2019 Hungarian Grand Prix - Hungaroring, August 2-4

[Jambier]

After his stop Lewis was 6.2 seconds down.

We blinked.

He was in DRS. Absolutely mega few laps. Pressure straight back on Max - no time to rest the tyres... this proved critical.

Just like Seb in Canada - he is relentless when he needs to be.

That was amazing to watch and hilarious to see it catch everyone out, including seemingly the tv race Director and Martin Brundle. Suddenly he was right there!

HAM seems to have that incredible combination of amazing speed with excellent tire management. His driving style barely takes anything out of the tires even when hustling other

I think HAM really likes it when he can be challenged by Max (or by VET in 2018)

It motivates him very much to show that he is not someone having title only due to a dominant car, but that he is a top driver and can fight with every driver.

[bosyber]

I do not think it was a mistake for Red Bull to pit as soon as they did. Didn't Verstappen indicate, more than once, and rather forcefully, that his Tyres had gone?

I believe that is why he and Red Bull say Mercedes was a bit faster, as they were pushing Verstappen into a pace his car could barely maintain, which forced them into an earlier than ideal pitstop. All part of racing.

[Sieper]

After his stop Lewis was 6.2 seconds down.

We blinked.

He was in DRS. Absolutely mega few laps. Pressure straight back on Max - no time to rest the tyres... this proved critical.

Just like Seb in Canada - he is relentless when he needs to be.

That was amazing to watch and hilarious to see it catch everyone out, including seemingly the tv race Director and Martin Brundle. Suddenly he was right there!

HAM seems to have that incredible combination of amazing speed with excellent tire management. His driving style barely takes anything out of the tires even when hustling other

Anyone else saw how after that Max had back marker after back marker with DRS for him to save from Lewis attack, 4 times he had DRS on the straight (well placed by Max to overtake them correctly to help him with DRS)....that saved him from the initial onslaught.... and them Lewis ran wide and overheat his brakes and took out the best of his tyres by then.

I have no words for Kimi, what a solid job to pull that car to the back of the leaders!

And yet, Ricciardo stepped up to Max apologizing for keeping him up (right before Lewis could make his overtake attempt) after the race (in the interview square).

[NathanOlder]

Wow, just realized, four races in September... this could all be clinched by Japan.

Yeah 4 races in September and the weekend off, I have my brothers wedding. September is a perfect month!

[Just_a_fan]

the only mistake made by redbull was that they did the first stop 3-4 laps to early. At that time the tyre did work and i dont think that hamilton could overtake him at this time. Also Max had to do a lot of overtakes after the stop, which is by far the reason why mercedes waited that long.

But its so easy to say afterwards.

Max was telling them the tyres were gone, how he was losing grip etc. The team might have felt driver-pressure to blink early. They might ideally have wanted a few more laps on the first set, especially as the second set struggled at the end.

[GPR-A]

In his post race interview, Lewis was mentioning that he was nursing breaks and wasn't breaking for most part of a lap and was lifting to avoid breaking much for many laps, unless there is absolute need in strong breaking zones.

[siskue2005]

After his stop Lewis was 6.2 seconds down.

We blinked.

He was in DRS. Absolutely mega few laps. Pressure straight back on Max - no time to rest the tyres... this proved critical.

Just like Seb in Canada - he is relentless when he needs to be.

That was amazing to watch and hilarious to see it catch everyone out, including seemingly the tv race Director and Martin Brundle. Suddenly he was right there!

HAM seems to have that incredible combination of amazing speed with excellent tire management. His driving style barely takes anything out of the tires even when hustling other

Anyone else saw how after that Max had back marker after back marker with DRS for him to save from Lewis attack, 4 times he had DRS on the straight (well placed by Max to overtake them correctly to help him with DRS)....that saved him from the initial onslaught.... and them Lewis ran wide and overheat his brakes and took out the best of his tyres by then.

I have no words for Kimi, what a solid job to pull that car to the back of the leaders!

And yet, Ricciardo stepped up to Max apologizing for keeping him up (right before Lewis could make his overtake attempt) after the race (in the interview square).

Held him up in the corners!, but helped him up in the straights with DRS which helped him to defend Lewis, as Lewis with DRS was clearly faster in the strights...see the difference?
Which was compliment to Max, he did excellent job in timing those! (oh how a compliment would turn to insult for a touchy fan!)...i have always seen races where Schumacher used to do such a trick while lapping the backmarkers, reminded me of that....that is why i mentioned it. (remind me to not do it in future)

[KiLLu12258]

the only mistake made by redbull was that they did the first stop 3-4 laps to early. At that time the tyre did work and i dont think that hamilton could overtake him at this time. Also Max had to do a lot of overtakes after the stop, which is by far the reason why mercedes waited that long.

But its so easy to say afterwards.

Max was telling them the tyres were gone, how he was losing grip etc. The team might have felt driver-pressure to blink early. They might ideally have wanted a few more laps on the first set, especially as the second set struggled at the end.

yeah, as i said its easy to say afterwards what they did wrong or not.

But directly after the stop i thought it was not the best decision. He came out directly behind a car and over the next few laps he had no lap without a overtake. At the end Mercedes waited a bit for the stop which everyone thought it was a mistake too, sometimes those things are just unpredictable.

[Zarathustra]

Anything else is breaking the laws of physics.

Then surely this is what Max did on Saturday and Hamilton on Sunday.

[Zarathustra]

In his post race interview, Lewis was mentioning that he was nursing breaks and wasn't breaking for most part of a lap and was lifting to avoid breaking much for many laps, unless there is absolute need in strong breaking zones.

I’ve read somewhere that Hamilton was even able to make the first corner without applying the brakes.

[NathanOlder]

- How was Leclerc on Bottas not a penalty ? How about a team fine? Ridiculous swerve.
- It was not even dirty, just nervous, amateurish driving by Ferrari's finest choice. They need two new drivers.
- Is this the same Leclerc that complained about Vertappen overtake? They learn so quickly, too bad about the lack of skills, who needs them at top team anyway.

Yeah the same Leclerc that complained, and afterwards said, If the stewards allow this kind of racing, I will do the same.

Only ones to blame are the stewards and FIA.

[Juzh]

In his post race interview, Lewis was mentioning that he was nursing breaks and wasn't breaking for most part of a lap and was lifting to avoid breaking much for many laps, unless there is absolute need in strong breaking zones.

I was watching his onboard and tbh he's overreacting a bit, it really didn't seem that bad, certainly not as much lift and coast as they used to do back in 2016 and especially 2017 when it really got too much. Verstappen was also doing lift and coast at certain stages, mainly when he covered hamilton's overcut after first pitstop, but that was primarily for tyre nursing.

[NathanOlder]

Lewis might think he's very funny in PC but he's a proper d!ck sometimes if you ask me. I don't remember where exactly, but he had a nice old jibe at Honda once and what he said about Pierre today was extremely disrespectful and left a filthy taste in the mouth!
...
You are mistaken. I'm all for Hamilton being a serial winner. He can't help it if the others can't level up. It's his potty mouth that keeps sprouting up.

a potty mouth is something else. It was just joking around about Fernando coming back and his age, after he tweeted congrats to his mutual admirer Lewis, and eventually it led to this harmless bit of banter:

LH: The sport needs the best drivers in the best seats and there is still at least a seat available that’s good enough for winning and he’s good enough for winning so it wouldn’t be such a bad…

MV: Maybe he could speak to Toto.

LH: Valtteri’s great; Valtteri’s been winning. You’re the one with the extra seat, I would say.

MV: I didn’t say that.

Pretty glaring double standard from you. Why aren't you outraged at Max suggesting Valtteri's seat could be available? Does Max have some extra rights or what?

Just hate toward Lewis as usual, some users showing themselves up a little.

[NathanOlder]

Regarding the Leclerc/Bottas incident on the first lap
https://twitter.com/F1/status/1158054851101831170

Michael Masi was quoted as saying: "What i have seen is that Bottas front wing touched Leclerc's rear tyre, you can see it from the helicopter perspective."

So not "Leclerc cut across Bottas taking off part of his front wing" but "Bottas touched Leclerc" - he's not necessarily saying it was Bottas fault but still seeing things the wrong way around.

He further said that he's convinced that the onboard from Vettel's car is misleading.

I agree with the statement that the relative movement of cars can lead to a wrong perception of who was going where (remember Vettel/Stroll after the race in Malaysia?) but even from the heli cam it's very obvious that it's Leclerc who moved across completely unnecessarily with Bottas keeping the same distance to the left border of the track
https://i.imgur.com/u3WBlYl.png

Masi has a very skewed perception, it seems ...

And this isn't the only thing he recently said that is a bit baffling:

Several drivers complained about the state of the track in Hockenheim (calling the runoff area dumb, not up to F1 standards etc) - Masi insisted that there was no difference in grip levels to any other part of the track and that it was "fine" (which was visibly nonsense)

Several drivers and teams complained about the non penalty for the unsafe release of Leclerc, Masi insisted they did not set a dangerous precedent, shortly afterwards in the team meeting they decided to penalize the drivers from now on (again proving that he was wrong)

I won't say he's not up to the task but a Charlie Whiting he is definitely not.

It was a disgraceful move by LEC on a straight (!!) which I feel warranted a drive through penalty because it didnt really happen when battling (this was just a jerk to the left).

This is the second time the FIA is extremely kind to LEC and I feel the ‘nice well mannered boy next door’ facade is fading and we are seeing the true LEC who himself screams over the radio when someone races HIM hard for a change.

If you have so much hate for Charles after yesterday and some other dirty moves that you know off, I imagine you must really hate Max after his first 4 years of dirty driving in F1! Or is it just your dislike for Charles after mugged your boy off lap after lap in England.

[Bill_Kar]

At the end Mercedes waited a bit for the stop which everyone thought it was a mistake too, sometimes those things are just unpredictable.

Local commentators said that as well. I never felt it was a mistake.

It seems everyone forgot that Ferrari weren't cleared by that point by HAM. The timing of RB's pitstop was not random; They put VER in exactly at the moment in which he has cleared both Ferrari, but Hamilton hasn't.

But even if HAM pitted and somehow emerged ahead of Ferrari, he would still be behind VER. How many times have we seen overcut working on similar paced cars?

The only option was to extend the stint as much as possible and hit them with fresh rubber. That was good thinking by Merc.