Sebastian Vettel Builds Legacy with Brilliant Win for Ferrari at Hungarian GP
On an emotional weekend in Budapest, with Jules Bianchi's death weighing on everyone's minds, Sebastian Vettel continued to build his legacy with a flawless drive for Ferrari.
Sunday's thrilling race was a great win for Vettel and Ferrari, a cathartic moment for the sport and a fantastic spectacle for the fans.
The entire Hungarian Grand Prix weekend looked to be leading up to another victory for Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton—his sixth in 10 races this year. Hamilton was quickest in all three practice sessions and qualified more than half-a-second ahead of his team-mate Nico Rosberg and nearly three-quarters-of-a-second clear of Vettel.
But then the race started. And what a race it was!
For the second grand prix in a row, the Mercs were mugged off the line, this time by the Ferraris of Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. Hamilton also lost a place to Rosberg, exiting the first corner in fourth place.
With adrenaline coursing from the start, instead of regrouping and mounting a sustained challenge, Hamilton compounded his problems by locking his left-front tyre and sliding through the gravel trap at Turn 6, rejoining the race in 10th place.
While Hamilton made his way back up through the field, the Ferraris pulled away from Rosberg at the front. By the time Rosberg made his first pit stop on Lap 21, Vettel was already 10 seconds down the road with Raikkonen three seconds behind.
The Hungaroring's narrow, twisty layout is often compared to Monaco, and with cars banging all afternoon and bodywork littering the circuit, it certainly resembled a grand prix in the principality.
Vettel, though, stayed clear of the chaos.
When he won four world championships in a row for Red Bull, the German faced doubters saying he only won because he had the best car. Now, Vettel certainly does not have the fastest car, but he has still won twice in the first 10 races this season. At this point, there can be no doubting his supreme talent.
The first of those wins, at the Malaysian Grand Prix, came with the fates aligning perfectly in Ferrari's favour. In Hungary, though, it seemed like circumstances were conspiring against Vettel after his quick start.
Around Lap 40, Raikkonen started experiencing problems with his energy recovery system (ERS) and dropped back from Vettel.
Then, as Vettel began Lap 43, Nico Hulkenberg's front wing failed on the start-finish straight, launching him into the tyre barriers at high speed. Hulkenberg walked away from his car, but the safety car was deployed, allowing the marshals to sweep away the debris strewn across the track.
When Hulkenberg crashed, Vettel was 28 seconds ahead of Rosberg in third place. The safety car closed the gap to a few car lengths and Raikkonen's ERS failure allowed Rosberg to pass him immediately at the restart, which came on Lap 49, eliminating Vettel's buffer.
Just before the restart, television viewers heard Hamilton's race engineer tell him he was racing for the win. But as the green flags waved, Hamilton made another mistake: Battling for fourth place, he ran wide into Turn 1 and slammed into the side of Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull, necessitating an extra pit stop for a new front wing and earning him a drive-through penalty.
"I definitely had a bad day at the office—a very bad day at the office—but the team did a great job with the calls so I could at least get a couple of points," Hamilton said after the race, per ESPN F1's Nate Saunders.
At the front, Rosberg was within a second of Vettel, and Ricciardo was bearing down on both of them with softer tyres. It seemed like only a matter of time before one or both would find their way past the Ferrari.
Again, Vettel remained calm and, again, those chasing him faltered.
On Lap 64 of 69, Ricciardo braked late into Turn 1, where he had previously passed Valtteri Bottas and Raikkonen. This time, Rosberg cut back across the face of the Red Bull and Ricciardo's front wing clipped Rosberg's left-rear tyre, puncturing it.
"I came from a long way back—I thought it was clean but Nico came back, he touched my tyre and he touched my wing," said Ricciardo, according to the official F1 website. "We both ruined our chance of a win, but I wanted to leave it all out there."
From there, Vettel cruised to victory, 16 seconds ahead of Ricciardo's team-mate, Daniil Kvyat, who scored his first-ever podium finish. Ricciardo recovered to finish third and, despite all the drama, Hamilton finished sixth, two places ahead of Rosberg, extending his championship lead to 21 points.
The star of the day, though, was undoubtedly Vettel. He controlled the race from the start and never looked flustered. Although Mercedes are still the class of the field, Vettel has proven that he and Ferrari can, on occasion, challenge them head-to-head.
Vettel's victory was the 41st of his career, tying him with Ayrton Senna for third on the all-time list (in 12 fewer starts).
"It’s a great day for Ferrari but not as great as it could have been," Vettel said in the post-race press conference. "Obviously a bit of a shame for Kimi—it's not my job but all the bulls--t that’s been going around recently, I think both of us were driving a very consistent race and deserved a one-two today."
The drivers' title still seems out of reach for Vettel this year. The Hungarian win pulled him to within 42 points of Hamilton, although that is still a mountain to overcome in a slower car. But for those clamouring for a changing of the guard at the front of the grid, Vettel and Ferrari are laying the groundwork for a legitimate championship challenge in 2016.
In the meantime, Vettel's legend continues to grow among the sport's all-time greats—and he is still just 28 years old.
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