If you are reading this and didn’t watch the Hungarian Grand Prix I’m going to tell you now to stop reading because my crappy recap will not compare to watching the gift of a race we F1 fans received today. All weekend long we’ve been waiting to see what was to come from Verstappen vs. Hamilton, and we wouldn’t be denied, well sort of. Let’s roll it back to qualifying real quick because there was some dam drama out there. As the cars rolled out for a final run in Q3, the Redbulls found themselves behind both Mercedes. Now normally, that’s a good spot to be while your competitor gives you a tow, but today we would see some mind games get played as Lewis strolled his car to the line blocking Perez from getting a lap in and narrowly allowing Verstappen to get through. It would be a Mercedes one-two as the reigning champs locked out the front row heading into Sunday.
If it wasn’t clear, Lewis and Mercedes are winning the head games. Verstappen was frustrated after qualifying and flipped out during a press conference, angry he had to answer more questions about their coming together in Britain. Lewis shrugged it off in a surprisingly calm manner while I’m sure he was smiling under his mask. With qualifying done and the only thing left to do but go racing, we headed into Sunday waiting for the fight to take place once again. All morning long , Crofty, Nico, Karun, and anyone else on the commentary team used the word tension to describe the feeling on the grid as cars lined up in their starting positions. Then about fifteen mintues before the start, the racing gods split the heavens and gave us all the greatest gift, rain.
It was too good to be true, especially because it wasn’t raining hard. Raining hard is one thing, cleans the rubber off the track, soaks the asphalt, but this rain is what I call “annoying rain”. You know that rain when it feels like mother nature’s just kind of spitting? That rain, but it was enough to coat the track as the cars were getting ready for the formation lap. With everyone switching to inters, the run down to Turn 1 was going to be magical. My favorite moment, watching Karun rub his hand on the track and say “this is slick rain”.
The cars rolled through their formation lap and soon we had five red lights go out as Crofty shouted “Away we go!” one last time before the summer break. The run to Turn 1 is long at the Hungaroring and that means you better get a good jump off the line, which Bottas didn’t do. Hamilton stormed into the distance with Verstappen hot on his heels, followed by Perez and Norris who pinched Valteri ever so slight touching the front wing. Valteri responded by shoving the nose of his car firmly up the McLaren exhaust pipe and punting Lando into the side of Verstappen. Valteri wouldn’t escape unscathed as he would collect Sergio Perez and both cars would find their day done. Verstappen and Norris would get away and begin limping their way back to the pit lane. Behind the top four, Lance stroll would lock up and collect Leclerc and partially Ricciardo. Four drivers out of the race and I’d bet you forgot we haven’t gotten past Turn 1 yet. With the carnage on track a Safety Car would immediately be followed by a red flag.
Leclerc, Stroll, Bottas and Perez wouldn’t be the only victims on the day as Nikita Mazepin in the Haas would be clipped by Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo leaving the pits, destroying his suspension. Before the red flag was over, we would lose Lando Norris as the final casualty of the day. Three laps completed out of seventy and we already had five high tier drivers, and one Mazepin out of the race. When we thought it couldn’t get any better, it did, and Formula 1 fans received one of the rarest sites as Lewis Hamilton would be the only driver to start on the line at the restart.
Basically the rain had stopped so on the formation lap, thirteen out of fourteen remaining drivers would dive into the pits to change for slicks. the lights went out and Lewis sped away with everyone flooring it out of the pit lane behind him. Somehow George Russell would be in P2, but it was short lived as he was ordered to give the place back for pulling some cheeky maneuver to jump everyone in the pits. That meant Lewis would have to pit with everyone still on his tail and he would come out behind the rest of the field, with Ocon leading Vettel, leading LATIFI?!
From here on out there was much shit that happened I’ll hopefully remember it all:
There was a moment after Hamilton left the pit lane we all knew he could win the race, but it’s incredibly hard to overtake in Hungary and did it ever show today.
Mick Schumacher got his elbows out – with everyone and anyone. With his teammate off the track the young driver found himself in a points position after the restart. While any other weekend we might expect the Haas to give up, Mick said not today. He flexed on anyone trying to get by him and while he didn’t hold people up for long, he made them think.
Verstappen would fight Ricciardo almost all race long as the damage from the tangle with Norris played it’s part. Props on the Redbull mechanics using all that duct tape to get it back together. Verstappen has to be fuming as this is the second week of racing a Mercedes engine/car has ruined his day. I will say this, the contact with Mick Schumacher is how Max races and that pisses me off because he definitely rubbed the Haas on purpose, yet he wants to bitch when someone goes wheel to wheel with him like that.
Gasly would steal the fastest lap from Lewis at the end of the race while Yuki Tsunoda bitched about something.
While Gasly stole the fastest lap Alpine stole the entire fucking show. I’ve watched F1 for three years and two of them Alonso had been out of. I had watched Drive to Survive where all you heard was how good Alonso was. I had never gotten to see it until today. What a fucking clinic by an absolute legend. There aren’t words to describe the way Alonso drove today, fighting for laps to keep Lewis Hamilton behind him. It was unreal watching the two world champions go toe to toe. Alonso earned Driver of the Day today for a dam good reason holding off Lewis Hamilton like a moving wall, and preventing the Mercedes from catching his teammate. Ocon truly owes Alonso one.
Williams had themselves a fucking day! Bringing home double points as both Latifi and Russell would score on this day! Williams picked up six points but surprisingly enough Latifi scored the better for the pair. It didn’t matter as everyone finally got watch George Russell bring home his first points in a Williams, later moving even the most hardened criminals to tears as he sobbed with glee over P9.
Vettel put up a hell of a fight today following Ocon since the restart but the four time champion would only get few oportunities to even get close to take the lead but would be unable to capitalize on any of them and find himself in P2 at the end of the day. Later unfortunately Sebastian Vettel would be disqualified over some type of fuel issue after the race.
Which brings us to our race winner. Esteban Ocon! The Frenchman wouldn’t put a foot wrong all day with Vettel waiting in the wings and brought the Alpine home in P1.
What followed soon after was the wildest podium as well as Ocon forgot where to park, I think Seb’s car ran out fuel, and Lewis again finding himself the sole car parked behind the P3 sign. With the DQ of Vettel that means Carlos Sainz has been promoted to the podium in P3. Oddly enough this is the second time in Carlos’s career this has happened.
Formula 1 goes into it’s summer break which usually means the start of silly season where drivers with ending contracts jockey for someone elses seat or re-sign where they are now. Who knows what surprises may come but this has been one hell of a start to possibly one of the greatest seasons in history. Now we take time to reflect, refocus, and most likely go into withdraw until F1 returns at Spa. This is going to be a long three weeks of anticipation!