Before the start there was a deeply touching moment as one-minute silence was held in honor of Jules Bianchi. All drivers had gathered in a circle with their helmets in the middle. For a passing moment all drivers stood united. Also Bianchi's family was there. Bernie Ecclestone had made a highly admirable and noble gesture by sending his private jet to pick up Bianchi's family from Nice. It was an utterly touching moment. But soon it was time for the drivers to put their helmets on and move their focus on the upcoming race.
The start was aborted because Massa in his Williams had been out of his position. So there was another warm-up lap and a new start. When lights went out the Ferraris absolutely nailed it: Sebastian stormed to the lead from P3 followed by his team-mate Kimi, who had started to the race from P5. What a dream start for the Ferrari duo: Sebastian and Kimi now had a double lead in the race! I got so carried away, I'd have wanted to jump up and down on my sofa! Hamilton's start on the other hand was everything but perfect. His team-mate Rosberg managed to pass the Briton as well so it was a big drop for Hamilton, who had started the race on pole. On the opening lap Hamilton went slightly wide and ended up on the gravel, which cost the Briton dearly. He managed to rejoin the track but was dropped down to P10! It was clearly an error of his own but on the team radio he accused his team-mate for making him go wide.
Sebastian in the lead increased his gap to Kimi but it maintained in a few seconds. Rosberg on the other hand seemed unable to match the Ferrari's pace. After a few laps Bottas in his FW37 was already massively behind the top three in P4. We saw a team order at Red Bull already at the beginning of the race. Kvyat was told on the team radio to let Ricciardo past as the Australian was clearly faster than his Russian team-mate. Kvyat obeyed the order and let Ricciardo through.
On lap 10 Hamilton had decided to make his way past Massa in his FW37. It was a wheel-banging maneuver as their rear wheels touched but Hamilton was stubborn and managed to pass the Brazilian and made his way up to P9. There was more overtaking to come: only a moment later Hamilton passed Perez in his Force India. Ricciardo seemed to be flying as well and the Australian made his way past Bottas. Who says you can't overtake at Hungaroring?!?
On lap 19 Kimi told on the team radio that a piece of his front wing had gone off. The pit crew prepared to change Kimi's front wing if necessary. Kimi, however, was the last top driver to pit on lap 23 and it turned out there was no need for a front wing change in the end. After the first pit stops Sebastian was still in the lead with Kimi second and Rosberg third. Ricciardo was fourth followed by Hamilton and Bottas. Both Ferrari drivers had opted for a fresh set of soft tyres as well as Hamilton in his Mercedes. Rosberg and Ricciardo on the other hand had a fresh set of white-marked medium tyres. On lap 29 Hamilton finally managed to make his way past Ricciardo and jumped fourth.
Everything looked so promising up until lap 41! Don't they say that when something seems to be too good to be true, it probably is? Sebastian and Kimi taking 1-2 for Ferrari was simply too good to be true! Suddenly Kimi was complaining on the team radio that there was a weird sound coming from his SF15-T and that he was losing power. Soon the team confirmed that there was an issue with the power unit. I didn't want to believe it was actually happening! I was so so gutted! Everything had looked so perfect...
On lap 43 there was more drama: the front wing of Hulkenberg's Force India suddenly detached in high speed and the German crashed to the tyre wall. Virtual safety car was deployed and luckily Hulkenberg himself got away from the crash unharmed. But there was so much debris on the track that safety car came out only a lap later. Both Ferraris and Mercedes pitted for the second time. At this stage Kimi was told on the team radio that his problem with the MGU-K couldn't be fixed from the pit wall. Kimi's SF15-T was lacking a significant amount of power, which meant that the Iceman was a "sitting duck" on the straights.
On lap 49 safety car came in and the race was on. Rosberg passed Kimi easily on the first straight! Hamilton on the other hand didn't hesitate trying to overtake Ricciardo, which turned out to be everything but a wise move! Hamilton hit the Australian and lost a piece of his front wing. At the same time Bottas in his Williams managed to overtake Hamilton but Bottas' joy was premature as the Finn suffered a puncture as the Dutch Toro Rosso driver Verstappen hit the Finn's rear right tyre with his front wing!
It was indescribably hard and pure pain to watch how Kimi had absolutely no chance what-so-ever to defend his position on the track due to the MGU-K problem! It was heartbreaking to hear how the team apologized to Kimi on the radio that there was nothing they could do to help Kimi. On lap 53 Kimi drove to the pits for the third time. They tried to fix the problem by resetting the car but Kimi rejoined the track only to notice that the problem was still there. Only some four laps later Kimi returned to the pits and retired the race. It was so so frustrating! At this point I had to get myself a large cup of ice-cream from the freezer!
Meanwhile there was another setback for Hamilton in P12. The British Mercedes pilot was handed a drive-through penalty for causing a collision with Ricciardo after safety car came in. And there were more collisions to come! With only five laps to go Ricciardo made a desperate "diving move" trying to overtake Rosberg, which didn't unfortunately have a happy ending, either. Ricciardo destroyed his front wing by hitting Rosberg's rear tyre, which also caused a puncture for the German. With only two laps to go Red Bull's Kvyat was also handed a 10-second time penalty for overtaking Hamilton off track earlier in the race. This penalty, however, didn't have an effect on the final results.
Although I was still feeling sorry for Kimi, I was jumping for joy as Sebastian really won the Hungarian GP, which was the second win for him this season. Now the quadruple world champion equals legendary Ayrton Senna in the amount of the career wins. This was the first non-Mercedes podium this season as the Red Bull duo Kvyat and Ricciardo completed the podium. For Kvyat this was his first ever podium finish! Verstappen in his Toro Rosso drove an outstanding race finishing fourth! I was so happy for him, too :D Alonso also scored excellent points for McLaren by finishing 5th. Hamilton made it P6 in spite of all the messy turns, Grosjean finished 7th and Rosberg 8th. Button made it another points finish for McLaren by driving to the chequered flag in P9 and Sauber's Ericsson was the last driver to score points.
Sebastian is definitely a man with great emotional and social intelligence. It was absolutely heartwarming to hear Sebastian speaking on the team radio after crossing the finish line as the race winner. It was so touching to hear how he thanked his team in Italian, owed his victory to Jules in French and said it also in English so that everyone could understand it. It touched me so deeply. What a driver and what a man!
So now there will be a torturing 4-week summer break until the F1 circus moves to Belgium and Spa Francorchamps. Hamilton is still leading the championship battle by a 21-point gap to Rosberg after today and Sebastian is 21 points off Rosberg...
Enjoy your summer holiday all F1 drivers! Just wondering if Sebastian will spend some time here in Finland at his summer cottage in Joutsa ;) If so, I hope he won't let the awful cold Finnish summer weather scare him away!
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