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17:00 – The Hungarian Grand Prix has been surrounded by red in the Red Bull Racing calendar for months. The Hungaroring is ideal for the RB14 of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, which can be a great weekend for them. GPUpdate.net looks forward to
last year, however, there was little to laugh at Ricciardo and Verstappen in Hungary. For the Australian, the race was already there after a few laps, after getting a shot in the first round on lap 2 of his Dutch colleague. Many will remember the "bad loser" via the team radio and Ricciardo's major in Verstappen. The Limburger, designated as the cause of the collision and who therefore received a time penalty of ten seconds, came to the finish. He finished fifth for the second year in a row – his best result in Hungary was a fourth place for Toro Rosso in 2015.
Verstappen and Ricciardo shared the third row at the Hungaroring last season. This fact does not seem very positive for the next edition. However, if we look at the time differences, there is more reason to be optimistic. While last year, at Silverstone, the Verstappen was a minute and a half behind pole poleman Lewis Hamilton, he only had two seconds left on the Hungaroring at 0.1 seconds of time. ahead of him – the delay on Sebastian Vettel was half a second. This season, the gap between Red Bull on the one hand and Mercedes and Ferrari on the other hand is already much lower than a year ago. For example: in 2017, Verstappen took fourth place in Monaco with a 0.3 second lead over poleman Kimi Raikkonen, Ricciardo took the pole position this year in the streets of the principality with 0.2 second difference over Vettel. If we look at this season's qualifying at Silverstone, Verstappen gave Hamilton's "only" 0.7 seconds. In this respect, Red Bull can go to Hungaroring with a positive feeling, known as "Monaco without walls"
We focus on the title and we compare the differences between Ferrari and Mercedes in Monaco, then we see that Vettel was 0.2 seconds faster in qualifying than his competitor Hamilton. Of course, it remains to speculate and the differences of the beginning of the year at Monte Carlo do not have to say everything, since the teams have of course developed in the meantime. For example, in Austria, Mercedes introduced a new aerodynamic package, which was met by Ferrari at Silverstone with a successful update.
In terms of engine power, Ferrari now seems to be taking over Mercedes. Toto Wolff, Mercedes' motor racing boss, claimed to lose half a second on Ferrari at Hockenheim. This seems a little exaggerated, especially because Nico Hulkenberg claimed that the Renault engine was "only" 0.4 seconds from the Italian engine. In any case it is clear that Ferrari in recent months has made the biggest strides with the powertrain, although it is not as advantageous in Hungary as in England or Germany for example, with only a relatively long start / finish
Good support is more important on the Budapest track and on this basis Red Bull seems to be the favorite for the win. The Austrian team has obviously not been idle in recent months, as was shown last weekend with the competitive times that Verstappen and Ricciardo were able to cover in the section of the Hockenheim stadium. With the many curves on the Hungaroring, Red Bull drivers have many opportunities to catch up with losses in the home / finish straight and even outperform them.
Shortly after, the battle between Ferrari and Mercedes will be exciting. After the tragedy at Hockenheim, Ferrari will no longer want to defeat its title rival. Because Vettel was in the leading position of the track and Hamilton won from the fourteenth starting position, after a problem in qualifying, the Germans in World Cup stand up suddenly against a seventeen point gap on his competitor British. Ferrari can in any case draw its trust from the double win last year, with Valtteri Bottas and Hamilton on P3 and P4 respectively for Mercedes. A new double from Vettel and Raikkonen would be a wonderful way to pay tribute to Sergio Marchionne, who recently resigned from his position as General Manager of Ferrari and Wednesday.
Friday at 11:00, the light becomes green for the first time free practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix, the second session of testing begins four hours later. On Saturday, it is time for the third free practice session (12:00 to 13:00) and qualification (15:00 to 16:00). Sunday at 15:10 the lights above the straight line turn off, signaling the start of the 33rd edition of the event at the Hungaroring.
By: Rahied Ishaak
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