Kimi just put the hammer down: Hungary review

The Hungarian GP was a mixed bag for any F1 buff, some shocking events and some maginificent wheel-to-wheel racing. For a moment, I was lost in the fruitful memories and the GP names then read Spa 04, Suzuka 05, Magny 02 but with a reality check, I got the name as Hungaroring 2009. Yes, Kimi's back to the goody goody times, back to his vintage best, back to his own self.

Talking about the race, Ferrari went through a bit of trauma on the back of Felipe Massa's disturbing crash on Saturday qualifiers which send him unconscious and caused a concussion. A metal piece from Barrichello's Brawn went flying in the air and landed on Massa's visor. Luckily the thing didn't go through the visor but caused a heavy impact above the left eye of the Ferrari driver who then rammed into the tyre barriers out of any control. Massa is right now sedated after a successful skull surgery to make his recovery gradual and safe. Because the incident occurred on qualifiers, it meant no reserve driver could have replaced Massa for Sunday's race.

And Raikkonen was Ferrari's sole contention who had an average quali, ended up on the 4th row of the grid. The start was nothing short of superlatives when Raikkonen with the aid of KERS, went past Rosberg (1) and Kovailainen(2), then slid across to the middle of the track with a heavy lounge on the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton before going past Vettel in turn1 (3) and up into 4th position. In the process, he had a moment with Vettel when he was forced to turn into the Redbull driver by Webber from the left which frankly is not Kimi's mistake. The pole sitter Fernando Alonso was on fumes but was also loosing time to Lewis who already got past Webber. Alonso pitted and with that went the glimmer of chances out of the window.

Meanwhile, Lewis, Webber and Raikkonen put up a series opf good laps and Alonso's bad pitstop only meant he emerged with a broken wheel. Later he lost his front right tyre causing a havoc in the pits cos just a week back, Henry Surtees lost his life in an F2 race when a tyre from his contender's car hit his head and ofcourse Massa's incident was on the back of everyone's head. Alonso retired and the fight was left to the trio. Raikkonen n Webber pitted together but rub of the green went in Raikkonen's favor for a change. Webber had a delay and was released just in front of the roaring Ferrari but couldn't get past it. This meant Raikkonen was second behind Lewis who was yet to pit. Redbull deserved a sanction there.

From then on each of them were on a race of their own, Raikkonen trying to prevent Glock from passing him, using KERS effectively, Lewis building up a handy lead over the Ferrari and Webber standing virile against Rosberg n co. Nothing dramatic occurred and with a seventh fastest car on the grid, Kimi Raikkonen took 2nd behind Lewis and ahead of Webber. His best result of the season by a country mile thanks to the fantastic start and some serene drive towards the end. Ferrari send a huge tribute to Massa with their best result of the season. McLaren were back to the winning ways thanks to a good performance from Lewis who didn't had any first lap incident to his credit, again for a change. Meanwhile, Brawns lost ground as they struggled to get heat on the hard compounds. Vettel retired which meant Webber had the last laugh with 6 precious points.

This championship now takes an U-turn with McLaren n Ferrari taking points off both Redbull n Brawn and more is instore when F1 head to Valencia next month for the European GP.