hungarian grand prix

I didn't post a blog yesterday because I got busy with something from early on and basically forgot.

It was the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend.

It's been on the calendar a long time has Hungary, but it's not one of the classic races.  The nature of the circuit is such that it's very difficult to overtake.  The circuit is relatively slow speed as it is basically a continuous series of corners.  This makes it challenging and (I imagine) interesting to drive, but doesn't facilitate overtaking.

However, saying all that, this recent race was okay.  I mean, it wasn't amazing, but there was enough stuff happening that it wasn't totally dull.

It was also Hamilton's first win for Mercedes.  I have to admit they've done a lot better this year than I thought they would - I thought they'd struggle this year and then possibly pull off a blinder with the new engines next year.

He's also theoretically in the hunt for the championship, but I think this weekend was actually somewhat distorted.  Basically Vettel, Alonso and Raikonnen got a bit stuck behind Button's McLaren.  Button actually did quite well in the race, as he was down in 13th after qualifying and ended up 8th.  I think they drove a clever strategy that Button was able to make work, but it was helped by the difficulty of overtaking at the circuit, as he then delayed a lot of people.

However, there is another way of looking at that, in that Lewis was also in the position of having to overtake people on a difficult circuit, but he did it, where others either failed or took too long.  Hamilton had to overtake Button once and Webber twice and did so it quick order each time.

To me this shows the difference between Lewis and some of the competition - give him a car that's up to the job and let him go and he will race, where others will perhaps tend to sit back and consolidate.

It's now the F1 mid-season break, so there won't be any races for a while, and I think when it comes back at the end of the month it's the always entertaining Belgium race at Spa.