The Hungarian Grand Prix resulted in a change of leader in the drivers ‘ championship and a new doublet of Mercedes, with Daniel Ricciardo as a chaperone on the podium. The Red Bull was able to contain a Sebastian Vettel hampered by their grid position, but which proved to have better pace than the australian.
In the other league, Fernando Alonso was the winner, finishing as the best in the competition existing between McLaren, Toro Rosso, Williams and Force India. The characteristics of the circuit allowed the Spanish to glow with a McLaren less hampered by its low power.
The stars
Lewis Hamilton
When there are problems beyond their control, such as mechanical breakdowns or incidents of the race, the more likely it is that Lewis Hamilton dominate the race at their whim. Has the car to do this and, more importantly, the quality and the intelligence to use it.
Leader of the championship having come to be at 43 points of Nico Rosberg. This is an advantage that not all pilots are able to neutralize. But Lewis has managed to keep calm and wait for the storm to pass to, simply, do your job.
, At the Hungaroring, something similar happened. struggled to find rhythm with the soft tyre at the beginning, but was patient and was saved from being overtaken by Rosberg. When it is found more comfortable and entered a phase in which the degradation would no longer be a problem, given your speed carefully to keep controlled to Rosberg in and out to Ricciardo. What separates Hamilton for his fourth world title? The reliability of their engines available. Only and exclusively.
Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel has regained control of Red Bull, at least for a weekend. Life alongside Max Verstappen is much harder and, in many cases, the problem is not that you seem faster when you have a partner lower. sometimes what is really decisive is that it allows you to focus on your mission with peace of mind.
To Ricciardo he / she has finished the good life and now has to concentrate on being as fast as always, but much more consistent. It is not that the australian has lacked this quality in the past, but Max Verstappen requires more. Always more and more.
On this occasion, Daniel based his success in qualifying on the Saturday, which allowed him to stop in the pits before his teammate after stay ahead in the output (and get to second place for a few moments). From there, his podium was in contain to Vettel, who had stopped to put the soft tyres eight laps later. And he got it.
Kimi Räikkönen
The Finnish driver has more points than his teammate and has improved his performance compared to the previous years, but many of us think that still perform at the level that is expected of a pilot of its tremendous quality.
But at the Hungaroring brought out the that, perhaps, has been its best face this year. The problem is that, as usual, was for the bug fix Saturday, so your result does not looks too. Was fast and consistent from start to finish, this time yes. And, although he could not with Verstappen in the closing laps, it is not something that you will need to require in the case of a rival as talented in the art of piloting defensive and in a circuit as conducive to this.
Fernando Alonso
Is often debated if the Spanish rider remains always the same or has already started their downhill sport. What is certain is that, as he has the chance, dazzles with his consistency and ability to maximize the resources available at your fingertips. At the Hungaroring, McLaren was the fourth-best single-seater of the grill and, in a race with no dropouts or incidents in the head, Alonso got what he touched: a seventh place finish.
Fernando reminds us, as the McLaren allows it, that is still there. That, in a certain way, is still the head. And that, if his traveling companions end up giving it a single-seater according to the demands: he will answer, and will do what he has always known how to do: give it my all and win races.
Carlos Sainz
Carlos is in a different phase to that of Daniel Ricciardo: you need to settle and grow. That’s why the up of Max Verstappen Red Bull has ended up being positive for him. Because now, in full stage of maturity and of public claim, is excelling as an absolute reference for Toro Rosso.
suddenly, Sainz is taken into account by the international public opinion. And Sainz is responding to the expectations with samples of maturity that make him something more than a pilot promising. Sainz has brought forth two weekends in may have been diluted with excuse: Silverstone and the Hungaroring. But no, he squeezed his fists and got two great results. Pilotazo.
estrellados
Ferrari
it Is frustrating to the Ferrari. In the race, showed that they had pace more than enough to beat the Red Bull in a circuit in which Mateschitz had as a target to plant face to Mercedes. But everything remained, as it is common this year in a, “what might have been and was not”. For one reason or another, almost always something happens that the computer not be able to get the best possible result. Ferrari insists that the fight for the title is still possible, but the reality is that have been past eleven races and Red Bull is at a point of taking the second place in the constructors ‘ championship, Mercedes has 154 points advantage and their pilots yield, 78 and 74 points respectively with Lewis Hamilton.
While Arrivabene and company continue to self-pressing in an absurd manner in the environment more hostile to the motorsport world that is Ferrari, we will continue to make the same mistakes and, as it happened in the past with, for example, Fernando Alonso, the key elements of the project will end up frustrated and burned out. And they will begin flying knives in the air. Very own Ferrari, isn’t it creen?
Williams
The ‘July European Tour’ of Williams in Formula 1 is still a real mess and only errors of Force India at certain times have avoided that had been assigned the fourth place of the championship. Valtteri Bottas pulled out of oil in the car this weekend and that only served to get a ninth place. Massa, after his error in the classification, had a career in hell with a race car reduced. His weekend had finished in the Q1.
Now come circuits more suitable for Williams, with curves of 90 degrees, long straights and top speed. Goodbye to the aerodynamic efficiency as an important part of the result. Perhaps that will allow them to soar, but there is a problem: to Force India also likes that type of circuit.
Jolyon Palmer
it Was the weekend of Renault and Jolyon. With the rise of temperatures, the team was able to get away from the Manor and Sauber, in addition to face-planting to Haas, Williams and even Force India.
Palmer took the lead of the team and shooting in the area of points when, suddenly, he lost control of the car in turn 4 and said goodbye to any option of adding his first points in Formula 1. Renault is not going to assume too much, but Palmer himself. Hhere are two types of pilots: those who take advantage of the opportunity the day presented. And those who do not.
Daniil Kvyat
The case of the Russian is the opposite of Sainz. Two weekends very complicated that ended up as expected: badly. Kvyat was unable to straighten out the situation and, unlike his companion, he ended up engulfed in the mediocrity of the pack, eight positions behind Sainz. What drawbacks? A bad output. Went through the first lap in 20th and 70 turns later, he had managed to overtake the Sauber and the Manor of Wehrlein. I think that there’s not much more to say.
The technical detail
Hungaroring is traditionally called ‘The Monaco’ to be a compendium of multiple curves, most of them slow. But, beyond this, there seems virtually nothing.
Monaco requires a car with a mechanical grip bright, stable under braking and, above all, with a big capacity of traction. The aerodynamic efficiency or power of the engine are determining factors side in the streets of the Principality.
, At the Hungaroring, things are somewhat different. aerodynamics is important, although, mainly because the cars need to generar the largest possible amount of charge. The engine power and top speed only an influence on the start / finish straight, which also is not very long. The main difference between the Hungaroring and Monaco lies in the type of curves and asphalt that has.
In terms of the curves, several of them are long and of constant radius, very different angles of Monaco. Therefore, the car spends more time spinning in support, sustained by the aerodynamic downforce that the car generates. In addition, the circuit has few bends in it requires convincing acceleration to the output, so that the traction is much less important than in Monaco.
To finish, the asphalt is more abrasive, not only for being a asphalt-specific competition, but to create curves that the lateral load exerted on the tire is far superior to the Monaco. In short, we must not fall into the error of thinking that the same type of car that will triumph in Monaco, it will do so at the Hungaroring. The aerodynamic configuration will always be the same, or almost identical, but the constraints that surround it are very different.
The dark area
while the incident between Max Verstappen and Kimi Räikkönen grabbed a lot of comments after the race, possibly what happened in qualifying with Nico Rosberg is far more relevant to the competition.
The German pilot escaped the sanction of the commissioners, who investigated for having received the pole position with a lap in which there was a double yellow flag after a spin for Fernando Alonso. All the pilots reduced drastically as the speed when passing by the place of the incident, except for Nico Rosberg, that deceleró, but he continued running at the maximum and beat the time of Hamilton, who until that time held the best time.
it Is true that when drivers like Lewis Hamilton arrive at the place, Fernando Alonso is still detained in the curve, while, when it does Rosberg, the Spanish has already resumed the march. But that is something that the German did not know and the indication of the yellow flag is clear: you should reduce speed and prepare to stop if necessary. Nico did not do that, he acted as if it was a simple yellow flag is involved.
As Hamilton has stated subsequently, is a dangerous precedent and sends a wrong message to the riders from lower categories. In the majority of cases, nothing happens. But cases like that of Pastor Maldonado in Monaco in 2005 during his participation in the World Series 3.5 or the latest Jules Bianchi in Suzuka 2014, should always be present.
it Is disconcerting -though not, or much less a novelty – the lack of discretion of the FIA stewards, in every race are different and, therefore, interpreted the regulations in different ways.
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