Ferrari paid the price for a slow stop at the Hungaroring while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen blew a fuse after a power failureHaving made three strategic errors this season, the pressure has been on the Mercedes pit wall. With qualifying crucial in Hungary they were on top of their game in a chaotic wet session. Tyre choice at the right time was key and it was by no means easy. The team handled it well and ensured their drivers were on the right rubber at the right time. After this it was Lewis Hamilton who was once again exceptional. As Mark Webber pointed out, on his pole lap he took the inside line for traction on the penultimate corner. Always...
Ferrari appear to have the edge in terms of engine speed but something was lost over the radio for Kimi RäikkönenThe rain played its part in Hockenheim, as did good fortune and Sebastian Vettel’s very costly mistake but there was no doubt that by t,he time Lewis Hamilton took the flag, he had deserved it. He opened with a piece of clinical driving to move up to the front-runners, careful at the start where any contact could have ended his race and then passed 10 cars within 14 laps, all cleanly. He did so while managing to make his tyres last 42 laps – while in dirty air – an achievement that put him on the ultrasofts at the end,...
After a dramatic race Minttu has her say; Ferrari handles the conditions; McLaren and Williams hang their headsWhat had been a thrilling race to the end was still disappointing for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes and they closed it with what felt like sour grapes. The suggestion that Ferrari were deliberately targeting their cars and that Kimi Räikkönen had intentionally hit Hamilton was farcical on many levels, not least that planning to do so would have had to anticipate Hamilton losing places.Equally with damage likely to go both ways and Ferrari very much in the constructors’ fight it would have been self-defeating. Hamilton and Mercedes have since accepted it was a racing incident. Their reaction was perhaps a reflection of the...
On the eve of their home grand prix, the Austrian team believe a new engine could provide an incentive for their senior driver to remain with themThe Red Bull team owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, must have felt somewhat aggrieved that the timing when he finally secured a race in Austria – under whose flag his team race – proved to be, well, just out. With four drivers’ and constructors’ championships between 2010 and 2013, when Mateschitz brought Formula One back to what had inevitably been rechristened the Red Bull Ring in 2014, a glorious homecoming might have been expected.What transpired fell far short and his team have almost been in transition ever since. As they return to Spielberg a new chapter...
Charles Leclerc impressed again and Max Verstappen finally got his temperament in sync with his talent in CanadaFernando Alonso’s 300th grand prix was far from a celebratory affair: he started 14th on the grid, his lowest position this season, and retired from the race with an exhaust failure. The McLaren racing director, Éric Boullier, had been clear about their car’s problems in lacking grip in low-speed corners that was making them struggle in Canada and afterwards Alonso could not wait to walk away from it. He wanted to talk about Le Mans, where he will race next weekend. He will be in the class of the field Toyota at La Sarthe, a world away from the recalcitrant McLaren. The Spaniard...