We are back on track (both on the F1 racing circuit and the Zoom Zoom blog!). Our 13th race takes place in Budapest, Hungary, another gorgeous countryside outside of the track.
Hopefully we won't see a repeat of this again...Whoopsie, Lando!
The big news since the British GP is that retired driver Ralf Schumaker publicly came out, sharing a message and picture of his partner on his social media. Many of the current drivers on the 2024 grid showed their support of the six-time F1 champion in various interviews as well. Here is the link to the original story: https://www.reuters.com/sports/formula1/ralf-schumacher-comes-out-gay-social-media-post-2024-07-14/
This link follows up on the support from the current F1 drivers, including major LGBTQI ally, Sir Lewis Hamilton, and Lando Norris: https://www.reuters.com/sports/formula1/ralf-coming-out-is-good-f1-more-do-says-hamilton-2024-07-18/
In the pre-race show before the Grad Prix on Sunday, many other drivers also went on record showing support for Ralf and for there to be more inclusiveness in F1.
Also, Kevin Magnussen of the Haas team has announced this is his last season with the team, which basically opens the door for current Alpine driver Ocon to take Mags seat in 2025. After accidentally smashing Max Verstappens championship trophy last year during the podium celebrations (he paid for the replacement), Lando Norris' helmet in this years race was hand designed by the designer of the trophy, as she felt bad about how guilty Lando felt after the incident. I can say the helmet looks beautiful!
Btw, this week's driver eye candy is the only American driver on the F1 circuit, Logan Sargent of Williams Racing team. The reason WHY I chose him for this week/race is quite frankly, I don't think he will be driving an F1 car before the season ends at race 24! not to take any chances, for your viewing pleasure, he's the Driver Eye Candy of the Week/Race!
The current drivers and their teams:
After a few days of torrential rain (there were videos out there of some of the pit crews mock rowing, swimming and dancing in the rain; the track was that much flooded!). The start of Practice One has the weather as hot and humid, 86 degrees overall, 136 degrees track temperature.
With those temperatures, it's Eye Candy time with Williams driver Logan Sargent!
P1: 60 minutes, as are all the practices, Ollie Bearman, fresh from a new contract from Haas in hand, is getting to do this practice lap. Turn 4 (of 14), seems to be the toughest challenge for the drivers as when they approach it, it's almost a "blind turn", and drivers are riding the curb hard. Basically a data collecting practice, with no incidents for P1.
P2: Its 5pm, a few hours after P1, and it's still hot, track temperature is 136 degrees, so keeping those tyres cool while driving at speeds up to 225 MPH will be key today and this weekend. Fifteen minutes into this practice, and that turn four, claims it's first victim, as Ferrari's Charles LeClerc, going at 140 MPH, has his back wheels lock up and he crashes into the wall. Charles is ok, but his practice session is done for the day. Red Flag time, as they remove Charles car from the track. After F1 Hungary track crew fixes the wall, we get a green flag after 15 minutes, and drivers back on track. No further incidents to report, so thats a wrap for the day!
P3: Uneventful overall. Of note, the weather is 20 degrees cooler, so teams/drivers are testing their tyre types for qualifying later in the day. In the last five minutes, we had both Mercedes Lewis Hamilton do a harmless spinout on turn 10, and Verstappen had a tyre lockup out of the first turn. Time to move to qualifying!
A note on how Qualifying works: There are three quick races to determine grid position for the GP race. First quali the last five drivers are cut, second quali again, last five drivers dropped, and 3rd and final quali determines the top ten on the grid and the ever important pole (1st) position. This also applies to the Sprint Qualis, you will just see me use SQ1 to show the difference.
Not sure how long Logan will be wearing that Williams uniform, but looking good in it!
Quali One: Weather change later in the day, as rain came calling, and track temperature has dropped in half, so a much cooler track. A tactical game between tyre use/type and management. 18 minutes for this quali, and all the paddocks/teams are changing their tyres to get on the softs (slicks), as the track is relatively dry. Red flag goes up and clock stops with 6:45 to go as Red Bull's Sergio Perez spins out and crashes into the wall. A very interesting finish to this Quali, as Perez was 9th, and would've "been" in Q2, of the top 15, but obviously with no car, would ot have passed onto Q3 and the top 10. That racing math did not matter though, as other drivers did put in better laps to knock out Perez in Q1 officially. The other shocker is somehow Mercedes George Russell also ended up in the bottom five! The stupidest move though was done by the Alpine team track bosses, who for some unknown bizarre reason, decided to pit both drivers in the final minute, denying the drivers to improve their lap times, and sure enough, both Alpine drivers ended up in the bottom five as well! If I were Ocon and Gasly, I would be PISSED at Alpine team control right now. Sauber's Zhou rounds out the bottom five in a more eventful Q1 then we had anticipated! Quali Two: 15 minutes, no more rain coming for the remaining 15 drivers. No incidents here, the big story of this quali is how Mercedes almost had no drivers in the top 10, as Hamilton held on to 10th by... 0.010 of a second! Both Williams (Albon/Sargent) and Haas (Magnussen/Hulkenburg) and Sauber's Bottas complete your Q2 bottom five.
Quali Three: Twelve minutes to get that pole position and the GP grid top ten layout.
With 2:13 to go, RB's Yuki Tsunoda skidded off the track and banged the car into the wall at Turn 5, could be due to a slippery part of the track. Red Flag. Confusion as to will this Q3 continue as the Hungary track crew repairs the the damage at the crash site. Green flag up, with Verstappen/Red Bull said ,"nah, we good" as they are in 3rd on grid. Riccardo improved one position, everyone else held theirs, so its Lando on pole position for the Grand Prix on Sunday. The top 10 grid then is a McLaren lockout with Lando and Oscar Piastri 1st and 2nd, Verstappen 3rd, Sainz/Ferrari 4th, Hamilton 5th, LeClerc 6th, Aston-Martin's Alonso/Stroll at 7th and 8th, and RB's Riccardo and Tsunoda placing 9th and 10th on the grid!
Eye Candy Logan thirst trap snap!
Grand Prix race day in Hungary, with very warm weather, and a McLaren front row for the first time in 12 years. Some stats: 310,000 the overall fan attendance for this weekend watching racers on a track that is for the GP, 70 laps, 2.7 miles and 14 turns. First six cars all on Medium tyres, the rest on hard, with the Aston-Martin starting on softs.
Lights Out: On Turn 1, Lap 1, Max makes a move to force his car past Lando's, but ended up sliding off the track, allowing Oscar to scoot from 3rd place to take the lead, with Max in 2nd place in front of Lando...or is he? Turns out the stewards are looking at Max for "leaving the track to gain an advantage", and before the stewards could slap him with that, Red Bull team tells Max to give 2nd place BACK to Norris....much to Max's great chagrin based on his response on the radio!
FYI: Max was up till 3am playing racing simulations, and judging from his very irritable exchanges on the team radio, perhaps he should've hit the pillow earlier!
Lap 35: Alpine has Gasly retire the car (DNF) hydraulic failure.
Lap 64...DRAMA! Max trying to overtake Lewis for 3rd place, their cars bump hard, with Max's rear end (behave!) literally going up in the air, then coming down, slid off track, but was able to regain control and get back on track, now in 5th place. Max was VERY lucky, as if the rear had elevated any higher, the Red Bull car would've flipped over, and could have lead to a wrecked car, and serious injury to Max. After that, Red Bull team radio called out Max's move as very childish, basically giving Max a verbal spanking for all of us to hear!
Meanwhile, at the same time, and for the last several laps, McLaren team had been pleading with Lando to give up the lead (now at 5.5 seconds) to his teammate Oscar, as Oscar led most of this race, and did everything the TEAM needed Oscar to do, Lando's retort is: " then he needs to drive faster!" After pleading, cajoling, requesting didn't work, Lando finally got a team ORDER to let Oscar take the lead on Lap 68, and Lando let Oscar pass, and allows Oscar Piastri (from Australia) to win his first ever F1 Grand Prix race, after only a year and a half of donning the Team Papaya uniform for McLaren! Lando finishes 2nd, and Lewis 3rd, which is Lewis Hamilton's 200th podium in his illustrious career. A very cranky Max finishes 5th!
Congrats Oscar on your first F1 Racing win! Keep that trophy away from Lando's champagne smash (see video above!)!
Fans voted Oscar "Driver of the Day", and fastest lap in the race went to George Russell.
Nice comebacks for Perez and Russell, who started in the back of the pack, and ended up in 7th and 8th. Ferrari drivers LeClerc and Sainz placed 4th and 6th, while RB's Tsunoda and Aston Martin's Stroll rounded out the top 10 for the last points.
Next week at Spa-Belgium for the last race before the summer break! Perhaps Logan has the right idea with this artistic looking ice-bath picture!
Opmerkingen