This weekend marked the final race weekend before the month-long Formula One summer break. The stage was set in Hungary for the FORMULA 1 PIRELLI MAGYAR NAGYDÍJ 2017 at the around the Hungaroring. All eyes were on the top runners to see who would have the advantage going into the break.
Friday’s first free practice session saw Antonio Giovinazzi and Alfonso Celis behind the wheel of the Haas and Force India cars respectively, looking to impress the teams. However, things took a bitter turn early on for Giovinazzi, as he spun the car into the barriers and out of the session. The other big incident of the session was the destruction of Jolyon Palmer’s front wing on the exit of turn 4, ending his session also. Both incidents warranted a red flag. Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo led the session, beating Kimi Räikkönen, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas. The top five cars were all within one second of each other, with Sebastian Vettel falling just outside of that one second threshold.
Ricciardo was able to repeat his session lead in the second free practice session, this time leading Vettel, Bottas, Räikkönen, Hamilton and Verstappen. The drivers in the top six were all within half of a second of each other, with a significant gap to the cars behind. There were a number of major events, including a hard crash into the barriers for Pascal Wehrlein in the Sauber and then Palmer in the Renault. Räikkönen also lost power during the session, leaving him stranded trackside, although the team were eventually able to restore the power.
Having visited the hospital the night previous for dizziness, Felipe Massa was given clearance by the FIA medical team to take part in the third free practice session. However, his symptoms returned during the session, causing him to pack it up early and withdraw from the race weekend. Meanwhile, there wasn’t too much to report on during the session. Ferrari was able to take the top two positions of the leaderboard, as the teams came closer to qualifying. Bottas was the only other driver to get within a second of the time set by the Italian team. Meanwhile, Friday’s double leader spent a large amount of the session in the garage with a technical glitch.
Come qualifying, Vettel was able to maintain a steady lead through all three of the sessions to claim the pole position for the race, with his teammate helping to lock out the front row for the Prancing Horse. Bottas and Hamilton were able to lock out the second row of the grid for Mercedes and the Red Bull duo were able to do so on the third row for their team. Daniil Kvyat is getting himself ever closer to a race ban, earning a three-place grid penalty for impeding on Lance Stroll’s hot lap. An unfamiliar face was in the Williams car, as Paul di Resta qualified the car, filling in for the ill Massa. This was di Resta’s first Formula One race since 2013 and he had never driven the 2017 car. Nevertheless, he was allowed to race for the team on Sunday.
The race start on Sunday was fairly even among the top five drivers. The Red Bull drivers were able to get by Hamilton in turn one. Going in to turn two, Ricciardo had the opportunity to get alongside the outside of his teammate. Having gone wide in turn one and cold tyres caused Verstappen to lock up and made contact with Ricciardo. This gave Ricciardo a rear puncture and the Australian later spun, ending his race. The safety car was deployed for the incident. Verstappen was eventually given a ten second penalty added to his first pit stop. Hamilton attempted to overtake Verstappen on the race restart, but Verstappen stayed ahead and was able to stay with Bottas, while Hamilton dropped back well out of the DRS range.
Romain Grosjean became the second driver to retire from the race after the mechanics cross-threaded his left-rear tyre. He was unable to make it back to the pit lane. Meanwhile, Bottas was the first of the leaders to pit for new tyres on lap 30. Hamilton followed on the next lap. Vettel was the first Ferrari driver to pit on lap 33, handing the lead of the race to Räikkönen. He pitted the following lap, followed by Verstappen ten laps later, who had an extra 10 seconds added to his pit stop. He remained at the tail end of the top five.
Vettel began to struggle with handling issues shortly after the pit stops, holding up his teammate and allowing Mercedes to rapidly close the gap. With Hamilton claiming to have more pace than his teammate, the team made the call to swap the drivers into turn one. This unleashed Hamilton to chase down the leading Ferrari cars. Mercedes was able to reel in Räikkönen to DRS position. Having been unable to overtake Räikkönen ahead, Hamilton gave the position back to Bottas on the final lap.
With the summer break now upon us, it will be another month before we will see the Formula One cars in action at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix on the weekend of August 27. Going into the break, Mercedes is still in control of the World Constructors’ Championship lead, while Vettel maintained his World Drivers’ Championship lead.
