The 2018 Hungarian Grand Prix is in the books and it was dramatic for about 15 laps before the inevitable victory by Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel briefly gave it a go but he did not receive the same gift he gave Hamilton a week earlier in the German Grand Prix, so he had to settle for second place again.
The race would have been another boring Hamilton/Mercedes victory had it not been for three diversions along the way – Vettel’s brief lead in the race and the usual antics of the Red Bull drivers, which this week manifested itself in some wild comeback driving from Daniel Ricciardo and a classic teen angst temper tantrum from Max Verstappen. For the driving points, Hamilton and Vettel and Ricciardo claim those – in that order – with Hamilton maintaining his season lead over Vettel in the category.
The Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award goes to Hamilton’s normally docile Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas, who decided to try his hand at role-playing, acting as Verstappen and Maldonado in crashing into both Vettel and Ricciardo as they passed him, and fully earning his first point of the season. Verstappen, of course, has a stranglehold on the category.
The Kimi Raikkonen “Leave Me Alone! I Know What I’m Doing!” Award goes to Verstappen, who took time off from crashing his car in nearly every race this year to throwing an f-bomb-laced teenage temper tantrum on the radio when his car failed on the fifth lap of the race. With the point, Verstappen moves into a second place tie with McLaren’s Fernando Alonso as they sit behind category leader Hamilton, setting up an intriguing second half of the season to see who will emerge from this group to claim the category trophy.
The Bernie Ecclestone Doofus Moment Award goes to Force India for not paying their drivers or other members of their team what they are worth nor in a timely fashion [mirroring a problem with much of society] which then forced Sergio Perez to take legal action. What a bunch of buffoons. Hamilton still leads the category.
2018 ASN Formula One Driver Rankings [after Hungarian Grand Prix]
1] Lewis Hamilton – 21 points
2] Sebastian Vettel – 17
3] Kimi Raikkonen – eight
4] Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen – seven
6] Valtteri Bottas – five
7] Sergio Perez – three
8] Pierre Gasly/Nico Hulkenberg – two
2018 Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award [after Hungarian Grand Prix]
1] Verstappen – 4.83 points
2] Romain Grosjean – two
3] Bottas/Sergey Sirotkin/Stoffel Vandoorne/Vettel – one
7] Raikkonen – 1/2 point
8] Red Bull/Ricciardo – 1/3 point
2018 Kimi Raikkonen “Leave Me Alone! I Know What I’m Doing! Award” [after Hungarian Grand Prix]
1] Hamilton – 3.5 points
2] Fernando Alonso/Verstappen – 2.5
4] Bottas/Raikkonen/Vettel – one
7] Minttu Raikkonen – 1/2 point
2018 Bernie Ecclestone Doofus Moment Award [after Hungarian Grand Prix]
1] Hamilton – two points
2] McLaren/Mercedes – 1.5
4] Canadian Grand Prix officials/Ferrari pit [Raikkonen]/Force India/Mercedes pit [Hamilton]/Monaco Grand Prix officials/Verstappen – one
10] Azerbaijan Grand Prix officials/Spanish Grand Prix officials – 1/2 point