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The driver’s verdict
Jolyon Palmer, former Renault F1 driver: Budapest feels like a small circuit when you’re there but there’s plenty that goes into it with 14 corners. The first sector is basically two corners: a big braking zone at Turn 1, which is a relatively straightforward right-hander, but quite bumpy in the braking area, so it can induce some front locking, before heading into Turn 2, which is slightly downhill.
The middle sector is one of those ones where you’ve got to find a rhythm because out of pretty much every corner you need to be positioned for the next corner coming through it. You go from Turn 4 into 6, then you get a tiny breather, but it carries you through the next sweeping section, building speed all the way.
WATCH: 5 great Hungarian Grand Prix battles from the F1 archive
In the final sector, sometimes the tyres are starting to overheat and you start to scramble around for a little bit of grip there. In the race, you’ve got to think about setting up your overtake coming out of Turn 14, the final corner, because that is your one chance to do something into Turn 1 and, if not, into Turn 2. If you don’t get it done there, you’re probably going to be following for the next lap.
I had some good battles here in GP2, and while it’s not easy to overtake in Hungary, you can. The layout of the circuit lends itself to overtaking at Turn 2, particularly as you can go inside or outside, so it can be hard to defend. It’s a nice one to have some battles at.
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