Monday, July 31, 2017

2017 Hungarian Grand Prix review



The Hungarian Grand Prix was the first F1 race without a Brazilian driver in the field since the 1982 San Marino Grand Prix!! Felipe Massa didn't feel well before qualifying and was replaced by Paul diResta. He jumped into the car without any tests or adjustments which might be very difficult for a driver. Heikki Kovalainen filled in for Kimi Räikkönen in 2013 also without tests but at least he got to drive in practice sessions so it went a little bit better. Still a great great job from Paul diResta even though Kimi had something to say about him:



The start was interesting for a few reasons. First of all Lewis Hamilton got overtaken by both Red Bulls even though they collided with each other after that. Max Verstappen was already challenging for 3rd place but Valtteri Bottas shut the door on him. After this he tried desperately to defend his position against his teammate Daniel Ricciardo and took him out of the race. Ricciardo said "what a fucking loser" on the radio after he got confirmation that it was his teammate who crashed into him. Verstappen got a 10 second penalty.

Later on in the race Sebastian Vettel got some problems with his car. Kimi was much faster than Vettel but was told to keep his position. That's just sick if you ask me! I mean yes I understand that Ferrari wants to maximize their championship points for Vettel because he is leading the championship but it is not fair. What about Kimi? What about giving them a fair fight for the championship? I hate what they did to Rubens Barrichello with Michael Schumacher and what they did to Felipe Massa with Fernando Alonso. Very sad and makes the sport boring! In my opinion these team orders should be banned.

Behind Kimi we could see Bottas and Hamilton catching him and making it very dangerous for him. He even told Ferrari on the radio that they are putting him in a very difficult situation. They didn't seem to care. Even Vettel said after the race that maybe he should have let Kimi pass him.

Hamilton had radio issues and people were joking that this is good so that he can't ask the team to tell Bottas to let him pass. Right away when the radio started working he asked if they could tell Bottas to let him through. WHAT A SURPRISE! (not) Why can't he fight him like he used to fight Nico Rosberg?! I mean I loved that!! Is Bottas too hard to overtake or isn't Hamilton's motivation as high as it used to be? I know that it is hard to overtake in Hungary but this has happened on other tracks also this season.

Mercedes told Bottas to let Hamilton pass him and that he will give the position back if he can't overtake Kimi. He couldn't but stayed in front anyways.

Just before the finish line Hamilton gave the position back to Bottas. It was almost like Hamilton was thinking to the last corner if he should give the position back or not. I was surprised that Hamilton gave the position back. Vettel would not have given his position back to his teammate like that (at least that's what I think). Hamilton gets a lot of respect from me for giving the position back. Then on the other hand why is it such a big deal to keep a promise? That's just normal isn't it? I just hope that if Hamilton doesn't win the championship he doesn't lose by 3 points of less.

What else to say? Two things.

First of all McLaren did a good decision to take those penalties (for gearbox changes etc.) in Silverstone instead of Hungary because now there was no penalties and this track suites McLaren better. Both cars were in Q3 on Saturday and Fernando Alonso set the fastest lap on the race! They also scored more points. Alonso 6th and Vandoorne 10th.

Second thing is Nico Hulkenberg giving feedback to Kevin Magnussen about his driving in the middle of an interview and then Magnussen told him to suck his balls. Makes me laugh... it's both sad and funny at the same time. See the video on the F1 4 Life facebook page if you haven't seen it yet.




Let's move on to the predictions and the results.


Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Vettel took pole.

The race:


  1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 4th and Vettel won the race.
  2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 3rd.
  3. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. He was 2nd and it was his 8th podium in Hungary (a new record)

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Fernando Alonso was fastest!! That's the real surprise!


Surprise: Romain Grosjean, Haas - He retired from the race


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