Hamilton disappoints with his fourth place, Sainz finishes eighth and Alonso is ninth
MADRID, 23 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Dutch driver Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) won the Hungarian Formula 1 Grand Prix this Sunday, the eleventh round of the World Championship, ahead of the British Lando Norris (McLaren) and the Mexican Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérez (Red Bull Racing), while the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) finished eighth and ninth, respectively.
On the Hungaroring circuit, and again under dry conditions, the British Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) disappointed with a bad start from his ‘pole position’. The seven-time world champion was then surpassed by Verstappen himself and also by the two McLaren cars, the Australian Oscar Piastri and the aforementioned Norris.
With ‘Mad Max’ distancing himself in the lead, on a difficult track for overtaking and without the uncertainty of any inclement weather, most teams focused their strategy on trusting their choice of tires and making good pit stops, with the controversial action of the ‘undercut’ playing an important role.
Said and done, the McLaren team made an ‘undercat’ to Piastri on lap 19, shortly after the soft tires chosen by the majority began to loosen. There were still 51 laps to go to finish the Grand Prix, but Norris was already savoring second position as he benefited from his team’s maneuver.
Behind the fastest, ‘Checo’ Pérez got a good performance from the DRS of his car in overtaking, until he was on the podium while Hamilton recovered from the bad start. In the most backward part of the grid, the British George Russell (Mercedes) undertook a tremendous comeback, making up for the discreet Q1 that he had done the day before.
Having started from 18th place, he crossed the checkered flag sixth. He also took advantage of the ‘interruptus’ sinking of the McLarens in the final stretch of the test, with Piastri losing positions until finishing fifth and with Norris puffing from Pérez’s drive; at over 70 laps, this race would have choked both McLarens.
Ferrari barely made a profit from that situation, despite having signed the other ‘undercut’ of the day. Without specifying if he was friendly fire or a shot in the foot, on lap 45 the victim was Carlos Sainz when he was overtaken by Charles Leclerc. This set helped the Monegasque to finally be seventh, leaving the man from Madrid just behind at the finish line.
Just one place behind Sainz was Alonso, once again the best of the Aston Martins as Canadian Lance Stroll finished in tenth place. The team that perhaps disappointed the most was Alfa Romeo, as the Finnish Valtteri Bottas (12th) and the Chinese Guanyu Zhou (16th) did not repeat their great sensations from Saturday’s qualifying.