Is Danny Kyvat the new Maldonado? Danny is not a bad driver but IMO he's not good enough for F1.
Danny "Torpedo" Kvyat vs Pastor "The Crashtor" Maldonado
DESTRUCTION DERBY EXTRAVAGANZA!
Caught up with the race as I was out Sunday, what a massive boost for Hamilton who absolutely dominated the weekend like a man in the zone. Hamilton has always had days when he's looked unstoppable, but I think this season has been his most inconsistent. Hes had a number of weekends where he just isnt dialled in at all, Russia and Monaco the standouts where he looked all over the place. Then you get weekends like this, where he is literally untouchable. Half a second over everyone in qualifying, a couple more tenths over his own teammate who won the last race. Cruised round all day and smashed the lap record to score his third "Grand Slam" of the season (Pole, win, lead every lap, fastest lap). To put that into perspective, that equals the record for most grand slams in a season (from his 4 wins), and is now second behind only Jim Clark. Its a little frustrating to watch but at the moment you arent quite sure which Lewis is turning up at the weekend, but you either get middling Lewis who might have a wobble in quali and get 4th after a decent race, or youre getting God mode Lewis, who is untouchable.
He cuts the championship to a solitary point thanks to Ferrari's very unfortunate luck with their tyres (Hamilton apparently backed off to half throttle mode after what happened to Kimi), and the fight is massively on. Hungary will be interesting as its not really a power track, and Merc, Ferrari and Red Bull should all be pretty close together, and theres only a couple more true power circuits left (Spa, Monza, USA. Abu Dhabi?) and a good chunk of more technical tracks so it will be fun watching the battle ebb and flow, as I think it will until the final race. An actual championship battle, how about that.
Brilliant drive by Bottas, didnt put a foot wrong all day, made his moves stick, put himself in a position to pounce on a wounded Kimi and brought home a 1-2 that they really hadnt expected.
Poor Kimi. Probably all there is to say, he drove a pretty flawless race, just to have a tyre fail him.
Verstappen put a monster move on Vettel at the start, hes just so exciting to watch. Might have gained a place extra if they hadnt pitted him last minute, but they might have lost it all if theirs went too, so hard to judge. Danny Ric with a fantastic march through the field, what a day from him. Bit strange how far off they seemed in quali, might have just been an off day, their pace was decent enough in the race but still nothing special. Hopefully like I said, theyll be closer in Hungary.
Hulkenberg drove really well, but we know he has that in him, Palmer was unlucky with the failure but whos arsed, its more interesting seeing if they can swap Kubica in after the summer break.
Torro Rosso had a mare. McLaren had an equal, if less spectacular bad day. Alonso still retiring (all but two races), Vandoorne was on for a point before a poor stop cost him. Just dont see where they go from here. Alonso said hed leave if there wasnt progress and is there any? He swapped out all his engine AGAIN, and still didnt see the chequered flag. Never mind his target of McLaren winning races, they've only scored points once all season, its pathetic.
Decent ish race, nothing spectacular until the tyre gods decided to spice it up a bit. On to Hungary where the current grid list of winners there reads:
Vettel: 1
Ricciardo: 1
Raikkonen: 1
Alonso: 1
Hamilton: ..
5Here we go.
