Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix: LIVE
(FORMULA 1 PIRELLI MAGYAR NAGYDÍJ 2017)
The Hungarian Grand Prix is loved by Formula 1 drivers, it’s a fun track that demands a lot from the car – even sharing some track qualities with Monaco.
It’s now the final race before the summer break (despite some teams doing tests next week) but in this post we’re bringing you all the latest from the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix: LIVE as it happens – before, during and after the race.
Drivers are now making their way round the track for the track parade.
NEWS – Ferrari have been working on Sebastian Vettel’s car this morning due to a problem with the hydraulics system with approval from the FIA. The team are putting the car back together again – could this be a problem later today in the race?
You can see some pictures from around the paddock as drivers greet fans and take photos ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
See more pictures below.
Hungarian Grand Prix: LIVE – Track Parade
Driver Interviews
Paul Di Resta – “I have had a lot of nice message from people. People have appreciated everything and seen how I’ve managed to carry everything through. This is a learning curve and I’ve taken everything in my start from the last few hours and I’ll do anything I can.”
Sebastian Vettel – “It’s normal to work on the car so it should be OK. The car is very good, we have had a great result and hope that we will have a great result today too.”
Vettel – “We always try to get the maximum wherever we go. Sometimes it comes naturally to us but we always try to do our best and we continue to do that. There’s 1 point lead in the championship and we try to focus on doing the best.”
Lewis Hamilton – “It’s a long run down to turn 1 so there’s an opportunity today, it’s so hot today so it will be interesting to see ow the tyres will be lasting. They had a problem in the last race so we will see how that goes.”
Hamilton – “The undercut is important but I’m in fourth so I’ll see how I can by in some way – whether it’s through the undercut or through tyres. There’s a lot of British flags in the crowd and I always have great support here. I love coming here.”
Drivers are now waiting on the pit-lane for the light to go green.
Hungarian Grand Prix – Pit Lane NOW OPEN
30 minutes until lights out.
Drivers are now making their way onto the track – many drivers are going through a test-start.
Alonso – “Hopefully it will be a good race and we can maximise the strategy and get some points today.”
Christian Horner – “We always go aggressive, the first key part of the race is the start and getting down to the first corner in a good position. You can get a good start and we might be able to pick up a place and it’s going to be interesting.”
Verstappen – “I don’t know what we’re going to do. I’ll just feel my way into the race – many times after turn 1 you think differently so we will see how it all goes.”
Palmer – “It’s a good position to be in, we have good tyres and hopefully we can make our way from here. the car is in good shape and I’m confident.”
Toto Wolff – “It’s a long run down to the first corner and anything can happen. There’s not only one strategy that can work here – especially if the tyres are overheating. The drivers are in great moods – Valtteri is in a happy mood, Lewis maybe not so much – he’s always happy after the race though.”
Drivers are now lining up on track for the national anthem ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix: LIVE
All the action as it happens right here – LIVE race updates.
NEWS – Mercedes are now looking over Hamilton’s car which has started to overheat – temperatures are rising.
Hamilton already radioing the team sounding down – he’s not happy with the tyres or a 1-stop strategy. Will Mercedes be having problems in this race?
FORMATION LAP – Hungarian Grand Prix: LIVE
The formation lap is now taking place, drivers are making their way around the track ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The temperatures are rising, it’s going to be a long race with strategies and tyres coming into play.
Lap 1
The two Red Bull’s come together, Ricciardo suffering a puncture and going off-track – tyre marks on the road.
Ricciardo – “Someone hit me.“
SAFETY CAR
Lap 2
Safety Car still in this lap until the Red Bull is cleared off-track.
Lap 3
Safety Car in this lap too – the car is now off-track but volunteers are just cleaning up the debris and oil on track.
Lap 5
Safety Car coming in at the end of this lap – drivers are now getting their tyres ready once again for the restart.
Lap 6
Hamilton trying to make his way past Max Verstappen who’s defending strongly.
There’s also a little battle between Sainz and Alonso.
Lap 7
Sebastian Vettel now sets a fastest lap time.
Hamilton – “That was dangerous, it wasn’t worth the risk”
Max Verstappen has been given a 10-second penalty.
Lap 8
Drivers are now playing it safe – Vettel in the meantime sets another fastest lap.
Raikkonen right behind in 2nd place followed by Bottas.
Lap 10
Team to Hamilton – “Ok Lewis, radio check, radio check – we’re having I.T issues in the garage.”
Alonso complaining about general racing standards around him.
Lap 11
Team to Hamilton – “radio check again, we should be OK now?”
Hamilton – “Yeah clear, it’s good to hear you back.”
Lap 13
No further action for Grosjean and Hulkenberg.
Lap 14
The two Ferrari’s are right ahead – they have great pace, they both look strong and the cars both have wonderful balance.
They’re off into the distance and handling the race.
Lap 15
Ricciardo – “I can’t say or describe it. It is what it is. I had a good run out of turn 1 and I saw Valtteri on the inside thinking I could brake on the outside and protect my place. It’s not on. It’s amateur to say the least – it’s not like he was trying to pass and I don’t think he likes it when a team-mate gets in front of him but it wasn’t even a pass, it was just a poor mistake.”
Ricciardo – “The team will do their bit and I’ll do my bit. I don’t think it’s even trying too hard, there’s no excuse for that. You get the line taken away and what looks like a good start gets taken away and then he sees me take place and doesn’t like it and then ‘oops, crash‘.”
Lap 16
Hamilton starting to put the pressure on Verstappen.
Lap 18
No further action between Sainz and Alonso – Alonso not happy with how the drivers are handling different situations.
Magnussen – “The tyres are OK but I feel like I’m driving on oil everywhere, the tyres have no grip.”
Team to Magnussen – “Keep going, this is something that all the drivers are reporting a problem with.”
Lap 19
Sebastian Vettel’s lead has come down slightly from Raikkonen.
Raikkonen is staying close behind and not letting there be too much of a gap between them.
Hulkenberg now makes his way past Palmer.
Team to Hulkenberg – “Jo (Palmer) has been asked to let you past, he’s slower than you.”
Lap 20
The drivers are looking to hold their places for the moment – everyone seems to be looking after their tyres ahead of the pit-stops.
Lap 21
Team to Grosjean – “There’s a slight puncture on the tyre and we’ve seen a slight leak, we’re going to box you now.”
Grosjean back out on track again.
Lap 22
Grosjean now stops on-track.
He’s now parked the car off-track and he’s out of the race.
The second driver to retire from the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Lap 25
Vettel – “Check the steering, it’s pulling to the left when I’m straight.”
Team to Vettel – “Is it getting worse?”
Vettel – “It looks like it’s getting worse.”
Picture below – the wheel dragging more to the left. This could be due to suffering tyres.
Lap 26
Team to Hamilton – “Ok Lewis, can you press the marker button if you can hear us?”
Team to Hamilton – “OK we’ve seen you press the button but we can’t hear so we think it’s one-way.”
Mercedes are having a problem, it seems like the team can speak to the drivers but the drivers can’t speak back.
Anything can happen in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Lap 29
Raikkonen is now closing the gap to the race leader. He’s in 2nd place.
Raikkonen – “I’m OK, I am behind Seb and my car is feeling OK.”
Lap 30
Stroll now comes into the pits. We’ll be seeing more cars making an appearance in the pits now.
Bottas now comes into the pits.
Bottas dropping down to 5th place and makes his way out onto the track again – it wasn’t the best of pit-stops.
Lap 31
Hamilton now starting to push his car, he’s closer to Max Verstappen.
Lap 32
Hamilton now comes into the pits.
Vettel wants to come in and change his tyres – he now comes into the pits.
Raikkonen leads the race.
Vettel now makes his way back out onto the track.
Raikkonen happy on his tyres for the moment.
It’s now Raikkonen, Verstappen, Vettel, Bottas and Hamilton
Lap 33
Sainz is up into 6th place with Alonso right behind in 7th, it looks good so far.
Raikkonen – “What the **** – who is this?” asking about Di Resta.
Raikkonen comes into the pits and Vettel JUST regains the place – he leads the race yet again.
Lap 34
Team to Hamilton – “We’re on the backup radio, lets see if you can transmit?”
Team to Hamilton – “OK Lewis, we can see you pressing the button but we can’t hear you.”
Raikkonen – “I had the speed to stay out!”
Lap 35
Alonso is now closing the gap to Sainz.
Sainz – “My rear left is not great.”
Lap 36
Sainz and Alonso BOTH come into the pits.
The battle continues between the two in the Hungarian Grand Prix – Alonso behind Sainz.
Lap 37
Hamilton is now right behind Bottas – the gap has come down between the two. Hamilton adjusting the settings on his steering wheel.
Lap 38
Alonso makes his way past Sainz, he’s now up into 9th place following the pit-stops.
Lap 39
Team to Vettel – “Try to avoid heavy kerbing”
Raikkonen – “Is he going as quick as he can? Can we increase the speed as the others are catching.”
Team to Raikkonen – “There is a slight issue we’re working on it.”
Lap 40
Raikkonen is looking stronger – is it time to let Raikkonen past as he is faster than his team-mate.
Lap 41
Raikkonen – “Whatever you do, don’t put me under massive pressure from the Mercedes when there is no reason.”
Team to Raikkonen – “Understood, Understood.”
Lap 42
Team to Verstappen – “Any sudden drop on the front left tyres, let us know please.”
Verstappen – “I will.”
Vettel still looking like he’s struggling with the steering issue that he’s having. Raikkonen right behind.
Verstappen coming into the pits.
Lap 43
Team to Bottas – “Ferrari cannot use the Kerbs, close the gap.”
There’s tension down at the Ferrari garage.
Vettel leads the race once again.
Raikkonen right behind.
Lap 44
Hamilton – “Radio check”
Team to Hamilton – “Ah – Lewis, great! We can hear you.”
Hamilton – “I have a lot of pace, now let me use it. I don’t know why Ferarri are so slow”
Team to Hamilton – “We’re looking over it, we’re looking over it.”
Hamilton – “This radio sucks, I’m glad we’ve got it back!”
Team to Hamilton – “We know Lewis, things are pretty rubbish with the radio at the moment.”
Lap 46
Hamilton makes his way past Bottas – he’s now looking stronger and catching up to the Ferrari’s in front.
Team to Hamilton – “Ferrari’s are now up ahead.”
Lap 47
Hamilton looks VERY strong, he’s putting in good lap times – he’s found the pace and his message telling the team that he was strong is true!
Team to Vettel – “Avoid kerbs, pace is good, pace is good.”
Lap 49
Team to Bottas – “Lewis will let you go by if he can’t get past Raikkonen.”
It’s Vettel in the lead, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Bottas and Verstappen.
Raikkonen – “er…. I’m not in the most comfortable position at the moment.” Raikkonen is faster than Vettel at the moment and the team should be letting Raikkonen by.
Team to Raikkonen – “We have told Seb to push.”
Lap 50
The gap is closing down, Hamilton is catching up to Raikkonen.
Lap 51
Team to Bottas – “Stay close to Hamilton so we can re-invert the cars.”
Lap 52
Team to Hamilton – “5 laps to make something happen, there’s overtake available.”
Hamilton – “No pressure then….”
Lap 53
Raikkonen is now closing the gap to Vettel. He’s still stronger.
Hamilton is closing the gap to Raikkonen but Raikkonen is now putting the pressure on Vettel.
Raikkonen is right behind Vettel – he is putting pressure on Vettel and showing the team the he is the stronger one out of the two.
Lap 55
Raikkonen – “I’m only going to ruin my tyres – is that how we are going to be the whole race?”
Vettel still leading the race. It’s Vettel, Raikkonen and Hamilton.
They’re now making their way through the back-markers.
Lap 57
Team to Hamilton – “OK Lewis we begin 5 more laps.”
Hamilton – “That’s Ok, do you want me to give the place back to Valtteri?”
Team to Hamilton – “Negative Lewis, Negative – put the pressure on Ferrari.”
Lap 59
Hamilton – “I’m waiting for a mistake up front and I’ll go for it.”
Team to Hamilton – “Understood Lewis.”
There’s pressure from Mercedes on the Ferrari’s – Raikkonen won’t be happy.
Lap 62
Vettel still leading, Raikkonen in 2nd and Hamilton in 3rd.
Team to Di Resta – “OK Paul, we have a problem with the car – we’re going to have to retire the car.”
Di Resta – “OK”
Di Resta now comes into the pits and retires from the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Lap 63
Team to Verstappen – “Ok Max mate, lets push up to Bottas, push up to Bottas.”
Lap 65
Vettel now gets a back marker between him and Raikkonen.
Will Mercedes switch the two drivers round?
Lap 66
There’s 5 laps remaining for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Bottas is not looking as strong as he was, he’s slowly making his way through the back markers.
Team to Hamilton – “Verstappen is on younger tyres. He will be a threat.”
Hamilton – “Do you want me to switch?”
Lap 67
Team to Raikkonen – “OK Kimi let’s not take anything for granted. We don’t know what Hamilton will do so keep doing what you’re doing.”
Vettel still leading the race but he is holding everyone else up.
Lap 69
Hulkenberg retires from the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Lap 70
Vettel leading the race.
He’s making his way round the final lap.
Raikkonen still in 2nd place.
Sebastian Vettel WINS the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Raikkonen in 2nd place.
Bottas in 3rd place.
Hamilton gave Bottas the place back to Bottas meaning that there’s now a wider gap in the championship.
On the final lap – Alonso sets the fastest lap of the race!
Something you don’t see often – Hamilton letting Bottas by to reclaim his position as promised with Bottas acknowledging with a wave to his team-mate.
Driver Reaction – Hungarian Grand Prix
Top 3 Drivers – Vettel, Raikkonen & Bottas
Sebastian Vettel – “I’m over the moon, this was a difficult race. I had my hands full right from the beginning. I don’t know why but the steering seemed to go sideways. I didn’t do a favour to Kimi who could go faster.”
Vettel – “I had to stay focused the whole race and was hoping for a few laps to breathe. There was a fan on the corner who kept giving us the thumbs up and kept us going.”
Vettel – “Basically, the steering was on the side, on the right you are OK and on the straight you’re further down and on the left you have to turn it more and get used to it.”
Kimi Raikkonen – “They all understand English. We had 1-2 as a team but obviously when you ran a mistake yesterday and I didn’t want to force the issue so I kept following for 71 laps. Obviously I want to win but it’s a great result for the team.”
Raikkonen – “The guy has to do a big mistake and you can’t overtake and at least the team is still happy and that’s the main thing.”
Valtteri Bottas – “For sure in the end I was worried with the gap closing. Really, thank you to Lewis who let me by as I gave him the shot to get the Ferrari’s and thank you to him.”
Bottas – “Thank you for all the support, it’s been a tremendous weekend and thank you to everyone.”
Bottas – “I just want to thank the team.”
Sebastian Vettel – “I’ve got testing in a few days and then I will enjoy my time at home.”
Team Reaction
Toto Wolff – “We know that this might cost us the championship but it’s this that has made us win 3 championships and with the spirit of the team.”
Wolff – “One of the most difficult calls I have had to make as Verstappen was so close to to Bottas and it’s important to stick by your word.”
Christian Horner – “It’s very frustrating as we lost Daniel and Max also got the penalty. You never want to see team-mates touch and have the result that happened today.”
Horner – “He made the mistake, he locked up, he’s always on the limit and it was costly for everyone in the team. Daniel got a run and Max has said sorry and we’re going to be talking about it openly. We spoke about it this morning and we discussed it – we said golden rule is you leave space for each other.”
Driver Reaction
Lewis Hamilton – “It wasn’t perfect but we got the radio back at the end and we managed it in the best way we could.”
Hamilton – “I don’t know why they didn’t have the pace, maybe it was their tyres and I was pushing and I had all this pace and I was stuck behind Valtteri and I couldn’t tell the team that I had pace but my tyres took a real beating. I gave it everything I could.”
Hamilton – “It’s tough but I’m a man of my word and slowed down 7 seconds as I was worried about losing the place to Verstappen too.”
Max Verstappen – “It ruined Daniel’s race – the start was quite good and I lost speed, we were both fighting for position. This is not nice and I apologise to Daniel and the team but I will speak and sort it out later.”
Verstappen – “It’s hard to pass here but at least we could have been closer to it. Positive Sunday, it was not nice to happen and not happy with that but the car is moving forward.”
Fernando Alonso – “The fastest lap is a surprise – for P6 we were hoping for 7th and it was possible so we took it and we knew that we will be competitive. We need to capitalise on these weekends and that’s what we did.”
Alonso – “I’m happy for the fastest lap but it was unexpected. We had a battle at the restart, we came to the pit together, we exit together and on the tyre I knew that I could push with some kamikaze moves and we should be happy and proud.”
Stoffel Vandoorne – “It was a long race today and we are happy to have both cars in the points today which is nice but nonetheless things are very encouraging and it’s a good weekend for the team.”
Vandoorne – “We came here expecting to be competitive all weekend and we have shown good pace and this is when we can score points.”
Paul Di Resta – “I don’t feel too bad, I dumped the clutch too much and you need to have awareness all around you. I just wanted to make sure I could get through the first lap and corner with all I had.”
Di Resta – We were slightly unfortunate towards the end but all in all it comes down to being aware of all the other 19 guys. I’m not sure what to expect and I haven’t been used to it and I didn’t want to get caught up with everything.”
Di Resta – “I would have liked to get to the end of the race as there was an oil leak but the team are working on the now and it took us all by surprise. I backed off at the end to give myself room and this is the worst track to be stuck behind someone.”
Kimi Raikkonen – “I don’t think I said let me pass, I said that I have more speed. I have a great car and the speed was a lot quicker and this is a circuit where it’s difficult to overtake and I can only look in the mirror and see the mistake that I had yesterday.”
Raikkonen – “My car was really good to today, it had great balance and it’s one of the days to use what you can and the aim was to have 1-2 for the team and that’s what we did.”
Raikkonen – “I wanted to make sure that we got 1-2 for the team and it all worked out well for the team.”
