Ricciardo wins Hungarian Grand Prix thriller

2014 Hungarian Grand Prix summary

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Daniel Ricciardo took his second victory of the season after a thrilling Hungarian Grand Prix in which Lewis Hamilton recovered from a pitlane start to the podium, one place ahead of Nico Rosberg.

During a memorable grand prix, the Red Bull driver fought his way past two world champions in the closing laps during a nail-biting three-way battle for the lead involving Ricciardo, Fernando Alonso – who finished second – and Hamilton’s Mercedes.

The drama began 40 minutes before the race began when a sudden downpour drenched the circuit and left teams and drivers rapidly re-evaluating their strategies.

With the track ranging from wet to damp to bone dry, the rain having subsided and the warm temperatures already beginning to dry the track, all of the teams opted to start the race on Intermediate tyres. At the formation lap, Daniil Kvyat was left stranded on the grid with the Russian claiming over team radio that his engine had inexplicably switched itself off.

The Toro Rosso was cleared and the cars formed up for a nervous start around a damp track. As the lights went out, Rosberg held his lead into the first corner as Valtteri Bottas and Fernando Alonso both passed Sebastian Vettel.

After starting from the pitlane, Lewis Hamilton’s attempts to make another dramatic recovery from the back took a knock almost immediately as the Mercedes driver spun under braking for Turn Two, striking the wall with his left-front tyre. Despite suffering minor damage to his front wing, Hamilton continued without pitting.

Sebastian Vettel took back third from Alonso’s Ferrari halfway around the first lap, before the Spaniard ran very deep into Turn One, only just avoiding losing another position.

By the start of Lap Five, Rosberg had already established a lead of almost seven seconds over Bottas’s Williams, while Hamilton had recovered from his spin up to 17th place.

Three laps later and a dry line was now slowly beginning to emerge. Rosberg locked up under braking for Turn 1, losing almost two seconds of his advantage in the process, while Hamilton passed Raikkonen for 13th.

All of a sudden, Marcus Ericsson’s Caterham was in the wall – the rookie having lost control at the exit of Turn Three and speared into the barriers. The Safety Car was immediately deployed and suddenly there was a mad dash for the pitlane with Ricciardo, Magnussen and Massa all switching to Soft dry tyres, while Button pitted for Inters.

Out front, Rosberg, Bottas, Vettel and Alonso had all missed the opportunity to pit when the Safety Car was deployed and were forced to stop one lap later, meaning that Ricciardo inherited the lead, with Button second, Massa third and Rosberg now in fourth.

With the Caterham cleared, the race was due to resume before Romain Grosjean lost control of his Lotus out of Turn Three while still under the Safety Car and slid into the inside barrier, putting him out of the race and keeping the Safety Car on circuit for two more laps.

When the race eventually resumed, Button pressured Ricciardo for the lead and passed the Red Bull exiting Turn 1. After resuming in fourth, Nico Rosberg appeared to be suffering from braking issues and was passed by Jean-Eric Vergne in the Toro Rosso. With Hamilton now up to seventh, the two championship contenders were separated only by Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull.

On Lap 17, Nico Hulkenberg made a major error under braking for the final corner and hit his Force India team mate Sergio Perez, putting the German out of the race for the first time this season and leaving the Mexican with minor rear damage.

Hamilton continued to pressure Vettel ahead, but the race was suddenly under Safety Car again on Lap 23 when Sergio Perez lost control after running wide on the exit of the final corner and slid into the pit wall, causing heavy damage to the second Force India.

Ricciardo immediately pitted again from the lead, as did the two Williams drivers who both opted for Medium tyres in what appeared to be a strategic decision to try and get both cars to the end.

This promoted Fernando Alonso to the lead of the race behind the Safety Car, ahead of Vergne, Rosberg, Vettel and Hamilton who had all chosen not to pit.

At the restart, the Ferrari quickly bolted away from Vergne, but despite the obvious performance advantage of the Mercedes, Nico Rosberg could not find a way past the Toro Rosso, even with the advantage of DRS. This worked brilliantly for Ricciardo, who was able to catch the queue of cars ahead but with the advantage of much newer tyres.

With Rosberg unable to pass Vergne, Mercedes opted to bring the championship leader in for new tyres, but a slow stop meant he resumed in tenth, behind Bottas’s Williams. Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel suddenly lost control out of the final corner in similar fashion to Perez, but, unlike the Force India driver, was able to keep the car out of the wall.

With Rosberg and Vettel out of his way, Hamilton quickly caught up to Vergne and managed to dispatch him with a bold move around the outside of Turn Four. Hamilton and Ricciardo quickly set about reeling in the leading Ferrari.

Rosberg passed eventually passed Bottas into Turn 1, but after losing time behind the Williams, Rosberg was now more than a pit stop’s length behind his team mate ahead. Alonso pitted from the lead on Lap 39, resuming behind his former team mate Felipe Massa.

Having started from the pitlane, Hamilton now found himself out in front. After using all the life from his tyres, the Mercedes pitted from the lead at the end of Lap 40 for Medium tyres, crucially rejoining ahead of his team mate, who was now on Soft tyres.

This meant that Ricciardo had inherited the lead again, with Massa now second, ahead of Alonso in third and the two Mercedes, Hamilton and Rosberg, fourth and fifth respectively. Daniel Ricciardo was heard complaining of power surge issues, but was able to maintain a 15 second gap to Massa’s Williams until the Brazilian pitted on Lap 46.

With Rosberg needing to stop again, Hamilton was informed to not hold up his team mate. After expressing his concerns that his tyres may not hold up for the remainder of the race, Hamilton was reassured that tyre wear should not be a concern for him.

With Rosberg still behind Hamilton and needing to stop again, Hamilton was told to let his team mate past along the start finish straight. But with Rosberg around a second behind his team mate, Hamilton told the team that he would not slow down to let his rival past unless he able to get closer.

In the lead, Ricciardo was concerned about his tyre life for the remainder of the race and Red Bull decided to bring him in for a final stop, with Mercedes pitting Rosberg for another set of Soft tyres soon after. Alonso and Hamilton were now out in front, but Ricciardo was soon bearing down on the two, setting up a tense three-way fight for the win with ten laps to go.

Behind them, Rosberg used his new tyres to pass Raikkonen, Massa and Bottas and began to chase down the leading pack. With the top three separated by less than three seconds, Ricciardo began to swarm all over the back of Hamilton’s Mercedes, but the Briton was able to hold off the Australian’s assault.

With four laps to go, Ricciardo eventually managed to charge around the outside of Hamilton at Turn Two to take second place from the Mercedes. With Hamilton unable to push any harder, the Mercedes driver now had to contend with his championship rival now right behind him having made up almost an entire pit stop length’s worth of time to his team mate.

Having passed Hamilton, Ricciardo saw his opportunity to snatch the lead from Alonso into Turn 1 and dived past the Ferrari with three laps to go. It looked as though the Ferrari’s tyres were finished, but Hamilton was unable to find a way through himself.

Ricciardo duly drove away to claim his second victory of his career in dramatic fashion. Alonso managed to hold on to a superb second place, while Hamilton secured a scarcely believable third place after starting from the pitlane. Despite his fresher rubber and significant pace advantage, Rosberg was unable to pass his rival and was resigned to a fourth place finish.

Felipe Massa took fifth for Williams, followed by Kimi Raikkonen who recorded his season best finish in sixth. Vettel finished seventh after his spin, just ahead of Valtteri Bottas. Jean-Eric Vergne and Jenson Button rounded out the points.

2014 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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120 comments on “Ricciardo wins Hungarian Grand Prix thriller”

  1. Great recovery Lewis and congrats Daniel!

  2. While Dan drove a great race, part of me wanted Fernando to win.
    Gutted for Force India though.

    1. Really gutted for FI… :( Nico’s consistent form broken, other teams are getting closer to merc while they are not making progress it seems. Tough race for both today, but what a race for Dan, Alonso! Absolutely loved the race..

      1. @hemzshaw
        At least they have Spa and Monza coming up, usually their two best tracks.

        I wanted Alonso to win too, second isn’t so bad though :)

        1. @george yes and I am looking forward to Spa and Monza.. but what worries me is that they have been claiming that their cars are not particularly suited to a track as it used to be. So if it is anything but true, I don’t have much to be excited about.

          I would have been absolutely very happy with 2nd for Alonso if the winner was either of the Mercedes drivers. I am still happy for Alonso, and second is his best result this year and much deserved to be celebrated.

  3. I’m surprised more people aren’t complaining about the fact Lewis was put on Medium tyres instead of softs. It was a completely illogical decision that cost him the win.

    1. He wouldn’t have made it to the end otherwise, and prob would have finished behind rosberg, so I disagree

      1. Correction, he wouldn’t have made it to the podium

        1. Of course he would have, he would have pitted again like Rosberg and finished the race on fresher tyres, staying in front of him throughout. He had track position after the first stop.

        2. @maksutov the data was showing that the medium tyre was significantly slower and not really lasting any longer than the soft tyre. That’s why it made no sense

      2. What he done 24 lol, he could have done 2 more laps and done 26 to finidh, Alo tyres went off right at end, so how would LH been off podium? If anything he could have had better chance to overtake on softs, then Alo back ric up. Ham had great pace on softs, primes were slow today.

    2. @jleigh
      Hamilton was having vibrations and problems on his left front tyre after his spin in the first part of the race, taking in fact that Hamilton is always hard on his tyres that seems a logical decision. The driver is always involved alongside his race engineer in the choice of the compounds.

      1. … Hamilton is always harder on his tyres

        Can someone show proof of this once and for all because it sure get regurgitated a lot

        1. @trublu
          No need for a proof, it’s quite obvious

          1. Ricciardo would have beaten Vettel the past four years in an equal car. No need for proof, it’s quite obvious!

            See how easy that was!?

          2. You must be some special kind of stupid

          3. OmarR-Pepper (@)
            27th July 2014, 16:21

            don’t bother to answer that one, @tifoso1989, when some people are out of arguments, they get plain rude and see in others their own flaws.
            BTW, about the race, Ricciardo is showing to be WDC material. He beat Vettel today again, plus Alonso and Hamilton in superb moves. What an unbelievably good drive Daniel showed today!!!

          4. @omarr-pepper

            RIC was great today, but he beat Vet (and Ros/Bot) because the SC came out at just the right time, twice. Gave him great track position with the right tire throughout.

            Beautiful driving to get by both Ham and Alo at the end. I agree he’s WDC material.

          5. @omarr-pepper
            BTW, i have followed your advise this time, good to have a word with you before dinning. ( Dinning these days is a bit special for me because as a Muslim i have to deal with Ramadan)
            RIC is also denying the theory of ”Nice guys finish last”. Dr. Marko spot on !!
            I hope more talented guys like Dan would make it to F1. I’m really sick of the likes of Sutil, Gutierrez…..
            Alonso was praising Daniel’s driving after Hockenheim saying that he was fighting hard but fair and clean, many thought that he was indirectly bashing Vettel but Dan proved today that he is a WDC material. Good for the fans !!!
            I know that RIC today drove superbly and used all the opportunities (safety car) but Vettel today was not that bad either, in the first part of the race he was there but after the SC he lost positions after that he lost focus, went wide and spun in unusual way.
            The thing is Vettel is having a hard time at RBR at the moment, the team seems to be focusing more on RIC (which was the case with Vettel when Webber still in the team, maybe for marketing reasons), as a 4 times WDC he needs to pull something out of the bag. I told you at the beginning of the season that his child could cost him 0.5s from his raw speed.

          1. @tifoso1989, yeah, Ric is proving to have a great talent. In the future, I believe he will be, probably side by side with Bottas, a natural candidate to win one or more F1 championships. Ofc, there’s a lot for him to achieve, so for know, he’s doing an excellent job.

            As for Vettel, well, I guess the problem is that he’s used to control the races, from beginning till end. But, know, the challenge is to fight for positions, or moving from the back lines of the grid to the first, and that’s very hard to accept. Strategies have to be very different. In that plan, Ric is more prepared to do that, than Vettel. But, let’s never forget, Vettel is an amazing talented driver, and he’s very luck to have Ric in his team, because Ric can stimulate him to fight back. But, I not sure that Vettel will stay in RBR. IMO, he should stay, as Ric too. With a decent “engine”, they could make wonders.

    3. Totally agree.

      The issue isn’t whether or not Hamilton should have let Rosberg past while on a different strategy (he shouldn’t have), it’s why they put Hamilton on a truly terrible strategy in the first place.

      Hamilton came out comfortably ahead of Rosberg when he pitted for the prime, with Hamilton’s superior pace he would have been much safer with regards to Rosberg (that’s a certainty) and (with some hindsight) a much better chance for the win.

      Unless the set of options he wore during his outlap melted when his engine burned out, he would have had 3 sets of unused options. Hamilton was rightfully questioning the decision to go to the end.

    4. Nigelstash (@)
      27th July 2014, 15:35

      And then asking him to let Rosberg through – looks like there’ll be fireworks backstage at Merc tonight.
      It does look like both strategies had a chance at victory, and Rosberg will argue that had he not been held up by Lewis then he could have challenged for a win. If that’s the case though then it does look with hindsight like Lewis could have had two really quick sprints on softs and maybe won the race. At the end of the day Rosberg couldn’t go long enough to take the mediums and go to the end while Lewis could. In my eyes that makes Lewis the better driver on the day, he got to the lead on his own merits and should under no circumstances have to compromise a shot at a podium by letting Rosberg through.
      On another note – with 50 points up for grabs in the last race, Merc had better get on top of the unreliability or we could see Ricciardo competing for the WDC.

    5. @jleigh, I agree. That was a questionable strategy that most people just brushed off. There is no reason for Mercedes to gamble like that because they have the pace to win. Ferrari on the other hand had good reason to gamble. They don’t have the raw pace so their best chance was to long stint Alonso.

      Mercedes is constantly making life difficult for Hamilton. They put him on Mediums and then expect him to erase a 15 second deficit AND go 40 LAPS! They should have put him on Soft tires. Mercedes seemed more focused on winning the race with Rosberg. Rosberg was over second behind yet they wanted Hamilton to let him past.

      1. Completely agree. Lewis would have been much faster with a stint on the Softs and likely had a chance to win the race.

      2. @sudd Mercedes put Hamilton on Mediums to erase a 4 second gap to Fernando Alonso. So yeah, with the pace advantage of the Mercs, u’d think he’d be easily able to overtake Alonso right? And also it was 30 laps, not 40, and Alonso managed 31 on a set of options.

    6. Good grief, Hamilton goes from the pit and a first lap spin to third in front of his team mate and people still complain.

      What on earth does Mercedes have to do to please you people? Give Hamilton a golden palace and a 20 second lead over Rosberg before Nico is allowed to pit?

      1. @npf1, With the right tire call he would have won. And he knows that. Knowing that he could have won and instead had to fight tooth and nail just to finish 3rd? I wouldn’t be over the moon either. 2nd or 3rd for a Ferrari or Williams is cause for celebration. For Mercedes and Hamilton? It’s slightly under performance. I give Hamilton’s garage a C+ grade.

        1. @sudd In a race like today it’s extremely difficult to get everything right and manage all the traffic, not to mention the icky Mercedes reliability as of late.

          The team simply wasn’t as dominant as usual, not to mention Rosberg went from 1st to 4th. Hamilton’s side of the garage got it a LOT better than Rosberg’s.

          1. @npf1, I don’t buy that for a second. They were racing for the win after the second pit stop for dry tires. They knew at the time from all the data that medium tires were a lot slower but weren’t lasting longer than Softs.

            So, with 30 laps to go and you are 15+ seconds off the lead, it’s pretty obvious you won’t win with that strategy. You can push to close down the 15 second deficit, but than you won’t have any tires left to pass or maintain your position. Do you really need hind sight to see that?

            The only reason Rosberg didn’t win or finish in front of Hamilton was because Hamilton refused orders from the team, forcing Rosberg to either pass on track, which he couldn’t do or pit for fresh rubber. The team was more concentrated on Rosberg winning and Hamilton just finishing on the podium. Otherwise, they would have put Hamilton on the soft tires and have him continue pushing to the checkers, instead they gambled for a podium step even though Mercedes has way more pace than Ferrari.

    7. Hindsight is 20/20. They put Ros on softs because he was going to stop again. Ham was on med because he was going to 2 stop. He barely managed to finish the race in the med, wouldn’t have made it through with the softs while also attacking Alo.

      1. Alonso made it through on used softs pitting one lap earlier. I questioned the prime at the time, it looked a stupid decision then, and at the end.

  4. Ricciardo, Alonso and Hamilton, what a drive by those three!!

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      27th July 2014, 16:23

      @tino852 I guess that this time the DOTW poll wlll show the podium finishers in that exact order.

      1. And everyone forgets about Kimi’s brilliant drive from 17th to 6th. Unlike the top 3 he didn’t gain with the safety car.

  5. I couldn’t help but notice how fast Charlie was this time to pull out SC after the accident on the main strait!

  6. After watching this, i think Sky F1 should be called the lewis hamilton show, i reckon that the commentators said lewis hamilton about 12000 times during the race, but thats just a rough estimate :)

    1. The favoritism is bit too much. But worst of all in SkyF1 coverage is Crofty’s incompetence. He misnames the drivers on the screen we are looking at, does not correct himself and generally talks rubbish.

      His twitter segment is always the worst part of the show, either he feeds the trolls, or talks and publicizes some other nonsense. Sure, he often says he is “just playing the devils advocate”, but you can’t excuse sharing totally “tin hat” opinion, that is not balance, it’s garbage.

    2. Go watch F1 coverage from Spain, Finland, Brazil, Germany, etc…Report back your observations. But you’re right they are Brit-centric but its the same with other countries that have a front running driver, or just a driver in F1 no matter how competitive they are.

      1. Yes i imagine that other countries are potentially just as bad, but it just seems that on sky f1 all we here is hamilton hamilton hamilton

        1. @burkenheim I think people say they’re worse……

          1. RTL was much, much, much worse with Schumacher and Vettel. They went as far as simply lying to the viewers or ignoring facts just to make them look good. Weirdly enough, it seems to be not as bad with Rosberg. Maybe because he is “not really German” ;-)

            Even as a non-brit/non-Hamilton-fan, so far I haven’t been annoyed by the Sky or BBC commentators. I think they’re just showing a reasonable amount of favoritism towards to the local driver with the best chances of winning the championship. I’m just watching the Sky broadcast right now (halfway trough) and so far no reason to complain.

        2. It reallly isn’t better in other countries. E.g. in Austria the comentators’ vocabulary consists of: Red Bull, Daniel Ricciardo, Sebastian Vettel

  7. Great job Dan. Lewis was close from the perfect come back, a bit more life in those tyres he would’ve won from the pits.

    On Alonso… what a giant driver. He really collects all the opportunities and Ferrari strategists made the right calls, he ended marginal on tyres but an extra stop would send in out of the podium.

    1. Soft tyres instead of Mediums and he would have won from the pits.

      1. Hamiltion’s race was great. However, no one benefited from both Safety Cars more than Hamilton. Yes, Ricciardo benefited the ‘most’ from the first SC, however the second SC somewhat negated a lot of the advantage Ricciardo gained.

        Towards the end of the race, Hamilton was holding up Ricciardo. Due to the Merc’s straight line speed, and the RB lack of, it was ‘easy’ for Hamilton to defend the few overtaking ‘spots’ . And yes, Hamilton was being held up by Alonso. However, Riccardo was pumping out faster laps well before Hamilton was being held up behind Alonso.

        Had Hamilton put options on, <another pit stop would of been required. This would of put Hamilton on an identical strategy to Rosberg. Which means in the end, Ricciardo would have only had to deal with overtaking Alonso. With DRS, new options and the RB's exiting ability, I doubt Ricciardo would of been held up by the Ferrari as long as he was by the Merc. Once overtaking Alonso, Ricciardo would of (most likely) driven away for an easy victory.

        So had Hamilton been put on options (3 stops) rather than the primes (2 stops), he most likely would of finished second (unless Rosberg passed him via an undercut) Yes, the Merc's would of been fast at the end. But Rosberg and Hamilton would of been too busy fighting each other, rather than chasing down the massive advantage Ricciardo would of had.

        1. Hamilton should have put on a 2 stop, with options at the end. The fact Alonso did a longer stint at the same pace as Hamilton on the softs while in a Ferrari that is 1 second per lap slower shows what a poor tyre the Prime was. Wether it was 2/3 stops, the option was the only sensible choice.

    2. @jleigh Ferrari strategists made the wrong calls actually. If they pitted Alonso when the 1st Safety Car came out, Alonso would have no doubt won it. Instead he had to battle from 8th to 3rd and by then Ricciardo had a 7 second gap over him

  8. Superb win by Ricciardo, and great drive by the top 3

  9. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why Alonso is the best.

  10. Incredible race. So many permutations if who could win. Unpredictable. Why mess with this sport right now?!

  11. Looks like Kimi is getting a hold of that Ferrari, as his race pace was pretty much identical with Alonso. If only he had a better starting position…

    1. Great race by him today, the first time this season I’ve seen the Kimi of last 2 years.

  12. Excellent summary, Will.

    Rosberg needs overtaking guts. Give his race engineer a “push to pass” button that gives a jolt to Rosberg’s right leg

    1. He was embarrasing today said he did not want them to let him though which is a lie, he also was alongside Vergne twice, Ham overtook him out of DRS zone.

      1. Also it is increasingly clear that Nico is a poor racer and a poor sportsman – he compromised his race by not taking the initiative betn laps 26 and 31 with JEV and then again behind Bottas in the closing stages. It is a bit too easy for Nico to keep blaming Lewis. I find it very bizarre that Mercedes is not openly asking him on the Radio to go for it and race. JEV showed today that he has heart – something that Nico is sorely missing.

    2. Mr. PerfectSmartWhoManagesALLDetailsWithTheEngineers was absolutely embarrassing !!!

    3. Rosberg simply doesn’t have the overtaking guts that Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel have. Couldn’t pass a Toro Rosso even in the straight. Hamilton pulled a gutsy move on Vergne at the fast left hander without DRS.

      1. Oh please. You guys make it sound so easy. NR lost this race when he missed the opportunity to pit first when the first safety car came out. Conditions were obviously so variable and there were times that NR had no grip and was losing spots, to then near the end pulling off fastest laps and nearly making up for an extra stop to LH. This race was way too luck of the draw to be criticizing NR this harshly.

        I absolutely agree that LH needn’t have slowed to let NR by, and I also think had NR been able to get under his gearbox LH would have ceded to NR, but I think it is fair play how it played out. This time LH was lucky after spinning in the beginning and after being able to pit with most of the others first after the first safety car, and of course he drove amazingly and then when his tires weren’t there for him and NR’s were it was NR who was hugely outdriving LH. Ultimately I think NR had a great day even if he won’t think so, given that unfortunate bad luck with the first safety car. But that’s fair enough…LH has had more bad luck, but had some good luck today.

        I don’t think NR would have been any different and would have ceded to LH were the circumstances reversed, but only if LH was right on him…not a full second back. I see how NR would have questioned LH not letting him by simply because of the different strategies, but he simply wasn’t close enough to LH to have earned it.

        1. Finally some sensible comments :) Thanks @robbie.

          1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
            27th July 2014, 16:26

            @evered7 It’s not that Rosberg is “bad” or “embarrasing”. It’s that the podium finishers showed all their best tricks today, which makes Rosberg look quite shy on his moves.

          2. @omarr-pepper I am not saying he is bad. I am saying he was unlucky to have caught Vergne when he had enough life in his tires to block any moves. That effectively ended his race.

            Of course the drivers on the podium did great. No question about it.

    4. Vergne’s tyres were done when Lewis got past him..But yes Rosberg is quite restrained with overtaking…

      1. His final move on Hamilton didn’t look restrained. But he couldn’t make it stick because Hamilton had already pushed him off the track, a replay of Bahrain basically.

  13. Alonso Megagalattico !!!! Kimi came alive in this race confirming his feeling with the car without FRIC, not bad for Ferrari in the most difficult circuit on the calendar alongside Monaco. Allison please a good car next year.

    1. As I said in another site, the word ‘Alonso’ should be made an adjective for greatness. Nothing else will help describe the greatness of his driving. Also I am hoping Kimi has finally found his form. He might have been helped by the un-used option tires in the race but he did good finally.

  14. Fikri Harish (@)
    27th July 2014, 15:36

    Alonso is a God. As a Ferrari fan, I can’t tell how happy I am to see someone drag that car out of oblivion and somehow made it into 2nd.
    You know, about sixty-laps into the race I was this close to turning off the TV because I so don’t want a repeat of the disappointment I felt after Canada 2012 all over again, especially not during a season in which a podium finish for a Ferrari is considered somewhat of a pipe dream.
    But as Alonso held his ground, so did I and boy, am I glad to have done so.
    And to Raikkonen, where have you been all year mate? Nice to see you finally popping your head again halfway into the season.

    Anyway, Rosberg and Vettel should take a long look into the mirror and ask themselves how in the world their respective teammates (and Alonso) ended up in the podium.
    Great drives from Ricciardo and Hamilton too, by the way.

    1. how in the world their respective teammates ended up in the podium.

      With the safety car of course

  15. I’m surprised how no one mentioned that after Ricciardo passed Hamilton, he used the slipstream of a lapped car to prevent Hamilton from coming back at him.

    So opportunistic! It’s little things like these that presage a future World Chqmpion.

    1. He was already ahead though.

  16. People saying Ros would win the race how silly are they, Merc struggled all day on straight, Ros would have had to overtake Ric who would get DRS from Ham, Ham struggled all day vs Vet. It was worst decision of a teamorder ever when he was not even close to passing

    1. Rosberg was within .3 and .4 of a second in the tight sections on several instances, incase you did not watch the race… is that not enough for you? Hamilton knew of the dirty air factor for 2 equal cars, and played to that, it is bad sportsmanship in a team sport, he should have accepted he was lucky with 2 safety car periods and not got greedy for a potential undeserved win. the way he drove Rosberg off the track in the last lap was uncalled for also, no wonder Hamilton was unhappy on the podium, he knew he did not drive great, and is lucky to come away with what he did. Ricciardo put a lesson on both these A- Mercedes drivers.

      1. OMG lol, are you serious, Ham cam out ahead on primes, he could a done softs than how would Nico even get the chance. You honestly think Ham shoulda let him through hilarious. So ironic you talk about how hard to overtake and Alo was so slow it was backing Ham up. How silly do yo look when you say hard to pass at 0.3 yet Ham was in same boat? Ham could not even overtake Vet with DRS, they were quite slow don’t you think? Why do you hate Ham so much man, i don’t get it. I love Alo and im the biggest Ham fan why every race after a great race like this you still bash him?

      2. Completely asinine post. You must live in an alternate reality.

    2. Nico was on pole, and the other Team Brackley car started from the pits, and Team Brackley’s car was considered the best on the grid – and by far at that, and no one had a crystal ball to foresee Ericsson’s crash.

  17. Alo done 31, ham done 24 halfway through, Ham pitted 2 laps later than Alo so Ham could have won he would had to do 29 and he would have had far better chance on Options, Merc front end was lovely just no drive off corner. Just like NR would have been same place if he stayed out too end they took risk as he would always come back through. Softs were clearly great today.

    1. Softs were definitely the right tires. The Medium tire strategy would have worked if Hamilton wasn’t 15 secs behind the lead at that point. I don’t understand why Mercedes gave him the subprime strategy. Having to go 40 laps for the win is one thing, having to go 40 laps for the win and having to close that big a gap is going to destroy your tires by the time you actually catch the front runners.

  18. Still say Komi to retire. Hamilton to Ferrari. Vetted to mclaren button to cater ham!

  19. Sorry for typo error. Hands still shaking!

  20. Oh & Marco to merc management to make it complete!
    You notice they were NOT giving Hamilton any info at all on Rosberg progress behind.enough said for now!

  21. Only hiccup of the weekend was that lucky 1st safety car but that’s life really. If only we could mute DRS, but I guess some people like it, to those people the people that really liked the German GP overtaking, I can only say that overtaking is about quality and there was some of that in Germany after the DRS zone and there was plenty here in Hungary which is quite hard, shades of Hungary 2009 (trulli overtake). I think mentioning NASCAR overtaking speaks for itself. NO DRS we don’t need it ever since Pirelli went in.

  22. Good Race.. I love You rain…
    Brilliant drive from Hamilton and even better decision making not to slow down and let his teammate through.. very happy for Dan, he surely is a future world champ and so is Bottas … but for me the driver of this Hungarian Grand Prix is Alonso… so sad to see his best years wasted in mediocre cars..
    On another note , judging by how Dan Ric has fared in the redbull I am wondering did Mark Webber deserve his Redbull seat post 2011?

    1. But then you have to wonder if Seb deserved his.

      1. @hohum Did Alonso deserve the 2005 and 2006 title considering a rookie (which Rcciardo is not, though they allowed more testing for Lewis than for Daniel) placed higher in the championship the year after those?

  23. i am so glad ricciardo won this race and not Hamilton. the advantage Mercedes has is ridiculous – almost unsportsmanlike – Hamilton made 2 mistakes in the first 20 laps, yet with the safety cars was favourite to win about 1/3 into the race – f1 should not be like this – they need to remove this stupid engine homologation.
    I am glad Hamilton said this was not one of his best drives, he knew he could have won after the safety car periods bought him into the frame.
    I expect Hamilton and Rosberg to have tension now. Hamilton did not let his teammate through when asked by his team, Rosberg was on a different strategy, Hamilton said Rosberg was not close enough, but the TV panels showed Rosberg was as close as .3 of a second behing Hamilton in dirty air, and then drifted back because Hamilton did not let him through.
    For all the bad luck Hamilton has had, this race bought him good luck with the 2 safety car periods.
    As I said previous on this website, put Ricciardo in a Mercedes car… he will beat both the pretenders to the crown.

    1. I’m sorry Lewis would still be able to match Ricciardo, to say otherwise is stupid. I think Ricciardo is good, but I’ve not yet seen anything to see he is head and shoulders above lewis, he had tyre advantage today.

      1. This same guy thinks Vet is best because he is a 4xWC the last few years. Don’t listen to him he just envious every race about Ham. He really does not want him getting a 2xWC. People may say i talk about one person all time but you don’t see me every race sticking boot into a driver like he does. Last week Bottas was better than Merc, today it was Ric, next week it maybe Massa lol.

    2. Ham could not overtake with DRS lol, you say about Nico, if Ham done same strategy, Ros still be behind, how silly can people be. Ham came out ahead lol on primes.

    3. You seem to forget that Dan’s tyres were around 15 laps fresher

    4. the advantage Mercedes has is ridiculous – almost unsportsmanlike

      Why is an advantage unsportsmanlike?

      1. telling you mate he would love it if Alo was in Merc, it is envy that is why even when Bottas comes 2nd he tries saying he deserves Merc more, silly boy he is

  24. Maybe Vettel is an average driver after all…

    1. No, he just got boned by the safety car and the strategy again. He only mistake he did was the spin and that would’ve been more fitting in figure skating.

  25. The worst part about this is the one month wait until Spa.

    And it is hard to see Vettel as more than the average driver right now.

    1. @blockwall2

      Oh I agree. Being more than a second faster than Ricciardo at the start of Q3 yesterday was average at best. And Ricciardo couldn’t break that 1 second barrier twice!

      And then there’s Vettel’s spin that I’m sure a lot of people will use… While at the same time completely forgetting that Hamilton, who they see as one of the best today, spun out twice….

      A little more of this and the site could be dubbed f1doublestandards.co.uk

      1. Yes, people tend to ignore the statistics that they don’t fancy. This season Vettel’s name is the synonym for bad luck. Every single time he is ahead of Ricciardo(apart from Malaysia) something goes wrong. Today safety car, Silverstone terrible strategy, Monaco technical problems and same for Austria.

      2. @baron-2
        Come on, the comments here are still of high quality compared to some other sites (Youtube, etc, etc)!

        1. @davidnotcoulthard

          True.

          I’m just pointing out the hypocrits.

      3. Ham did it once actually and it was fully wet comming out to pit, and 1 second?, try nearly 2 tenths in q3. When he was dominating people saying he was not all that, show me a multiple WC shown disrespect Vet has been shown? I can not think of one, yet new regualtions and he cannot adapt. Ham has more credibility amongst fans and drivers than Vettel and he is 3xWC down on Vet. End of day Vet fans should be happy(no one can take those titles away from him), i would give a limb for Ham to be a 4xwc and be beaten every year for rest of his carear.

  26. RIC is the real deal. When he gets a couple titles, people will look to today and claim they knew it all along.

    Mercedes made a ridiculous hash of Hamilton’s strategy, even as he questioned it. Anyone could easily see that given the pit delta he would have to defend on busted tires against a deficit of a few seconds for 10 laps against a redbull. it wasn’t even close. And Rosberg was not impressive. The crux of his entire strategy was that Hamilton would park up and let him by—the guy he was obviously fighting for position in the end. Nuts. Of course Rosberg really lost when he couldn’t get by an STR for so long, the one Hamilton mowed down with ease. Hamilton was the only one at MB thinking or driving today.

    1. Rosberg was impressive at the start, and at the end, both times constantly faster then his teammate. the 2 safety cars ruined things for him, which made him sit in the dirty air of his teammate for ages – and he was told by his team Hamilton was asked to let him by – and Hamilton did not do that, so many laps wasted. Hamilton moved past the STR with ease when tyres had worn

      1. The issue was Rosberg couldn’t pass Vergne. The safety car did screw up their places but this cost him more. And he was unlucky that Vergne’s tires were fresher when he was attacking him. But a great recovery to 4th from Rosberg. It would have been a psychological blow if he had not managed to complete the race today.

      2. Perish the thought ham gains 3 points today. I would much rather he had chance for pole and had chance for 7. Lol on same tyres Ham made Ros luck silly did you not watch. Ros was like 7 tenths behind a cough cough Torro rosso and Ham was like 3-4 tenths behind Vet. Im sure the fact he done 2 softs has something to do with being far faster lol. Man you are a funny dude. You clearly did not watch race

    2. Agreed but you also have to look at his team support & strategy which is vastly superior to merc or mclaren! I question Wolfe judgement and also the fact that merc use one strategist for both drivers. Exactly how can that work when both drivers are fighting for the title. How can they tell Hamilton to move over for Rosberg who was definitely not faster as his tires were shot —yet they do not advise Hamilton of the gap when Rosberg is catching.
      It is not an equal fight and merc management stinks despite their public efforts of declaring “equality”.

  27. Michael Brown (@)
    27th July 2014, 16:28

    Ricciardo got the better strategy over Vettel again, although Vettel would have probably finished 5th on the same strategy.

    1. Suppose RB prefer Ric over Vettel right? Hahaha

    2. @lite992 Yeah but if that’s a wrong thing the blame rests to 1 of Albers’ employees, not Horner’s.

      1. rests *on

    3. @lite992

      Ricciardo was lucky (again). Vettel was not. Unfortunately there’s not a lot anyone could have done in this case.

      Except for Ericsson, he could have kept it on track.

      1. @baron-2 i guess Vet could have not made a silly mistake which messed his race up then aswell.

      2. Vettel not ending up in a wall = luckiest person on the paddock.

    4. @lite992, yep, that was a cunning move they pulled organising a safety car to get Dan out on slicks first.

  28. i found all of the three podium drivers superb, along Nico.I don’t get it why so much fanaticism on who was better.

  29. Thanks Will for the great article. It sounds like it was a great race.

  30. I didn’t know it was you @willwood until some comments pointed that out. Great, great job (as always, of course – this is not a 1st)!

  31. I had a different perspective of the race on Sunday for once – with general admission passes at the track itself. I have to say the race was a huge disappointment. If F1 wants to attract more casual raceday fans in the short term they should stop focusing on talk of louder exhausts or artificial sparks, and simply add more TV screens around the track, offer a radio service or even bring back the fanvision screens – we literally had no idea what was going on! Admittedly it was a particularly unpredictable race, but that meant a ‘classic’ race was lost on us all with general admission and away from one of the very few screens. A lot of bewildered people left before the end. A real shame, considering the solutions are so simple.

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