Hungarian Gp – THE POINT… by Gian Carlo Minardi

The eleventh GP of the season has been enlivened since Qualifying, where human mistakes, see Magnussen, strategy mistakes, see Ferrari with Kimi, and reliability mistakes, see Hamilton’s Mercedes and rain in Q3, livened up the last five minutes of test. In a few moments, a succession of fast laps confirmed a sensational Mercedes, which set with Rosberg a time of 1’22″715 – nearly close to the time that the F1 scored a year ago – before a wild Vettel, a reconfirmed Bottas, a Ricciardo that in the last lap overtook a tenacious Alonso, who could not do better than a 5th place, even though improving  his time lap after lap with a 1’23″909.

The race was spectacular, thanks to the dramatic turn of events. Over all, the weather variability: rain thoroughly soaked the track and forced all teams starting with the Intermediate Rain. Secondly, the two safety cars, which intervened following accidents. Finally, the strategies used by teams: at Mercedes’, there were choices of different strategies for the two pilots; at Ferrari’s, an aggressive and risky strategy; at William’s, incomprehensible choices. There was a perfect choice at Red Bull’s, for Ricciardo’s car. With great sense of timing, Daniel used the pit wall’s recall, entering immediately the pits, as soon as the first safety car get out the track, taking advantage of the fact that the first ahead four cars had already passed through the pits’ entrance.

Great Fernando, a phenomenon that has been able to fight and complete 30 laps with Soft tyres in the final stint, achieving an outstanding result for the team and proving, once again, that he is the number one.

We saw also some nervousness mistakes by various actors; we mention a few. Vettel first; only the good luck allowed him to cross the finish line, even though he touched the wall on the pit’s straight. Mercedes’ pit wall, that, in my opinion, made strategies mistakes and, anyway, delayed too much Rosberg’s last pit stop. Williams, that inexplicably used medium tyres on both cars, compromising its drivers’ performances – nevertheless, everyone knew that there was more than one second per lap of performance difference between Soft and Medium tyre.

However, this F1 Championship is always showing a thrilling aspect, with amazing overtakings, races driven until the last lap and growing performances, that make us forget all the critics on this Championship circulated at the beginning of the year.

Now, everybody on vacation for three weeks, with the aim of recovering energies and renew ideas, to deal with the last eight GP, with the hope that the players of this amazing Championship will offer an even more spectacular final.