Hungarian GP race review: Lewis Hamilton triumphs at Hungaroring

Lewis Hamilton

The heat had continued to bake the scorched track at the Hungaroring as race day began, and Lewis Hamilton started on pole, hoping to clinch his fourth win at the Hungarian track, equalling the record set by Michael Schumacher.

Second on the grid sat Sebastian Vettel, hoping to extend his lead at the top of the driver championship, and behind him sat Fernando Alonso in fifth and Kimi Raikkonen in sixth, both hoping to close down the gap to the German Red Bull driver.

Known for his fast starts off the line, Vettel was outdone this time by the lightning-quick Brit in the Mercedes starting from pole, and was nearly overtaken going into the first corner by the equally fast starting Lotus of Romain Grosjean and Hamilton’s team-mate Rosberg, starting third and fourth respectively.

Vettel managed to keep his second placed position and set off after Hamilton, who was already creating a healthy gap. Going through into turn 5 at the top of the hill, Rosberg made contact with the fast starting Massa, which caused a few issues for both cars, although neither terminal.

In fact, close up pictures showed a large chunk of either one of the cars that made contact had flown back and taken a considerable chip out of the air box area of the Lotus, piloted by Kimi Raikkonen, following close behind.

At the front, Hamilton pits and unfortunately comes out in traffic, behind his ex-team mate Jenson Button, who was on a different strategy. Vettel inherits the lead from Hamilton, but he did not have it all his own way, as the rapidly quick Lotus of Grosjean was hounding him down, not letting him relax.

Vettel and Grosjean eventually pit and both come out behind not only Hamilton, who had gotten past Button, but Button himself, who was running long on his first set of tyres. At the front, tenth placed starter Mark Webber was leading the race, which showed how well he had conserved his tyres so far.

Whilst running behind Button, who was putting up a considerable fight with Vettel (perhaps because it has been a while since he was in a position to be dicing with the likes of a Red Bull), Sebastian himself was radioed by the team to let him know that his engines temperature was running dangerously high, and he had to drive outside of Button’s slipstream to try to cool it down. Him backing off allowed Grosjean and Alonso to close in behind.

Vettel eventually gets past Button, and Grosjean followed quickly behind, although he drifted over to the left into the braking zone before he had executed the move, and banged wheels with Button. This provoked a rather frustrated radio message to the McLaren pit wall.

Romain Grosjean

Later on, this move was not the only overtaking manoeuvre Grosjean executed that provoked a controversial response. He drove around the outside of Felipe Massa going into T4, which was a spectacular move by anyone’s standards, but the stewards (playing by the book, I suppose) decreed that all four wheels exceeded the tracks limits and as such, he received a drive-through penalty.

Even Massa afterwards stated that it shouldn’t have been illegal, as Grosjean had already passed Massa before he left the track, and hardly gained an advantage, but the penalty still stood.

Up at the front again, Hamilton overtook Webber on the exit of T2 and the entry of T3 around the outside – for the second time this race. This was a great example of two great drivers racing fairly and not crashing into one another.

Eventually, Hamilton did enough to gain a victory here this past weekend, his fourth on Hungarian soil and his first win this season for his new Mercedes team. He was undeniably happy after winning four out of the last seven races here, and he stated that he is glad to have won the race before the annual summer break.

Raikkonen and Vettel diced it out on the last few laps, with Kimi in second on 30-odd lap old tyres and Sebastian in third, chasing down his friend and perhaps future team-mate with much fresher rubber strapped to his ‘Bull. At one point, when Vettel was trying a move on the outside of T4, he stated that he was not given enough room. What does he expect? Kimi to move out-of-the-way and let him past, like he has been used to in the past? No. They are fighting for position, of course Kimi is going to be defensive.

Of course, that does not mean a driver doesn’t have to leave a gap for the other, but it doesn’t have to be easy. Going by onboard footage, Raikkonen drove the normal line, which leaves little room for driving around the outside anyway, so Vettel must have just been caught up in the heat of the battle with the ferocious Finn.

Both Bottas and Rosberg retiring during the race with obvious engine failure, which is not a surprise in the incredibly hot conditions. Gutierrez and both Force India’s also retired, with random mechanical glitches.

At the finish, Hamilton came out on top, with Raikkonen second, Vettel third, Webber came home in a very respectable fourth and Alonso finished with his starting position of fifth.

Overall, it was a relatively enjoyable race. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would, but there were some wonderful overtaking moves and some great racing.

Hamilton drove a great race in (apparently) not an ideal car, but I think this weekend’s win will add fuel to his fire and hopefully ignited a true championship charge if Mercedes can keep up their rate of development for the future races, starting with Belgium on the weekend of the last week of August.

Raikkonen will no doubt have mixed feelings with the Hungarian GP. He has finished second here so many times, and he has five second places this season alone, so will he ever be the bride again, and not the bridesmaid? I have no doubt he will win at least one more race this season, perhaps his favourite race, which is coming up next in the championship.

Either way, he is the King of Consistency, and championships can easily be won with podiums alone and not many wins. Another 18 points to add to the tally has taken him ahead of Alonso in the championship, albeit only by one point, and second behind Vettel.

Button did well this weekend, as did Webber, on different strategies to the cars at the front. The McLaren looks a little more competitive than of recent races, and hopefully the team can speed up the rate of development for a late-blooming car.

Thank you for reading my race review and, as usual, if you liked it, please show it! Share it with anyone you wish. I hope you have a good summer break.