HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX

Practice sessions at the Hungaroring last weekend may have been relatively quiet, but once qualifying and race day arrived, there was hardly a second to breathe.

This was one of the craziest qualifyings I've seen in a long time. Even Q1 was a total toss up because of track evolution, rain, and bizzare swaps in on-track dominance this year (looking at you, Ferrari).

I did watch the race and qualifying live, which made the stress all the more real. Luckily, I was tuned in live for the pre-race show as well, which was when I was horrified to see Max Verstappen slide into the wall as he was taking his car to the grid. It was massively slippery out there and it all looked like it was over for my favorite Dutch wunderkind, but thank goodness for those ace Red Bull mechanics who were able to get his car up and running with no less than 25 seconds to spare.

After all he went through, seeing Max on the podium at the end of this race really did feel like a win.

It was another fascinating race to watch, but it still feels strange to see all the mix-ups on the field. Mainly, Ferrari is breaking my heart and squandering the talents of Seb and Charles, both of whom are first-class drivers with impeccable talent. Then there's the strange case of Alpha Romeo, who had the worst time in Hungary out of anyone, except probably Pierre Gasly, whose entire weekend was basically a nightmare.

Also, I feel for Nicholas Latifi, the only rookie out there this season, who has been having a tough time getting that Williams in line. On the other hand, George Russell had a pretty superb weekend in Hungary, putting in some really impressive and exciting times for Williams for the first time in a very long time.

And, finally, I'd say: this was a CRAZY race, filled with constant stress. It was one of those that was impossible to take your eyes off of.

Here are my race notes...

FP1

- first person to get a time deleted this session is Esteban Ocon

- Talking about how Mattia Binotto is probably fired and who could fill the place

- Pierre Gasly didn’t go out all session because he had power unit problems

- Not a lot going on

FP2

- it’s rainy and they don’t know if they’re going to have running

- With social distancing it takes about double the time to change power units

- A lot of talk about Lance Stroll having bought his way into the team and if Seb could go to Racing Point

FP3

- Max has a big slide and spin on a fast lap

- talk about how the Red Bull seems so easy to spin this year

- Charles did a storming lap and talking about how he has to fight that Ferrari the whole time to get it to do anything

- These Mercedes engines are smoking like crazy and someone asked them to confirm the name of the new pope, it’s that smoky

- Chance of rain for this session is 90%

- The force india’s keep purple sectoring ugh

- Lots more talk about how Renault is protesting the Force India brake ducts as copies from Mercedes. Is this payback for last year when Force India protested Renault and got them tossed out of the Japanese Grand Prix

- Hamilton had a lap time deleted for track limits

- Lots of traffic because rain and little time running in previous practice sessions

- Gasly reporting low power even though they just rebuilt the car in the last day

- Everyone’s trading super fast laps at the end. Even George Russell got in the top ten

- Hamilton almost destroyed the car on the way into the pit entrance at the end of the session

Qualifying

- rain is coming almost immediately and everyone needs to get out there right away or it will be wet for the rest of Q1

- The track rubbered in and the rain ended so the end of Q1 is a total tossup because they all have to go out again

- George Russell and Latifi put down awesome times for Williams in Q1

- Gasly reporting engine problems in Q1 again like all weekend

- This was the most stressful Q1 I’ve seen in a long time

- First Alex was on the bubble and then Max was. Pretty much everyone we care about was on the bubble

- Williams have 2 drivers through into Q2! Both made it out of Q1

- The track evolution was CRAZY

- Out in Q1: Mags, Kvyat, Grosjean, Gio and Kimi is last somehow

- Everyone is raving about how good George Russell’s Q1 lap was. Awesome

- Sainz and Gio investigated after the session for Sainz impeding Gio

- Lance Stroll randomly weighed with four minutes to go in Q2 and he needs to go out again but he couldn’t restart the car himself from the weight bridge so they had to push him back down the pit lane

- Ocon got stranded in the pit lane trying to get out at the same time as everyone else

- Albon had a really frustrating session and is having a hard time on the radio

- Out in Q2: Ricciardo, Russell, Albon, Ocon and Latifi

- Super surprised Albon is out but he had traffic and his car was not great

- Charles did a great lap at the last minute and shot up the charts

- Perez didn’t get a good lap in at the end of Q2 but Stroll did so now Stroll looks good and like Perez didn’t deliver

- Max reports a developing engine problem in Q3

- DARN IT, it’s Ham, Bottas and Stroll on top three

- Max only went 7th fastest

- Seb out qualified Charles but they were right next to each other

Pre Race

- a good Seb interview

- Max hit the barrier at turn 12 taking the car to the grid because of the rain and the car hasn’t been sticking at all this weekend and there’s no grip out there

Race

- they got Max’s car working again just in time

- Kvyat wants to put before the race and start from the pit lane because of the rain developing but they say no but the two Haas pit and start from pit lane

- Bottas may have jumped the start

- Stroll is somehow in 2nd still by the end of lap one

- Crazy start with almost Ferrari’s hitting

- Everyone is going in on lap three for slicks because of the rain conditions like wait what we’re already putting

- Hamilton kept the lead and on lap 3 he’s already 7 seconds from the second Lance Stroll

- Seb gets caught in traffic in the pit lane when everyone is pitting and loses seven seconds

- Latifi has a little spin and then a puncture

- Charles is the only one on soft tires now in the top 12

- Perez went wide with new tires

- Latifi and Sainz incident in the pit lane where Sainz hit Latifi going out of the pits

- Kimi gets a five second time penalty for being out of position on the grid when he started but he started last so what

- Charles kept Bottas behind him with some really good driving

- Charles is unhappy on the soft tires because they’re terrible and he’s the only one on them so why is that Ferrari

- Latifi got a five second time penalty for an unsafe release even though when he hit Sainz Latifi came off worse from it but he is still penalized

- Seb has a lockup and goes off track and Albon used it as a way to get past and it was a great move

- 18/70 Gasly’s car blows up after the worst weekend ever, he went through an MGUH and a turbo in practice and quali and then in the race it just blew up

- 43/70 Latifi has a spin at turn 5

- Red Bull is going to be called to the stewards after the race for allegedly illegally drying the track of Albon’s grid spot before the race and no one noticed because everyone was focused on the other Red Bull getting repaired in time for the race

- Bottas gives Max a run for second place on the last lap but Max holds him off

- in the end it was Hamilton winning by a huge margin, then Max in second after almost not even getting to start the race, then Bottas in third

- They didn’t end up giving Albon or Bottas penalties, but they did give penalties to both Haas cars for the team giving them instructions before the race to pit for slicks and gaining an advantage which is apparently not allowed until the race has started so it goes under the infringement of aiding a driver