After a week where Formula 1 mourned the loss of one its own, the Hungarian Grand Prix served up an incredible and dramatic race, where Mercedes again floundered and Sebastian Vettel took a brilliant victory for Ferrari, and Red Bull bounced back after a tough first half of 2015.
Mercedes didn't get the best of starts at Silverstone and were jumped by both Williams cars, but were confident that they had rectified theses issues for Hungary. However, after an extra formation lap caused by the Williams of Felipe Massa, which was out of position, both Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton were jumped at the start again, this time by the Ferrari's of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, Hamilton dropping from first to fourth as Rosberg got infront of him to. It looked like Rosberg would at least be second and perhaps lead, but his tight line into turn one allowed Vettel to sweep into the lead and a feisty Raikkonen took second place.
Things got even worse for Hamilton. At the turn 6/7 chicane, he locked up as he jinked behind Rosberg, dipping a wheel into the grass and then going straight through the gravel, and dropping back down to tenth place! Everyone had talked about Hamilton being untouchable during the race, that he would race away from Rosberg and take a commanding victory. Now he had his work cut out, as his team-mate ran in third place, and the Ferrari's pulled away up front.
Hamilton began his fightback, but passing the Williams of Felipe Massa took longer than expected. It took several laps to pass the slippery FW37, and he then made his way past Sergio Perez, but after the first pit stops, Hamilton was in fifth but behind the much improved Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo was on the medium tyres and it took Hamilton a few laps to pass him, and he was already over thirty seconds behind Vettel's Ferrari.
Whilst there was plenty going on at the front, there was plenty of action behind. Sergio Perez and Pastor Maldonado were engaged in combat and Sergio attempted to go around the outside the Lotus into turn one after his first pitstop, the Lotus going long on the medium tyres for his first sting. However, the pair of them made contact and Perez was launched of the ground and spun round, expressing his disbelief over the radio at the Lotus driver. It wasn't exactly what Perez wanted, after rolling horrifically in FP1 after a wish-bone failure.
As the race entered its second half, trouble hit Raikkonen's SF15-T. He had just lapped the McLaren-Honda of Fernando Alonso, but the McLaren was staying with the Ferrari, and Raikkonen then came on the radio to say he had lost power. Sometimes when this happens, a quick reset sorts it out and the drivers troubles are over, however with Kimi it turned out his MGU-K had failed, and it could not be reset. Alonso repassed the struggling Ferrari, but Kimi could have held onto a podium position had it not been for a dramatic crash for Nico Hulkenberg.
On lap 42, Hulkenburgs front wing failed down the start/finish straight, showing Daniil Kvyat's Red Bull with debris and almost taking out the Williams of Valtteri Bottas. Hulkenberg speared of into the barriers and the Virtual Safety Car was deployed, before the full safety car came out. Rosberg had put on the medium tyres at his first pitstop, and it looked like he would go for the softs at his final stop, and hope to pass the Ferrari's infront who would be on the medium. However, he only wanted to cover Hamilton, so put on the medium tyre instead, which ultimatley probably cost him a real shot at the race win. Hamilton, who had been catching him on his set of softs in the second sting, also put the mediums on.
At the restart, Vettel bolted away from his hobbled team-mate, who was instantly passed by Rosberg, but behind Kimi and Nico, Hamilton and Ricciardo made contact, Hamilton losing a lot of his rear wing, being passed by Ricciard, Kvyat, Bottas and then getting back past Bottas after Max Verstappen gave the Finn a puncture, but Hamilton had dropped from fourth to sixth and had lost any chance of winning the race, a subsequent pitstop dropping him to thirteenth, before rightfully serving a drive-through penalty for slamming into the side of Ricciardo.
Things got even worse for Mercedes with just 5 laps to go. Ricciardo lunged down the inside of Rosberg into turn 1, but locked up massively, and as he exited to corner his front wing hit Rosberg's rear left tyre, puncturing it and dropping Rosberg back to tenth place by the time he had changed his set of tyres. When it looked like Nico would either take the championship lead, or at least close right up to Lewis, it had all gone horribly wrong.
All this carnage had a big knock on effect. Ricciardo himself had to pit to change his front wing and ended up P3, Kvyat was now second and looking to take his first ever Formula 1 podium. Max Verstappen was a brilliant fourth, despite puncturing Bottas's tyre earlier on and Fernando Alonso was a superb fifth for McLaren, and Jenson Button was ninth, meaning both McLarens were in the points! Hamilton had got back up to sixth, and somehow extended his championship lead by four points. He was lucky to score points at all.
Despite all of this, Vettel came through to take his 41st career victory, equaling the late great Ayrton Senna, and after he came onto the radio to say "Grazie ragazzi! Grazie. Forza Ferrari. Merci Jules, cette victoire est pour toi. You will always be in our hearts. We know that sooner or later Jules would have been a part of this team. Grazie, guys". A touching tribute, and how apt that the team that won was one that Jules Bianchi was so closely linked with. It was an emotional weekend, but Hungary served up a cracking race, which is just what Formula 1 needed in 2015. Two great races on the bounce, could this season be really coming alive now? With Vettel saying it is 'game on' in the title race, it could well be. The story continues at Spa. Ciao folks.
#CiaoJules
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