Round three brought the F1 circus to this time rainy Budapest. Qualifying threw up a few surprises. Mercedes' position as the leading team wasn't threatened but their closest rival turned out surprising. Red Bull were expected to be very competitive around Hungaroring, but both drivers struggled with the balance of the car in qualifying. "The pink Mercedes", i. e. the Racing Points, stood out of the crowd, turning out to be Mercedes' closest rival. The most positive surprise of the qualifying were Williams, as both Russell and Latifi made their way into Q2.
It was very expected to see Mercedes come out on the medium Pirellis in the second session, but there were other teams, that opted for this strategy as well. Both Racing Point and Renault sent their cars out on the medium rubber. Hamilton's pace was out of this world, no matter which tyres the Briton had on! It was a delight to see Sebastian in third; however, the German was eight tenths down on the reigning world champion, in spite of setting his lap time on the softs! The highest profile casualty in Q2 was Red Bull's Albon, who had to settle for modest P13. But this time both red cars made it among the top ten, which proved, that there was some light at the end of the tunnel at least. The pecking order proved quite straightforward in the end; expectedly Mercedes conquered the front row. Bottas really took the battle to his teammate, but ended up only a tenth shy of Hamilton. The second row was locked down by "the pink Mercedes" of Stroll and Perez. Ferrari nailed a very decent result, as the Scuderia drivers locked down the third row, Sebastian having the upper hand on his teammate. Unbelievable but true, Verstappen in his poorly behaving RB16 was left in P7, alongside McLaren's Norris. Although there was a 90 % chance of rain during the qualifying, the conditions stayed dry throughout all three sessions.
The track was damp, as the cars exited the pits on Sunday. There was a dramatic turn before the race start already. On his way to the grid, Verstappen drove into Turn 12 a bit too fast. Slippery conditions took him by surprise, and the Dutchman crashed into the barriers nose first! His RB16 took severe damage to the front wing. It seemed it would require a miracle to get the car fixed up for the race in time. However, the Red Bull crew proved, that miracles can be made, and Max's car was ready to go on a formation lap!
Due to the damp conditions, everyone started to the race on the green-walled intermediate tyres. Haas made a risky call, and called both their drivers in on the formation lap; both Magnussen and Grosjean switched to the slicks right away. Hamilton on pole got a perfect start, whilst teammate Bottas failed to do so. There were three little lights on Bottas' dash board, which went out only a fraction of a second before the race lights went out. The Finn reacted, and his W11 jumped slightly forward. Bottas realised, that he had reacted too early, and stopped his car. This cost the Finn to drop down to P6. Hamilton in the lead had opened a significant gap to Racing Point's Stroll in 2nd. The track had dried up extremely quickly, and by lap 5 all drivers had pitted for slicks. Due to the pit stop roulette Verstappen had made his way up to 2nd, but there was already a 8-second gap to race leader Hamilton. Haas' tactical call proved genius, as Magnussen was third and teammate Grosjean fourth. Stroll was now fifth, Leclerc sixth and Bottas only 7th.
However, Haas' success proved only temporary, as the American-based team didn't have the race pace to maintain those positions. Stroll made it past both Haas drivers, moving up to third. Bottas drove consistently, moving up position by position. Charles made it difficult for the Finn, but finally Bottas made it ahead of the Monegasque. After Charles it was Magnussen's turn to get attacked by the Finn.
Charles was the only driver, who had opted for the red-walled soft Pirellis. The Monegasque's pace on that set had turned out to be poor indeed, so he pitted on lap 20 for a fresh set of hard tyres. Sebastian pitted for the second time some ten laps later, also for a fresh set of hard Pirellis. The positions of the top three were utterly secured. Hamilton had a safe 12-second lead to Verstappen in 2nd, and Stroll in third was 15 seconds down on the Dutchman. Bottas had made it at the tail of the Canadian, but overtaking proved mission impossible. Mercedes called the Finn in, and Bottas rejoined the track on fresh mediums. When Stroll pitted a moment later, the Finn benefitted from the undercut, jumping third. Hamilton and Verstappen also made their second pit stops, and the order in the lead remained unchanged.
After screwing up at the start, it was all about damage limitation for Bottas. He was hungry to hunt down Verstappen, to deprive him of the second place. By lap 46 he had made it within striking distance from the Red Bull ace. However, an overtaking manoeuvre was a whole different thing. On his out-worn tyres he had no real chance to challenge Max. Mercedes made a strategic call and told Bottas to box for the third time. On a fresh set of hard Pirellis he began his chase all over again. Against the odds, Red Bull didn't react to Mercedes' call, and Max stayed out. Behind the top three, Sebastian had made consistent work at the wheel of his SF1000, and he was 5th in the race. It tells all about Hamilton's superiority and dominance, that on lap 58 Sebastian actually got lapped by the race leader!
In the end, Hamilton pitted for a fresh set of soft tyres, to chase the fastest lap time and the extra point. Finally on the second last lap Bottas had closed the gap to Verstappen and was able to use the DRS. To the Finn's misfortune, there were several backmarkers ahead of the duo, which destroyed Bottas' chances to try a move on the Dutchman.
Hamilton took a sweeping victory, which was his 8th at the Hungaroring already. Now the Briton officially equals legendary Michael Schumacher's record of most wins at a single Grand Prix. Verstappen was the stunning runner-up in spite of his rookie-like mistake on the installation lap. Bottas crossed the finish line in 3rd, which was the maximum result for the Finn after screwing up his start. Stroll finished impressive 4th for Racing Point. In the end, Albon managed to pass Sebastian, taking P5 from the German. However, I was very happy to see Sebastian finish in the good points. Hamilton made his victory perfect by taking the extra point for the fastest lap time.
With this victory Hamilton took over the lead in the drivers' championship standings. The Briton now has 63 points to his teammate's 58. Verstappen is now third with 33 points. Sebastian has 9 points, which entitles to modest P10 in the standings. In terms of constructors, there is no stopping Mercedes! They have crushing 121 points to Red Bull's 55! Ferrari are still in P5 with their 27 points. So the Red Team have a lot of work to do. They are far away from where they want to be. Now it's time to roll up the sleeves and get back to work. The season continues at Silverstone in a fortnight. Silverstone, if any venue, is known as Hamilton's playground. Now more than ever, the Red Team need to believe in themselves and what they do. Forza Ferrari!
In passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
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