The latest post in the "Paddock Club Diaries" Series takes us to the Circuit of Hungaroring for the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Circuit is a 45 minute drive from Budapest and I must say a lot of passionate fans attend the Race. The Race Weekend was from 22nd July to 25th July. I had the privilege of being a guest of the Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team over the weekend and this post documents the Friday Experience.

Enroute to the Circuit :

Shots of Hungaroring :

I reached the Paddock Club and the Pit Lane Walk was going on :

Some Selfies with the GoPro :


Friday Morning Pit Lane Walk ( Video Link ) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyTyB1f7HVo


Jenson Button's McLaren Honda Being Fired up before FP1 ( Video Link ) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBbcjIA0YxY


The Paddock Club is pretty small and definitely not as big as some of its European counterparts :

The View of the circuit from the Ferrari F1 Club :


The Pit Walls are full of personnel before the start of Free Practice 1 :

Shots from Free Practice 1 :


Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team in FP1 :


Ferrari Pit Stop Practice during FP1 ( Video Link ) :



I had the Opportunity of visiting the Garage during the session and upload 2 selfies via the Scuderia Ferrari handle :

Lewis Hamilton led from Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, the Mercedes having a comfortable lead over the Ferrari duo.


Post FP1, we were joined by Ferrari's Development Driver Marc Gene in the Suite :

Marc Gene Interview ( Video Link ) :




Some shots of the Ferrari F1 Club :


The Paddock on Friday afternoon :


It was soon time for the GP2 Practice Session :


The Menu for Friday :


Time to Binge on some great food :


A Quick Lunch and it was time for the 2nd Pit Lane Walk of the Day :


Shots from the Scuderia Ferari F1 Garage :


I had the opportunity of meeting Mr. Dave Greenwood, Kimi Raikkonen's Race Engineer and had a healthy chat about the season so far :


Scuderia Ferrari firing up before FP2 ( Video Link ) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPc0ySdw0Nc



John Booth, Ex Marussia and now with Scuderia Toro Rosso :

Beat Zehnder, Team Manager of Sauber F1 Team and an old friend of Kimi Raikkonen :


Free Practice 2 commenced after the Pit Lane Walk and here are some shots of the same :


Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team in FP2 :


Kimi Raikkonen returning to Pits in FP2 ( Video Link ) :




Sebastian Vettel returning to Pits in FP2 ( Video Link ) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqdRWfEvYDM


Scuderia Ferrari Pit Stop Practice in FP2 ( Video Link ) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uW28auw6NY


Williams Racing F1 Pit Stop Practice in FP2 ( Video Link ) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EDlTILUX4w



Chequered Flag :

Drivers returning to the Pits :

Nico Rosberg was fastest followed by Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel. Max Verstappen, Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen completed the top 6.


Jock Clear, Senior Performance Engineer of Scuderia Ferrari F1 visiting the Ferrari F1 Club for an interview :


Jock Clear Interview in the Ferrari F1 Club ( Video Link ) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F4XVyoA3rg


Shots of the Paddock on Friday Evening after both the Practice Sessions :


David Croft, commentator of Sky Sports F1 :


Some Exotic Cars occupying the Parking Spaces of the Paddock Club :


Returning to the Hotel :


It was a great Friday at the 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix. A Big Thank you to Edge Global F1 for all the arrangements done for the Weekend. Thank you to Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team and the Hosts of the Ferrari F1 Club for the Hospitality shown to me and all their graciousness!

Saturday and Sunday posts to follow soon!

The Latest Blog Post in "Gallery of Memories" is from the 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix. The Race was the held from 22nd to the 24th of July. I had the privilege of being a guest of the Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team.

A garage visit during Free Practice 1 on Friday and the guests had an opportunity to take selfies!

Dave Greenwood ( Kimi's Race Engineer ) :

Mark Arnall ( Kimi's Physical Instructor ) :

John Booth of Scuderia Toro Rosso :

Beat Zehnder, Sauber F1 Team Manager :

David Croft of Sky Sports F1 :

Marc Gene, Scuderia Ferrari Development Driver :

David Coulthard, Former F1 Racer and Channel 4 presenter :

Martin Brundle, Former F1 Racer and Sky Sports F1 presenter :

Simon Lazenby of Sky Sports F1 :

Ayao Komatsu, Romain Grosjean's Race Engineer :

Guenther Steiner, Haas F1 Team Principal :

Tanya Bauer, Sky Deutschland :

Kimi Raikkonen! The Man! So happy! My Weekend was made!

Sebastian Vettel! I missed him in Spain, not this time!!

Maurizio Arrivabene! Amazing Man! Charismatic Team Principal of Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team :

Minttu Virtanen, Kimi's better half :

Romeo, Alberto & Emilia Ma'am, Ferrari's hosts for the Weekend :

Johnny Herbert, Former F1 Racer and Sky Sports F1 Presenter :

Paul Di Resta, Ex Sahara Force India F1 Team Driver and a guest of Sky Sports F1 over the weekend.

Jacques Villeneuve, 1997 F1 World Champion and Sky Sports F1 Italia Co-Presenter :

The Hosts of Pirelli Motorsport and Scuderia Ferrari F1 in the Paddock Club :

Rachel Brookes, Sky Sports Presenter :

Ted Kravitz! A great guy and presenter for Sky Sports F1 :

Fernando Alonso!! Was quite hard to get his attention but he finally relented!

I went for dinner post the race and I bumped into the owner of the Haas F1 Team over dinner.

Gene Haas, Owner of Haas F1 Team :

It was an eventful weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

A Big Thank you to Edge Global F1 for all the necessary arrangements made for the weekend. Thank you to Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team for the hospitality showered upon me.

Paddock Club Diaries to follow soon! So watch this space!

Hungary was the final race ( 11th Race on Calender ) before the 4 week break. Formula 1 teams knew the importance of doing well at this race. This race brought to an end a fascinating First Half of the season.

A good race would definitely help drivers going into the break and Hungaroring did not disappoint.

 

QUALIFYING :

Q1 saw the elimination of the usual suspects. Q2 however sprung a surprise as Schumacher and Rosberg failed to make it into Q3, the Mercedes AMG -  Petronas were clearly struggling. Both the Sauber Ferraris suffered the same fate. However the biggest shock in Q2 came in the foorm of Mark Webber, the Australian gave his best but the balance of the car was simply not right.

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button were dominating the sessions. The McLaren Mercedes are known to produce excellent results in Hungary. Hamilton just humbled his competition by topping the Timesheets in all 3 sessions!!

Romain Grosjean sprung a surprise as he finished 2nd Fastest in Q3 to take a Front row position next to Hamilton.

Vettel and Button qualified 3rd and 4th. Kimi Raikkonen and Alonso 5th and 6th Respectively. Kimi had been competitive all weekend and had a chance to qualify better but a rare mistake on his flying lap cost him a couple of Places.

Nevertheless the Lotuses had now qualified in positions from where they could launch an attack for Victory.

Alonso knew that this racetrack wasn't the best for his car and was more focussed on getting maximum points.

Massa, Maldonado, Senna and Hulkenberg completed the top 10.

 

RACE :

An Intriguing battle awaited us on Sunday. All the drivers in the Top 10 started on the Soft Compound tyres.

The Drivers came lined up on the grid after the Formation Lap but the Start was aborted after Michael Schumacher's Engine shut down on the Grid. The German now had to start from the Pit Lane...

The Five Lights went out and there was action into the first turn itself. Hamilton had a clean getaway as Button jumped Vettel into 3rd. Webber had a flying start and was already up into 7th from 11th. Alonso Jumped Raikkonen to take 5th.

Schumacher came back into the pits for Tyre Change on the 3rd lap but his woes weren't over. He was penalised for Speeding in the pitlane and was way behind the pack after serving his penalty on 7th lap.

Hamilton was building his lead at the Front but the more interesting battle was between Alonso in 5th and Webber in 7th. The Gap at the front stayed constant at around 2 seconds.

Kobayashi was in a similar situation as Schumacher after his pitstop which demoted him to 21st.

The Battle between Hamilton and Grosjean swung back and forth as the former opened up a gap only for the latter to peg it back on the next lap. Vettel was closing in on Button and it was evident that Button had lost the performance. An offtrack excursion on turn 4 on Lap 16 convinced him to pit and switch to Medium Compound Tyres on Lap 17. He came out P10. Maldonado and Senna also pitted on the same lap.

Lap 18 saw Vettel and Alonso pit and Button Stayed ahead of Vettel.

Hamilton and Grosjean pitted on consecutive laps ( 19 and 20 ) and both suffered blips. They maintained track positions but used different tyre strategies, Lewis on medium and Romain on softs.

Raikkonen played the undercut on Alonso but Webber emerged behind the Spaniard after their pit-stops on lap 21.

The difference in Tyre Performance helped Grosjean close in within a second of Hamilton and Vettel had Button in his sights ( lap 25 ).  However a couple of Laps later, Grosjean's over enthusiasm with his soft tyres cost him as he seemed to lose grip allowing Hamilton to restore his lead at the top. Lots of rubber was being deposited on the circuit now as the tyres started to wear for Drivers.

Lap 29 saw Raikkonen being told on the Radio to extend his stint on the soft and Grosjean peg back the gap to about a second. Vettel was trying his best to get past Button but the latter seemed to hang on to his position. Vettel urged his team to do something as he knew he had the pace to challenge the cars in front ( Lap 31 ).

Button was asked to switch to Plan "B" and Grosjean now was within the DRS Zone to Challenge Hamilton on Lap 34.  Hamilton was informed of the same as the team sprung into action.

Button pitted on Lap 36 and another quick stop of 2.8sec got him out in 8th position. The Clear Track helped Vettel put in some quick laps. His pace was emulated by Kimi Raikkonen and it was clear that his Lotus was in a different league.

Button Struggled to get past Senna while Raikkonen was closing in on Vettel. Vettel pitted on Lap 39 for Medium Compound Tyres and emerged ahead of the Senna - Button battle. The Slower Williams had cost Button the position.

Hamilton pitted on lap on 41. He came out 2nd behind Kimi ( who was yet to pit ). Kimi Raikkonen was on series of scorching laps and the gap between Kimi and Lewis was 14 seconds.

A Flurry of Pit Stops followed and Kimi was asked to make a final push before his Final Stop. The Same message was relayed to Romain. Kimi came out of the pitlane ( lap 46 ) and both Kimi and Romain were side by side into turn 1. Raikkonen came out on top as Romain ran wide.

THE FLYING FINN HAD JUMPED FROM 5th to 2nd!! What a Drive!!

Button pitted again on lap 47 and a problem with the left-front tyre prolonged his pit-stop. Webber was upto 5th while Raikkonen was making up ground on Hamilton. Webber pitted and emerged 8th.

It was now a fight to the finish. Hamilton seemed to be holding of Raikkonen while Vettel tried a last throw of the dice. He pitted on Lap 59 and got engaged in a wheel-to-wheel battle with Alonso. He came out on top and continued his pursuit of Grosjean who was in 3rd.

Michael Schumacher finally retired on lap 60 bringing to an end a dismal race for him.

Sebastien Vettel was lapping 2 secnds a lap faster than Grosjean but the 17 seconds gap with 8  laps to go seemed too much.

Hamilton held off Raikkonen to take the chequered flag. Grosjean held off a charging Vettel to take 3rd. Vettel finished only a second behind Grosjean. Alonso, Button, Senna, Webber, Massa, Rosberg completed the Top 10.

 

Hamilton would gain great confidence from this victory. He used a smart strategy to hold off the Lotuses. Alonso would be glad to finish ahead of Webber and extend his lead at the top.

The Lotuses did an exceptional job and the Flying Finn Kimi Raikkonen was the driver of the day for me. I would have loved to see him on the top step of the podium though...

Now a 4 week break awaits us.. Can't wait for SPA - FRANCORCHAMPS!!

 

Will the King of Spa KIMI RAIKKONEN reign supreme at Spa??? Who knows!!