Race 11 - Hungarian GP

Alright I'm not really supposed to be here but I cannot resist talking about this race any longer so here I am.

The freaking Hungarian Grand Prix 2021. Goddamn when I said this is turning out to be the best season since 2012 - I might be proven wrong because the entertainment quotient might yet exceed 2012! I believe that!

So - coming off of the tensions of Silverstone, people were already a bit on edge. The Max vs Lewis debates were going rabid, and the George vs Valtteri for Mercedes 2022 debates were coming to a head. And so, when Lewis and Valtteri managed to park it in the front row in qualifying, with Max only third and George failing to get into Q2 for the first time this whole season - it provided the perfect stage for this race on Sunday already, with it being quite clear who had the advantage this weekend.

Well move over that advantage.

The track was wet at the start and it only got wetter during the formation lap. Everybody was starting on inters, eliminating the Mercedes' advantage of getting through Q2 on mediums against everyone else who did it on softs. At lights out, the conditions were poised to give us a banger of a race already.

And then came Turn 1! The Turn 1 of all turn 1s! I still cannot believe it. It's probably going to take you longer to read about it here than it took to happen.

Lewis had a great start and drove off into the distance. Bottas got the most awful start and then missed the braking point by miles and crashed into Lando who had already overtaken him by turn 1 - who then crashed into Max who had also had a good start and was ahead of him even. The impact was so heavy, Max lost all the barge board on his right. Bottas in the meanwhile crashed into Perez who was just behind Max, effectively taking out both Redbulls in one corner, although Max was able to continue the race and drove brilliantly to end up in the points.

Behind these guys was the midfield fiasco, when Stroll locked up into Turn 1 and fully took out Charles and damaged Daniel as well. That pretty much took most of the top 10 out of position and, for the unlucky ones, out of the race. Red flagged soon after, the top 3 were Lewis, Ocon and Seb at the restart, with Latifi, Carlos, Yuki, George and Mick all in the points positions, mental!

If you'd thought by this point that the crazy portion of the race was over - you would have been very wrong! The restart was as mad as turn 1! By the time the drivers came out the track had dried off, and in what had to be one of the first, all of the drivers incredibly drove into the pits instead of lining up to change tyres.

All of the drivers except race leader Sir Lewis Hamilton! The only person on the grid at lights out! The scenes! Naturally Lewis had to pit at the end of that first lap and Hungary is a short-ish pit stop but he still came out plum last - which by this point in the race was P14 - and Max was fighting with "half a car" in P11, so the race became even more interesting! 

There were so many battles between the most unlikely of driver pairings in this race - Max and Mick had a good one, Yuki tried valiantly to hold off Lewis briefly, Latifi held on to that P3 for the longest time with an Alpha and a Ferrari behind him, Seb and Ocon had the longest battle of the race up at the front giving me Bahrain flashbacks when Seb tried to send it on the inside and came so very close to taking them both out, Max and Daniel had some scruffs.. all in all, not a boring rest of the race at all. Fernando's racecraft when he held Lewis off for quite a few laps with Lewis on fresh tyres hunting down that P1 - masterclass, and deserved Driver of the day.

In the end, everyone liked that when we had a brand new Race winner in Ocon. What a drive from him, keeping it absolutely clean and tidy under the tremendous pressure from Seb all race. Seb's radio sounding so disappointed when he came in at P2 gave me new life! Missed this Seb last year, and he made the right choice going to Aston, I'm so happy for him. Lewis ended up in P3 at the end, taking back the lead in both championships at the end of summer.

Carlos got good points for Ferrari, making up the gap to the Mclarens in the absence of both cars from the points this weekend. Fernando picked up fifth for Alpine and they made some hefty strides forward on the charts too with it. Great to see Gasly getting Fastest lap there at the end, leading both the Alphas in the points. And, perhaps the biggest winners of the weekend - double Williams points! Finally! They were so happy, it was so great to see! 

All in all, best race of the season? Let's see what the second half comes up with to rival that. Of course, Sebastian's P2 is under investigation so it's not over yet. But it's time for some well deserved break for all the teams (and me, though it won't exactly be "rest").

The next race - my favourite race, arguably - is in the beautiful, the exciting, Spa Francochamps in three weeks! Until then - er, I'm not sure what's the main language in Belgium. Dutch or German? This is embarrassing, I've been to the country as well. Well, a good chance to learn over the race weekend! I guess I'll see you then!