“The race can be interesting in terms of trying to stay awake,” Mark said after he slotted in the 2nd position of the post Qualifying conference.
Hungaroring is well known as a circuit where there is a very few chance of overtake. It means that grid position and start decide the most of the race results. No rival seemed to be able to challenge against the Red Bulls who had a second advantage per lap. The poleman Sebastian was definitely sitting on the nearest place to the victory here.
“It was quite a difficult session today,” he said. “I didn't have a good run in Q2 on the option tyre and didn't feel 100 percent. There's not really much you can do to the car between Q2 and Q3, just little trims, but it worked quite well and I had a lot of confidence in Q3. I was able to go quite a bit quicker, so it was a good step. I'm happy to be on pole; hopefully we have a good start tomorrow and a good race.”
“We have felt comfortable all weekend and I think we were able to improve overnight also. I said on the radio to the team on my in-lap, ‘Mark and I were pushing hard to finish first and second, but this is your moment, enjoy it - you built this wonderful car’.”
The race started with his lonely travel under burning sunshine and on the other hand Mark’s poor start made him drop into third because of dirty off-line track. If it went as Mark’s prediction, the race would be Sebastian’s one. But it wasn’t the case.
When the safety car came out almost every driver rushed into the pits except for only a few drivers including Mark who stayed out without the mandatory tyre change. He jumped up to the top and started pushing very hard as soon as the safety car left the track. He needed to build the gap for his pit stop. Even though it was not realistic to do that to Sebastian but it was enough to do that to the others who were a second slower than him.
Suddenly, Sebastian’s victory was destroyed by a drive-through penalty. He didn’t keep within 10 cars length from the car in front of him during the Safety car period. It was a silly mistake of him and the team. He dropped into third after the penalty and lost the victory. He stayed sullen and never got his head up on the podium.
“I didn't understand what was going on and why I was penalized,” he complained. “It was a question mark for me. I didn't understand at the time. Now after the race people told me what happened. Pretty unlucky. Obviously very disappointed as otherwise it would have been a walk in the park today and we could have won the race.”
Mark was surprised this opportunity, too. He could celebrate his 150th race with a victory by chance.
“The victory is pretty unexpected unless Seb had a technical problem.,” he said. “He was on pole and he was leading the first stint and unless he makes a mistake or has a problem it is probably going to be his race. Second was certainly on the cards for me. But this is racing and sometimes it happens.”
The Red Bull Racing lost precious points again but it was their milestone, 100th race. It means that they are still a young team though they’re dominating this year’s races. When the coming three weeks vacation goes away, the championships will be going into the climax part of the season. If they want to challenge to the top, they may need another step forward as a team.
