F1 2025: Hungarian Grand Prix discussion

The Hungarian Grand Prix was on the 3rd of August, and it was alright. I'm writing this blog post 5 days afterwards, so some of the details are a bit hazy. If I make some stuff up, assume I'm some hallucinating AI chatbot and comment "AI slop" to get some free Reddit karma. To begin, free practice was boring. Alonso injured his back prior to the weekend, so he sat out FP1. I believe the intent was for him to sit out FP1 and then get in the car for FP2 and FP3, since the back injuries were known going into the weekend, and missing FP1 is meaningless for a driver like Alonso who knows this track like the back of his hand.

Qualifying was interesting. The conditions were changing fairly often, track temperatures cooling down and various teams going from vying to pole to finishing in the middle of the field. Aston Martin brought a new front wing and were, at one point in qualifying (I truly believe) the second fastest team behind McLaren. Unfortunately as the track cooled they finished 5th and 6th. Not that bad really. If anything, I prefer it this way. If they qualified 2nd and 3rd, or something similar, they'd just be overtaken early and it would be depressing. Alonso rarely puts up much of a fight against drivers in superior cars to prevent wasting tyre life. He always thinks about the full picture when it comes to race management.

The race was ok, too. Alonso overtook Norris at the start but then, to no one's surprise, Norris overtook him and actually went on to win the race. I've seen it posted in many a forum that Norris' win was very lucky and he was an undeserved winner. I do think that at this point in the season Piastri is flat out the better driver, but Norris drove expertly and truthfully Piastri scuffed his overtake. He should've overtaken Norris, but he choked. 

Alonso finished P5 too, so he didn't lose a place! Hooray! Oh and, Verstappen P9, behind Lawson. Yikes. Below image copyright IMAGO.