Hungary – Race: Sebastian Vettel wins ahead of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo

Fifteen minutes before the start of the race, Formula 1 paid tribute to the late Jules Bianchi. All the drivers on the grid gathered around the Bianchi family at the top of the grid for a very moving minute of silence.

At the end of the formation lap, Felipe Massa did not settle into his marks on the grid. Consequently, a new formation lap was conducted and the duration of the race was thus reduced from 69 to 70 laps.

During Friday’s press conference, Toto Wolff was reluctant to discuss the potential record of 10 consecutive races with both cars from the same team on the podium: “First of all, we haven’t achieved it yet and it’s always dangerous… We’ve had this discussion many times before and you end up in a situation where it stops at nine and no record.”

The remarks of the Mercedes director proved to be prophetic since neither of the two Brackley cars made the podium. Everything got complicated right from the start, with another difficult takeoff. If at Silverstone, the two Williams had taken the lead, this time, it was the two Ferraris that managed to surprise the two Mercedes. But the troubles didn’t stop there as Lewis Hamilton made a mistake immediately afterwards when he tried to overtake his teammate again. His off-track excursion was without consequence for his car, but he could only rejoin the track in 10th position. He was then forced into an aggressive race to climb back up and mitigate the gap with his main rival in the championship.

Meanwhile, the two Ferraris had no problems pulling away as Nico Rosberg seemed unable to keep up with the pace set by the red cars. The first wave of tire changes did not bring about major changes, and the Ferraris were still firmly in the lead. During the second stint, Lewis Hamilton continued his charge thanks to his soft tires while most of the field was on mediums. This allowed him to make numerous overtakes and close in on his teammate: although he was 16 seconds behind, just a little over ten laps later, the gap was down to five seconds.

But at the front, Ferrari’s progress started to falter. Indeed, Kimi Räikkönen openly complained over the radio that he lacked power, which quickly widened the gap with Sebastian Vettel. The situation was such that Fernando Alonso, despite being a lap down, was able to overtake his former teammate.

It was then that the second major event of the race occurred: the front wing of Nico Hülkenberg’s Sahara Force India literally disintegrated at the end of the straight, without any apparent contact. It then passed under the German driver’s car, leaving him unable to turn or brake. The impact with the tire wall was therefore inevitable. Fortunately, he emerged unscathed, but the virtual safety car was deployed, followed by the actual safety car to clear all the debris. As a precaution, Sahara Force India also decided to pit Sergio Perez, who had already had a collision with Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus earlier in the race.

At the time of the race restart, we had the two Ferraris in front of the two Mercedes. The big question was who would emerge the best, especially as both drivers of the star were told that victory was still possible.

If Nico Rosberg had no trouble overtaking a clearly handicapped Kimi Räikkönen at the first turn, Lewis Hamilton wasn’t the author of the maneuvers he’s known for. Indeed, he was under direct threat from Daniel Ricciardo, whose Red Bull seemed to have regained its strength. When the Australian attempted an outside overtake at the end of the straight, the Briton clearly didn’t leave him enough room and the impact on the sides of the Red Bull was significant. As a result, the championship leader was penalized with a pit lane pass, which further complicated an already eventful race.

But behind the two men, Daniil Kvyat and Valtteri Bottas were poised to take advantage of the situation. However, having four single-seaters so close to one another on a circuit as narrow as the Hungaroring can only cause problems. Consequently, the front wing of the Russian’s Red Bull caused a puncture on the Finn’s Williams, depriving him of any chance to score points.

The battle for the win was also raging at the front as Sebastian Vettel couldn’t recreate the lead he had at the start of the race. Nevertheless, the German was well assisted in his defense by his former teammate, Daniel Ricciardo. Despite his damaged car, Ricciardo managed to stay in the slipstream of Nico Rosberg, who was therefore preoccupied with defending his position. The three cars were thus following each other with less than two seconds between the first and the third.

In the final laps, the Australian believed he saw a new opportunity to shine on a circuit where he had won last year. He attempted an overtake from far back in the first corner. However, he was forced to lock up his brakes and went wide. Meanwhile, Nico Rosberg was hit on the left rear by the front wing of the Red Bull. The penalty was immediate and similar to that of Valtteri Bottas: a puncture. He was thus compelled to complete an entire lap on three wheels back to his pit. Instead of closing in on Lewis Hamilton in the championship standings, he found himself behind the latter when he exited the pits.

In these conditions, Max Verstappen was able to finish fourth, the best ranking of his young career. He was ahead of Fernando Alonso, who had not been in such a good position since the start of the season. It was a notable improvement for McLaren, as Jenson Button was also able to bring home points for 8th place, behind Romain Grosjean. As for Marcus Ericsson, he brought a valuable point to Sauber.

During his cooldown lap, the day’s winner took the opportunity to say a few words in French in memory of Jules Bianchi, to remind everyone that the young Frenchman would sooner or later have been a driver for the Scuderia if fate had not decided otherwise: « Jules, this victory is for you. » Similarly, Daniil Kvyat’s engineer noted that it was the kind of race the Niçois would certainly have enjoyed. This cannot be denied…