Bluffers’ Guide to the sporting weekend: hungry Hamilton and happy Sam

It is half-time in Formula One’s title race, and kick-off for Big Sam and England. Martin Bly has the stats you need to sound off

Live sport this weekend is somewhat thin on the ground, so the best tactic for Bluffers is to arm themselves with the information they need to sound off with confidence about Formula One’s mid-season jamboree, the Hungarian Grand Prix, while also being ready to pitch in with a well-informed view about the liveliest controversy in football, the appointment of Big Sam Allardyce as England manager.

First of all, to the Hungaroring, the halfway point in Formula One’s (longest-ever) 21-race season and - to get off the grid with a roar - the only previously visited track on this year’s schedule where the dominant Mercedes team are yet to register a win in the turbo-hybrid era.

The Silver Arrows - and Nico Rosberg in particular - messed up on last year’s visit to the hills around Budapest, when the race was liberally littered with incidents and safety cars to the eventual benefit of Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel.

This year the likeliest rivals to Rosberg and his no-longer-friendly team-mate Lewis Hamilton seem likely to be the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen - but this is a weird track which has thrown up some unlikely results, including Jenson Button’s first-ever win and a near-miss for Damon Hill in an Arrows, of all things.

Of the current line-up, Kimi Raikkonen has the most podium visits in Hungary with seven, and Lewis Hamilton the most victories on the twisty, tricky tack with four - a fifth would make him the most successful driver in Hungarian Grand Prix history.

Bluffers looking to predict an unlikely result this weekend could note the weather forecast (stormy and showery) McLaren’s historic pre-eminence (11 wins - more than any other team) and Jenson Button’s ability from a lowly grid position (he won here from 14th) to make JB the joker in the pack. Another wildcard would be Romain Grosjean of Haas, who registered his only front-row start of his career so far here with Lotus in 2012.

It would be an interesting challenge to try and insert Sam Allardyce into a Formula One car, but the hefty former Sunderland manager will this weekend be settling into the hottest seat in football as he achieves his lifetime ambition of becoming England manager.

How will he turn out? The omens are not all bad. It’s true that Allardyce has never won a major trophy, but then he has never managed a major club (or, with apologies to West Ham and Newcastle United, a major club at the height of its fortunes). The FA seem to have been determined to pick another English boss after Roy Hodgson, and how many Englishmen currently managing have Premier League titles? None.

On a more positive note, Allardyce has never left a club in a worse position than when he arrived, which when transferred to England’s current plight would suggest that quarter-finals at major tournaments should not be out of reach. Some form of tactical change - any change – will be a relief after the embarrassment and confusion of the Iceland fixture.

It is hard, all the same, to rule out the long ball as one likely option. While England at the recent European championship played fewer passes of 35-metres-plus than any other team except Spain, preferring instead to tap the ball around, usually slowly, pointlessly and sideways, Sunderland under Allardyce played more long balls (35m+) than any other Premier League side except West Brom.

Big Sam is also a demon for analysis, and knows where to find the fine margins that can win tough games – perhaps with a tough, well-drilled defence and a goal from a set-piece? Under his guidance, Sunderland scored more goals from set pieces than any other team except Spurs – and with England, Allardyce will have plenty of Tottenham players at his disposal. Let us hope that he makes better use of them than his predecessor.