The Good – Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel won a sensational Hungarian Grand Prix from third on the grid with a faultless drive at the Hungaroring. Dedicating the race to Jules Bianchi Vettel has now also matched Ayrton Senna’s milestone of 41 race victories in Formula 1, achieving this fat with nine races to spare.

Vettel got the perfect getaway and powered around the side of Lewis Hamilton and into first place before turn 1 and from there he didn’t look back. He had managed to achieve a 10 second lead over his teammate Kimi Raikkonen before the safety car came out, however nothing was going to stop Vettel in this form. He controlled the race well from the front after the safety car returned to the pits and rightly deserved to win a superb race for the Ferrari team.

Sebastian Vettel: “Certainly for us, for the team, for myself, it was an amazing day. A great start. Obviously a bit hairy at the end where we had to push again. I think if you take the last couple of days, the ups and downs, both emotionally and in terms of performance, I think it’s difficult to beat, but obviously it’s great to come out on top.”

The Bad – Lewis Hamilton

Starting on pole at a track where he has won on four previous occasions in the fastest car of those on track, you would assume Lewis Hamilton was in-line for a record fifth win in Hungary, instead he had a nightmare 69 laps around the Hungaroring. Lewis described this as “One of the worst races I thin I’ve had”. He was right, overtaken by Vettel, Raikkonen and Rosberg before turn one on the first lap, Lewis then found himself in the gravel when he locked up as he attempted to pass Rosberg on the opening lap. When the safety car came out Lewis had fought back from 10th at the end of the firs lap to 4th behind his teammate Rosberg. However, with Ricciardo behind Hamilton on the quicker soft tyre he passed Lewis at turn one when Lewis locked up and ran into the side of the Red Bull, causing both cars damage. Ricciardo was able to continue however Lewis had to run into the pits to change his front wing. As he began to fight back again he was handed a drive through penalty for causing a collision with Ricciardo. He served this and came out in 13th and on the softer and quicker tyre, which he put on when he changed his wing after collecting Riccardo; Lewis was able to fight back up to 6th place.

A bad race for Hamilton could have been much worse before Rosberg hit the side of Ricciardo’s front wing and burst his back left tyre. Therefore, rather than finishing second and wiping away the championship points deficit, Rosberg finished in 8^th place after his tyre change and Hamilton was able to miraculously extend his lead by four points. Lucky boy!

The Ugly – Pastor Maldonado

A fairly obvious choice this race week, as the Lotus driver managed to collect three separate penalties during the race. To add insult, Pastor has been handed two penalty points for one of the incidents. Maldonado firstly clashed with Sergio Perez after he started on the medium tyre and had to deal with drivers on the soft tyre overtaking him after their first stops. Maldonado, passed by Perez at turn one, collided with the Mexican at the exit of the corner, spinning Perez off track. Although both carried on Maldonado collected a drive through penalty for causing a collision.

When the safety car came out following Nico Hulkenberg’s front wing failure on the straight coming to turn one, Maldonado’s race was thrown into further chaos. When the safety car came out Maldonado was handed his second penalty for speeding in the pit lane and was given for a drive through penalty. Before the safety car came in and the race could run Maldonado was under his third investigation for overtaking under the safety car and received a 10 second time penalty. When the chequered flag waved Maldonado finished in 13th place. This was not the end of Maldonado’s day as he was hit with two penalty points after the race. This brings him to a grand total of six points on his license for the last twelve months.