Back at it this week boys, Hungaroring is the venue. Not my favorite track if I'm honest. It's fun to drive, but not a great racing track historically. Of course in the new cars this could change. It's a bit twisty and hard to overtake, and of course I have nightmares of last year's first turn. Two DRS zones which fall one after the other and if anything's going to get done it'll happen in turns 1 and 2.

This was the track where we saw Hamilton take the restart solo on the grid, and Ocon went on to win after Alonso battled hard to keep Lewis at bay for several laps.

I watched the 2017 Hungarian Grand Prix last night to warm up for this race Vettel won,and Max took out his team mate Ricciardo.

I was surprised to see Seb announce his retirement at the end of the season. It was only within the last week that he was saying there is a clear intent to continue, then a few days later he says it's over.

Which, if I were to read between the lines, suggests that Aston Martin told him they were not going to renew his contract. That's speculation, but why the sudden about-face?

Congrats to him on a wonderful career. Four titles and 53 victories. Not bad.

This makes things quite interesting indeed as there is now an open seat for next year and the speculation will be rampant.

That was a quick decision by Seb to retire. Perhaps he wants to go up the Hill at Goodwood in Red 5 more, than he wants to look for future employment in F1. I concur that AM might have forced his hand by electing not to sign him for further driving duties. Who will replace him?

Could it be that Porsche elected to race with RB, and Audi isn't involved yet ?

I'm pretty sure having a constructor engaged with AM and only AM (or AM being at least the senior team) would have appealed to him.

Being in one of the Mercedes Junior teams, not so much...

I think Alonso is a real possibility to move to Seb's seat. Aston Martin are not a better proposition, but Stroll will be looking for name recognition if he can get it, and Aston martin will be too. That frees Alonso's seat for Piastri, so I can see this happening.

Hulkenberg, Piastri, De Vries are all options as well.

Zhou is a dark horse and I think could appeal to AM who sell cars in China. Whatever happens it will be interesting and fun to speculate. It's a spark in the driver market.

FP1 is in the books and Ferrari on top. I suspected this track would suit the Ferrari's characteristics a little better, but Max is still looking quick out there. Perez, not so much.

Rain is expected throughout the weekend and it could be a wild affair.

Interesting FP2, and Lando looking quite rapid indeed. Ferrari are the team to beat, in the dry. But how much of the remaining sessions will be dry? We will see!

Aston Martin came out with a new rear wing that is radical, and will probably be banned before too long. But they found gobs of pace today that they hadn't had all season.

Can't decide between Aston and Alfa for my fantasy constructor.

My man Latifi, top FP3 time

That was actually a well done lap by Latifi. He did not have better conditions than most of the rest.
It was warming to see all the smiling faces in the Williams pit.

Good for him. The team won't make too much of it after all, but it must be nice for them and give the whole team a lift. I think it's great

Ferrari are in a class of their own this weekend I think. Obviously if the track stays wet for the next two hours things could get crazy in qualifying. But the race is to be dry I think and so far it doesn't appear anyone is going to match them, aside from perhaps Latifi!

I'm expecting a Ferrari front row lock out, and the result for Hungary will be down to their good or bad fortune.

GEOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From nowhere in FP3 to the top !

Latifi went the other way

What a disaster that was.

Ugg

Come on DBond.
It`s is a part of the game.

Fantastic lap by Russell. How Mercedes did that must have been a miracle when you compare to how poor they were in the training.

New day tomorrow though.
Exciting when more teams are doing well. Even Norris can win.
And look up for Alanso. Not bad for a 41 year old guy.

I considered your comment Wigean, and nope, still it is a disaster of a qualifying session for Red Bull. Anything can happen in the race, but there's no escaping what a bad session that was. Aside from Monaco and Singapore perhaps, there's no circuit on the calendar where grid position is more important. It's virtually impossible to pass anywhere other than in to, and out of, turn 1.

Let's see how it all shakes out. Maybe Sainz will spin and collect Leclerc and Russell? Yes that would do it!

Someone spun and won.

Turning disaster in to delight!


Unbelievable result. Without a wet track I didn't think Red Bull stood a chance at winning today. To start tenth, and execute a pirouette, and still win over some very fast cars is insane. Still shaking my head over this one.

Max did a fine job, good start and was 6th within like 12 laps. But that wasn't going to get him to the front. No piling on but Ferrari got it wrong today. By deciding to go medium-medium with Leclerc, they were restricted to soft or hard for their final stop. And that really had to be the soft. But they pulled the trigger for the first stop early, and then the second stop too, that too many laps remained to bolt on the soft compound. I think they needed to run both medium stints longer to make this work but they seemed to feel they had to react and cover when I'm not sure that was really necessary today.

That Red Bull extended their lead today blows my mind. That Max won from tenth while spinning out of the lead does too.

Disappointed that McLarren couldn't produce a better race and well done to Mercedes, it must be said. Another double podium. Back in Spain I was saying that a Mercedes resurgence would be great for Red Bull, since Red Bull were leading the championship. That Merc would take points off Ferrari and that would work in Red Bull's favor. Of course they'll take points off Red Bull too -- see Perez today -- but it still helps when Ferrari cannot count on finishing in the top four every week regardless of how well their race is run.

I'll have to check fantasy, but with Aston Martin with a bit of newfound pace due to their new rear wing, Sauber will struggle more to get in the points.

Naaaaaaah i'm used to it now, won't #%&*$#......

FIRE BINOCLOWN FFS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry couldn't help it

Ok, I calmed down.

On the plus side, first time in season I got more points than You

On the minus side, I'm still last of the fantasy teams.

Race was spicy, I was on the edge of my seat for the most part.

Ferrari strategists didn't disappoint, and Mercedes are ready to offer us a 3 way fight every race, that's nice !

Yes congrats on your fine fantasy week, mine was not good.



And so it is. Stroll wanted name recognition and you reckon AM did too and that's quite a coup. Of course Alonso has a history of making the wrong move at the wrong time, and it will be interesting to see how this works out. As things stand it's a clear step down, but next year things could be different. Surely Piastri will take Alonso's seat now.

I still can't believe the result yesterday.

I don't trust AM to improve drastically, they'll bury another world champion with occasional points/very occasional podiums.
Great news for Ocon though, He'll probably be1st driver for the first time.

You nailed it. Bravo Sir!