Hungary rated fifth-best race since 2008

2015 Hungarian Grand Prix Rate the Race result

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Formula One headed into the summer break on a high for the second year in a row thanks to an action-packed Hungarian Grand Prix.

It received an average rating of 9.115 out of ten from F1 Fanatic readers, making it the highest-rated fully-dry race since last year’s Canadian Grand Prix.

What made the last round of the championship so special? Over to you…

F1 vindicated

The Hungarian thriller was a welcome lift for the sport following the dark days in the wake of Jules Bianchi’s death. And for some, the race provided proof there is more right with Formula One than there is wrong with it.

After everyone keeps complaining about boring races and lack of competition, this is the second race in a row where it hasn’t been the case. I firmly believe that Formula One is in a far better state of health than many would have us think. It’s not perfect, but nothing ever is. This race was the perfect tribute to Bianchi as well, before the race was so poignant.
@Mathers

To be honest, after the shock of seeing two Ferraris ahead the race had nothing until the pit stops. Though the action was down mostly to mistakes, that’s racing and I don’t plan to devalue the entertainment this race gave us. Mechanical troubles (unfortunately for Raikkonen), driving errors (both Mercedes), brave moves (Ricciardo), solid drives (Alonso), strategic disasters (Williams), a Safety Car (sorry Rosberg) all at once made for something unbelievable. Red Bull two-three, Verstappen fourth, Alonso fifth, do we need to say more? An unusual result this year needs a very unusual race.
@Fixy

Action and drama all around the place through the whole race. Just as it should be. Just hope this isn’t a deceitful exception.
Dynamite Clock (@Dinaveer)

Driver errors

Various explanations have been offered for why we saw so many driving errors. Did the pre-race tribute to Bianchi have an effect on the competitors? Was it down to the changing tracks conditions and the narrow confines of the Hungaroring?

Whatever the cause, there were mixed views on whether the competition was up to F1’s high standards.

It was heartening to see Vettel and Raikkonen pull away from Rosberg especially after the way the past few races have gone for Ferrari. Both were calm and collective in their approach while the rest of the field turned amateurish with their mistakes.

This might probably be the race with most number of mistakes from the professional drivers. Hamilton, Rosberg, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Maldonado, Kvyat all making mistakes and getting penalised at one point of the race.
@Evered7

Whilst I really enjoyed it, the standard of driving today wasn’t that great, but given the recent events, it’s understandable. It’s certainly been a tough week for the F1 community.

Also, it’s hard to criticise them for having a go at racing on a track where overtaking tends to be difficult.
@Jamesjames123abc

Just add Safety Car

Much as last year, the arrival of the Safety Car was timely, and helped shape an exciting conclusion to the race:

Honestly, an F1 race can’t get much better than this. Best race of the season.. probably best of the last few seasons. It was totally unexpected for this track and a brilliant contest. I mean who would have thought Hungary would feature so many overtakes?!

So many great points of interest: That amazing start by the Scuderia, Red Bull finding the pace, Hamilton clawing his way up the track (twice) and McLaren delivering their first genuinely solid performance of the year.

Unfortunate for Raikkonen, but at least he showed he had the pace when the car was working properly.
Michael Baumert (@Nothingreal)

Until the Safety Car it was essentially the same as a Mercedes walkway and I don’t see how that is any more exciting. Rosberg couldn’t challenge, Seb was always in control. There was some good racing elsewhere but nothing spectacular.

Then we got the Safety Car bunching everyone up and it gave us some racing incidents but as other have said it was all a little sloppy. Exciting nonetheless, but with the processional first part I couldn’t enjoy the race as a whole that much.
Simon (@Weeniebeenie)

Do not understand why people are so excited about this race. All i saw was a lot of cars hitting each other, stupid DRS overtakes, lots of penalties and a way to long safety car period as they let the slow cars pass.
Jdd

Much like Bahrain 2014 which also got massively great ratings the Safety Car was duly needed to bring excitement. We just shouldn’t forget that up to that point both those races didn’t have much to offer – I would hope though F1 didn’t need those unforeseen things like drivers crashing to get exciting.
ChrisJ (@Chriju0411)

Time to re-evaluate the Hungaroring?

After two consecutive high-scoring Hungarian Grands Prix, is it time we revised our views of a track once renowned for producing processional events?

It really surprises me that we keep getting such good races at this circuit, where overtaking is supposed to be so difficult. It’s really refreshing that despite that the drivers seem to really go for it at this track. The race was outstanding.
Dom (@3dom)

2015 Hungarian Grand Prix

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88 comments on “Hungary rated fifth-best race since 2008”

  1. The race that rejuvenated our passion for F1 again :D

    1. This was a decent race, no doubt, with lots of unexpected events and outcomes, but I can’t help but thing the utter DIRE state of F1 this last couple of years is making this race seem much better than it was.

      But all that aside, people on this site actually rated this race higher than Canada 2011??? Really??? Come to that, I really can’t believe ANY race is rated higher than Canada 2011, least of all anything from this or last year.

      I don’t care who you support – Canada 2011 was the greatest F1 race of all time and Button’s drive was the greatest of all time.

      1. Michael Brown
        6th August 2015, 18:06

        Complaints like yours reveal the flaws in number-based ratings.

  2. After two consecutive high-scoring Hungarian Grands Prix, is it time we revised our views of a track once renowned for producing processional events?

    Is it possible to get an overview of all the ratings since 2008 on this track alone?

    1. @matthjis https://www.racefans.net/2014/08/04/2014-hungarian-grand-prix-receives-best-ever-rating/ this has all the previous results why Keith doesn’t add them anymore I don’t know

      1. @matthijs https://www.racefans.net/2014/08/04/2014-hungarian-grand-prix-receives-best-ever-rating/ this has all the previous results why Keith doesn’t add them anymore I don’t know

      2. Looking at the comments there’s been some delusions at the time. “Best season ever” and such. “First season ever Vettel’s not winning” more like it.
        How high people rated the races last season is UN-F-BELIEVABLE!!!

  3. It was a genuinely good race, but the comments should make no mistake, the state of F1 is bad.

    The ridiculous development and testing rules make catching Mercedes up basically impossible, so we need races like this in which they basically sabotage themselves to have real fun.

    1. + billion

    2. Fully agree with you. I might me in minority but I think this race overthrew the argument that F1 fans are blasting F1 for everything. Look at the numbers, they can enjoy the race! So it’s not in the mind of the fans. F1 is in bad state. I believe only very lucky circumstances and the chain reaction that follow can throw a good race (crash bringing out SC, bunching up the field, that leads to changes in positions, more incidents etc.). Otherwise the only thing you can rely on is Mercedes fight. But I don’t care about Mercedes fight. For me they are not cure-all for F1. They are a sticking plaster for a cancer.

    3. ColdFly F1 (@)
      4th August 2015, 8:42

      Whereas I agree that we need more testing, I strongly disagree with

      they basically sabotage themselves

      It might be that we saw so many errors by established drivers because for once they were really racing on the limit. e.g. It wasn’t simply that Hamilton was asleep in his car! He lost pole, and had to race to get the positions back. And for once he had to push really hard in a busy field (rather than Hammertime from the front) and that’s when you see them making small mistakes.
      This is why I’m quite optimistic about the changes where they will reduce the driver aids; it means more driver input and therefore mistakes.

  4. Very interesting that there are 4 races from 2012, 2 races from 2011, and 3 races from 2014 in that list. I think there were many other races in 2010/2012 more exciting than any race last year, but people must have been bored out of their skulls to vote that highly for some 2014 races. Hungarian GP this year probably received such a high score because of similar reasons. Well, I would vote for it higher than any other race of 2014 in any case. But it is ridiculous that there are 3 races from last year in the top 10 list of races since 2008.

    1. At the time I thought Silverstone was a good race this year. Then after Hungary I tried to watch it one more time, I was seriously BORED. That race was not as thrilling as I thought watching the first time around. I watched Hungary again, it was exciting alright!

    2. I think races in 2014 which were not won by Mercedes generated disproportionate excitement because of fears over their dominance, which we were all coming to terms with at the time.

  5. i think these numbers would make a good study on regression analysis – clearly the top scores are weighted almost exclusively in the last 3/4 years, but subjectively i’m sure we can all think of “better” races than the all time top 10 listed here.

    i’m not bashing this feature – i really enjoy looking at the ratings – but i’m certain things have got a bit skewed over time. was the 2012 USA GP really more exciting than brazil ’08?

    1. @frood19 I think that’s an interesting comment for a number of reasons, I’m just going to respond to the Brazil 2008 point: I think the reason that race is not quite as high as some might expect it to be on the list was because in the immediate aftermath of the race some people believed Glock had let Hamilton through for some reason. Astonishingly, it’s a misconception which persists to this day among a few. I’ve often wondered whether some television commentator might have suggested something to that effect in the drama of the last few corners.

    2. Quite possibly the most enlightened comment I have seen on this forum. Are people really that shallow – just following the latest F1 forum trend of moaning or just reflecting the “are you entertained” mentality of today? Or is the vino collapso causing serious memory damage? :)

      Regardless, I seriously do not find SC and other interruption issues such as faulty starts overly fun! Maybe because I spent many years just missing huge accidents due to such. My hope is that this wish for ‘entertainment’ mid season due to the quality of extra radio transmissions (surely people realise we just get more now and that’s a good thing!) and perfect camera shots are not causing mid year knee jerks that will cause serious injury?

      The truth is technology has sanitised the viewers experience of the physical work undertaken in the cockpit and as such perhaps addressing that issue right there is the best remedy.

      Show the work, forces, issues without super ‘cleanup’ cameras and perhaps people will see things differently.

      You don’t really think those racers step out with around three litres of water hanging out of their ass because it was a Sunday drive do you? Well, it would seem so which is a shame…

      1. I get upset when there is safety car to be honest. Very unfair. So, I’m rather content with VSC at the moment.

    3. @frood19 – interesting points. Especially since the survey group demographic is a constantly changing value. Not to mention all the other changing variables.

      One thing that intrigues me is the number of survey participants choosing 10 for fairly average races. All subjective, of course. My own personal inclination is to never choose 10 because there can never be a “perfect” race and one could be left wishing to choose 11 when a better race comes along and there is no such choice. But, maybe that’s just me and these surveys are a rather informal judgement made by an uncontrolled group.

      Plus, having watched F1 for about 50 years my comparison values are likely different than someone only watching F1 for a few years.

      Having said all that I too enjoy the surveys.

      1. @bullmello very true – i think that may have been the case for china ’11, one of the first races where we saw hyper degrading tyres, because the unpredictability of it was hugely exciting at the time (a bit like canada ’10) and we were probably expecting vettel to stroll it. subsequently, people started to find the tyres a bit tiresome so the ratings dropped off for what were objectively similar races. but if you’d rating the chinese race a 10 there’s no nigel tufnel* option for (say) canada ’11.

        it’s all so subjective anyway. i thought both spain and monaco in 2011 were cracking races but general consensus seems to disagree, hehe.

        *if this makes no sense, then go watch ‘this is spinal tap’

        1. @frood19 – Ha! Perfect Nigel Tufnel reference. Made me lol.

  6. I have never understood why the 2011 Chinese GP got such a high vote. The only thing I really remember is an excellent battle for the lead from Hamilton and Vettel and Webber with an excellent comeback in the last 10 laps or so. To rank it better than the 2011 Canadian GP is ridiculous in my eyes, that race should easily be second.

    1. Canadian GP was all about safety cars upon safety cars, the race kept on stopping, too many accidents, reminds me of 2010 Korean GP

    2. @jdc123 You should really re-watch it. I did and it was a very exciting race. You had 7 cars (Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Massa, Rosberg, Alonso and Webber) in with a chance of victory at one point or another. We had overtakes all over the place, and a whole bunch of them weren’t DRS-assisted ones. We also had multiple strategies at play. And it was unpredictable; very unpredictable. Webber was something like 30s back with 10 laps to go, and then ended up 5 or 6 seconds off the race win.

    3. @jdc123 The 2011 Canadian GP was mostly filled with cameras pointing to turned-off cars though…

    4. China 2011 was possibly the first race indicating the true insanity that could arise from degrading Pirelli tyres, so everyone flipped their lid. It’s a lot more familiar and less chaotic now.

      I’ve realised increasingly that these ratings are rarely due just to the specifics of the action, and more about the surrounding narrative of the season, or even just something different happening.

      1. I’ve realised increasingly that these ratings are rarely due just to the specifics of the action, and more about the surrounding narrative of the season, or even just something different happening.

        Spot on!

  7. 2014 Canadian Grand Prix was most definitely NOT better than 2011. We must have been fed up with Mercedes more than we had been with Vettel.

  8. The two highest-rated races so far this year have been won by Vettel.

    If I were to say that to people back in 2013, people would have called me mad!

    1. Vettel the Underdog. And his outside chance for the championship. Hehe.

      1. Can you say Kimi…2007 :D

        1. No need to go that far: Vettel 2010.
          But this one is impossible, and that’s the understatement of the century. The most dominant car in the history of Formula 1. And Lewis Hamilton is no slouch =P

          1. Agree with you: Kimi in 2007 had a better chance (in terms of car pace) and still only managed to pip both McLarens because of their monumental cock-up in China.

            Unless Ferrari makes a huge stride forward compared to Mercedes in the summer gap (which is highly unlikely due to most of period being in shut-down), impossible is indeed an understatement. We shall learn that though soon enough in Spa

        2. Kimi could do that because his car was pretty much on par with his rivals. Vettel could do that in 2010 because he had the car do pull that off but it was a rather unreliable car and it took him some time to put together a rather flawless performance. If this Vettel was around in 2009, Jenson Button probably would not have been a world champion and we would be talking about the youngest quintuple world champion.

        1. Don’t think Mercedes have a secret technological weapon that others can try to outlaw. It’s funny though, this is happening all over again: Brawn/Mercedes team is dominating the sport and the only person who can threaten their dominating ways is Seb Vet himself.

    2. How things change :)

  9. People let desired results skew their rating. This was a 9/10 race, but people love Ferrari so scored it 10/10 because that’s what it was subjectively for them. Canada 2011 was also a 9/10 race but either Button has less fans, or his fans are more pragmatic. That’s how results might not match with our own subjective opinions.

    Brazil 2012 is the only race I could rate 10/10 without subjective bias.

    1. By saying that “you” rate it as 10/10 already makes it subjective bias…just saying. That 4 hour race should go down as one of the best races ever!

      1. I just mean I have no bias as to the drivers or teams results, three opinion is subjective, but with no bias.

    2. It’s an opinion poll, the whole point of it is that it is subjective.
      You are not correct in your assumption that Ferrari are universally liked, a lot of people also dislike them or are indifferent about them. I’m no Ferrari fan but I gave it a 10. It was a great race.
      There is a related point though, that at this stage people want to see a team other than Mercedes win or at least want to see them have to fight for the victory, but I don’t think it really matters which team it is that takes the challenge to them.
      The reason Canada 2011 has a 9/10 rating, remembering the comments at the time, is that some people gave it a lower rating because of the long rain delay which brought the average score down.

    3. @philipgb

      people love Ferrari so scored it 10/10

      The lowest-ranked race was won by Ferrari, so there’s clearly more to it than just team allegiance.

      1. Hockenheim 2010?

  10. petebaldwin (@)
    3rd August 2015, 12:38

    The fact that Hungary has become one of the better races says all you need to know about DRS. Overtaking is now so easy at most tracks, it takes a difficult one like here or Singapore to give us a proper race. Pick somewhere like Canada or Spa where overtaking is fairly easy and DRS ruins it.

    This race was good because we didn’t know who was going to win the race at the mid-point (very rare these days) and because the fastest cars had to do something other than manage their tyres and fuel – they actually had to race! If this race had occurred exactly as it did but a few years prior, we’d have given it a 7 and said it was good. Because we’ve had to sit through boring races for over a year, it stands out as brilliant. If you compare this race to 2008 Brazil, it’s clearly not a 10…

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      3rd August 2015, 12:59

      And to back up my point:

      Out of the F1F top 10 of the last 5 and a bit years, most are tracks that would have been previously called rubbish. Only 4 are from what are widely considered good tracks (Brazil, Canada and USA)

      2011 Chinese Grand Prix 9.241 – “Tilkedrome”
      2014 Hungarian Grand Prix 9.141 – tight twisty track you can’t overtake at
      2015 Hungarian Grand Prix 9.115 – tight twisty track you can’t overtake at
      2014 Bahrain Grand Prix 9.095 – Tilkedrome
      2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 8.854 – Tilkedrome
      2012 European Grand Prix 8.784 – Tilkedrome

    2. DRS should only be used on tracks where history proved it’s (too) difficult to overtake. Subsequently, DRS should be turned off on circuits that provided good close racing before DRS came into play (Canada, Spa, Monza etc).

      1. That’s actually a VERY good idea!

  11. How much truth is that since introducing double DRS zones in 2013 the system is more effective in overtaking?

    1. My point is the teams are not longer using it for quali performance so it’s optimized for overtaking. I am not specialially refering to a number of zones.

  12. if we take a look at these high rated races, only a few of them were hit by rain, many needed the safety car summoned, and except for one, all was won by literally “anyone but the dominant”, and later champion. so underdogs must capitalize on the rare chaos of todays F1 to make the races watchable…

    2012 Brazil – Button wins – Vettel champion (struggled to climb back the order finishing 6th), SC deployed, rainy
    2011 China – Hamilton wins – Vettel champion (was overtaken by later winner Hamilton on track, finishing 2nd)
    2014 Canada – Ricciardo wins – Hamilton champion (hit by brake issues, retired), SC deployed
    2014 Hungary – Ricciardo wins – Hamilton champion (finishing 3rd, overtaken on track by winner Ricciardo), SC deployed, rainy
    2015 Hungary – Vettel wins – Hamilton champion? (finishing 6th, overtaken by winner Vettel right at the start), SC deployed
    2011 Canada – Button wins – Vettel champion (finishing 2nd, overtaken by winner Button on the last lap), SC deployed, rainy
    2014 Bahrain – Hamilton wins – Hamilton champion (stayed ahead of teammate Rosberg in a fair-and-square rare-to-see wheel-to-wheel fight), SC deployed
    2012 Abu Dhabi – Räikkönen wins – Vettel champion (infamous recovery race for Vettel finsihing on podium after starting from the pits, but most importantly, a popular win for Räikkönen), SC deployed
    2012 Europe – Alonso wins – Vettel champion (a rare DNF in the lead for Vettel, and an emotional podium with Alonso and Schumacher), SC deployed
    2012 United States – Hamilton wins – Vettel champion (was overtaken on track by winner Hamilton that could make his championsip hopes keep alive)

    1. “2012 Europe – Alonso wins – Vettel champion (a rare DNF in the lead for Vettel …”
      I assume you meant for 2012 season? Since I am of two minds whether Raikkonen or Vettel DNF’d more from the lead over their careers.

    2. Great observation. Any race won by a not dominant team/driver of the season get a higher rating. Safety cars and/or rain make that happen.

  13. It really surprises me that we keep getting such good races at this circuit, where overtaking is supposed to be so difficult. It’s really refreshing that despite that the drivers seem to really go for it at this track. The race was outstanding.

    @3dom @keithcollantine – I think this is an interesting point. At most tracks drivers can wait for the DRS zone(s) and don’t need to risk it. Here, even though a number of passes were in the DRS zone, the drivers know that it still isn’t a sure thing and are forced to pass elsewhere. So DRS has just swapped less predictable passing for more predictable passing.

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      3rd August 2015, 18:23

      @hobo – Remember how good the last couple of races at Valencia were following some terrible ones pre-DRS. These days, (Monaco excluded) the tracks that are difficult to pass on give us the best races simply because it creates suspense! The classics are too easy to pass on now that it’s not exciting.

      One of Murray’s catchphrases was “it’s one thing to catch a driver but it’s quite another to pass them!” Youngsters must hear that these days and wonder what on earth he was talking about!

      1. Nowadays catching is harder than passing!

      2. @petebaldwin – I think that is a really good way of putting it. Perhaps they should keep DRS on some of these hard to pass tracks (e.g. Hungary), remove it from tracks that already had passing opportunities (e.g. Canada). That, along with designing interesting tracks instead of stamping them out of a mold, should really go a long way to making the entire calendar better.

        1. with the amount of down force being created by the car in front, staying close when exciting the last corner before DRS is near impossible to pass even with the drag reduction open on the rear wing,
          the car with the better top speed is the only car that can make DRS work these days unless you do like Riccardo did totally out break your opponent and hope you don’t crash.

          1. petebaldwin (@)
            4th August 2015, 14:11

            The original idea of DRS wasn’t to allow cars to overtake though. It was to allow cars to follow within a second which was previously impossible. Cars that were miles faster still couldn’t follow others within a second of them.

            DRS should not give a driver an advantage. It should simply negate as much of the disadvantage a driver gets from following another closely.

  14. In that top 10, there are a surprisingly high number of dry races 2011 China, 2014 Canada, 2015 Hungary, 2014 Bahrain, 2012 Abu Dhabi, 2012 Europe, 2012 USA.

    Out of these the only non-SC races are 2011 China and 2012 USA. I will probably add 2014 Canada also to this list because the early SC did not cause any new strategies or had any bearing to what happened in the race later.

    And did I mention none of these races are on the “classics” of Monaco, Spa, Silverstone and Monza. Enough of the Tilkedrome bashing and revering of classic tracks now.

    1. There hasn’t been many races lately anyway:
      2008: 6, 8, 9, 13, 14, 18
      2009: 2, 3
      2010: 2, 4, 7, 13, 17
      2011: 7, 9, 10, 11, 16
      2012, 2, 20
      2013: 2

  15. I am surprised why 2012 Chinese GP is not in this list. No SC, No rain and yet the drivers from P2 to P12 were separated by 10 seconds with just 10 laps to go. It really was epic.

  16. The comment I least agree with is the one from @Chriju0411 : “Much like Bahrain 2014 which also got massively great ratings the Safety Car was duly needed to bring excitement. We just shouldn’t forget that up to that point both those races didn’t have much to offer ”

    If those 2 races didn’t have much to offer if not for a safety car in your opinion, then either it’s a wrong sport for you because it’s impossible for a dry grand prix to be more pleasing than those two races, or we just didn’t see the same 2 races you and I

  17. It is also the highest rated race that Vettel won.

  18. Much like Bahrain 2014 which also got massively great ratings the Safety Car was duly needed to bring excitement. We just shouldn’t forget that up to that point both those races didn’t have much to offer.

    @Chriju0411 I’d disagree with that comment as Bahrain 2014 had been a good race even before the safety car.
    It was similar with Hungary, It was a good race before the safety car with close racing & overtaking occurring through the field.

  19. This grand prix was one of the more entertaining we’ve seen in a while, but it seems people are ranking it higher because so many races recently have been so dull.

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      3rd August 2015, 18:27

      Of course they are. Pick 2 people and let one eat at their favourite restaurant every day for a month whilst the other can only eat bread.

      Then take both and give them an identical meal at an expensive restaurant – I can guarantee who will enjoy it more. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and in this case, I have missed races that get my heart pumping!

    2. You bring out a god point: the rating is subjective, it isn’t a clinical assessment of the race, so it is how people felt about the race, not the sum of a whole of parameters added together.

  20. I don’t agree with many of the ratings at all as most of the ‘great’ highest rated races were nothing but drs-fest’s or tyre-deg fest’s where there wasn’t any real racing going on because all of the passing was so utterly boring to watch.

    I’d rather watch a real race with less overtaking but overtaking that really means something & is actually exciting to watch than any of those utterly devoid of racing DRS-fest’s.

    If the races since 2011 are what are classes as “classics” then its no wonder people are turning off by the millions as the races since the introduction of DRS & comedy tyres have nearly all been utterly devoid of any proper racing let alone any real, exciting, hard fought for overtaking!

    I simply cannot understand how people can find these races exciting because as actual RACES they have little to offer in terms of REAL RACING!

    Brazil 2012 the highest rated race, Really? Just looking at races at Brazil for example 2009 was way better than 2012 (And most other races on the list) as it actually featured some proper racing & some real overtaking…. None of the artificial gimmickry push of a button highway passing or stupid bubblegum tyres

    1. Brazil 2012 didn’t have “push of a button highway passing”. DRS is disabled in the wet.

      1. @david-a They do enable DRS during wet races if race control feel its safe to do so & DRS was enabled for most of the 2012 Brazilian Gp. I think it was only disabled towards the end when it began raining harder just before Di Resta crashed.

        Here’s the 2012 Brazilian Gp from the OnBoard-Mix where you see DRS been used throughout via the telemetry graphics:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QN2IAu4FWg

    2. Well said Lynda, and I think it is worth repeating that a late safety car creates what is essentially a new race without the option of passing during pit stops, so the drivers have to race on track to both pass and defend, something they normally avoid in order to preserve their comedy tyres.

      1. petebaldwin (@)
        4th August 2015, 14:14

        @hohum – Spot on. It removes the need for fuel saving, tyre saving, brake saving… Instead you get a flat out spring race with drivers and cars being pushed to the limit.

  21. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
    3rd August 2015, 17:40

    Behind the last year’s GP :D
    Half-impressed with that, the race was more unbelievable than last year.

    1. A very obvious demonstration of inconsistent rating by reaaally bored people imo.

  22. I remember the Hungaroring producing some of the best races ever. Damon Hill on the verge of winning in 1997 with his Arrow before being beaten to the flag by Jacques Villeneuve, Button victory in 2007, the first for Honda since 1967, Heikki Kovalainen first and only GP victory in 2008… And now the best race of the year which makes me impatient to watch Spa in three weeks. If only all tracks were like the Hungaroring, or Spa, or Monaco… But only these three are left to give us genuine racing. Soon, we’ll be back to the boring, wide, bland tracks of the Middle East or Russia. Monza may be, Austin certainly because the Yankees know a thing or two about proper car racing. I am surprised Ecclestone hasn’t yet found a good reason to take Budapest off the calendar and make sure Formula One walks its way unto total boredom.

  23. It just goes to show the current state of F1 when a good race ends up getting classed as a great race.

  24. Surprised to see brazil 08, Korea 10, and Canada 10 not on the list…!

    1. I’m surprised to see no races from 2010 on the list. I re-watched the whole season recently and the first half of that season had some absolute crackers. Australia, Malaysia, China, Turkey and Canada. Some of finest F1 racing i’ve ever had the pleasure of watching.

  25. Have to say i’m surprised by the races in the top 10 as there are a couple there I just don’t remember been what I would consider great races or all time classics.

    Take the top rated race Brazil 2012, Apart from Vettel spinning on lap 1, Hulkenberg been right at the front & crashing into Hamilton & Button winning I can’t say I recall anything about that race would have it anywhere near the top of the list.

    I feel kinda the same about most of the other races on there to be honest, There’s some good races there but I can think of a dozen other races in the 2008-today period that were better as far as the actual racing goes. For example the British, Canadian, Turkish, Malaysian & Belgium Gp’s in 2010. The Australian, Malaysian, British, German, Italian & Brazilian Gp’s in 2009.

    A lot of the races in the top 10 list seem like they scored high because of a popular or surprise winner or because they were a bit crazy with safety cars or whatever rather than because the quality of the actual racing was good.

    1. Michael Brown
      6th August 2015, 18:22

      I agree. 2010 had some very close and organic racing, but whenever I see fans talk about it, they call it boring and point to Bahrain and Abu Dhabi.

  26. Obviously Rate The Race is a snapshot in time of the excitement level at the moment – and not all of us voting on our favorite races over the past several years. So when some of you complain about China 2011 being on the list – well okay maybe it wasn’t an all-time classic, but at the time I remember being in awe over the amount of passing seen due to the different tyres (which we eventually got bored with) and also being hugely relieved that Vettel didn’t trounce the first 3 races. It fully deserved the high rating from my memory of it.

    I use Rate The Race sometimes to gauge whether I should watch on the PVR at night with the kids in bed – or just glance at the results. With Hungary this year, I just about fell out of my chair seeing the ratings, and promptly marched the kids off to sleep in a big hurry!

  27. Yasser (@yasser-rafiq)
    4th August 2015, 3:49

    In 2015, the formula for a spike in the rating = “Make Vettel the Winner” :D

    1. Make Vettel the WDC with his second rate Ferrari and then see what happens :P

  28. Not surprising to find that in F1F’s Top ten races since 2008, Sebastian Vettel features only once as a race winner in this chart.

    The stigma of associating Vettel race wins with boring races seems to have disappeared. :)

    Less Booing, more Cheering. Fingers crossed for another few victories for the Ferrari driver this season! You can bet they’d be exciting races.

  29. Michael Brown
    4th August 2015, 16:18

    “Just add Safety Car,” which only 2 of the 10 top voted races on F1 Fanatic did not have a Safety Car (China 11 and USA 12).

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