Max Spins and Wins in Hungary, Ferrari mess up their strategy – Formula 1

This season Max Verstappen has almost been inevitable. Whatever the race and whatever the conditions thrown at him, he seems to come out on top of them. And that’s exactly the story of the Formula 1 Hungarian GP. Verstappen started from 10th position and many people thought that he would be battling for the points, but the world champion showed us once again, just why he’s the best in the business. This race also had the same podium as the last race, Verstappen, Hamilton and Russell.

Your final top 10 before the summer break! #HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/qu1bk2Za9K

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 31, 2022

Max Verstappen is a world champion, he’s won a Formula 1 race 28 times, but today was the first time that he’s done it from outside the top 4. He started in 10th after engine issues hindered him yesterday during qualifying. But a brand new power unit ensured that the driver gave it all out on track. He even had a massive 360 spin mid-race and still managed to win. It goes to show you the level of confidence at which he is operating this season. He was also helped by yet another Ferrari strategy mistake. The Ferrari team decided to Put Leclerc on Hard tyres, which none of the front runners was using. This potentially cost him the race.

Speaking on his victory, max acknowledged that the Ferrari mistake did indeed play into his hands. “we pitted at the right time, we put the right tyres on the car, I think that at the time we planned it, and then I saw that Charles was struggling a lot on the hard tyre so that was my moment to try and attack him.” 

 

Verstappen also gave credit to his strategist Hannah Schmitz who he said was insanely calm. 

What a 𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠 effort 🏆 P1 and P5 on Sunday 💪 #HungarianGP 🇭🇺 pic.twitter.com/cKVWZlB76A

— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) July 31, 2022

Joining Max on the podium yet again was the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton started 7th, after a DRS issue in qualifying. But the driver had an insanely clean race to place his car at the right place at the right time. Speaking on the pace of the Mercedes, he said “To fight and battle with Ferrari for the first time, that’s huge. Red Bull is ahead. The fact Max spun and finished 10 seconds ahead says enough, but we’ve still made huge progress and so to have consistency and two double podiums in the last two races give us great hope.”.

Only Verstappen has scored more points in the last five races

👏 @LewisHamilton #HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/XnRKmG5no0

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 31, 2022

With 2 double podiums, it’s tough to imagine that these are the same Mercedes cars who were porpoising like crazy at the start of the season, just a few races ago. But it seems that Mercedes have managed to sort out their problems and they could potentially fight with Ferrari in the constructors’ championship this season, they’re just 30 points behind Ferrari as F1 goes into the summer break. 

After 13 rounds…

Ferrari ⬅️ 30 pts ➡️ Mercedes #HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/8s0A9AUoph

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 31, 2022

However, Russell was disappointed that he couldn’t manage to get his first ever Formula 1 race win after a stunning pole position. “We did everything right for both of us to fight for the win but it didn’t go our way,” said Russell. “It was always going to be tricky because there was rain throughout.

“Knowing you’re on soft tyres I was rubbing my hands, pulled a gap to Carlos and then the rain stopped. It was a good first stint and I pitted early to cover Max and the Ferraris but Max was too fast and that put us in a tricky place on the last stint on the mediums 

Ferraris Carlos Sainz finished in 4th, with Redbull’s Perez in 5th and championship contender Leclerc in 6th.
Leclerc showed strong pace on his medium tyres, but the Ferrari team decided to pit him for hard tyres, which is when he lost pace and lost out to Verstappen.  “The pace was really good on the medium tyres, the second stint also [on mediums] everything was under control and then we decided to stop on the hards.

 

“I don’t exactly know what are the reasons behind this decision yet, but we’ll speak with the team for me to understand, but it wasn’t the right decision. And I made it clear that I felt good on the medium, so I don’t exactly know what happened.”

#Charles16 pitting for hard tyres. #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/9vh2we7Uot

— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) July 31, 2022

This means that the gap to Verstappen in the world championship is almost 80 points. This means that max Verstappen could not take part in 3 races, and still lead the world championship.

Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon and Sebastian Vettel completed the top 10 points finishers.

It was also a surprising week, where HAAS came with multiple upgrades, but was not very competitive, they finished 14th and 16th. 

F1 heads into a summer break. The racing resumes on 28th august at the track that always promises sizzling action, the Belgium track, and spa.
But while f1 takes a break, don’t worry, we won’t. We’ll be right here at Fervent motorsports giving you all the updates on everything motorsport related.