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The rain came to the rescue of Lewis Hamilton, just like a week ago in Germany
. His rival Sebastian Vettel bet on a perfectly balanced Ferrari, while Hamilton's Mercedes was nervous and nervous, to the point that his team-mate Valtteri Bottas and himself trained in the final. The track leveled the playing field and Hamilton, as he does so often, excelled.
His time was 0.26sec faster than Bottas, and 0.812sec faster than Vettel, who started fourth, after qualifying 0.024secs more slowly than teammate Kimi Raikkonen.
"Rain was a blessing," said Hamilton. "I did not know that I would shoot for the front row and pole, I could not be happier, it's really a shock, I did not expect to be here."
He sets up an enticing race. If it's dry, as expected, the two slower cars start in front of the two faster ones, and Vettel really needs to make the most of a circuit that should have been a slam-dunk win. to cut the Hamilton championship.
At the moment, that's 17 points, but if Hamilton wins Sunday, the win will be almost perfect. There are still nine races to go after Hungary, and some will certainly favor Ferrari, but this kind of margin is a major psychological obstacle, even if it is not huge.
Both Hamilton and Bottas have indicated that they are fighting a battle in the rear of the race. In their favor, it is more difficult to double in Hungary than perhaps elsewhere than in Monaco. "It will mean the race is pretty tight," said Hamilton. "It's going to be tight, it will be hard to keep the temperature of the tires under control, I can not tell you what's going to happen, we just have to lower our heads and try to escape."
Bottas added that the simulation was taking place in Friday's practice, suggesting that Mercedes was slower than Ferrari and Red Bull on the pace of the race
. "I think we really need to improve everything right from the start of the race." "It's going to be very hot, a really long race, so … yeah, overtaking is difficult but there are plenty of possibilities for the cars behind to get us if they have more speed." Vettel remains confident despite a Saturday's frustrating qualifying
Vettel looked compelling throughout the training and had been very confident of the pole had it stayed dry and hot.
"In the dry, we were rather in control. "We are starting in fourth place and we are focused on winning from fourth place."
The qualifying hour was mostly anything but dry, and the pace of Ferrari
Vettel finished first and second segments, but the first one ended on a drying track, and in the second Ferrari made a strategic master stroke – or was lucky, according to your point of view – sending Vettel on middlemen
Everyone came out on tablecloths only to find a track in the last sector, and must immediately dig.
It meant that Vettel was getting the best of conditions, and that he was going over the two-second sitting. Carlos Sainz, of Renault, who was very impressive throughout the race and finished fifth on the grid
In the top 10 shots, the conditions were pretty bad for the full tires and Hamilton and Bottas were at the controls. At first glance, this does not make sense. This track comes with greater support capacity in a highly-offsetting setup – which is why it was faster than the Mercedes in Monaco, and should be back in Singapore in September.
More support should also help, and suddenly the Ferrari were slower. Why would that be, this writer asked Vettel after?
"It's not always that simple," he said. "I see where you come from, obviously, we have not ridden a lot in the water this year and the little we have, we still have work to do." 19659003 "" It was not so good. It's not a disaster to start third and fourth, but we certainly want to be ahead. In the dry, it could have been a different result, but it was not dry. And we must make sure that we are there too in the water. "
A pause" Sorry, I can not really answer. "
Because you do not know?"
"Well, I think I know, but …"
Toto Wolff, the boss of Mercedes F1, thinks the answer is trivial: the temperature of tires in wet conditions, Mercedes had its tires right, and Ferrari may not have done it
applied to Red Bull, whose pilot Max Verstappen, normally outstanding in the wet, had temperatures of tires well below the optimum and finished in seventh place.
Of course, the incomparable skills of Hamilton in wet weather can not be underestimated.
Force India's problems could shake up F1 [19659028] This weekend was dominated by the future of Force India, which was put under administration Friday evening following a lawsuit by its pilot Sergio Perez.
The Mexican told BBC Sport that He made the decision to protect the future of the team, having N asked to do it by his bosses. He did not specify who, but he was almost certainly deputy director of the Bob Fernley team and chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer.
Put the team in the administration, said Perez, postponed a liquidation order from another creditor.
All parties involved are confident that this initiative will help ensure the future of a team that has suffered in recent times due to the legal and financial difficulties of co-owner Vijay Mallya. He is fighting extradition to India for fraud charges, which he denies, which has had an impact on the team's finances.
There would be at least three potential buyers – two US consortia and one Russian businessman – and the situation of the team increases the potential for all kinds of changes on the ground.
For starters, pilots are now potentially free to move. Esteban Ocon is already on the road to Renault for 2019 – a move that is anything but sorted but has not yet been officially confirmed.
But the situation of Force India will mean that it will soon be new owners or the collapse of Ocon. could move to Renault this year.
This would reflect what happened last year, when the French company was in negotiations with Red Bull and McLaren on the engine exchanges between Honda and Renault, and Sainz eventually passed from Toro Rosso to Renault for the last races of the season
Sainz is in intensive talks with McLaren next year. He would either partner his friend Fernando Alonso, who still has to make a decision about his future, or replace him if the two-time champion decided to move to Indycars.
With Force India, it is not beyond the realms It is likely that Ocon could enter the Renault de Sainz in the second half of this year, and Sainz move to McLaren to replace Stoffel Vandoorne
The Belgian, who struggled to match Alonso this year, would then be a free agent, Toro Rosso, who was looking to replace Brendon Hartley for some time, had an offer for the McLaren reserve driver, Lando Norris, rejected in June
which may be consistent with the conflict between McLaren and Toro Rosso. on the future of James Key.
As BBC Sport reported on Thursday, Key resigned from his position as technical director of Toro Rosso and signed to do the same role at McLaren. But he signed a contract with Toro Rosso that the team qualifies as "long-term" – which should be the case until 2020 – and when he will be able to join McLaren, he will be the object negotiations.
Up to now Helmut Marko, Red Bull advisor. He plays hard and makes his negotiations public by saying that he will hold Key to his contract. He even told BBC Sport on Saturday that Key had not resigned, which, according to sources, is not an accurate representation of the events.
In any case, the employment law prohibits Red Bull from moving to McLaren for more than 12 months, and McLaren clearly wants it before that. Perhaps an agreement involving Vandoorne and / or Norris could facilitate the process for this to happen sooner.
Meanwhile, Lawrence Stroll, the father of pilot Williams, Lance, would like to move his son to Force India. I had discussions with Szafnauer
Again, it was in 2019, but maybe that too could happen sooner, with George Russell, who is awesome in Formula 2, and who moved to Williams to replace him
. the first few days in all of this, and it could finally take until the next year for all of this to happen. Or it could be sooner. Certainly, as a result of the evolution of Force India, it could be
The summer break, with nearly four weeks between Hungary and the next race in Belgium, promises to be very busy for some of the most influential figures in F1.
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