Ricciardo takes second GP win! Lewis puts on great comeback! - 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix

Once again, we just had an amazing race today in Budapest!

The low-overtaking profile of the circuit didn't make me think it'd be an exciting race at first, but with the factor of the rain that finally showed up, it all changed and we had such a crazy and exciting Grand Prix with a three-way battle for the win in the closing stages of the race, in which Ricciardo got ahead.

Conditions during Qualy.

Clouds before the race.

Track conditions just before the race.

Start of the race.

Ricciardo began the race in a good 4th place. It didn't seem as if the Australian would be battling for the win but only maybe for a podium, until after his second pitstop, when he was in P4 behind a Nico Rosberg that was losing pace, a Lewis Hamilton that would stop again and a Fernando Alonso that would struggle due to the tyres in the end.

Following Lewis' and his pitstop, Daniel came out just behind the Briton and managed to pass him for P2 in a great move entering the third corner.

Into the latter stages of the race, Ricciardo proved how superior his pace was compared to Alonso's and took the lead, one that he would not let go and he crossed the finish line in first place to take his career and his season's second Grand Prix win.

Ricciardo during qualifying.

Ricciardo celebrating in the podium.

Red Bull's second win of the season.

Meanwhile, Ricciardo's teammate Sebastian Vettel had a great qualifying in Saturday, securing a second place in the starting grid.

However, during the race he lost the place to Valtteri Bottas in the first corner and then he would be seen affected by the safety car period caused by Marcus Ericsson's hard crash in the wall in the starting stages of the race and then Romain Grosjean's crash and the following changes in the lineups. This caused the German to fall as far as P9, where he had to race back to top 6 positions but, just a few laps after the safety car was gone, he lost control of his car and spun at the start of the straight, just like Sergio Perez did, and he came really close to hitting the wall but he saved the car from crashing and kept racing.

Just before his incident and his last pitstop, he found himself racing with Kimi Räikkönen for P4, then Seb spun and both of them entered to the pits, with Räikkönen getting in front. Then Vettel had to hold Valtteri Bottas behind to keep seventh position, in which he finished.

Ericsson's shocking early crash.

Grosjean's crash.

Seb, after almost hitting the wall.

Behind Ricciardo, arrived Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard started fifth but managed to take two positions as the Williams' ahead of him began dropping the pace as the race went on. He remained into the top 5 during the two safety car periods and kept battling for podium.

After the second safety car period, he made his last stop. There's no doubt that it was a hard decision since it implied that Alonso would have to do 31 laps in a medium set of tyres if he wanted to reach podium positions.

Alonso made a great stint in that set of tyres and managed to hold off Lewis Hamilton and took his and Ferrari's second podium of the season.

On the other side of the garage, Kimi Räikkönen was affected by the team's bad decision of only doing one flying lap in Q1 and had to start from P16. However the Finn made an impressive race. He made a good start, gaining 4 positions but gaining even with the first safety car period and the Force India's retirements.

With the leaders stopping for tyres, he was able to climb as high as P4, behind Felipe Massa but then both of them boxed and fell to P7 and P6 respectively. In the end, after losing the position with Rosberg and gaining a position after Bottas's pitstop, they finished P5 and P6 respectively.

It's safe to say it was one of the best races for Kimi so far this year, finishing in P6 and scoring 8 points after starting 16th.

Once again, the nightmare began early in Saturday for Lewis Hamilton. Last week in a Germany, he suffered a brake failure that left him out in Q1 and forced him to start in P20.

This time, starting his first lap in Q1, his engine blew up and caught fire. His qualifying session over. The team had to rebuild a big part of the car overnight, this caused Lewis to start from the pit lane, even worse than last week, when he started in P20.

Just like he did in Germany, Lewis did an incredible comeback to beat championship rival and teammate Nico Rosberg just barely, coming close to beating Alonso to score a third place that surely tasted like glory for him after that Saturday disappointment.

Early in the start, the weather conditions gave us reasons to believe in the most improbable possibilities. With Lewis' comeback being one of them. 

That possibility became even more improbable after Lewis spun off in turn two early in the race... But his pace through out the race and the two safety car periods helped him to climb to the top three once again. 

At the end it became even harder as he had to hold off Nico Rosberg, who was on very newer tyres compared to him, which he did only by less than 2 seconds.

Lewis after spinning off.

The two Silver Arrows racing.

Battling through the field of a late rally, came Nico Rosberg on super fresh tyres, trying to beat his championship rival. In the end he came as close as 1.9 secs of doing it.

At the end of qualifying, it seemed as if we were just set to see the German dominating the evening on Sunday. But as the race time approached, the rain opened the Grand Prix to all possibilities.

Rosberg was affected by the safety car periods and slow stops and could only save his day on his last stint where he truly pushed like a hell.

I think it's safe to say that with both championship contenders well rested, we will have an amazing battle in Spa.

Behind Nico, arrived Felipe Massa, this time, the Brazilian was finally able to give a good performance since the Austrian GP when he claimed pole positions, now, finishing in P5, holding off Kimi Räikkönen by 1.5 seconds.

After Silverstone and Hockenheim disappointments, now Felipe was finally able to do a race without complications, with the exception of Williams' strategy that didn't work as expect as Felipe boxed in the final stages of the race.

Then again, in the other side of the garage, it wasn't a very good day for Valtteri Bottas, whose 3-straight podium streak was cut after finishing in P8.

The Finn made another great performance in Qualy, securing P3.

He overtook Sebastian Vettel in the first corner and managed to keep battling for the midfield positions and at the end he was also affected by Williams' strategy and was forced to box in the closing stages of the race.

Behind Bottas, arrived Jean-Eric Vergne. The Frenchmen surprised at the start of the race, being in second place but as it happens always, he had to box and as the gaps between the cars was very small, he fell out of point positions but in the end, with the safety car periods and the retirements he managed to climb back to P9.

On P10, came the man who was honoring his father on his birthday, Jenson Button. 

Him and Kevin Magnussen (who had to start from the pit lane) were affected by McLaren, who decided to gamble in intermediates when everybody was already using slicks, the attempt worked at the beginning, when the track was still somewhat wet, bringing Button to the lead and Kevin to P4.

But when the track dried up, the experiment failed and both of the cars were forced to box and lost many positions.

It was a terrible race for Force India, with both of their drivers retiring from the race. 

After qualifying in P9, Hulkenberg suffered from a contact with his teammate Sergio Perez.

Then, only a few laps later, Checo Perez retired from the race after making a mistake touching the grass with two of his tyres, which caused him to spin violently and then hit the pit wall hard. Nice to know he walked out of it on his own, still a shame as they both could've battled for at least some points.

Just moments before the contact between the Force India drivers.

Checo getting out of the car after his shocking accident.

Perez's wrecked car.

Well, that's it for this GP's review, I hope you all enjoy it and we will be seeing each other in four weeks when F1 is back, in one of the most emblematic circuits, Spa-Francorchamps.

And just today it's the first anniversary of this blog page and on behalf of everyone (only me:D) that collaborates in this page I'd like to thank all of those that have sticked with me since the beginning and as well those that have joined me later! 

Thanks a lot!

Rosberg wins in his homeland! Valtteri takes third podium in a row! - 2014 German Grand Prix

We just had and awesome race in Hockenheim, it could've been better with the appearance of rain, that again threatened to make appearance but in the end, didn't.

A surely deserved win for Nico Rosberg who keep on going in his 'row of success' that began with him getting married, then signing a new contract with Mercedes, watching Germany win the World Cup and today, winning his home Grand Prix.

This win certainly puts Nico more in advantage both in the championship and in the mental game.

The man of the moment in Formula 1, the young sensation, Valtteri Bottas made a hell of a race and put on a hell of a battle in the closing stages of the race to claim second place, bringing home an FW-36 that had its tyres almost blistered.

Lewis Hamilton made a great comeback to claim third place starting in P20, which in my opinion, wasn't such a hard achievement for him given the pace of the Silver Arrow the Briton was driving.

I expected a race just like this one, a Formula 1 race similar to a Moto GP race, with one of the championship leaders coming back from behind to win. With the only exception that Hamilton didn't win.

Now, the team by team analysis.

Mercedes (I only will write about Lewis since I wrote the Nico part above)

On Saturday afternoon, before qualifying, it seemed like a normal weekend for Lewis Hamilton, having been at the first spots of the free practices. 

But it all changed in Q1 when Lewis suffered a failure in his W05's left front brake disc when attacking the 10th turn and ran straight into the wall. The incident ended his qualifying session and while his teammate and championship rival Nico Rosberg took pole position, he qualified 16th, which became 15th due to Esteban Gutierrez's 3-place grid penalty.

The situation got worse overnight with rumors of him starting from the pit lane because of his disc's switch.

At the end, Lewis started 20th after his team changed his gearbox, costing him 5 grid places.

The race went as expected for him, he overtook the slower teams as quick as possible while Rosberg broke his records lap after lap, in order to avoid later problems with Lewis.

By his first pit stop, Lewis was already in the top 8 and fighting to get even higher in the standings, using aggressive moves that could've cost him a penalty o an accident, making contact with Kimi Räikkönen and Jenson Button.

Leaning on his car's and his own pace, Lewis launched himself to P3 where he had to fight with Alonso to keep the position.

Being behind Valtteri Bottas in P3, Lewis stopped for super softs. But that wasn't the end of his battle as struggling Bottas' pace was seriously dropping due to tyre degradation.

Lewis attacked the Finn with all the resorts he had but just couldn't capitalize and finished third, letting go 3 more points in the championship.

The moment when Hamilton made contact with Button.

Lewis also made contact with Räikkönen during an overtake.

It was Nico's 7th win.

An all-white podium again.

Now, on to next weekend's race in Hungary, let's remember who has been the winner in the last two races there...

Lukas Podilski was seen at Mercedes' garage.

Williams

As usual this season, from the hand of a flawless Mercedes engine and an amazingly fast car, Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa qualified second and third respectively, just behind Nico Rosberg.

Massa came into another unfortunate race, being hit by Kevin Magnussen in the first turn and suffering a jaw-dropping accident where his car was flipped upside down and then back up.

No penalties were handed to any driver, good decision from the stewards since it was just a racing incident, Magnussen tried to overtake in a very narrow spot but Massa admitted that he didn't see him.

Onboard of Felipe's incident.

The crash, from another angle.

Sparks flew out of the car.

Meanwhile, the Brazilian's teammate, Valtteri Bottas made an amazing race. Of course, losing a lot of seconds to the quicker Mercedes in front, but then escaping from the attacks of Vettel and Alonso behind.

Williams' strategy almost ruined the Finn's race in the closing stages of it with his soft tyres almost thrashed.

But even despite his tyres' condition, the team engineers urged him to defend from Hamilton's attack.

In the end, Valtteri arrived just a few tenths of a second ahead of Hamilton, earning his third consecutive podium.

Bottas claimed his third consecutive podium.

It was Williams' 300th podium.

We are still yet to see if the Finn's performance will keep rising up at the next race in Hungary.

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo secured good starting positions in 5th and 6th.

While Ricciardo was caught of guard by the first turn incident with his road being blocked by Magnussen, Vettel gained two positions because of it.

Vettel went on to take P3 and tried to cut the gap to Bottas but just couldn't match the Finn's pace and soon, he got caught by Fernando Alonso behind, the Spaniard tried to capitalize the overtake on the DRS zones but just couldn't and had to be at the back of Seb's car until the pit stop period.

Vettel showed good pace and kept his position until Lewis Hamilton came and outpaced him, but still, he put on some fight to Lewis before he got overtaken.

In the end, his performance earned him P4, a good performance he can surely beat next weekend in Budapest.

Meanwhile, Ricciardo's race seemed to have gotten really hard as he fell into P15. But no, the Aussie came through it, made it hard for Lewis to pass him, overtook the cars he had in front, had a good pit stop and got up to P6 after the second pit stop period. There, he fought hard for as much as four laps with Fernando Alonso for the position. While the Spaniard attacked in the DRS zones, Daniel got out of the optimal racing line and overtook him in the corners. In the end, Alonso got him in the Parabolika straight and Ricciardo wasn't able to respond to that attack.

The next pit stop period wasn't enough for him to get past Alonso to claim P5. Well deserved P6 after the good performance he made.

Ferrari

Alonso qualified 7th. It could've been a better or easier race for him if it hadn't been for the Ferrari's terrible pace and for time he lost uselessly trying to stop Hamilton.

In the end, a good win over Ricciardo saw him gain two positions from his starting spot, earning P5.

An intense but short battle between the Ferrari drivers and Vettel.

Kimi admitted making a mistake in his flying lap in qualifying and Ferrari did wrong on only letting him go for one flying lap. This caused a bad P12 starting position.

The Finn showed good pace at the start of the race, recovering 3 positions to be in P9. Following the first pit stop period, he climbed up to as high as 4th, where he battled with Vettel and Alonso, not being able to do much to outpaced them due to his slightly damaged front wing and his pit stop saw him fall to P14. 

However, he would climb back to P9 but it wasn't enough as his set of super softs didn't last much and he had to pit again, falling to P12.

He would only gain another position to claim P11.

Force India

Both cars of the Indian squad had a bad day in qualifying, with Hulkenberg and Perez starting in P9 and P10, respectively.

Both drivers' strategy was terrible, a shame given the cars' race pace.

While Hulk was able to fight for P6 and P5 and fell to P7, Checo's strategy was worse as he had a slow pit stop when he was in P10 and this caused him to fall to P15 and he had to fight for those positions and he could go up to P10 fighting with the Lotus' and Vergne.

I think the Hungaroring next week will suit the Indian team's car better.

The moment where Perez and Kvyät made contact.

McLaren 

Kevin Magnussen showed an amazing pace in qualifying to earn P4 on Saturday. However, on Sunday, he made a mistake, trying to overtake Massa in the first turn, the narrow corner didn't allow him to get past and he hit Felipe Massa, flipping the Brazilian's car.

This put the Dane in a bad situation, falling to P20. 

Anyways, through good pace, good tyre endurance and a good strategy, he raced up to claim P9 just behind Jenson Button, who started the race in P11 but beat Perez's Force India and both Toro Rossos.

Massa's incident, from Magnussen's view.

Lotus

It seems as if Gutierrez's hit to Maldonado had put on some conscience on the Venezuelan's head. The Lotus driver came very close to his first point finish this season. He was in a point spot in two positions but it wasn't enough to overcome the time lost in the pit stops.

Meanwhile, Romain Grosjean suffered from his bad performance in qualifying and couldn't make a good approach to scoring points. However his race ended when his car's gearbox failed.

Toro Rosso

'The Toro Russian', Daniil Kvyät secured a good qualifying spot in P8. Unfortunately, his race got screwed in one move, a racing incident with Sergio Perez that made his car spin out of the track and made him fall to P17, an event from which Daniil couldn't recover and later, he would suffer an engine failure in his car which would cause a fire that forced him to retire. Glad to know he could get out quickly and the fire was put out quickly too.

Kvyät's car on fire.

Meanwhile, the Russian's teammate Jean-Eric Vergne started in a bad thirteenth position. He was unable to pick up the pace and he didn't move from that position, finishing P13.

Sauber

Rumors in the week said that Sauber was considering to replace Adrian Sutil immediately. To me, the German replied to it with a good performance battling for 10th, 11th and 12th positions, making a good approach to the teams first point finish in the season. That, before the lap when he spun off. 

A terrible answer from the stewards was seen, as Sutil's car was there lying at the starting straight for as much as four laps before it was taken out.

Adrian's car, stopped at the starting straight.

Meanwhile, Esteban Gutierrez was hit with a 3-place grid penalty that sent him down to P16. The C33's pace didn't help and Esteban was unable to go any further and finished in the same P16.

In the Marussia-Caterham battle, it was Marussia who got edged the squad directed by Christijan Albers as Jules Bianchi beat Kamui Kobayashi for P15 and Max Chilton defeated Marcus Ericsson for P17.

I think we are set to have a very exciting race next week in Budapest, so, see y'all next race!

Bottas takes his second F1 podium, Hamilton back on top! - 2014 British Grand Prix

Ok so, again, I had struggles to watch the race but this time I wasn't able to watch it but, that doesn't mean that I won't post my blog. 

It seemed to be a very good race, a great fight between Vettel and Fernando with the 4-time champion getting in front and with Rosberg losing the lead to Hamilton following a gearbox problem that ended Rosberg's race.

Mercedes

Hamilton stepped onto the highest step of the podium snatching the lead from his teammate Nico Rosberg following the German's gearbox issue. This is seriously a big win for Lewis in front of his home crowd and finally back to the victory since the Spanish Grand Prix.

However, this shouldn't mean Nico should press the panic button since there's still a long way to go and he's still leading.

Hamilton celebrates in the podium.

The top 3.

Rosberg following his gearbox issue.

Williams

Valtteri Bottas again surprised the whole paddock by taking a rather unlikely (starting 17th) career best Second place, his second consecutive podium and Williams' second consecutive podium as well. By now, it seems obvious that it won't be Ferrari or Red Bull fighting with the Silver Arrows in the next races but it'll be Williams.

Valtteri on track during the race.

Bottas celebrating with his team.

Bottas smiling with his trophy in the podium.

Meanwhile, starting 18th, it looked to be another bad race for Felipe Massa. And it surely was another race to forget for the Brazilian as he was picked off by Räikkönen's car in a big 47G accident that the Finn suffered in the first lap.

A shame as it happened in Felipe's 200th Grand Prix.

Bottas congratulated Felipe for his 200th GP.

Red Bull

Once again, Daniel Ricciardo confirmed his dominance over teammate Sebastian Vettel after claiming his career's 3rd podium while Sebastian won a heart-stopping battle with Ferrari rival Fernando Alonso to claim fifth position.

Seb, before the moment of the overtake.

McLaren

Jenson Button made a good approach to another podium for McLaren, qualifying 3rd and he came real close to it, finishing P4, a good performance in front of his home crowd.

Meanwhile, Jenson's teammate, Kevin Magnussen also secured a good starting position, qualifying in P5 but however, he lost a few spots during the race to finish in P7.

Good points for the Woking squad.

Ferrari

The Italian team lived a nightmare in qualifying after a wrong call on the tyres during Q1 cost them starting in P19 and P20.

Anyways, Fernando Alonso made a superb comeback to get his F14T home in P6 after a great battle with Vettel.

Meanwhile, his teammate Räikkönen was unable to recover the spots lost in qualifying after suffering a terrible, jaw-dropping incident in lap 1 where he hit the barriers, he hit Felipe Massa and really damaged his car. It's nice to hear none of them suffered any serious injuries.

The moment when Räikkönen hit Massa.

Kimi's car being carried out.

Kimi was lucky not to suffer almost any injury.

Before Quali, at least I thought Kimi could come close to having a battle with teammate Fernando Alonso and even challenge for a podium but after Quali and after his incident, I think it'll take even more time than I expected for him to raise his game.

Force India

During the week, Force India said that Silverstone track wouldn't really suit their car and they were far from being wrong.

Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez made a good qualifying for the team in P4 and P7 respectively.

During the race, Hulkenberg did all that he could but was only able to achieve an eight place.

Sergio suffered contact with Jean-Eric Vergne in the first laps of the race, that caused him to lose some positions and in the end, ruined his race, finishing in P11.

I'm so disappointed that I missed what seemed to be one of the most exciting races so far and that I wasn't able to write with all the details about it. Sigh, I'm really looking forward to Hockenheim so, I'll see y'all in two weeks when F1 is back, thanks for the reads and the support!