Having been second in the opening stages it all went wrong for Valtteri Bottas during the first Safety Car period.
The Williams driver was one of the unlucky quartet who missed the chance to pit immediately after the Safety Car came out on lap eight. Cementing his misfortune, he then suffered a slow pit stop at the very point in his race where it could do the most damage.
Bottas was stationary for two seconds longer than the other drivers who came in. There were only six slower complete pit stops all race long, most of which for drivers who pitted when the pits were near-full on the previous lap and had to wait for others to go past before they could be released.
Having been second Bottas plunged to eleventh place behind the Force Indias. He then lost another position to the charging Lewis Hamilton after the restart.
Team mate Felipe Massa enjoyed considerably better fortune at this point and ended up finishing fifth. But once Bottas had lost track position he faced the challenge of recovering ground on a circuit where overtaking remains very tough.
Hungarian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daniel Ricciardo | Intermediate (8) | Soft (15) | Soft (31) | Soft (16) |
| Fernando Alonso | Intermediate (9) | Soft (29) | Soft (32) | |
| Lewis Hamilton | Intermediate (8) | Soft (31) | Medium (31) | |
| Nico Rosberg | Intermediate (9) | Soft (23) | Soft (24) | Soft (14) |
| Felipe Massa | Intermediate (8) | Soft (15) | Medium (22) | Medium (25) |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Intermediate (8) | Soft (33) | Soft (29) | |
| Sebastian Vettel | Intermediate (9) | Soft (24) | Medium (37) | |
| Valtteri Bottas | Intermediate (9) | Soft (14) | Medium (36) | Soft (11) |
| Jean-Eric Vergne | Intermediate (8) | Soft (26) | Medium (36) | |
| Jenson Button | Intermediate (8) | Intermediate (7) | Soft (22) | Medium (33) |
| Adrian Sutil | Intermediate (8) | Soft (31) | Soft (31) | |
| Kevin Magnussen | Intermediate (15) | Soft (24) | Medium (31) | |
| Pastor Maldonado | Intermediate (8) | Soft (9) | Soft (26) | Soft (27) |
| Daniil Kvyat | Intermediate (8) | Soft (22) | Medium (39) | |
| Jules Bianchi | Intermediate (9) | Soft (8) | Soft (25) | Soft (27) |
| Max Chilton | Intermediate (8) | Soft (37) | Soft (24) | |
| Esteban Gutierrez | Intermediate (8) | Soft (24) | ||
| Kamui Kobayashi | Intermediate (8) | Soft (16) | ||
| Sergio Perez | Intermediate (8) | Soft (14) | ||
| Nico Hulkenberg | Intermediate (8) | Soft (6) | ||
| Romain Grosjean | Intermediate (8) | Soft (2) | ||
| Marcus Ericsson | Intermediate (7) |
Hungarian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 21.608 | 33 | |
| 2 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 21.634 | 0.026 | 38 |
| 3 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | 21.812 | 0.204 | 39 |
| 4 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 21.818 | 0.210 | 43 |
| 5 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 22.001 | 0.393 | 56 |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 22.111 | 0.503 | 23 |
| 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 22.154 | 0.546 | 41 |
| 8 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 22.170 | 0.562 | 9 |
| 9 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 22.202 | 0.594 | 30 |
| 10 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 22.205 | 0.597 | 8 |
| 11 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 22.211 | 0.603 | 37 |
| 12 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 22.253 | 0.645 | 9 |
| 13 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 22.273 | 0.665 | 54 |
| 14 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 22.278 | 0.670 | 45 |
| 15 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 22.376 | 0.768 | 8 |
| 16 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber | 22.500 | 0.892 | 39 |
| 17 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 22.518 | 0.910 | 23 |
| 18 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 22.589 | 0.981 | 59 |
| 19 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 22.807 | 1.199 | 15 |
| 20 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 22.827 | 1.219 | 9 |
| 21 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 22.851 | 1.243 | 8 |
| 22 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 22.892 | 1.284 | 9 |
| 23 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 23.123 | 1.515 | 34 |
| 24 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 23.214 | 1.606 | 8 |
| 25 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 23.232 | 1.624 | 45 |
| 26 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 23.364 | 1.756 | 39 |
| 27 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 23.423 | 1.815 | 8 |
| 28 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | 23.546 | 1.938 | 15 |
| 29 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 23.741 | 2.133 | 23 |
| 30 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 23.800 | 2.192 | 8 |
| 31 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 23.809 | 2.201 | 8 |
| 32 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 23.864 | 2.256 | 32 |
| 33 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 23.979 | 2.371 | 8 |
| 34 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 24.040 | 2.432 | 8 |
| 35 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 24.050 | 2.442 | 8 |
| 36 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 24.226 | 2.618 | 42 |
| 37 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 24.625 | 3.017 | 8 |
| 38 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 25.497 | 3.889 | 9 |
| 39 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 25.504 | 3.896 | 17 |
| 40 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 25.535 | 3.927 | 8 |
| 41 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 26.737 | 5.129 | 8 |
| 42 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber | 31.956 | 10.348 | 8 |
| 43 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 32.608 | 11.000 | 17 |
| 44 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham | 34.086 | 12.478 | 8 |
2014 Hungarian Grand Prix
Image © Williams/LAT
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
27th July 2014, 20:24
Wonder what Jenson could’ve done after the first safety car had he fitted slick tyres… a podium maybe?
LexBlair (@lexblair)
27th July 2014, 22:43
*sigh*… Not only did they screw up the tire strategy they ALSO screwed up the pit stop ITSELF… He was IN FRONT of RIC….
Truly pathetic for McLaren…. This is the 6th race this season and the 3rd race in a row where they screw it up for Button…. and then Ron even has the audacity to run his mouth that Jens is “not trying hard enough”… smh
Eff you, Ron. You give him a piss of a car, he wrangles every bit of a performance out of it, just to be let down by him team time and time again…..
Truly pathetic. Two seasons in a row that McLaren is just a mid-field car(AT BEST)… It was easy to point fingers and fire Whitmarsh… Now what Ron? Your team is only the 6/7th fastest team on the track… Time to stop acting like you are in contention for the win and the podium at every race AND start to do something about it.
I hope Jens gets out of there at the end of the season. Then Eric and Ron could get their MAG/GRO line-up…. Great stuff to build a team on. Blind leading blind…
@HoHum (@hohum)
28th July 2014, 0:22
When your car is not competitive, sometimes you have to roll the dice and hope to be a hero not a zero. Pity for Jenson, he is usually the best at picking the right tyre at the right time.
LexBlair (@lexblair)
28th July 2014, 2:11
That has nothing to do with Jenson though…. They picked the Inters bc the team said that rain was to be expected. That was not his call…. He even repeatedly asked whether that really was the case.
DaveW (@dmw)
28th July 2014, 18:46
And on the radio it sounded like they were not being straight with him. He said, really it’s going to rain, we’re the only ones on inters? They responded by saying something like, that’s what the radar shows, we’ll keep an eye out. Then and there it was clear they messed up and should have just come clean with Button, even if there was nothing to do about it besides pit under the SC and so straight to the back. Now they are blaming the radar software. A workman never blames his tools, right? I’ve never heard Button so harsh on the team. I’m sure there is a lot of pressure on him now.
LexBlair (@lexblair)
28th July 2014, 23:18
This is the 6th time this season and the 3rd time in a row that his team messes up his race…. mix that with an absolute dog of a car and Mr. Di*khead -Dennis, who publicly BSes him and you’ve got yourself a man who is freakishly fed up with his team….. I hope he gets out of there…
andae23 (@andae23)
27th July 2014, 20:28
Still have no idea why Williams went for Soft-Medium-S/M, while for instance Alonso and Raikkonen could do Soft-Soft. Then again, making the soft tyres last for that long seemed like the best strategy, as it really helped both the Ferraris and Ricciardo. The only one who couldn’t make it work was Sutil.
Breno (@austus)
27th July 2014, 23:57
At the time it looked like Williams wanted to do one stop less, no one saw the Ferraris (and especifically Alonso) going that long.
evered7 (@evered7)
28th July 2014, 1:25
Very True! It didn’t dawn on me until late in the race that Ferrari and Alonso were trying to go to the end with the softs. They would have aided by the clean air but they did make most of the situation.
OEL F1 (@oel-f1)
27th July 2014, 22:46
dragoll (@dragoll)
28th July 2014, 7:27
I can understand MAG staying on inters to roll dice, however the decision to bring BUT in to pit and change from inters to inters on a reasonably dry track, regardless of what the weather radar said, unless there is rain at circuit I would never go for this tactic. Leaving MAG on track to gain track position is a smart risk to go for.
Abba
28th July 2014, 13:15
Guys be honest. Button has always been medioca. He was lucky with double diffuser and that’s all.
Magnason and Perez were starting to prove that.
Williams strategy is wierd but then Massa had been suffering all the bad luck of the Williams side this season, Botas, a good driver, should be grateful.
Alonso is just simply a wizard. The best on the grid followed by Hamilton
sonia luff (@sonia54)
28th July 2014, 18:38
Abba and don’t forget that Hammy was luckier still to win his WC
jpowell (@jpowell)
28th July 2014, 20:00
Why did Mercedes put Hamilton on Mediums , am I right to think if they had put him on softs he could have pitted once more and easily won , bar accidents. I only watched the highlights so I may have missed something but he was ahead of Rosberg on the set of mediums ,surely he would have been faster still on the softs .