Oscar Piastri became the fifth Australian to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix and gave us the seventh different race winner of the year at the Hungarian GP. As Mercedes and McLaren continued their upward trend, Verstappen and Redbull lost ground in both the championships. Here’s a recap of what happened this weekend.
Read the Hungarian GP Preview here.
Free Practice
Although there were heavy rains at the Hungaroring leading up to the weekend, the first practice session started on a completely dry track with track temperatures touching 50°C. Moving toward the summer shutdown, many teams had brought upgrades to this race; some worked, some didn’t. While both Aston Martin drivers complained about the car’s performance, Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu made it to the top 5 on the timing sheets. Kevin Magnussen, who announced that he would not be racing with Haas next year, had brake issues, finishing nineteenth, just ahead of Ferrari junior Ollie Bearman, who was sitting in for Hulkenburg for his rookie practice session. Sainz topped the session for Ferrari, with a time of 1:18:713 on the soft tyres.
The second practice was quite eventful for Scuderia Ferrari, but not in a way they would’ve liked. The Italian outfit has not had the best of races lately and was looking to make a comeback in this race, but it was made difficult by Charles Leclerc who spun and crashed out of turn four, damaging the left rear of his car. Another driver to spin out of turn four was Zhou Ghuany who nearly collected Sergio Perez as well. Norris topped the second practice with a time of 1:17:788, followed by Verstappen and Sainz.
Saturday was a bit cooler than Friday and it seemed to suit the Mclaren cars as they finished first and second. Tsunoda, Ricciardo, and Albon were having a good day as all three finished in the top 10. On the contrary, 8-time Hungarian Grand Prix winner Lewis Hamilton had a spin and managed to finish only the tenth fastest. His teammate George Russell managed to finish fourth behind Verstappen. Norris extended his streak from FP2 as he finished fastest with a time of 1:16:098.
Qualifying
Qualifying started in dry conditions, but there were intermittent showers throughout Q1 and Q2. The rain was not heavy enough to send any of the drivers out on the intermediate tyres. As the track was drying out in Q1, the session was brought to a halt by Perez as he crashed into the wall and brought out the red flag. This comes at a time when Perez is delivering back-to-back poor performances and has the pressure to improve his results to keep the Red Bull seat. Another surprise exit out of Q1 was Russell, who took the blame for his exit on the team radio.
The other Mercedes of Hamilton was on the cusp of getting knocked out in Q2. He just made it through to Q3 in P10 by one-hundredth of a second ahead of Hulkenberg. Both the VCARBs made it to Q3 along with the Astons and the Mclarens. Verstappen also went through in P2 behind Norris
After everyone except Ricciardo had had their first runs in Q3, Norris was on provisional pole. As drivers were setting their second flying laps, Tsunoda crashed out in turn 12, bringing out the red flag with just over 2 minutes to go in the session. After the red flag period ended, Norris maintained the pole position with a time of 1:15:227, and Piastri qualified second, making it an all-Mclaren front row. Verstappen and Sainz shared the second row, followed by Leclerc and Hamilton.
The Race Start
After qualifying 20th, Pierre Gasly started the race from the pit lane as he took some power unit parts from outside the allocated pool. At lights out, Verstappen, Piastri, and Hamilton all got a good start but Lando made a poor start from pole. Going into turn one, Piastri took the lead, and Verstappen went off the track and joined in front of Norris. Later, upon intervention from the Red Bull team, Verstappen gave the place back to Norris and took third place ahead of Hamilton. As Verstappen and Russell were starting out of place, they started on hard tyres, with a plan to go longer than everyone in the first stint. Their race didn’t go as per plan initially, as the undercut was much more powerful than the overcut. But over the race duration, they managed to make it to the points-paying positions. Both of them scored 6 points as Russell pitted towards the end and took the point for the fastest lap.
Old Rival Lock Horns Again
Verstappen and Hamilton were battling each other for the final podium place right from the race start. In the first round of pit stops, Hamilton successfully undercut Verstappen and took third place. But later, with fresher tyres, Verstappen managed to get back past Hamilton. In the second round of pitstops, Hamilton again tried to undercut Verstappen and even succeeded. This time, Verstappen stayed for more laps and came out with a larger tyre delt on Hamilton. With the tyre advantage, he got past Leclerc and in no time was onto Hamilton’s rear wing. Verstappen had been having balance and braking issues throughout the race. It became clear that this frustration was bothering his race craft when he dived down the inside of Hamilton, lost control of the car, and made contact with Hamilton. This contact launched the Red Bull in the air and he later went off the track. After this incident, Verstappen lost a place to Leclerc and finally finished fifth as Hamilton secured the podium place.
Ferrari was quite anonymous during the race and finished fourth and sixth.
Multi 21 at Mclaren
After the first round of pit stops, Piastri was comfortably leading the race from Norris. During this period, he made a mistake and lost some time to Lando. When Hamilton pitted to undercut Verstappen, Mclaren pitted Lando first to cover off Hamilton, but he ended up undercutting Oscar and getting the race lead. Mclaren had initially told Piastri that Norris would give him the place once he pits, but he was having difficulty catching up to Lando as he made one more error in the process.
When Lando was told to give the place back, he didn’t oblige initially, as he too was closing the gap to Verstappen in the drivers’ Championship by winning the race. After much convincing and pleading, he gave the lead to Piastri who won a Formula One Grand Prix for the first time in just the second year of his F1 career.
Gasly was the only DNF from the race as he had to retire his car due to a suspected hydraulic leak. Russell took the point for the fastest lap and Piastri was voted as the driver of the day.
Championship Standings After The Hungarian GP
Next Up
Formula 1 heads to the iconic Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps for the second race of the doubleheader. You can watch all the sessions live in India on F1TV and Fancode.
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