F1 Hungarian GP: Verstappen wins after Ferrari blunder
31st July 2022After yet another blunder from Ferrari, where both drivers finished outside the podium, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen cruised to his eighth win of the season.
How the race unfolded…
Prior to the race start, Mercedes’ maiden pole sitter, George Russell, was the only driver in the top three to start the race, at the Hungaroring, on the red-ringed soft compound tyres while both Ferrari’s started the race on the yellow-ringed mediums.
When it was a decent reaction from Russell, when the lights went out, as the Briton managed to defend his lead from Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz into the first corner.
Despite the pressure, Sainz wasn’t able to find way past the Mercedes on the exit of turn one. However, by the end of the first lap, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed due to the amount of debris on the track.
The debris was a result of contact between Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and Williams’ Alexander Albon. The Williams driver was forced to pit at the end of the lap after he suffered severe wing damage.
By lap three, the VSC was lifted and Russell – like France, last week – got a great jump on the two Ferrari’s behind him. A lap later, the Mercedes had established a comfortable two-second gap over second-placed Sainz.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, on lap six, was issued the black and orange flag which required the Danish driver to come into the pit lane immediately. This came after the Dane carried significant front wing damage in the early stages of the race. Due to Magnussen’s early stop, the Haas driver returned to the circuit on the white-ringed Hard compound tyres.
Hamilon worked to line up a move on McLaren’s Lando Norris for a series of laps. On lap 12, the seven-time world champion finally found a way to slip past Norris into turn one to progress to P4. This move was a necessity as Verstappen – who started P10 – started to hound the #44’s gearbox.
Norris became the first driver to filter into the pit lane for his mandatory stop, ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who also pitted at the end of lap 14.
At the end of lap 17, Russell pitted from the race lead to swap his worn soft tyres for a fresh set of mediums. The maiden pole sitter filtered back onto the circuit in between the two Aplines. During this time, Verstappen also came into the pit lane for his mandatory stop.
Sainz reacted to Russell’s stop, a lap later, but the Spaniard had a slightly slow stop and returned to the track behind the #63 Mercedes.
On lap 20, as Leclerc continued on for another lap, Hamilton came in for his stop and swapped his worn mediums for a fresh set of the mediums. Hamilton returned to the circuit in P7, behind Verstappen and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso in P5 and P6 respectively.
Leclerc finally yielded the race lead, at the end of lap 21, when the Monegasque pitted for his first stop. Due to the time difference between himself, Russell and Sainz, Leclerc’s stop handed the lead back to Russell but the Monegasque managed to overcut his teammate, Sainz, and obtain second place.
On lap 24, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon pitted to match his teammate, two-time world champion, Fernando Alonso’s strategy. However, the Frenchman returned to the circuit just ahead of his teammate who was in a battle with McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo.
With poor track positioning, Ocon and Alonso tripped over each other which allowed Ricciardo to overtake both Alpine’s on the exit of turn two.
Leclerc finally put Russell under some pressure, at the beginning of lap 28, as the two drivers went wheel-to-wheel into turn one. On the exit of the corner, the Mercedes struggled to gain grip under traction and left Russell vulnerable into turn two. As the two went into battle, at the following corner, Russell pushed Leclerc wide on the exit to maintain the lead of the race.
The battle continued on for a couple of laps until it finally came to an end into turn one, on lap 31. With help from his Drag Reduction System, Leclerc closed in on the Mercedes. As the two drivers raced into turn one, Russell opted to defend the inside line. This forced Leclerc to take the harder line, around the outside, but with a better exit – and a second helping of DRS – Leclerc managed to secure the lead of the race.
Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda brought out the yellow flag, on lap 35, after the Japanese driver lost rear tyre grip on the exit of the chicane, between turns six and seven. Fortunately, Tsunoda was able to get his car back in the right direction to carry on his way.
Verstappen peeled back into the pit lane, at the end of lap 38, to make his second – and final – stop of the race to exchange the worn mediums for another, fresher, set of the same tyres. Leclerc and Russell retaliated to Verstappen’s call a lap later but Ferrari equipped Leclerc with the hard compound tyres.
Out of the two drivers, who pitted, Russell was the only driver to lose track position to the #1 Red Bull.
On the end of lap 41, Verstappen made a rare mistake on the exit of turn 13 as the Dutch world champion’s rear tyres slipped away from him. As a result, Leclerc quickly regained track position while Verstappen became vulnerable from his teammate, Sergio Perez and Russell behind him. Fortunately, the defending world champion was able to keep his teammate, and Russell, at bay down the pit straight.
It only took Verstappen three laps to regain his lost track position on Leclerc which was done into turn one.
Sainz relinquished his race lead as the Spaniard pitted on lap 48, which allowed Hamilton to inherit the race lead, to swap his worn mediums for the soft tyres.
Shortly afterwards, Ricciardo was issued a five-second time penalty for causing a collision. The Australian driver locked up into turn two, as he battled up against Stroll on lap , and collided with the Aston Martin driver.
Hamilton returned to the pit lane, at the end of lap 51, and handed the race lead to his 2021 championship rival; Verstappen, to swap his mediums for the quicker soft compound tyres. The seven-time world champion quickly filtered back onto the Hungaroring in P5, 10 seconds behind Sainz.
Due to Ferrari’s earlier blunder, Leclerc returned to the pit lane – for a third time – to exchange his unwanted hard tyres for the soft tyres.
On lap 63 of 70, Ferrari final place on the podium – at the hands of Sainz – was ripped away from the Scuderia as Hamilton got a great exit out of the final corner to steal away P3 from the Spaniard. By the time the two drivers got halfway down the pit straight, the move between Hamilton and Sainz was completed.
The VSC was redeployed, on lap 69 of 70, after the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas pulled to the side of the track at turn 11. The Finn reported that his car had lost power and Bottas became the first driver to retire from the race.
On the penultimate lap, the VSC was recalled and the race got back to green-flag conditions.
Podium:
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
- George Russell, Mercedes
That’s it for the article: F1 Hungarian GP: Verstappen wins after Ferrari blunder! What did you think of the race? Let us know in the comments!
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
