[jfxavier]

Originally Posted by Octane_Power

Wait. Did I just read Alonso P5? Can anyone tell me how did that happen? Did the McLaren drive that well or was it due to other drivers messing up?

-Bhargav

McLarens were matching STRs for pace through the race.
Both Mclarens ran reliably through the race, which showed one Ferrari retire due to ERS issue.
Also, they had mature drivers in their cars who did not drive like in a PS3 game.
Overall, a good job and rewarded for the efforts.
Some people like to call it luck, but in F1 things can go wrong very quickly, as we saw in Hangaroring yesterday.

[Hatari]

Much needed chaotic race. Watching Pastor getting a penalty was confusing.. are we watching a replay or is this actually happeneing AGAIN!?

Nico will be kicking himself, had a bucketload of points to earn over Lewis till be squuezed the Red Bull. No wonder Lewis is so relaxed this year, no threat on raw pace and his team mate doesnt maximise chances.

Nice race pace by Ferrari, but it was shocking to see Lewis struggling so much to get his Primes upto to temp at the start and after the safety car.

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

Safety car caused by Hulkenberg's crash turned the race on it's head. At least 6 drivers ahead of Alonso finished behind him or had DNF pushing Alonso up several places. McLarens have improved but not as much to warrant P5 on merit.

RAI - MGU-K failure, DNF
ROS - puncture
HAM - 1st lap contact, drive through
HUL - DNF
BOT - puncture
SAI - DNF

Originally Posted by Octane_Power

Aargh! This is the only race of the season which I missed and it turns out to be the most exciting one!!! :@

Wait. Did I just read Alonso P5? Can anyone tell me how did that happen? Did the McLaren drive that well or was it due to other drivers messing up?

-Bhargav

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

Safety car caused by Hulkenberg's crash turned the race on it's head. At least 6 drivers ahead of Alonso finished behind him or had DNF pushing Alonso up several places. McLarens have improved but not as much to warrant P5 on merit.

RAI - MGU-K failure, DNF
ROS - puncture
HAM - 1st lap contact, drive through
HUL - DNF
BOT - puncture
SAI - DNF

What is mentioned above except SAI (whom he overtook on track at the end before his DNF) and that McLaren pitted Alonso again for a set of Options when the Virtual Safety Car was activated (after being put on unscheduled primes after his puncture), which gave him the pace in the last stint, he overtook Button as well post safety car. Good strategy call.

[sgiitk]

For once a very interesting race. But for the safety car I would have expected two Podiums for Ferrari. Sad that Kimi was forced to retire. A quiet warning to Mercedes. The way Ferraris overtook the Mercs at the start was breathtaking.

[asr245]

Interesting Hungarian GP, for once.

Ric surely must not be popular in the Merc camp yesterday. Clashed with Bottas in the beginning, then LH & then NR. Of the 3, i think he was way too ambitious that time around. Even though it was deemed a racing incident, I think he was more at fault than Roberg for the touch.

Maldonano - what a joke. How many times was he penalized?

LH - very very lucky to score more points than Rosberg. Bad start, bad re-start, bad defense. But he had more pace than Rosberg.

Rosberg - will spend the next 1 month doing this

Kimi - Vettel seems to have his mojo back. Now his team-mate either self destruct or their car does.

[mayankk]

I think this was just a glitch in the system for Mercedes. I don't really see a challenge from the ferarris to where the Mercedes are right now. It was evidently a VERY bad day for hammy with regard to how much focus there was, and how keen the others were, and a bit of luck. Extremely bad luck for Nico, to be caught out at the fag end, but I don't foresee a recurrence. At least as far as Hamilton goes, he had a very bad scare for a few laps where Nico would have led the championship going away from Hungary. I am sure its going to back to business after the break.

[jfxavier]

My Takeaways from the Hangaroring.

1. The achilles heal of Mercs. is the start. Many examples of losing position at the start of the race kind of exposes them and others must be feeling more confident on race days.

2. McLaren Honda has clawed back a bit of reliability and drivability. The law of average does catch up and the failures of Ferrari and Force India shows them in good light. More power should be the next target.

3. Drivers are game for wheel to wheel racing as evident from the punctures and wheelbanging incidents. All they need is more downforce while closely following a car to make things exciting. Even the Mercs with all the power advantage they supposedly have were not so dominating while following other cars. Bring on the ground effects.

4. Ferrari has recovered the lost ground mostly and were looking genuinely fast in the first half of the race. Nico was unable to mount any serious challenge to them. Red Bull looked good around the Hangaroring. Ricciardo set the fastest lap of the race. We need more of this in the coming races.

5. Little bit of unpredictability is needed in F1 to make it more exciting. Two of the best races of the year came back to back on unpredictable conditions/ incidents or does it have something to do with the old circuits? in that case, cannot wait for more of it at the Spa. Who would have thought that a McLaren would finish ahead of both the Mercs in 2015.

6. Pastor Maldonado managed to score a hat-trick of penalties just to prove that only he can

[SchumiFan]

Once again, we saw an amazing start from the people behind the leaders and Mercedes were relegated to 3/4 after the fourth corner. Perhaps rattled by the happenings, Hamilton tried to be ambitious and got it all wrong ending up 10th. I think the race for the lead ended there.

It was heartening to see Vettel and Kimi pull away from Rosberg especially after the way the past few races have gone for Ferrari. Both were calm and collective in their approach while the rest of the field turned amateurish with their mistakes.

This might probably be the race with most number of mistakes and penalties from/for the professional drivers. Hamilton, Rosberg, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Maldonado, Kvyat all making mistakes and getting penalised at one point of the race.

I was sure of a Ferrari victory until the SC and it was a shame that Kimi ran into trouble with a possibility of a Ferrari 1-2 on cards. It was a new experience seeing the SC parade the cars through the pitlane

Only once did Rosberg even come under a second off Vettel after the restart and post that Vettel was relatively trouble free till the end of the race while driving with the calm of a monk amidst all the carnage.

Rosberg missed a golden chance to somehow lead the WDC at half point in the season and Kvyat got a well deserved first podium along with his team-mate who wasn’t particularly impressive with his race craft compared to the year before. Although I must admit that his overtake of Hulk and Bottas made it possible for him to be there at the end with a chance of victory.

Hamilton perhaps exhausted all his good luck in this race considering he had a spin, a drive through and an extra pitstop but somehow managed to finish ahead of his nearest title challenger.

After a terrible week where one of the young and very talented driver lost his life, this race was a fitting tribute to the memory of the life of Jules. For I hope when we remember him, we will remember the amazing race that took place a week later along with the way the racers paid their respect to Jules before the race than the time that we mourned in sorrow at his passing.

Forza Ferrari. Sebastian Vettel proving detractors (including myself) wrong since the start of the year. Long may it continue.

[danlalan]

And thats how you save the day.
Wait from your team mate to make a mess.
Hamilton's lead in the championship safe. No dent to his position in the table. Team LH has to just take the chill pill during the holidays. Iam happy.

START WORKING HARD OTHER TEAMS.

[lillios]

From next race onwards the race starts are to be done without any electronic aids and Mercedes would suffer even more as a result.

[jfxavier]

Originally Posted by lillios

From next race onwards the race starts are to be done without any electronic aids and Mercedes would suffer even more as a result.

With the change in regulations banning pit wall assistance at race starts from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards Mercedes seem to have become somewhat cocky and were seen practicing the new start procedures on friday in anticipation to the changes.

Maybe they were so confident that they tried it during the race start as well.

[lillios]

Originally Posted by jfxavier

With the change in regulations banning pit wall assistance at race starts from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards Mercedes seem to have become somewhat cocky and were seen practicing the new start procedures on friday in anticipation to the changes.

Maybe they were so confident that they tried it during the race start as well.

Rosberg already suffering duly to lack of pit wall assistance. All he had to do was to bring the Merc home for a fine 2nd place and points lead. He cracks too much under pressure and was driving totally clueless.

Cant wait for upcoming Spa race and Monza its going to be thrilling.

[asr245]

Originally Posted by lillios

Rosberg already suffering duly to lack of pit wall assistance. All he had to do was to bring the Merc home for a fine 2nd place and points lead. He cracks too much under pressure and was driving totally clueless.

That does not make any sense. His race pace is better & much closer to LH this year than last year, apart from of course Hungary & Monaco. He's won 2 races on pure better race pace than LH & was closing rapidly on LH in mixed conditions till tire change.

I definitely wouldn't call that "suffering due to lack of pit wall assistance". Infact, LH has been more error prone lately especially at starts & restarts.

[carpacman]

British GP podium and Hungarian GP win are proofs that lady luck is firmly on Vettel's side. Another sad day for all Kimi fans. For some reason or the other he keeps losing. Hope the tide turns.

Overall it was an amazing race, loved the start especially. F1 needs few more races like this to stop all the "F1 is boring" chants

[SchumiFan]

Originally Posted by carpacman

British GP podium and Hungarian GP win are proofs that lady luck is firmly on Vettel's side. Another sad day for all Kimi fans. For some reason or the other he keeps losing. Hope the tide turns.

Overall it was an amazing race, loved the start especially. F1 needs few more races like this to stop all the "F1 is boring" chants

Luck? Luck has nothing to do with it. Pure judgement and impressive skills in the wet contributed to that podium. He overtook Kimi just as the first showers hit the track. And that led to Kimi pitting for Inters.

He had an awesome get away in Hungary and built a 3s lead over Rosberg in third after the first lap. And had a 10s lead over Kimi before trouble hit Kimi.

Kimi is unlucky that his car isn't reliable. But Vettel had his share of problems in Canada and still recovered to finish 5th. I like Kimi but lets not just term Vettel's efforts as luck.

[Raajiv]

Originally Posted by SchumiFan

Luck? Luck has nothing to do with it. Pure judgement and impressive skills in the wet contributed to that podium. He overtook Kimi just as the first showers hit the track. And that led to Kimi pitting for Inters.

He had an awesome get away in Hungary and built a 3s lead over Rosberg in third after the first lap. And had a 10s lead over Kimi before trouble hit Kimi.

Kimi is unlucky that his car isn't reliable. But Vettel had his share of problems in Canada and still recovered to finish 5th. I like Kimi but lets not just term Vettel's efforts as luck.

Exactly !! Vettel deserves the win for pulling away from the pack courtesy of running in clean air and keeping rosberg behind after the Safety Car. His lead never dropped below 0.8s over rosberg even after the SC.