Why Verstappen should not have been penalised

After the first few laps of the Hungarian Grand Prix, it was evident that Formula 1 cars overtaking each other was going to become a long-distant memory.

At a track like the Hungaroring, with short straights and long corners, it was never easy. But with this year's regulations it proved impossible and that's what, in reality, led to Max Verstappen getting a 10-second time penalty for punting Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo off the track.

There are always plenty of opinions when this sort of thing happens, and I've been involved in quite a few similar incidents. Actually, there was one at that very corner between Rubens Barrichello and Eddie Irvine when I was at Jordan in 1994.

In that incident, Barrichello was actually on the grass on the inside entering Turn 2 trying to get past Irvine, so perhaps it was just a little worse than what we saw from Verstappen. We had a few heated discussions after that one, but in the end either drivers will respect their team-mates or they won't.

The clash between Verstappen and Ricciardo was just a first-lap racing accident. The gap was there for Verstappen to poke his nose in. That's what any driver should do: go for it.

If it hadn't been his team-mate, the Red Bull team would have been punching the air with joy. But it was his team-mate, and a little lock-up led to him understeering into Ricciardo's sidepod.

Ricciardo was eliminated immediately. I'm not saying Verstappen was right in what he did, but the reality is if you put your car on the outside around a long corner, you are asking for trouble. That's exactly what Ricciardo did.

What I don't understand is why the stewards thought it was right for Verstappen to get a 10-second time penalty, while at Turn 1 Nico Hulkenberg punted Romain Grosjean into the air and off the track but prompted no action from the stewards. After the safety car, a similar thing happened between Carlos Sainz Jr and Fernando Alonso, but again with no action.

Please understand I am not asking for more penalties, I'm actually asking for fewer penalties. But what I am demanding is some sort of consistency, especially for the way accidents are treated on the first lap of any grand prix. Just be a bit more lenient to allow racing drivers to be racing drivers.

The race was processional and Sebastian Vettel won it in a car with a steering problem. There are two things drivers ask for consistency in from a racing car; one is the brake pedal and the other of the steering wheel. Either of those going a bit haywire can very easily spook a driver.

But Vettel coped admirably and I believe he had enough pace left if he required it to show Kimi Raikkonen who is boss. But to find that pace he would have had to start gorilla-ing the kerbs, and with that the risk level of a suspension failure would have also increased.

Ferrari did the right thing by not asking Vettel to allow Raikkonen past, and he probably wouldn't have done anyway. Ferrari's reward was a one-two, which is 43 points for the constructors' championship, and Vettel's drivers' standings lead extended to 14 points. So there is real hope for winning the title.

Lewis Hamilton showed he is a real team player. Valtteri Bottas was asked to let him past to have a go at Raikkonen, but Hamilton couldn't and was then man enough to stick to his word and let him back through. With Verstappen breathing down Bottas's neck, it would have been very easy to use that as an excuse not to.

Those three championship points could have major consequences at the end of the season.

The reason this happened in the first place was the difficulty in overtaking. Qualifying at your true potential has always been important, but with this specification of car and these tyres it's critical. The person on pole won the race, but it's not as simple as that - it's the work that goes into it on the way to the result that really counts.

Before a team gets to the track, it will have spent days if not weeks in the simulator trying different set-ups all with varying aerodynamic levels, mechanical stiffness and fuel loads. This means when it arrives, the team has a fair idea of what to expect from its car.

If it was as easy as that we would all be doing it. But it's never quite the same at the track as the grip levels keep changing as the rubber goes down, the ambient and track temperature changes and the wind strength and direction varies. But your pre-event preparation should give you the confidence that, as the weekend progresses, the grip levels will come to you. So you need to keep your cool and not get too carried away altering thing to suit the here and now early in the weekend.

I always find it interesting to see how teams progress through the sessions, as this shows just who believes in the pre-event work and who reacts to the situation in front of them.

If you look at the cars during Friday, the Red Bulls were right there; stable under braking and well-balanced through the corners. The Mercedes was a bit more of a handful with lots of front-wheel locking, a rear end that was a bit nervous on entry, understeer mid-corner and snappy oversteer off the corner. The Ferrari was also a real handful, a bit like the Mercedes but more so.

As the weekend progressed that all switched around. I believe that is because Ferrari believed in what it had from the simulator work pre-event. With a little bit of tweaking by Saturday afternoon, it had a car that looked stable, well balanced and the drivers could push to the maximum.

The Mercedes still looked a handful when the drivers tried to get that little bit extra out of it and the Red Bull had more or less stood still. It looked well balanced, but Red Bull had shot its bolt too early in the weekend and was probably running less fuel than the other two leading teams during the Friday practice sessions.

We hear a lot, especially from Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, that all the others are able to turn up the power unit more than it can with the Renault. But if you take the time differences between practice three, which is when most teams will have run with a qualifying set-up, to Q3 when it comes to wringing the car's neck with the maximum power possible, it has actually gained more than Ferrari and as much if not more than Mercedes.

Yes, Ricciardo had a problem in final practice and probably didn't manage to get in his best time there, but Verstappen had a good run so he is reasonably representative.

Looking at the top three teams' lap times in their drivers' grid order, and their weekend progress - or not as the case may be - we have the long and winding road to pole.

Hungarian GP pace development comparison

Comparing the progress of Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull across practice and qualifying in Hungary

Pace jumps from FP3 to qualifying

How much time the top six qualifiers found from final practice to qualifying

This suggests it's actually Ferrari that must get a bigger step out of its engine in qualifying. That is probably what is hurting it most on the faster circuits such as Silverstone and it will hurt it at Spa.

But looking at it the other way round, it is also what helps it in the race; basically, it doesn't have to turn the engine down as much so Ferrari is more competitive in the race than in qualifying.

So going into the summer break, who is heading for the beach and who is going to spend whatever time they can head-scratching? The overall picture can never be taken from just one race, so the best way to look at it is comparing constructors' championship points from this time last year.

To do this, I will put them in this year's constructors' championship order.

Mercedes
2016: 378
2017: 357
Difference: -21

Not the end of the world, but not the dominant team it has been over the last few years. The car is, as Toto Wolff said, a bit of a diva. When it's good, it's very good, but sometimes getting performance out of it is like pulling teeth from a chicken.

Ferrari
2016: 224
2017: 318
Difference: +94

A major step forward, but not all at the expense of Mercedes. Ferrari is a lot more consistent at points-scoring, so not letting others snatch points away from it.

Red Bull
2016: 223
2017: 184
Difference: -39

For a team of its standing, Red Bull started the season poorly and is paying the price for that. Once you throw points away, it is very difficult to haul them back again.

Force India
2016: 74
2017: 101
Difference: +27

Once again, this is a team that has started the season punching above its weight. Force India benefited at the start of the season from Red Bull's lack of performance and continues to take advantage of Williams's struggles. The challenge is to hold onto fourth.

Williams
2016: 94
2017: 41
Difference: -52

I don't think anyone at Williams expected this season to be as tough as it has been and I am not seeing any signs of improvement. Luckily, the teams behind it are not exactly setting the world alight but Williams can't count on that continuing. It needs to take its destiny into its own hands and quickly.

Toro Rosso
2016: 45
2017: 39
Difference: -6

I suppose you could say Toro Rosso has more or less stood still. It possibly deserves more, but then every team in the pitlane would tell you that. If Toro Rosso could get its two drivers to toe the line and work for the team instead of individually, then it might just move forward.

Haas
2016: 28
2017: 29
Difference: +1

Well, here is a team that has stood still, points wise that is, but I don't know why. Haas is up and down like the proverbial yo-yo and at most races it seems to go from one drama to another. On a positive note, Romain Grosjean's radio messages are right up with the best of them. Keep them coming!

Renault
2016: 6
2017: 26
Difference: +20

There was room for improvement and still is but going into the summer break there is cause for optimism. The new components Renault is bringing to the car seem to be performing and more of the same will do wonders for team motivation.

McLaren
2016: 38
2017: 11
Difference: -27

Not the start to 2017 that anyone at McLaren or Honda wanted. No-one ever thought that it could get worse this year, but worse it got both on engine performance and reliability. As Alonso showed in Hungary with fastest lap, the chassis is good but my question is what was wrong on the other 69 laps?

As we go into the summer break, there is a slight glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel but for a relationship that is hanging together by a thread it might just be too late.

Sauber
2016: 0
2017: 5
Difference: +5

Sauber is a team that seems lost in the big world of Formula 1. Five points is better than zero from last year, but it's not great. Perhaps the change of management will lead to the foundations being put in place that will allow Sauber to start rebuilding.