Another Ferrari flop, a great performance by Red Bull and Mercedes: who dominated the Hungarian Grand Prix?

The Hungarian Grand Prix was the thirteenth race of this season. This event brought mainly interesting strategic battles, Red Bull and Mercedes can celebrate, while Ferrari is experiencing another significant slump. Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin has also done a great job.

The Hungarian Grand Prix was dominated by Max Verstappen in the Red Bull, despite starting from tenth place. However, the Austrian team put in a very good performance in the race, especially in terms of strategy.

Lewis Hamilton took the next podium, but Mercedes had both cars on the podium for the second time this season. George Russell took third place despite starting from first place.

Once again, Ferrari’s strategy was unfortunate. The Italian team’s drivers started from second and third place after qualifying, but Carlos Sainz finished the Hungarian Grand Prix in fourth place, while Charles Leclerc even finished sixth.

Red Bull showed very solid damage limitation at the Hungaroring, with Sergio Pérez, Verstappen’s teammate, finishing fifth in the standings after starting from 11th place.

The best team from the “rest of the world” in Hungary was McLaren together with Lando Norris. Although the British driver started fourth, the Woking-based team has not had the best season this year, so Norris’ position is still coveted.

His teammate Daniel Ricciardo, on the other hand, lost his pace from the first few dozen laps in the second half of the race, and also received a five-second penalty for his lap 49 duel with Lance Stroll, which left him fifteenth on the results list.

Eighth and ninth place belong to the two Alpine drivers, namely Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon. A very decent job was done by four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel in his Aston Martin. The German racer will retire after this season.

He started the Hungarian Grand Prix from 18th place, but in the end he came away with one point for a tenth place finish. He left his teammate Lance Stroll behind.

In the above Twitter post you can see the final standings of the entire starting field.

Only one driver did not see the finish in Hungary, Valtteri Bottas. Two laps from the end, he pitted his Alfa Romeo at Turn 2. The reason was engine failure. Yellow flags flew on the circuit and the fans witnessed a virtual safety car.

Another Ferrari flop

That, in turn, probably saved Sainz’s fourth place, as fifth-placed Pérez was taking them down by leaps and bounds. Indeed, the Mexican driver in the service of Red Bull was the much quicker driver, especially at the end, pulling back Sainz’s original lead by 2 and a half seconds on laps 65 and 66.

The Spanish driver simply didn’t have enough grip on the worn-out softest set of tyres. That, after all, is one of the aspects of another Ferrari race gone wrong. The Italian team called Sainz to the pits on lap 48 and his mechanics fitted him with a red set of tyres.

And he was really getting a hard time at the Hungaroring, so it’s no wonder Pérez was on a whole different level in terms of pace at the end of the race.

Ferrari also made a big mistake during Leclerc’s pit stop when the team fitted him with the hardest specification tyres marked in white. He made his pit stop on lap 40. Logically, however, the Monegasque couldn’t find the pace he needed on these tyres and gradually gained time. In addition, he was overtaken by Verstappen and Russell.

Ferrari only realised this 15 laps later when Leclerc was called back to the pits. The Monegasque driver was given the fastest set of red tyres and dropped to sixth, but the accumulated deficit was now very difficult to react to.

Highlights of the race

The trio of Ricciardo – Ocon – Alonso provided a great moment at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The two Team Alpine drivers were battling it out for a better position, but the Australian took advantage of this and took on both Alpine drivers at the same time at turns 2 and 3.

Teammates Hamilton and Russell also had a nice battle with each other on lap 65, with the seven-time world champion getting past his teammate into second place.

In addition to second place and a fifth straight podium, Hamilton also drove to the fastest lap of the race. The results of the Hungarian Grand Prix therefore establish that Verstappen already boasts an 80-point lead over second-placed Leclerc at the top of the drivers’ championship standings.

Not only will this be very difficult for Ferrari to pull off, but five points behind Leclerc is Pérez at Red Bull. Moreover, third-placed Mercedes has cut Ferrari’s lead to just 30 points, so instead of fighting for the title, the Italian Maranello stable will probably have to concentrate on defending at least that second place.

Source: F1 TV