Tuesday, July 29, 2014

2014 Hungarian Grand Prix review


Let's cut to the chase, shall we? LIGHTS OUT!

Valtteri Bottas and Fernando Alonso got a great start and passed Sebastian Vettel after the first corner (Bottas on the outside!). Alonso lost his position back to Vettel but Bottas stayed ahead.

Lewis Hamilton started from the pits with cold brakes (he didn't do a warm up lap) and spun off the track almost right away but DID NOT RETIRE! Good for him.

Nico Rosberg was flying away from the rest with full speed and everything seemed to work out for him perfectly but then...

Marcus Ericsson had a massive crash and they brought out the safety car at the most stupid moment. Everybody got to pit but the top4 (Rosberg, Bottas, Vettel, Alonso).

When they pitted Alonso and Rosberg had the fastest teams to help them and Bottas the slowest. He dropped from 2nd to 11th and got stuck there for a long while.

My thought was this: why did they send out the safety car like that? Did they wanna create drama and action or was it just an accident? I like that there was different people at the top but it wasn't really fair. I felt sorry for the drivers who had fought hard to get up there and then everything went down the drain.. 

Retirements happen but this was different! For example Heikki Kovalainen almost won in his first race with McLaren in 2008 but because of the safety car he also dropped from first to last. Later that year Kovalainen won his first race in Hungary.

Heikki Kovalainen in 2008

Then we had some more crashes! Sergio Perez crashed with his teammate Nico Hülkenberg. The Hulk had to retire but Perez continued until he crashed himself out as well at the main straight.

Pastor Maldonado also did his share of crashes by making Jules Bianchi's day difficult. They had a small crash and were both forced to pit. After the pitstop Maldonado almost crashed again with Bianchi! Think about the amount of swet on Bianchi's face when Maldonado was "fighting" for positions with him.

Vettel almost crashed at the same spot as Checo Perez but did a 360. He just barely touched the wall and escaped from retirement. He did not do it as nicely as Keke Rosberg in 1983 though. Check Keke's 360 from this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMHi8JUBMG8



Later we had some drama between the two Mercs of Hamilton and Rosberg. Hamilton got a message to let Rosberg pass but he didn't do that. Why would he? they are fighting for the same positions in the same race. It doesn't matter what strategy you are on. If Rosberg would have got through he would have done faster laps and pitted. Then he would have had new tyres and Hamilton wouldn't have had any chances against him. Lewis knew this.. the team only thought about getting more points. Maybe Rosberg could have catched Fernando Alonso as well?

Daniel Ricciardo passed both Hamilton and Alonso on the last few laps and showed us all that he is possibly a future world champion and a big star of this sport! He is still the only one who has won races besides the Mercs! I respect him more and more every race. What a driver!

Who's the finger boy now?

In the future there will be three drivers dominating F1; Ricciardo, Bottas and Bianchi! These three are the future. Maybe there is going to be somebody else as well but these three have so much potential at the moment. I am keeping an eye on them in every race.


And then! Here are my predictions for the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix and the actual results.

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. It was the other Mercedes.

The race:
  1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 3rd.
  2. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull - WRONG. Fernando Alonso was 2nd.
  3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull - WRONG. He was 1st

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. It was the other Mercedes.

First to have an accident and retire because of it is going to be Felipe Massa. I am not saying that he is a driver to do this often but he has had a lot of drama lately in the starts - WRONG. Marcus Ericsson was first to have an accident.


Surprise: Nico Rosberg's luck is about to change! Red Bull is also going to improve - CORRECT! Ricciardo won and Rosberg had some bad luck with the safety car incidents. 



Post your own predictions to our F1-4-LIFE PREDICTORS LEAGUE!





The rules:

POINTS:  1st - 3  2nd - 5  3rd - 10 


HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. If you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points same if you get 1 correct. eg. 2nd you get 5 points. If a driver wins the race and you said he would come 2nd or 3rd no points would be awarded. Same if he came in another position, and you predicted that wrong. A table will be posted up every race weekend. The point scoring system will change once the cars become more competitive. Everyone will say a merc 1,2 so it won't be close or fun. 


HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick! like the Mercedes. 

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side JT, AE, MW & MH. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway. We may also come up with some other prize if it helps. 

That's it for today and if you want to send me feedback then email me: f14lifeblog@gmail.com