HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX 2021

This was actually a RIVETING race, so crazy and full of carnage that you have to just see it. By lap 5, it’s unbelievable to think it’s only been five laps. Thank God Alonso stopped Hamilton from getting the win. Also, later, Seb was disqualified from the podium.

Thank you, God, that Hamilton did not win this. I have never loved Fernando Alonso more.

Oh, also, Esteban Ocon won this. Whatever. The point is, Alonso was a hero holding off Hamilton.

Original race dates: July 30th - August 1, 2021

Track: Hungaroring

Free Practice 1

• Yuki causes another red flag for spinning into a wall and it’s brief but still, come on Yuki, you need to get it together

• Some chatter about the “controversy” from the previous race at Silverstone and they’re trying to dismiss the fact that Hamilton tried to run Max off the road and they’re trying to get us to put it behind us but I will not forget what Hamilton did last race and how he behaved afterwards

• A high speed spin for Alonso but doesn’t hit anything

• Rumors that Mick is going to leave Haas for Alfa Romeo and then Callum Illott would take his spot at Haas

• Nyck DeVries is in the Mercedes garage!

• Mercedes announced they will make the decision whether to keep Bottas or not over the summer break

Free Practice 2

• Yuki broke his car in FP1 so cant get it back out onto track in FP2 until 2 min to go

Free Practice 3

• OH NO LIL SCHU, he had a bad crash into the wall sideways and caused a red flag but he’s okay

• Gio is getting in everyone’s way this session

• Apparently Lando merch sold the most of any merch at Silverstone including Hamilton!

Qualifying

• little Schumacher won’t be taking part in qualifying since Haas couldn’t rebuild his car before qualifying since he crashed in Fp3

• I’m pretty sure Yuki just cut off Sainz on the way out of the pits unless it was Gasly, but it was a Yuki move, why can’t ferrari ever put their drivers on the track at the right time

• NOOOOO George Russell didn’t improve because his car wasn’t set up right and he didn’t make it out of Q1 for the first time this season. Before this he had a 100% record of getting out of Q1 this year

• Out in Q1: Tsunoda, Russell, Latifi, Mazepin and Schumacher who never made it out

• Q2 is RED FLAGGED for Carlos Sainz who slides into a barrier on the last turn, right after Charles put his car into second. It was a pretty big impact so immediate red flag and then he tried to keep it going and somehow it was still able to drive the car but the front wing goes under the car and they are told he has to get out and so he just goes over the barrier into the pits and now this is a big blow for Ferrari since Sainz was high up in practice sessions. So Sainz is out in Q2 now

• Out in Q2: Ricciardo, Stroll, Kimi, Gio and Sainz

• This track does ramp up a lot with track evolution

• Hamilton does a really good lap in the first part of Q3 with Max a half a second down and no one knows where all this pace came from

• As they are going out for their final laps, they release the Mercedes EXACTLY when it would cut off Max coming out of the garage and then it holds up Max and goes extremely slow playing mind games to hold him up and it was so unattractive and unsportsmanlike and then the two Red Bull’s almost didn’t make it back to the line in time to start their final lap and then it turned out that only Max made it to the line on time and not Perez but luckily Perez still starts 4th

• Hamilton on pole, Bottas in second, Max in third. Shoot. That breaks Max’s four consecutive poles and this won’t be his fifth

• Oh my gosh they booed Hamilton when he went to the microphone!! WOW I mean the “controversy” about Hamilton off track over the last two weeks has finally opened a few people’s eyes

Race

• RAINNNN which no one expected so everyone’s not sure which tire

• Gio is the only one to gamble on a different tire by pitting after the formation

• THIS WAS ONE OF THE CRAZIEST STARTS IVE EVER SEEN, CARS FLYING EVERYWHERE, NO TRACTION

• BOTTAS BRAKED TOO LATE AND HIT LANDO AND THEN LANDO HIT MAX AND BOTTAS HIT PEREZ, SO BASICALLY BOTTAS TOOK OUT BOTH RED BULLS IN THE FIRST TURN

• THENNNN Lance Stroll was trying to avoid the melee and ended up getting on the grass and HITTING CHARLES IN THE SIDE, pretty much DRIVING UP THE SIDE OF HIS CAR and nearly driven over him. It causes both Charles and Stroll to have to retire and Charles is so upset and then puts out a tweet right away saying “nice bowling game. So frustrating”

• By the end of lap 2, AT LEAST 4 DRIVERS ARE OUT and it’s Charles (!!), Bottas, Perez and Stroll

• With all the CARNAGE, they first pull a safety car but there’s debris all over the track and then once Hamilton complains, they pull a red flag

• Max had to pit before the red flag because he had SO MUCH DAMAGE from getting hit by Lando/Bottas and it’s a miracle that car is even still going, big impact, leaving chunks of car all along the track. Out of the pits, he is losing floor as he is leaving the pit lane.

• THEN there was another pre-Red Flag incident of Lando pitting and having an unsafe release of nearly hitting an Alfa Romeo, but then as they are discussing a penalty, they say Lando has to retire so ANOTHER retirement AND it breaks his all-season scoring points record to this point

• As everyone stops in the pit lane, it’s utter nonsense in the order. Hamilton, who everything happened behind, and then Ocon, Vettel, Sainz, Tsunoda and LATIFI in sixth of all people

• They fix as much as they can on Max’s car during the red flag but the damage is so extensive, there will still be a lot of performance lost. They had to duct tape his car together in parts just to keep the floor on. In any other situation, you retire.

• Decided to do a standing start after the second start formation lap. There’s an option for people to pit after formation lap for different tires now that the track has dried out, but you lose position. Hamilton leads so he doesn’t pit, BUT THEN EVERYONE BEHIND HIM PITS, LIKE THE WHOLE FIELD, SO HAMILTON STARTS ALONE ON THE GRID AND EVERYONE ELSE STARTS FROM THE PITS

• AND THEN HAMILTON HAS TO PIT after the first restart lap, SO HE HAS TO PIT LAST AND NOW HE IS AT THE VERY BACK WOWWWWWWW what a huge mistake by Mercedes!! Woooo!

• George Russell looks like he’s going to lead the Grand Prix after leaving the pit lane in second but then he has to give the position back so says the FIA

• Mazepin retires now after getting hit by Kimi Raikkonen in the pit lane during an unsafe release

• So OCON is leading the Grand Prix now with Vettel and Latifi behind I MEAN

• Gio gets a 10 second stop/go penalty for speeding in the pit lane, I didn’t even see that

• Little Schumacher is TOTALLY driving his little heart out holding up Max behind him who has a damaged car and I hate seeing Max held up but I love seeing little schu race so amazingly.

• Then Little Schu ends up pushing Max off track and then Max has to get around after frustration and gives him a harmless tap and the stewards say no investigation necessary

• Kimi gets a 10 second time penalty for that unsafe release into Mazepin

• Kimi has a slow stop in addition to the 10 second penalty so ends up in the pits for 17 seconds

• Hamilton pits early and Max has to respond and Hamilton is able to undercut Max so now he is ahead of him and also Daniel ricciardo who he got as well in the undercut

• Latifi and Yuki and Sainz do absolutely nothing to hold up Hamilton and I really needed them to crash like usual and this time of course they don’t

• Some GREAT driving by George Russell to drive by little Schumacher, all great racing from both

• Seb has a somewhat slower stop which could decide the win since Vettel is in second and may not be able to catch Ocon now and they cannot manage to undercut Ocon

• Maxy may have the new fastest pit stop now as it clocked at 1.8 seconds and the previous was 1.93

• Nico Rosberg says that Mercedes likes to tell stories on their radio and it’s great to hear that confirmed from someone who worked at Mercedes

• Hamilton is trying to pass Alonso for fourth and everyone expects him to just get past Alo BUT ALO GIVES HIM A SUUUUPER HARD TIME and HOLDS UP HAMILTON for like 8 laps!!! The driver of the day vote was Ocon, Hamilton, Alo, but after Alo gave Han a hard time, it went super high up for Alo, which I love

• Stewards decide Bottas gets a five place penalty for the next race which is Belgium. But of course Lewis did the same thing last race as Bottas did this race but only gets a measly 10 second penalty for trying to kill Maxy

• WOW ALO defending against Hamilton is nothing short of HEROIC and there was even contact and Alo still stays ahead

• Lewis on the radio complaining about Alo being dangerous at high speeds and it’s like DONT even talk, remember Lewis hitting Maxy at high speed last race at Silverstone

• Hamilton does get past Alo eventually but seriously it was great Alo holding him off

• Okay Hamilton gets past Sainz right away into third and after Alo’s heroics, Sainz’s effort looks really lame to keep Hamilton at bay which failed

• OCON wins.... I mean. OCON. Ugh now I’m going to have to hear about Esteban Ocon, race winner, BLAHH. Seb in second and Hamilton in third

• Seb stops on his way back to park ferme and then George Russell does also and it turns out they ran out of fuel

• Ocon went past the pit entry to do a second victory lap cause he didn’t know where to go and park when you one

• Pretty much no one makes it to the parc ferme because of various reasons and there are drivers running around everywhere, Ocon running back from stopping on the pit lane, Seb is over by some port-a-potties and running back, just chaos

• Alo wins driver of the day and Nico says Alo cost Hamilton the win today and thank God for that

• Lance Stroll will be given a five place grid penalty next race for causing a collision which should really be less than Bot’s because I think Lance was actually only going to avoid Bot’s carnage, but geez

• The podium is super weird because Hamilton looks super slow moving and unstable and like his eyes can’t focus and Nico says he looks dehydrated and if coverage hasn’t ended so abruptly, I was convinced Hamilton was going to faint on the podium

• LATER I FOUND OUT SEB WAS DISQUALIFIED FROM SECOND FOR A FUEL ISSUE AND HAMILTON WAS PROMOTED TO SECOND WHATTTTTTT