverstone so I can only conclude they are paying cheap rates.

In recent times the race has thrown up unpredictable results and actually was voted CTA race of the year 3 times in a row from 2013 to 2015. The track itself was resurface in 2016 and is no longer the dust bowl it used to be. The new tarmac made it much faster last year and with the new cars I imagine it’ll be off the charts this season. The twisting turning nature of the track means that a lack of engine power is no longer the disadvantage it usually is. This should catapult Red Bull into the mix for the win and Mclaren into the upper midfield battle. This can only be good for us watching. Verstappen has a point to prove and will be praying his car holds out on him whilst Ricciardo is in the form of his life at the moment as seen by his charge back through the field at Silverstone. The Mclaren drivers are also on form, Alonso always comes to life when he knows the cameras are on him and Vandorne had his best performance of the season last time out.

The main focus will of course be on the title challenge with just 1 point now between Hamilton and Vettel. If you look at the past performances here you’d say Hamilton’s was a mixed bagged compared to his results elsewhere but it eclipses Vettel’s easily who has not done well here in the past. The other title contender is of course Bottas who has shown a ton of speed of late and really has nothing to lose. Any ideas Hamilton has about using Bottas as a number 2 will have to wait until later in the season. Which of course brings us to Kimi Raikonnen who will once again be playing Vettel’s wingman. I don’t expect Kimi to go well here and imagine a lot of complaints about grip coming over the radio.

Hungary is always the last race before the Summer Holidays (Or if you’re Lewis Hamilton you call it ‘Yet more Holidays’) so has an end of term feeling about it. Apparently the drivers are allowed to bring toys and board games in, whilst Charlie Whiting wheels a big TV into the safety briefing so they can all watch Flight of the Navigator as a treat. Consequently there is always a bit of rough and tumble in the field. I expect Ocon and Perez to be on exactly the same piece of track again and both of them to get very passive aggressive about it. The Sauber pairing might go from hitting each other on the track(3 races in a row) to hitting each other off it (My moneys on Ericsson in a fight), whilst gethinceri's favourite driver Kvyat will probably torpedo most of the field off the first corner. Williams will probably disappear into insignificance, Grosjean will moan about the brakes and Carlos Sainz will sigh heavily. The drivers will be united though when they present Jolyon Palmer with a leaving cake that says on it “Thanks for coming” in frosted icing.

I always enjoy this race and I just have a sneaky feeling about a Danny Ric win. Having said that we all know how wrong my predictions can be.
 
Last edited:
Uneventful 1st half but 2nd half was very interesting Hungarian GP with how it panned out. Probably 2nd slowest driver in top 5 won the race which was bit strange, tough ferrari as i know why they have done it. they were thinking about the championship. but i really feel for Kimi because as i said i know the reason but as both Monaco & Hungary proved. Ferrari would rather lose than let kimi win

Max Verstappen was completely at fault fell into the trap of being goaded into braking later on the 1st lap trying to be a 1st lap hero. but as brundle always says you cant win it on 1st but you can lose it, actually come to think of it he's had a poor season probably Verstappen have poorest of big 3 teams season compared to pre season expectations but then that has been either the car has let Verstappen down or he has let himself down through silly mistakes like today. Without making excuses for the guy we've discussed this on many of an occasion & his fantastic drives over the last 3 years have gave us unrealistic expectations as we should expect these mistakes / inconsistencies . as we have to remember prior to debut for toro rosso he had only been in single seater for 12mths & had 11 race distances spilt into 3 short races of euro F3 with cars that 17secs slower a lap than F1

kimi quote of "if cant see a blue light then he should stay in commentary box" was very funny although going be awkward at the next grand prix. if di resta has to interview kimi LOL
 
Last edited:
Mildly amusing differing opinions between M Brundle and JB on twitter on the subject of Alonso's deckchair antics...


  1. Martin Brundle‏Verified account @MBrundleF1 12h12 hours ago


    Martin Brundle Retweeted Jenson Button

    My point JB is that Fernando is not a comedy act under a podium full of Ferrari/Merc drivers,he deserves to be up there fighting for champs

    Martin Brundle added,


    Jenson ButtonVerified account @JensonButton
    Replying to @MBrundleF1
    Totally agree Martin, how dare an F1 driver have a personality and bring fun to a sport that sometimes takes itself way too seriously
    1f926-1f3fc-200d-2642-fe0f.png

    280 replies . 187 retweets 1,366 likes








  2. Martin Brundle‏Verified account @MBrundleF1 17h17 hours ago



    Alonso prob better than 3 guys on podium. Sad he's joking in a deck chair, waste of talent and reminds team bosses why they don't want him
 
Things I learnt from the Grand Prix.

1 - A Verstappen Torpedo is completely accidental, excusable and understandable to media and team alike - in complete contrast to a the Kvyat brand of Torpedo

2 - Ferrari not letting Kimi past Seb when he has car issues is an out cry and proves he is number 2 driver. However if Kimi had been in front of Seb and had car issues and Ferrari had let Seb through there would have been an outcry and it would have proven Kimi was a number 2 driver.

3 - Lewis Hamilton had a good sense of honour.

4 - if you mess with his team mate (Hulkenberg on Grosjean at the start) then KMag will come for you (he even said it on radio at the start).

5 - The Force India drivers are incapable of not being on the same piece of race track.

6 - Sky F1 aren't going to let the actual facts get in the way of a 'brilliant Di Resta comeback' story.
 
Last edited:
I wonder what response Vettel will say to Verstappen next after MAx said he does not take notice of people who bash into other cars :oops:
 
Although there is scant evifence to suggest the results would have been impacted by non complicity. Hamilton was unable to pass Kimi despite the kimis pace neing dictated. Almost like Monaco 2011.
 
I think the main lesson from this race from a general point of view is that on this type of circuit at least drivers are finding it more impossible than ever to follow each other. Throughout the race we saw drivers unabkle to even get within less than 1.5 sec of the car in front even wwhen they were potentially whole seconds per lap quicker..
 
If this had been Silverstone , Kimi would have blasted past Vettel on the Hangar straight

Kimi's best 3 races have Monaco, Silverstone and Budapest this season

Two of those seems to be when the Ferrari is the fastest car where he is closer to Vettel. Silverstone he has always gone well on and the next race Spa is another track where he has great record as well so be interesting to see if he is close to Vettel whether he will be compliant again when he says he has more pace given the circuit is much more easier to pass

Hungaroring is one of those annoying circuits " Monaco without the walls!" - unfortunately given the nature of the circuit you can form a queue behind by maintaining track position
 
FB that do you that is still cheaper than 50 million reasons they use to pay him then 28 million reasons if he did not drive for another team:facepalm:
 
When Hamilton got into the DRS window, Raikkonen simply pulled to within a second of Vettel to negate the advantage.

I suspect Vettel was vulnerable without Raikkonen as the stopper in the bottle.
 
Possibly.

I recall significant periods where Kimi was more than a second behind, but hadclewis in drs. Not prolonged periods granted.

With overtaking in single figures though, its not much of a stretch to think it would have been ok.
 
Back
Top Bottom