Ferrari crashed again. One more time. And to make Max Verstappen a little more champion, who was superb and won the Hungarian race after starting 10th on the grid. A superb climb brought about by the strategic success of Red Bull and by the tactical disaster of Ferrari, who wasted his best chance to sign a double. Carlos Sainz, from 2nd to 4th, and Leclerc, from 3rd to 6th. And Verstappen escapes to 80 points.
The start seemed paramount in Hungary, so almost everyone was on soft tyres. All? Nope, not Ferrari. Sainz was in inferiority of rubbers with respect to Russell, Norris and the Red Bull. Even so, the start was exciting as the man from Madrid squeezed Russell, despite his harder tyres. He caught the slipstream, he matched up on the outside, but he couldn't with the Mercedes, which closed the gaps well to maintain the privileged position of pole.
The first four did not change positions -Russell, Sainz, Leclerc, Norris-, but Hamilton did, who rose from 7th to 5th by overtaking the two Alpines, so that Alonso dropped from 6th to 7th, ahead of Verstappen (8th) and behind his partner, whom he complained about the aggressiveness displayed. "I've never seen a defense like Esteban's, never." The Asturian and his partner were overtaking meat in the hands of the two Red Bulls -both with soft-, which surpassed them. The Dutchman on lap 5 and the Mexican on lap 7, to seek the podium. Alonso fell to 9th position (lap 8/70).
At the front, Russell kept the lead with a certain advantage (between 2 and 2.4 seconds) over Sainz, while Leclerc was 1.7 behind his neighbor. Off the podium, English duel between Norris and Hamilton, with Verstappen on the prowl. The two old rivals passed the McLaren almost simultaneously to take 4th and 5th respectively (lap 12/70). Lewis and Max started a fight that recalled the duels of 2021, although the Dutchman reported problems with the clutch.
Ferrari gave a twist to their pace and Sainz got within 1.1s of Russell to start designing the attack (v. 14/70). Leclerc also pressured his partner. “Can Carlos go faster?”, the Monegasque suggested sibyllinously to his team on the radio, while sticking to the tail of the number 55 Ferrari.
There was no fight with the Mercedes because Russell came to the pit-stop before the Ferraris, on lap 17/70. Sainz stopped one lap later with the option of overtaking the Englishman, but his stop was not good, 3.7 seconds (one more than usual), and when he returned to the track he did so behind the Mercedes and Ocon, who he hit him First assault failed.
Leclerc took the provisional lead and tried to take the maximum ground advantage over Russell to come out ahead when he returned from his pit-stop. But it was not like that. His stop was not bad (2.9 seconds), but he returned to the track second, behind the Englishman, by a few meters, and just ahead of Sainz. Second play also lost for the Spaniard, who became third, pressured by Verstappen (4th), who had overtaken Hamilton at the stop.
After the dance of the first stops, the race was revived in the fight for the fight. Leclerc squeezed Russell, helped by his tires 5 laps younger, and the Englishman struggled to hold off the Ferrari. At the end of the straight on lap 28/70, the Monegasque attacked him furiously to find the inside of the next corner. The Englishman defended himself bravely, like a cat on its back. He repeated the move on the next lap and the one after, looking for the Mercedes' mistake, but Russell was superbly holding onto the lead. To all this, Sainz was approaching the two at 1.8 seconds.
The fourth time was the charm (lap 31/70). Leclerc dived from a long way down the straight, caught the slipstream of the Mercedes, passed him wide at Turn 1, looked like he was going wide, but conquered the right-hand corner in first position with Russell defeated. Brutal overtaking. Leclerc was already a leader. It was Sainz's turn to make a move.
While Leclerc left for the victory, with 5 seconds to go after the halfway point of the race (v. 38/70), Sainz was unable to put his nose on Russell, and in turn, Verstappen was dangerously close to the Madrilenian less than one second. The play was clear: attempt to undercut (overcome him at the stop). Red Bull called the Englishman on lap 39 to put the medium tire on him (2.4s).
Stops were rushed. Ferrari stopped Leclerc to put on the hard one and at the same time Russell put on the medium one. Sainz was provisional leader, followed by Hamilton (both without stopping), while Verstappen went on the attack and overtook Russell and Leclerc like a predator on consecutive laps (41/70). But a spin on the following lap made him lose position with the Monegasque, third.
Verstappen went for it all with his yellow tires against a Leclerc who suffered from White's harshness. The Dutchman once again overtook the Monegasque (v. 45/70) with a manual overtaking, masterful: attack at the end of the straight from the outside, to look for the inside at turn 2 and pass him with better traction from his tires. The champion was virtual leader, since Sainz and Hamilton still had to change tires.
The man from Madrid made his second stop on lap 48/70 to put on the soft rubber. But his maneuver was very slow, 4.6 seconds, due to an error by the mechanic of the left rear wheel. Once again, weighed down by the stop. He returned to the track behind Russell, provisional 5th. He would have to overtake the Mercedes if he wanted to finish on the podium.
Hamilton made his stop (v. 53/70) and fell behind Sainz in hunter mode. He had the man from Madrid 10 seconds behind with 18 laps to go. And ahead of him the Spaniard had Russell 2.8 seconds behind, with tires in his favor (new soft 8 laps younger than the English medium), and Leclerc, second... but with many problems.
The one from Mercedes ate Leclerc, who was dead with his hard tires. The Monegasque was left without second position and Ferrari had to put him on soft rubber for the last 15 laps. He fell to 6th position, behind Pérez. But, on the rebound, Sainz rose to third place with options to attack Russell. Verstappen was already in another orbit, with 9 seconds on the Mercedes to face the last 12 laps.
The podium did not last long for the man from Madrid. With 8 laps to go he suffered the bite of Hamilton, who cut him 10 seconds in 10 laps and devoured him at the end of the straight to snatch the podium from Carlos, who was unable to defend himself. Major fiasco of Ferrari. From having his drivers 2nd and 3rd on the grid, to finishing 4th and 6th, with Verstappen strolling around having started 10th.
Hamilton completed his private party, also beating his teammate Russell to impose his hierarchy and take second place, the second in a row in his five consecutive podium finishes. The Englishman was designated Driver of the Day. Verstappen, 10 seconds behind, was too far away to catch him in the remaining 6 laps.
The Dutchman achieved his eighth victory of the year. "An impressive, incredible result," said Max on the radio, which deals an almost definitive blow to the World Cup: he shoots to an 80-point advantage over Leclerc. More than three wins away with nine grand prix ahead after the holiday break.
1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull), 1h39m35s912
2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), a 7s834
3. George Russell (Mercedes), a 12s337
4. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), at 14.579
5. Sergio Pérez (Red Bull), a 15s688
6. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), a 16s047
7. Lando Norris (McLaren), a 1m18s300
8. Fernando Alonso (Alpine), 1 lap
9. Esteban Ocon (Alpine), 1 lap
10. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), a 1 vuelta
11. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), a 1 vuelta
12. Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri), 1 lap
13. Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo), a 1 vuelta
14. Mick Schumacher (Haas), a 1 vuelta
15. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren), 1 lap
16. Kevin Magnussen (Haas), a 1 Vuelta
17. Alex Albon (Williams), has 1 view
18. Nicholas Latifi (Williasm), 1 lap
19. Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri), 2 laps
20. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), 5 laps
