Copy and paste. As in the French Grand Prix a week earlier, Max Verstappen won the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday July 31, ahead of the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. For their part, the two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz did not make it to the podium due to excessively long pit stops and strategic errors on the tyres. This poor performance by the Italian team allows Max Verstappen to consolidate his lead in the drivers’ standings.
The long-awaited rain on the Hungaroging finally only arrived on the last lap. But Ferrari didn’t need the bad weather to handicap its two drivers earlier in the race. While Charles Leclerc led the proceedings on the 40th lap, ahead of George Russell, the Scuderia strategists surprisingly opted to put hard tires on the Monegasque single-seater, while the Alpines, which had been running with these rubbers for several laps, were in difficulty. Coming out third from this pit stop ahead of the Red Bulls, Leclerc was quickly caught up by Max Verstappen.
Ferrari then had another driver in the lead of the Grand Prix, with Carlos Sainz, but as in its first stop, the tire change took two seconds too long. Meanwhile, his teammate continued to struggle with his hard tyres, but on a slightly wet track. Charles Leclerc then slipped, without serious consequences, apart from being overtaken again, this time by George Russell.
“I have no explanation, I don’t really know what to say, reacted the Monegasque, annoyed at the microphone of Canal +. The medium tires were working well, I said on the radio, but we decided to cover Max’s stop with hard tires, when he was on mediums. It was carnage. We finally stopped five or six laps later to put on some soft tires, and it took too long a stint on these tires (…) Quite honestly, we can’t hope to win the championship by doing races like that”.
Ferrari’s misfortune makes its competitors happy. Starting tenth due to a power problem during qualifying, Max Verstappen went faultless to climb on the first place of the podium. “I was hoping to be able to come back, but I didn’t expect to win this race. We had a very good strategy, we always stopped at the right times, and I had good exit laps”welcomed the Dutchman, victorious for the eighth time of the season, and confirmed leader of the world championship with 80 points ahead of Leclerc.
Your final top 10 before the summer break! #HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/qu1bk2Za9K
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 31, 2022
In the drivers’ classification, the Britons Lewis Hamilton and George Russell are also doing well, after a complicated start to the season. The 24-year-old Briton doubles Carlos Sainz and takes fourth place by two points, while the Spaniard is now closely followed by Hamilton, who is only ten points behind.
“I really want to pay tribute to my team which continues to attack, which does not give up. It has been a very difficult year for us so far, and that our two cars are on the podium, like last week, it shows that we are closing the gap with the teams in front of us”, rejoiced the seven-time world champion. After a month-long summer break, the drivers have an appointment on August 28 at the Belgian Grand Prix, at Spa-Francorchamps.