07/31/2022 at 21:20
IT IS
Max Vertstappen moved from 10th to claim his eighth win of the season, with another fiasco for Ferrari
Another double for Mercedes on the podium, while Leclerc and Sainz were weighed down by Ferrari’s strategy
Logic doesn’t go with it Max Verstappen. Not even with Ferrari. In Hungary, this weekend, everything announced a double for the Scuderia and a race with many problems for the leader Red Bull, who started tenth on the grid after the reliability failure of his car in Q3 on Saturday. But at the moment of truth, the Dutchman read the race at the Hungaroring better than anyone and took a victory, the eighth of the season for him, which could be worth a championship. There are nine grand prix left, after the summer break, and the advantage of ‘Mad Max at the head of the championship continues to grow. It’s already 80 points with Leclerc.
Verstappen stepped onto the podium escorted again by Hamilton and Russell, like last week in France. A sainzmarked by two extremely slow stops, missed the podium and Leclerc He finished sixth, condemned again for poor Ferrari strategy. Fernando Alonso He didn’t have an easy race either. The rain only appeared at the end and the Spaniard had to settle for eighth position, ahead of Ocon.
Russell resists
The race started under the threat of a thunderstorm which did not materialize and allowed us to start on slicks. The Ferrari men opted for the medium compound, while Russell he opted for the soft to retain his pole position advantage. In the Scuderia, there was only one slogan for Sainz and Leclerc: forbidden to touch carlos He started very well, like his team-mate, but the Mercedes driver defended himself masterfully and managed to take a few meters lead.
Behind, Norris retains fourth place and hamilton managed to climb two places (5th) at the expense of the Alpine, while Ocon he made it difficult Fernando Alonso and the Red Bulls, who switched engines before the race without penalty, started their comeback from the middle of the grid.
After playing in the worst ranking of the season, Verstappen and Perez started 10th and 11th respectively, but in less than 10 laps they were in the wake of hamiltoncon Verstappen launching a ferocious attack on the seven-time British champion and Norriswith a lot of degradation. lewis withstood the first attacks and Max and Czech they surpassed the McLaren as an “aircraft”.
Slow stop for Sainz
The soft Russell they said “enough” and Leclerc asked to sainz to increase the pace to take account of the Englishman, who had to anticipate his stoppage to cover a possible “undercut” from Ferrari. sainz He pitted a lap later and after another slow pitstop from the Maranello team (3.9) he returned to the track behind the Mercedes and a Oconwhich slowed him down.
The stoppage of Leclerc It was a second faster than sainz and the Monegasque won the job carloswhereas Russell recovered the leadership of the race pursued by the Ferrari, with Verstappen is already “flying” in fourth place.Ocon and Alonso got entangled in an absurd impulse that Ricardo He took the opportunity to leave them behind, a “bad deal” for the French team considering that Alpine and McLaren are fighting for fourth place in the World Cup.
“Deadly” Hunt
Leclerc raised the bar with a Russell’s relentless pursuit. The Briton resisted heroically in the DRS zones, but in the end he could not save the Monegasque driver’s “suicidal” overtaking, outside of turn 1 of the Hungaroring, with almost no material time to brake.
second act, sainz He also threw himself on top of the Mercedes in search of the coveted Scuderia lookalike, but without losing sight of an ambitious Verstappenwhich was already less than 5 seconds behind the lead and only 1 carlos.
Verstappen strategy and Ferrari fiasco
Red Bull surprised with its strategy, launching an “undercut” for sainz. With a super efficient pit stop (2.4) Verstappen won the job Russell and forced a reaction from Ferrari, which opted to mount hard tires on the car of Leclercleaving you at the expense of Max. The championship leader, very aggressive, made a mistake by spinning in the middle of the straight line, but protected by Perezmanaged to save the day and return to the attack, beat Leclerc with 25 laps to go.sainz He was still in the lead, albeit with an imminent stop and looking up at the sky, knowing the rain might be his only chance. But another disastrous ‘pit stop’ (4.6) definitely weighed on the Madrid man. The wrong choice of tires at the garage Leclerc, completed the fiasco of Ferrari, who returned to stop Charles to get on the soft and wasted another golden opportunity in Hungary. From a possible double, those of Maranello moved up to fourth place in sainz and a sixth of Leclercclearly exceeded by Verstappen and the two Mercedes of hamilton there Russell and widen the gap with the championship leader.
F1 is going on vacation (it will return from the 26th to the 28th at the mythical Spa) all in favor for Red Bull and Max, who will hardly give up his second crown in the remaining nine races.
HUNGARY GRAND PRIX (Racing)
1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 1:39:35.912
2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) in 7.834
3. George Russell (Mercedes) a 12″337
4. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) at 14″579
5. Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) at 15″688
6. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) in 16″047
7. Lando Norris (McLaren) in 78″300
8. Fernando Alonso (Alpine) 1 lap
9. Esteban Ocon (Alpine) 1 lap
10. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) at 1 view
11. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) at 1 view
12. Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1 lap
13. Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo) at 1 view
14. Mick Schumacher (Haas) at 1 view
15. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) 1 lap
16. Kevin Magnussen (Haas) at the 1 Vuelta
17. Alexander Albon (Williams) has 1 view
18. Nicholas Latifi (Williams) 1 lap
19. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) 2 views
WITHDRAWAL
20. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
This is how the World Cup goes (13/22 + 2 sprints)
1. Max Verstappen 258 points
2. Charles Leclerc 178
3. Sergio Perez 173
4. George Russell 158
5. Carlos Sainz 156
6.Lewis Hamilton 146
7. Lando Norris 76
8. Esteban Ocon 58
9. Valtteri Bottas 46
10. Fernando Alonso 41
11. Kevin Magnussen 22
12. Daniel Ricardo 19
13. Pierre Gasly 16
14. Sebastien Vettel 16
15. Mick Schumacher 12
16. Yuki Tsunoda 11
17. Guanyu Zhou 5
18. Launch Walk 4
19. Alexander Albon 3
20. Nicolas Latifi 0
EQUIPMENT:
1.Red Bull 431 points
2.Ferrari 334
3.Mercedes 304
4. Alpine 99
5.McLaren 95
6. Alfa Romeo 51
7.Haas 34
8. Alpha Tauri 27
9.Aston Martin 20
10.Williams 3