Red Bull’s Verstappen rallies from P10 start to take victory in Hungary; P2 Hamilton & P3 Russell pounce for Mercedes as Ferrari fumble strategy yet again

Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, the last race before the long August break, began with a scrambled grid that promised big swings and did not disappoint once the lights went out to start the race. Starting from an unaccustomed P10 after engine issues ruined his qualifying pace, the points-leading Red Bull of Max Verstappen gave his typically superlative effort behind the wheel to eventually take a stunning victory at the end of this 70-lap contest at the short, tight and twisty Hugaroring. He was benefitted first by his team’s clever use of the undercut and then by yet another inexplicable strategy call by Ferrari that doomed the race of his key rival, Charles Leclerc. Taking advantage of that Ferrari fumble, the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell had an excellent run to take their second consecutive double-podium finish on the trot. For Ferrari, it was a lousy way to end the first portion of their up and down season and they will have the bitter taste of Carlos Sainz’s P4 and Charles Leclerc’s P6 stuck in their mouths for a month before they can try to redeem themselves and get back on track.

An emphatic overtake from Verstappen 💪

Leclerc was powerless against the charging Red Bull #HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/7Ly0OM9Y9x

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 31, 2022

Having already fought his way from that P10 start to P5 by Lap 12, Verstappen made his first pit stop for fresh rubber on Lap 17, swapping his opening set of Soft Pirellis for the more durable but still high performing Mediums. While the Mercedes of George Russell, who started the race from P1 after earning his first career F1 pole, covered the Dutchman’s move and followed him into the pits for his own Soft-to-Medium swap, Ferrari chose to keep their two drivers out. For Carlos Sainz, who started from P2 on the grid, it was just one lap more and he promptly came in for a fresh set of Medium tires, the same compound the Spaniard had started on. On the other hand, Charles Leclerc, Verstappen’s chief championship rival, stayed out until Lap 21, also opting for the Medium-to-Medium move. That meant that both Ferraris were still obligated to run a different compound later in the race unless it should rain enough to necessitate wet weather tires. The threatening weather held off on this cool and cloudy day in Hungary, however, and the decision of which tire to choose at the next stop proved to be the pivotal inflection point of the Grand Prix.

At the time, however, it looked not too bad at all for Leclerc. He emerged in P2 after that first stop, trailing only the race leading Silver Arrow of Russell. By Lap 27 he was on the young Englishman’s gearbox and after another lap of close dicing, Leclerc was able to slide his Prancing Horse past the Merc with relative ease going into Turn 1 to take the lead. But the Red Bull braintrust weren’t done forcing the action and on Lap 39 they called in Verstappen from P4 for his second tire swap, going Medium-to-Medium. Mercedes and Ferrari both reacted, Russell diving in to make the same Medium-to-Medium maneuver. But when Charles Leclerc also came in on the same lap, Ferrari inexplicably chose to put the Monegasque on the very slow Hard Pirelli tires for his second tire change. Yes, he would now satisfy the rules requirement to run at least two different compounds and in theory the Hards would be good to the end of the race. But in practice, the Scuderia brain trust’s decision after watching both Alpines and the Haas of Kevin Magnussen struggle mightily for pace on the Hards earlier in actual race conditions made it a hard one to fathom. Having gone Medium compound to Medium compound for Leclerc’s first stop on Lap 21, Ferrari trapped themselves with wishful thinking about the potential performance of the Hards on Leclerc’s when, in retrospect, they should have run Leclerc on the Softs for his second stint and then gone back to Mediums for a potential final stint. As it was, the Hard tires never really found their performance window on this cool and overcast day outside Budapest and Leclerc slipped backwards down the order en route to a dispiriting P6 finish, a late race change to Soft tires on Lap 55 not really benefitting him much after the damage had already been done. Meanwhile, Verstappen stormed to the front and led the race from Lap 52 to the finish even after having a quick unforced spin earlier on Lap 42 that temporarily balked his progress.

Just Max pulling a 360° mid-race 😃#HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/eWVDOf407Y

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 31, 2022

Mercedes pounced on that strategic error by Ferrari, with Lewis Hamilton being the biggest beneficiary. After qualifying only P7 on Saturday due to what was later disclosed as a faulty DRS wing, Hamilton ran an exceptionally long second stint, nursing his second set of Medium Pirellis from lap 20 all the way to Lap 52. This enabled the seven-time champ to put in the best performing Softs for the final stanza of the race and Hamilton now found himself the fastest car on the track, setting times superior even to the race leading Red Bull of Verstappen. On Lap 63, Hamilton was able to take P3 from Sainz, whose own set of Soft tires were some 5-laps older. He then passed his teammate Russell for P2 on Lap 65 after a fair fight between the two Silver Arrows. There weren’t enough laps left to catch Verstappen despite his pace advantage, but it was Hamilton’s second consectuive P2 and when Russell came home safely in P3, team Mercedes’ second consecutive double-podium result. It was also Hamilton’s fifth podium finish in a row, a fine run of form that bodes well for the second half.

The second Red Bull of Sergio Perez also had a fine recovery drive at a circuit that has rarely been kind to him. After a poor P11 qualifying result, the veteran Mexican was able to pull himself up to P5 finish, splitting the Ferraris in the process. McLaren’s Lando Norris scored a hard-earned P7, while the two Alpines of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon secured solid points for the team in P8 and P9 respectively. The Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel took the last point in P10, a nice result on a weekend when the four-time champ announced his retirement from F1 at the end of this season.

Top 10 finishers of the Hungarian GP:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

And so we enter the traditional August recess. The next race isn’t until the end of the month, on August 28th from legendary Spa-Francorchamps in the Ardennes in Belgium. Enjoy your holiday and hope to see you then when the 2022 season resumes and the engines re-fire!