Sainz was left without a prize and was fourth; Alonso finished eighth
MADRID, 31 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Dutch driver Max Verstappen (Red Bull) won victory this Sunday in the Hungarian Grand Prix race, the thirteenth round of the Formula 1 World Championship, after completing an excellent comeback and taking advantage of another bizarre Ferrari strategy that prevented his drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz fight for the win, missing the podium, while Fernando Alonso (Alpine) tied for eighth place.
‘Mad Max’, who increases his distance from Leclerc in the fight for the title, was the dominator of the race from the last third of it, when he triumphed after three crazy laps, in which he even spun, while The Monegasque was affected by putting on hard tyres, which had not worked on this track, at his second stop, forcing him to make a third pit-stop and put on soft tyres.
Ferrari, the big losers of the weekend, lived a new nightmare, since they ended up doing fourth (Sainz) and sixth (Leclerc) in a circuit in which they were destined to win and do a double. Sadness and frustration for the Italian team, quite the opposite for Mercedes, which celebrates a new double on the podium for the second consecutive GP, with Hamilton and Russell, second and third, respectively. The Spanish Fernando Alonso had to settle for a conservative eighth place.
The Dutchman, who adds his twenty-eighth victory in Formula 1, is now the leader of the World Cup, with 258 points, 80 more than Leclerc (178), with Sergio Pérez third (173) and Sainz falling to fifth place (156), in Russell’s favor (158). The winner at the Hungaroring leaves with a large cushion of points for the summer holidays, while the break could be very long for the ‘Scuderia’, which will have to experience a metamorphosis in order to have real options in a very expensive World Cup for Verstappen.
Always with the threat of rain on the teams’ radars, the race began with disparity in the strategies of each of the teams, a card that would be key in the future of the test. Not like last year, the start was pretty clean at the front, with Russell very confidently stretching out the lead. Sainz, Leclerc and Norris followed in the footsteps of the Briton, and Hamilton was able to climb to fifth place after the first two corners.
Following the incident at the rear between Alexander Albon and Sebastian Vettel, which forced the ‘Virtual Safety Car’ to be installed, Russell pushed like never before to open a sizeable gap with Sainz, with Vertappen flying from 10th on soft tyres. After 12 laps, Hamilton and the Dutchman were already fourth and fifth, respectively.
On lap 17, Russell entered the pits, which caused Sainz to do the same on the following lap, in a slow stop, so the ‘overcut’ did not work, also losing his position with Leclerc, who became the Russell’s biggest rival for the win this Sunday.
The Monegasque, who endured his first stop until lap 21, risked everything to go on to lead the race and got his prize, after several stakes, on lap 31, when after the main straight he lengthened his braking and launched himself to the outside of turn one to overtake the Brit with a nice move.
VERSTAPPEN OVERTWICE LECLERC TO LEAD
Everything turned upside down for the Italian team, which had the upper hand in a ‘new’ race. In fact, the Monegasque was ahead of Russell, also worried about Sainz third, by four seconds past the halfway mark. Leclerc seemed to dominate solidly, but strategy became key.
On lap 39 Verstappen mounted medium tires to undercut Russell, who did not make his second stop until lap 40. This movement seems to have put fear into the body of the Ferrari wall, which called the Monegasque to the box in lap 41, but to, in a surprising decision, mount hard tyres, a compound that had not worked for any team before. “It has been disastrous,” Leclerc confessed on Dazn after the race.
That set of tires hurt the Monegasque a lot, and he was badly overtaken by Verstappen, who overtook him a lap later in a great maneuver at turn one. From there the madness began, because the Dutchman, on that same lap, suffered a spin before the last corner, luckily it was only a clean 360. Leclerc was able to regain position from him, but the good health of the ‘Mad Max’ tires allowed the Red Bull driver to pass the Monegasque again.
Verstappen was third, with Sainz momentarily leading the race and Hamilton second. Meanwhile, Alonso’s hard tires began to heat up to climb to eighth place for the Spaniard. With 22 laps remaining, Sainz made his second stop, also slow – 4.6 seconds – to start behind Russell. The Dutchman had to wait for lap 52 to go on to lead the race, taking advantage of Hamilton’s stop.
After seeing that his strategy with Leclerc’s hard tires had not worked, Ferrari called the Monegasque to make a third stop and complete the bizarre move that distances the ‘Scuderia’ from the fight for the title. Sainz moved into third position, with Russell fourth, Pérez fifth and Leclerc sixth.
Verstappen had no problem securing this spectacular victory and Sainz, whose tires seemed to ‘die’ as the laps passed, found himself overtaken by Hamilton on lap 62, kicking his Ferrari off the podium. The seven-time world champion also passed Russell to make his second consecutive box and close another double for Mercedes.
There was a VSC with two laps remaining, but there was no further change, certifying another nightmare for Ferrari, which goes into the break with its tail between its legs, after completing the fifth race without drivers on the podium, the second consecutive Grand Prix that doesn’t get it.