AUTHOR: ABI MCINTOSH
Excitement and anticipation were through the roof for the Hungarian Grand Prix after last year’s maiden win for Alpine driver Esteban Ocon, who, after a total of six DNFs, cinched the title and entered the pool of Grand Prix winners. With Max Verstappen leading the championship and Charles Leclerc in a close second, Redbull was hoping for another race win to put the Dutchman ahead of the pack, while Ferrari was after a podium to assert their place as a championship contender. But with such an anticipated race, who was destined to come out on top?
The Hungarian Grand Prix kicked off on the 31st of July at the Hungaroring in Mogyoród. Such an interesting and fan-loved track was sure to excite, with the short straights and fourteen corners making it difficult to overtake. The track spans 4.381 kilometres, and the race is 306.63 kilometres in total distance – 70 laps altogether – making it one of the longest races on the calendar. The top speed available was a whopping 321.6 km/h, with Lewis Hamilton holding the fastest race lap record of 1m16.627 back in 2020. Compared to two years ago, however, the stands were packed, with over 290,000 people in attendance and all were anxiously awaiting the start of the weekend – Free Practice 1.
FP1 began on the Friday, and it saw Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz pick up pole position on soft tyres with a lap time of 1m18.750s, closely followed by Verstappen and teammate Charles Leclerc. FP2 had Leclerc set the fastest lap, a few tenths faster than his teammate at 1m18.445s, succeeded by McLaren’s Landon Norris and teammate Sainz. A wet FP3 surprisingly brought out the underdogs, with William’s driver Nicholas Latifi snatching a surprise pole position after a time of 1m41.408s on inters for the first time in his career. He is currently yet to score points, but proved this weekend that anything can happen when a little rain falls. Leclerc graced the podium for the third time this weekend, coming in second just before Alex Albon in third.
Shortly after, qualifying was underway. Mercedes’ George Russell put in a flying lap of 1m17.377s, outqualifying Sainz by just 0.044 seconds and securing the first pole position of his Formula 1 career. Leclerc rounded out the top three. Lewis Hamilton placed just P7 after a DRS issue left him abandoning his lap. Verstappen, who experienced a loss of power, retired towards the end of Q1.
For this Grand Prix, Pirelli had selected the C2 hard, C3 medium and C4 soft compound tyres, with an equal balance between mediums and softs on track for the start of the race. Due to the cooler temperatures, soft tyres give more of an advantage straight off the line, and according to Pirelli, utilising them in a two-stop strategy will push teams further towards the finish line – but this could all go out the window if it starts to rain.
After a short formation lap, it’s lights out and away we go! Russell got an incredible start, keeping his cool and holding the Ferraris off, before contact between Albon and Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll brought out the yellow flags and Virtual Safety Car. After the green flag Verstappen had moved up into a battle for P4 with Hamilton and Norris on only lap 11 before the former two gained a DRS advantage and overtook the McLaren driver. Verstappen quickly ran into a problem with his clutch pedal, though, which saw his revs rising without gaining any speed. Meanwhile, the Ferraris were battling for P2, and both drivers were feeling the degradation on their soft tyres. Sainz was ordered to pit on lap 17 but elected to stay out, which caused a chain reaction, where race leader Russell entered the pitlane for a tyre change. Speculation about a dummy call surrounded Ferrari, who had perhaps ordered Sainz to do the opposite of Russell.
Regardless, he pitted on the next lap for a fresh set of mediums, coming out behind Russell and teammate Leclerc. By this time, everyone on track bar Kevin Magnussen was also on mediums, but this would change when both Alpines gambled and lost out on the hard compounds. They continued to move down the midfield while Leclerc ran wide on Russell and snuck into P1 with the aid of an open DRS flap. It soon began spitting rain, but this was of no concern to Verstappen, who had hunted down and picked off the midfield to end up in P4 after a measly 33 laps. The slippery conditions saw AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda spin at the chicane and bring out a short yellow flag before he regained his composure and continued on.
All of Ferrari’s hard work would be undone in time, however, when they ordered Leclerc to pit for hard tyres – which the Alpines had already proven were difficult to maintain grip and traction on in the sinuous track.
“After seeing Alpine struggle so much, why are Ferrari going to the hard?” – David Croft, Formula 1 commentator.
So far, he’d only been on mediums and because of such an early pitstop, softs wouldn’t have lasted to the checkered flag. All in all, he wasn’t left much choice if Ferrari were going for a two-stop strategy. He exited P3, and was quickly overtaken by championship rival Verstappen, who then did a quick 360 into Turn 13.
“I dropped the throttle and I just spun!” – Maz Verstappen, Red Bull via team radio.
He quickly recovered to once again take P3 from Leclerc, who ran wide on Turn 1 due to a lack of traction from the hard compound tyres. Because Sainz and Hamilton had yet to change their compounds, they would need to pit for softs – allowing Verstappen the lead. Ricciardo and Stroll made contact on lap 48, for which Ricciardo received a five-second penalty to be served in the pitlane. With the checkered flag looming, Leclerc elected to pit for softs, finally putting everyone out of their misery of the hards and exiting P6.
Meanwhile, Hamilton and Sainz tussled for P3, with the Mercedes finally gaining an advantage on lap 63 and making the overtake – then succeeding that with an overtake on his teammate on lap 65 for P2. This polished off the podium for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen took his 28th career win, after starting P10 on a track on which overtaking is difficult.
“Unbelievable Max. That is right up there with your best.” – Christian Horner, Team Principal of Oracle Redbull Racing via team radio.
This was the second time in history Redbull had ever won a race from outside the top 10, for which large acknowledgment must go to Hannah Schmitz, their Principal Strategy Engineer. In such a male-dominated sport, it is refreshing to see a woman on the podium sharing the limelight. She pulled off an amazing feat of racing, for which the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix will be remembered for many years to come.
With Verstappen in P1, Hamilton P2 and Russell P3, Ferrari was left without a podium and an unsatisfying amount of points, having Sainz finish P4 and Leclerc P6. Perez filled the gap in P5, and Norris, Alonso, Ocon and Vettel rounded out the points respectively. A spectacular finish for Verstappen extended his championship lead to 80 points – an incredible way to start off the summer break. He was also voted driver of the day, deservingly, and was even pulled across the barriers by his ecstatic team in parc fermé. A hopeful end to the weekend for some, but devastating for others, and each team will be going into the break with plenty to work on.
“I was hoping I could get close to a podium, but we had a really good strategy, we were really reactive. Even with the 360, we won the race! I was battling a lot of guys, it was a lot of fun out there. Crazy race, very happy we won it.” – Max Verstappen, Red Bull.
External sources used: https://www.formula1.com/en.html