Ricciardo wins Hungarian thriller

It was down to just three for the win. Fernando Alonso could see his chance, just a few laps left to take the unlikeliest of victories in possibly the worst Ferrari they have provided for him in his Scuderia tenure. He was aiming to make his soft tyres last for 32 laps, longer than anyone else, he could do it if he was careful with the rubber; he’d take his first win since the Spanish Grand Prix. He cut over the chicane, no he must have thought, the tyres he’d so carefully nurtured were giving up on him, he could see his efforts coming to nothing.

From the pit lane to victory, it was there for the taking. Chasing the unlikely leader Alonso, Lewis Hamilton on slightly fresher and more durable medium compound rubber was in the mirrors of the scarlet car and searching for a way through. He knew his team mate and championship rival was closing fast, he had to make a move for victory to close the points gap down to the maximum he could today, he just needed to get away from the even fresher rubber of Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull, who he’d hope could fend off Rosberg closing at three seconds per lap.

For Ricciardo it was game on. He’d spent a long time in the lead during this race, he and the team had managed to solve a power unit problem as he told the media by getting ‘a bit crazy on the switches’. But it was early on in the damp as they toured round behind the first safety car he’d got on the radio and said they could win this. He knew it could come to him, he just had to keep it all together and push. Trying to get to the end on old tyres he knew they wouldn't make it so called it early to pit and give up the lead to go on the offensive. With just a few laps left, he was behind just two cars and probably with a determined smile behind the crash helmet, he went on the attack.

It could have been any of them, it could even have been the chasing Rosberg who suffered most from the first safety car period, losing a ten second lead and passing the pit entry just as the safety car came out and tumbling into the pack when he did pit. But after making his final stop with just 14 laps left he had the tyre advantage, the car advantage and the instruction to go all out for qualifying laps. He delivered exactly that. It was up to the front three to sort it out before he caught them, Ricciardo was the one who had the advantage and he took it.

Lap 67 the Australian made his move, he’d tried before but this time he made it work against Lewis Hamilton. He came out of turn 1 close behind the Mercedes and dived to the outside of turn 2, holding it alongside to claim the inside to turn 3. Lewis had nothing to respond with, he’d been finding it tough to even get a sniff at passing the fast degrading tyres of Alonso. Immediately the Red Bull latched onto the back of the Ferrari and wasted no time with making the move the very next lap. On to the start finish straight, DRS wide open he dived down the inside into turn 1 and was away. Five seconds to the good by the end of the race just a few laps later, he was elated, possibly more so at having to fight his way to the front.

The race started on a damp track, rejoice, our first wet race for a long long time. Everyone set off into the unknown of the spray but it was drying pretty quickly, still there were some hairy moments for all. Marcus Ericsson careered into the barriers to bring out the first safety car on lap 9, Romain Grosjean spinning off too during the down time. Sergio Perez, who’d taken a hit from his Force India team mate Nico Hulkenberg which led to the German’s first retirement of the year spun out of control and into the concrete of the pit wall to bring out the second safety car on lap 23.

On a three stop strategy, Ricciardo took advantage of both safety cars to come into the pits and take the lead as the front four missed out. Everyone changed to slicks of varying compounds during the first time except the McLaren’s who gambled on it raining again. Ricciardo quickly despatched Jenson Button who’d overtook at the restart but as the track dried McLaren quickly realised their strategy was the only wrong one in the field.

Ricciardo held the lead fairly comfortably before the second safety car then latched on to the leading group before retaking the lead as others pitted. His third stop came on lap 54, giving up a 10 second advantage, but then the fight for victory began.

Alonso managed to hold off Lewis to finish in a great second place, but once again he dragged a result from the car that it didn’t deserve. To come so close to victory when this machine hasn’t looked capable all season was a fantastic achievement. To lose out in the end is no shame; he was fighting with one hand behind his back; it was a fantastic drive. Like Rosberg he missed out on pitting when the first safety car came out along with Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel.

Unlike Rosberg, he got back into the fight a lot quicker and to end up ahead of the fastest car on the track is testament to how astonishing Alonso is. As with Hamilton, he made a two stop strategy work for him and led for some considerable time until Ricciardo came through. He was so close to holding out for what would have been a great win, but second place is no mean result either.

Mercedes infighting to begin again?

You knew Hamilton was on a significant charge when in a blink of an eye he went from 13^th to 9^th in just a few corners. It was another fantastic charge from the back after a fuel leak ruined another qualifying leaving his car ablaze and the prospect of starting from the pit lane. To say he was unhappy would be an understatement.

Despite a spin on the first lap he made pass after pass, including an epic round the outside move on Jean-Eric Vergne at the fast turn 4 soon brought him to the head of the field. His final stop on lap 39 meant he relinquished the lead, but due to safety cars he was ahead of Rosberg. The team asked him to move aside so Rosberg’s strategy could play out which meant he had to stop one more time. Hamilton politely refused and to be fair why should he? Rosberg barely got to within a second of him, so why should he give up time. If Lewis had let him through when he was asked to it’s likely Rosberg would have finished ahead.

The team want the best overall result, but to ask Lewis to move aside when it might’ve affected the title chase was a silly call from the team. They’ve got the championship sewn up, and yes they might want to win as many races as they can but they are head and shoulders above the rest and to avoid looking biased in the eyes of the drivers I think it’s better for them to just let it play out from now on. They might site that it’s a team sport but you know Rosberg and Hamilton couldn’t care less about that now, they’re out for themselves so if one of them is behind on a quicker strategy, then it’s up to that driver to get ahead, no time for the team game from now.

What the team might like to do is sort out the reliability problems that are increasingly creeping in. Even today there seemed to be a brief brake problem affecting Rosberg. Anyway, as it was Rosberg didn’t get by and despite charging up after his final stop to latch on to the back of Lewis, #44 Mercedes firmly shut the door on any moves. It was Mercedes’ worst combined result of the year, but 3^rd and 4^th isn’t too bad to go home with.

Williams lose out on strategy

Felipe Massa was towards the front for a long time but Williams in my opinion went the wrong on strategy by fitting the slower medium compound tyres to both Massa and Bottas’ car. Massa held off Kimi Raikkonen in the closing stages to take 5^th, while Bottas ran second early on after starting third at a track many thought wouldn’t suit Williams. The first safety car scuppered any better result as he was one of the front 4 who missed pitting when it initially came out so fell down the pack and could only recover to 8^th.

Raikkonen and Vettel enjoy FRICless future as Vergne shines?

Raikkonen ran as high as third and eventually finished 6^th with Sebastian Vettel 7^th to split the Williams cars. Kimi looked stronger this weekend and if hadn’t been for a terrible call by Ferrari in qualifying to leave him in the pits he’d have started higher than 16^th. In general he looked like he had more speed, many suggesting this was because of the lack of the FRIC suspension.

Vettel is another who is believed to have benefitted from the lack of FRIC. He certainly seemed stronger in qualifying as he outpaced Ricciardo to start on the front row. He was running third when the safety car came round so was one of those who failed to pit which left him behind his team mate. He spun on the start finish straight when he caught a bit of damp astro-turf at the side of the track but avoided the wall. If the safety car had worked differently he probably would have been the lead Red Bull but once again it’s Ricciardo who is making the most of his opportunities while Vettel mostly seems to not get any. Anyway, both Kimi and Vettel seem to have taken positive steps even if the results haven't yet proved that.

Ninth was Jean-Eric Vergne who rose to second at one point and impressed by holding off Rosberg for a number of laps while his Toro Rosso team mate Daniil Kvyat was strangely quiet for most of the race. Button recovered to tenth after the poor pit calls by McLaren. Behind the points scorers Sauber looked a bit more competitive, while both Caterham’s retired, both Marussia’s finished at the back and Maldonado in the Lotus hit someone but finished 13^th.

So once again it was a weekend of action packed racing and thrilling competition all the way down the grid. Why Formula 1’s bosses seem to think there are such problems with the product I don’t know. It occurs to me it’s much more to do with how it’s promoted than anything else, but that’s another story.

We enter the summer break with the championship brilliantly poised and tremendous supporting battles from Williams, Red Bull and Ferrari. Hamilton clawed a few points back on Rosberg to be just 11 behind, but will be wondering about the team instruction and how much more his weekends will be tainted by reliability problems.

Rosberg will be happy to be leading the championship but probably annoyed that the team seem to have let Hamilton ignore an order despite repeated calls to let him through. I think they'll be a lot of meetings after this race at the Mercedes factory. It’ll be interesting to see who comes back the stronger in four weeks-time in Belgium. One thing is for sure, this championship is going down to the wire.

all photo's taken from autosport.com