A fuel leak triggered the fire at the beginning of the session.
That's just shoddy and there can be no excuse based around the components being pushed. If parts likes hoses are suspected of being close to their "life cycle" then surely given the problems of the season MB would consider replacing them prior to an important qualifying session?
And yes you do detect an air of ire in my posts this weekend. Hamilton is peerless around the Hungaroring and once again he has been denied the opportunity to show it. I'll be out on the bike instead of in front of the TV - as I said I can only hope that Rosberg's car suffers some misfortune but this is unlikely because he drives it with kid gloves in the absence of any true competition.
The last couple of times he's had to race he's had mechanical issues that have prevented his winning. Is it a case of the Mercedes simply not being capable of being raced on a Sunday at the pace two healthy cars would dictate?
Meanwhile back in Brackley, the pressure continues to sort out the poor reliability shown so far.
Hi Mike,
Everyone at the team is happy with the problems that are affecting Lewis
I'm sure that's not what you meant Ian
Nico certainly lost it by not getting past Vergne earlier in the race.
As to Mercedes telling Lewis to let Nico past, from a team perspective it was the right thing to do. Nico would then have finished in front of Alonso and the team would have gained more points overall for the constructors championship (which = income for the team). In this case, because the car is so quick, it didn't matter (Merc has run away with the constructors this year), so Lewis did the right thing to help him win the drivers championship.
Amazing drive by Hamilton - third from starting from the pit lane and driving into the wall on the first lap!
Nico certainly lost it by not getting past Vergne earlier in the race.