Hungarian Grand Prix 2018: preview and weekend times

2015 edition: on the morning of July 18th the death of pilot Jules Bianchi, who had been in a coma for 9 months after the Suzuka accident, was announced. The riders will gather around his helmet before the start on Sunday. Friday: the two Mercedes immediately on top of their game, with Lewis Hamilton ahead of Nico Rosberg, third Kimi Räikkönen with the Ferrari. In FP2 Hamilton is still in command, but behind are the two Red Bulls of Kvyat and Ricciardo. Saturday: in the third free practice of the morning the Englishman again ahead of Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel. Qualifying: as imaginable, Lewis Hamilton dominates Q1, Q2 and Q3 and grabs the 47th pole position of his career ahead of Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel. Ricciardo, Räikkönen, Bottas, Kvyat, Verstappen and Grosjean complete the top ten. Race: two o'clock starts Ferrari they sprint quickly, so much so that Vettel takes the lead ahead of Rosberg and Räikkönen who, in turn, overtook Hamilton; already at the third corner the Ferrari Finn also passes Rosberg. Shortly afterwards, Hamilton, in an attempt to overtake Rosberg, went off the track and fell to tenth place. Between the 20th and 23rd laps the two Ferraris go to change tires, followed by the Mercedes. The situation always sees Vettel ahead of Kimi, then Rosberg, Ricciardo and Hamilton, who engages in a fierce duel with the Australian, overtaking him. On lap 40 there were problems for Räikkönen's car, which lost power and had to give in to Nico Rosberg, after the entry of the safety car which intervened to remove the Force India of Hülkenberg. In the last laps everything happens. The Ferrari Finn is forced to retire, Ricciardo comes back from behind, engaging in battle with Rosberg: the two collide and are forced into the pits, with the German coming out on top (he is only 7th at the exit). After 69 laps Sebastian Vettel wins with Ferrari, it is his 41st time; behind him Kvyat and Ricciardo complete the podium.

2016 edition: the Mercedes ahead of the Ferraris. Thus begins the weekend in Hungary, with Hamilton setting the fastest lap in FP1 on Friday, whose two-year renewal with the Stuttgart manufacturer was announced in those days. The Red Bulls chase the two leading pairs. In the afternoon, Hamilton gave way to Rosberg at the top of the timesheets, finishing the session in fifth place and early, after an off-track exit. Ricciardo is second ahead of Vettel and Verstappen. Rosberg doesn't give up the lead even on Saturday morning, but Verstappen, second, narrowly edges him to just 2 thousandths. Ricciardo comes third, followed by Hamilton, Raikkonen and Vettel. Qualifying: heavy rain and over two hours spent on track and in the garage to decide the poleman for the Hungarian GP. At the end of an exhausting session, dotted with four red flags due to continuous off-track exits, the German from Mercedes stole the start from his garage partner by 143 thousandths, with Hamilton blocked by a yellow flag caused by Alonso. The second row is won by the two Red Bulls, ahead of Vettel, Sainz, Alonso, Button, Hulkenberg and Bottas. Race: dry start with the two Mercedes battling it out at the first corner. Hamilton gets the better of his rival Rosberg, who has to defend himself from Ricciardo behind him. Verstappen and Vettel maintain their position, Alonso gains on Sainz. Then Button, Bottas and Hulkenberg follow. Button complains of power problems on the radio and slides to the bottom, getting a drive-through for violating the regulations regarding communications with the wall. Raikkonen meanwhile attacks Grosjean for tenth position. On lap 20, after the first tire changes, Hamilton is still in the lead followed by Rosberg, Ricciardo, Vettel, Raikkonen, Verstappen, Perez, Palmer, Magnussen and Alonso. Raikkonen, Perez and the two Renaults have yet to stop. Kvyat must serve a 5 second penalty for not respecting the pit lane entry limit. Around halfway through the race, Hamilton is firmly in first position ahead of Rosberg, Ricciardo, Vettel, Verstappen, Kimi, Alonso, Sainz, Bottas and Perez. A double pit stop follows for Hulkenberg and Palmer, with Renault stealing eleventh place from Force India in the pit lane. Second stop for Hamilton on lap 42, followed by Vettel. Mercedes returns to second place, Ferrari fifth behind Kimi's Ferrari. Rosberg stops on the next lap and makes him second again. With 15 laps to go, Hamilton doesn't break away, followed by Rosberg, Ricciardo, Vettel, Verstappen, Raikkonen, Alonso, Sainz, Bottas and Hulkenberg. The final stages of the race saw Vettel closing in on Ricciardo and Kimi further behind Verstappen. On lap 63 Button retires after a difficult race. Hamilton wins the Hungarian GP ahead of Rosberg, Ricciardo, Vettel, Verstappen, Raikkonen, Alonso, Sainz, Bottas and Hulkenberg.

2017 edition: in the first free practice session Antonio Giovinazzi replaces Kevin Magnussen at the wheel of the Haas, and Alfonso Celis Jr. he replaces Esteban Ocon at Force India. In FP1 Ricciardo's Red Bull stands out, followed by Raikkonen and Hamilton. Vettel, who spun, only finished sixth. Giovinazzi and Grosjean were both involved in an accident, with the session ending early due to debris left on the track by Palmer's Renault, which damaged the front wing after a violent run over a curb. In FP2 Ricciardo remains firmly in the lead, while Vettel climbs back up and closes behind him, ahead of both Mercedes. The session was also interrupted in the afternoon, this time due to Wehrlein's Sauber going off the track, fortunately leaving unscathed after having disintegrated the car against the barriers. Another accident involved Palmer again, while Magnussen had to wait for mechanics to repair his Haas after Giovinazzi's exit in the morning. Hulkenberg will be penalized 5 places on the starting grid for replacing the gearbox. During the night, Felipe Massa fell ill and was taken to hospital in Budapest for checks: Williams decided that Paul di Resta would replace him for the rest of the weekend. On Saturday morning, Ferrari is ahead of everyone, with Vettel taking the track record and, almost half a second, Kimi Raikkonen - on the track without the German's aerodynamic updates. Bottas third, ahead of Verstappen and Hamilton. Qualifying: di Resta leaves the scene already in Q1, as does his teammate Stroll. The two Saubers and Kevin Magnussen with the Haas were also eliminated. Kvyat will be penalized three places for obstructing Perez after returning to the track following an exit at Turn 4. In Q2 Lewis Hamilton sets a new track record, while Ocon, Kvyat, Palmer, Perez and Grosjean abandon the field. Pole position for the Hungarian GP was won by Sebastian Vettel, with Raikkonen keeping him company on the front row. Bottas instead gets third place, while Hamilton, who complained about some vibrations in his tyres, occupies the second row together with his teammate and ahead of the two Red Bulls. Hulkenberg, Alonso, Vandoorne and Sainz complete the top ten. Race: the two Red Bulls immediately start aggressively on Hamilton and, arriving at turn 2, Verstappen stalls and hits his teammate, eliminating him from the race. The safety car immediately enters the scene, only to return on lap six. The Dutchman is given a 10 second penalty. On the track Vettel leads the group ahead of Raikkonen, Bottas, Verstappen, Hamilton, Sainz, Alonso, Perez and Vandoorne. On lap 20 Grosjean retired, caused by a poorly secured tire at the pit stop. Vettel from the top complains about problems with the steering, which would pull to the left. Kimi and Bottas thus gain some ground on the German. Between lap 30 and lap 33 Ferrari and Mercedes stop in the pits, with the classification remaining unchanged. Only Verstappen took the lead for about ten laps, until he too had to stop, before returning to fifth place. Meanwhile, the Mercedes finished below the Reds. On lap 42 Bottas lets Hamilton overtake him in turn 1 - with the "promise" from the pits that, in case of failure on the Ferrari, the position will be returned to him -: the Briton thus goes on the attack on Kimi, but the Finn will not give up .

Best edition for authors:

1989 edition: for the first time the pole position was won by a driver not from the Woking team (which had achieved 16 in a row), but by Riccardo Patrese (Williams Renault) ahead of the world champion Ayrton Senna (McLaren – Honda), in the second row a surprising Alex Caffi on Dallara – Cosworth  and Thierry Boutsen, Patrese's teammate; fifth is Alain Prost, flanked by the first Ferrari of Gerhard Berger, while the other Ferrari driver Nigel Mansell is only twelfth. However, in the warm-up on Sunday morning the English Lion said he was confident about the match and with his usual composure replied that he was aiming for victory, surprising the journalists, who were incredulous at those words. Race: Patrese gets off to a good start, followed by Senna, while Caffi immediately gives in to Berger and Prost, with the Frenchman shortly after overtaking the Austrian and trying to catch up with the first two. Behind, however, Mansell makes an astonishing comeback: with a spot-on start he immediately overtakes two cars and continues his climb undaunted, although the leaders already seem far away. On lap 22 he catches Caffi and passes him, after the first tire change he is ahead of his teammate Berger (who will have to retire due to gearbox problems), Prost can only assist as he doesn't even try to block the advance of the English Lion. Patrese and Senna appear in front, fighting since the first lap, but the Italian on lap 53 has to slow down due to radiator problems, which shortly thereafter causes him to retire: only Senna precedes Mansell. On lap 58, "Magic" also had to give in to the Ferrari driven by the unstoppable Mansell, who took advantage of the traffic created by the lapping of Stefan Johansson (Onyx - Cosworth). On lap 77 Nigel Mansell crossed the finish line with over twenty-five seconds ahead of Senna, sending the public into raptures; Boutsen third, then Prost, Cheever, Piquet and Caffi, seventh and out of the points but first of those not lapped that day by the winner.

Best Readers Edition:

1998 edition: on the difficult Hungarian track where qualifying is (almost) everything, the two McLaren-Mercedes occupy the front row, with Mika Hӓkkinen on pole and David Coulthard second; behind them Michael Schumacher with the Ferrari, 4 tenths behind, and the Jordan-Honda of Damon Hill. Race: excellent start for the two McLarens, with Schumacher having no choice but to follow; behind, Irvine with the other Ferrari manages to overtake Hill for fourth place, then Villeneuve, Frentzen, Wurz, Alesi. Surprisingly, the Northern Irishman's Ferrari laps the fastest, dragging the whole group with it, but on the 13th lap he has to say goodbye to his dreams of a comeback due to an electronic failure; the trio in front of him can thus increase their advantage over their pursuers, who were being pushed by Irvine. From lap 24 onwards the first series of refueling begins, without anything changing in the leading positions, while further back Frentzen has problems with a wheel nut, forcing his mechanics into a long intervention. On lap 28 Jarno Trulli (Prost–Peugeot) retires due to engine problems. Surprise move by Ferrari, which changes strategy by having Schumi return to the pits for a pit stop during the 43^a round: starting again with little fuel and fresh tyres, he set partial records by overtaking Coulthard, after he returned to the pits, and chasing Hӓkkinen. So it happens that on lap 46 Schumacher is leading the race, and Hӓkkinen is forced to chase him; however the latter seems to have gearbox problems and noticeably loses ground, forced to leave the track to Coulthard. Even with an extra stop, Schumacher managed to exit the pit lane first and thus take home his fifth race of the season ahead of Coulthard and Jacques Villeneuve (Williams). The Finn was only sixth due to problems with the gearbox. Thus the drivers' classification also reopens, with Schumacher at 70 and 7 points behind the Finnish leader.

RECORD

Test lap: 1:16.276 – S Vettel – Ferrari – 2017
Race lap: 1:19.071 – M Schumacher – Ferrari – 2004
Distance: 1h35:26.131 – M Schumacher – Ferrari – 2004
Driver victories: 5 – L Hamilton
Team victories: 11 – McLaren
Driver pole: 7 – M Schumacher
Pole team: 8 – McLaren, Ferrari
Best driver laps: 4 – M Schumacher, K Räikkönen
Best team laps: 9 – Williams, Ferrari
Driver podiums: 8 – K Räikkönen
Team podiums: 22 – McLaren, Ferrari

Hall of Fame

1. 1936 T Nuvolari – Alfa Romeo
2. 1986 N Piquet – Williams Honda
3. 1987 N Piquet – Williams Honda
4. 1988 At Senna – McLaren Honda
5. 1989 N Mansell – Ferrari
6. 1990 T Boutsen – Williams Renault
7. 1991 At Senna – McLaren Honda
8. 1992 At Senna – McLaren Honda
9. 1993 D Hill – Williams Renault
10. 1994 M Schumacher – Benetton Ford
11. 1995 D Hill – Williams Renault
12. 1996 J Villeneuve – Williams Renault
13. 1997 J Villeneuve – Williams Renault
14. 1998 M Schumacher – Ferrari
15. 1999 M Hakkinen – McLaren Mercedes
16. 2000 M Hakkinen – McLaren Mercedes
17. 2001 M Schumacher – Ferrari
18. 2002 R Barrichello – Ferrari
19. 2003 F Alonso – Renault
20. 2004 M Schumacher – Ferrari
21. 2005 K Räikkönen – McLaren Mercedes
22. 2006 J Button – Honda
23. 2007 Hamilton – McLaren Mercedes
24. 2008 H Kovalainen – McLaren Mercedes
25. 2009 L Hamilton – McLaren Mercedes
26. 2010 M Webber – Red Bull Renault
27. 2011 J Button – McLaren Mercedes
28. 2012 L Hamilton – McLaren Mercedes
29. 2013 L Hamilton – Mercedes
30. 2014 D Ricciardo – Red Bull Renault
31. 2015 S Vettel – Ferrari
32. 2016 L Hamilton – Mercedes
33. 2017 S Vettel – Ferrari

Sources: Brembo, Pirelli