Grand Prix of Hungary

[cosworth151]

The Grand Prix of Hungary is run at the Hungaroring, in the Mogyorod forest near Budapest. The first modern Hungarian GP was run on this circuit in 1986. It created world wide news by being the first F1 race behind the "Iron Curtain."

The Hungaroring is 2.8 miles (4.381 km). It has 14 turns. (See map below) The circuit is narrow and twisty. It sees very little use, so it's usually dusty with very little rubber laid down on it. This means there is very, very little overtaking. A prime example was in 1990, when Senna wasn't able to get his McLaren Honda (back when that was a good thing) around Thierry Boutsen's slower Williams for the win.

Drivers who scored their 1st F1 win in Hungary: Damon Hill in 1993, Fenando Alonso in 2003, Jenson Button in 2006 and Heikki Kovalainan in 2008.

The first Hungarian Grand Prix was run on June 21st, 1936, in Budapest's Nepliget Park.

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2017/7/Fast_facts_-_Hungary.html

[Jericoke]

My favourite Hungarian Grand Prix 'Fact' is that it is the closest Finnish drivers get to a home race:  a large portion of fans come from Finland

[cosworth151]

The Numbers:

31 – The number of official Hungarian Grand Prix

1986 – The year of the first F1 era Hungarian Grand Prix

5 – Lewis Hamilton has the most victories in Hungary (2007, 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2016)

11 – McLaren is the most successful manufacturer in Hungary

70 – Number of laps in the 2017 Hungarian Grand Prix

2.7 miles - Length of the Hungaroring

1:19.071 – Fastest lap – Michael Schumacher (2004)

113.8 feet – Elevation change

[lkjohnson1950]

FP1


POS.   DRIVER   TIME   GAP   LAPS
1   DANIEL RICCIARDO    1:18.486              31
2   KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN    1:18.720   +0.234s   20
3   LEWIS HAMILTON    1:18.858   +0.372s   31
4   MAX VERSTAPPEN    1:19.162   +0.676s   27
5   VALTTERI BOTTAS    1:19.248   +0.762s   30
6   SEBASTIAN VETTEL    1:19.563   +1.077s   21
7   FERNANDO ALONSO    1:19.987   +1.501s   21
8   STOFFEL VANDOORNE 1:20.005   +1.519s   24
9   NICO HULKENBERG    1:20.150   +1.664s   25
10   JOLYON PALMER            1:20.461   +1.975s   27

DaniRiki Surprised by being quickest and with a solid gap to 2ND man Kimi. Both were well under Schumacher's record. FIF1 was surprisingly off the pace as the McLaren duo claimed best of the rest honors, Alonzo just ahead of VanD. Giovinazzi crashed, again, and damaged the left side of his Haas. Grosjean had barely taken the track when he complained of something wrong at the back. His Haas disappeared for most of the session, returning with only 20 minutes to go. He then complained of heavy understeer on the soft tires. Palmer closed the gap to Hulk down to .3, but ran wide at the end of the session and ripped the front of the car off on the curbs.  Carbon Fiber all over the track. Still, both Renaults were in the Top 10, with Massa just missing out. Vettel appeared to have his hands full as the Fazazz was oversteering everywhere with very little warning. Kimi looked much more secure in his second place. On to FP2.

[Robem64]

Having just seen Palmer damage the car yet again in FP2 then unless he damn well wins the GP on Sunday I think he'll be taking a longer summer break than all the other drivers!

[Jericoke]

Having just seen Palmer damage the car yet again in FP2 then unless he damn well wins the GP on Sunday I think he'll be taking a longer summer break than all the other drivers!

There's a lot of pressure on the kid.  I'd feel sorry for him if he wasn't being paid to race cars and party with the beautiful people all over the world.  Enstone has a history of bringing out the best in drivers, or utterly crushing them; there doesn't seem to be an in between.

[lkjohnson1950]

FP2

1   Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull   1:18.455s      32
2   Sebastian Vettel   Ferrari   1:18.638s   + 0.183s   28
3   Valtteri Bottas   Mercedes   1:18.656s   + 0.201s   33
4   Kimi Räikkönen   Ferrari   1:18.755s   + 0.300s   28
5   Lewis Hamilton   Mercedes   1:18.779s   + 0.324s   31
6   Max Verstappen   Red Bull   1:18.951s   + 0.496s   25
7   Nico Hülkenberg   Renault   1:19.714s   + 1.259s   33
8   Fernando Alonso   McLaren   1:19.815s   + 1.360s   31
9   Carlos Sainz   Toro Rosso   1:19.834s   + 1.379s   35
10   Stoffel Vandoorne   McLaren   1:19.909s   + 1.454s   18
11   Esteban Ocon   Force India   1:20.126s   + 1.671s   34
12   Sergio Pérez   Force India   1:20.266s   + 1.811s   33
13   Daniil Kvyat   Toro Rosso   1:20.577s   + 2.122s   37
14   Lance Stroll   Williams   1:20.791s   + 2.336s   31
15   Felipe Massa   Williams   1:20.869s   + 2.414s   22
16   Jolyon Palmer   Renault   1:21.175s   + 2.720s   12
17   Kevin Magnussen   Haas   1:21.345s   + 2.890s   11
18   Romain Grosjean   Haas   1:21.504s   + 3.049s   25
19   Marcus Ericsson   Sauber   1:21.559s   + 3.104s   31
20   Pascal Wehrlein   Sauber   1:21.722s   + 3.267s   16

Times were a bit slower in FP2 as teams worked on long stints. Vettel looked much improved, but seemed to pass his problem to Massa, who was loose everywhere. Grosjean said I don't know what to tell you, first it is massive understeer, the next lap, massive oversteer. Despite only turning 11 laps, KMag was slightly faster than Romain. Wehrlein crashed as well as Palmer. Hobbs said in 30 years at Hungary, he'd never seen anyone go off in 14 where Palmer did. I suspect Lewis is sandbagging a bit, only working 1 or 2 sectors at a time. Tomorrow will tell.