The Hungarian Grand Prix was far from being a thriller in terms of on track action with hardly any overtaking after the first laps. But it was a very interesting tactical race which leaves a lot of questions to answer, like could Lotus have won the race if they’d done things differently? Why did Button and the Red Bulls make three stops? And how close did Hamilton come to not winning? Pre-race expectations, On Sunday morning most of the strategists were saying it would be a wet race. The forecast had not changed for five days and rain would fall More…

Lewis Hamilton secured his second victory of the season with a defensive drive in an exciting Hungarian Grand Prix. Who was your Driver of the Day? Lewis Hamilton Topped the timesheets in both Friday practice sessions and carried that form into qualifying. Nailed two laps which were good enough for pole in Q3 to secure his 22nd career pole position and the 150th for McLaren. Made a good start and then contained Romain Grosjean for much of the race thanks to good tyre management. Soaked up huge pressure in the closing stages from Kimi Raikkonen, whose strategy lifted him up More…

Lewis Hamilton won his second Grand Prix of the season after a sustained challenge from the Lotus drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean, who joined him on the podium. It was his 19th career victory and one of the most important as it gets him back in the game in the championship, taking 15 points out of Alonso’s lead over him and cutting it to 47 points. Webber remains second in the table with Vettel third after a mixed day for Red Bull with both cars forced to stop three times. Hamilton dominated the qualifying session on Saturday and led More…

Lewis Hamilton dominated qualifying in Hungary, setting the pace in all three sessions with two laps fast enough for pole position. His margin over second place was more than four tenths, while he had six tenths in hand over his team mate Button in 4th place. It was Hamilton’s 22nd career pole and the 150th for McLaren. He is joined on the front row by Lotus’ Romain Grosjean in his highest ever starting position after an entertaining session. Sebastian Vettel had to use up sets of soft tyres just to make it into Q3 and his challenge was blunted as More…

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton set the pace on day one of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, the last F1 race before the summer shut down. Hamilton topped the time sheets in both sessions with team mate Jenson Button second in the dry morning session. The afternoon session started dry but was was punctuated by rain, making it the third weekend in a row that a Friday afternoon session has been rain affected. Kimi Raikkonen set the second fastest time in the afternoon; like Hamilton and Alonso he used the soft tyre. Although track temperatures of 45 degrees were recorded today, there More…

The FIA has responded to lobbying from McLaren and Mercedes in particular and has decided to beef up the tests they carry out on the flexing of front wings. On the face of it this will oblige Red Bull and Ferrari to stop their wings from flexing as much as they do now and this will cost them lap time. But let’s look more closely at this and establish how much we think this will slow the cars down relative to the opposition. The FIA is allowed to change the test as it sees fit thanks to a rule which More…

We saw some great drives today throughout the field. Here are a few contenders. So who was your Driver of the Day? Mark Webber Lost a place to Alonso at the start. Was forced into a change of strategy by the safety car, deciding to stay out in order to have a chance to get ahead of Alonso. Took advantage of Vettel’s mistake behind the safety car and then pumped in over 25 flat out laps to build a big enough lead to pit and rejoin ahead of Alonso. Fernando Alonso Great start to jump Webber, then kept up a More…

Sebastian Vettel took pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix by four tenths of a second over team mate Mark Webber, one of the larger margins we have seen between them this season. It was Vettel’s sixth pole of the season, the 12th of his career. Red Bull Team principal Christian Horner hailed the team’s 11th pole in 12 races as “our most dominant qualifying of the year” and it’s easy to see why; the margin back to Fernando Alonso in third place was 1.2 seconds, with 7/10ths of that coming in the middle sector alone. This is all about More…

Today’s practice sessions ahead of Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix was a real wake up call for Red Bull’s main rivals Ferrari and McLaren. Sebastian Vettel topped the times in both sessions, with a 1m 20.0 lap in the afternoon, but it was the margin of his fastest time over the next car which caught the attention. Fernando Alonso was half a second slower than Vettel in the afternoon, with Felipe Massa another three tenths behind. Red Bull were going for it from the outset with both Vettel and Webber pumping in fast times, but the underlying trend of pace is More…