The last stop before the 4-week summer break was Hungaroring, Hungary, which has hosted an F1 race since 1986. A Mercedes win was strongly expected, as Hamilton was seeking his 9th victory on Hungarian soil already.
It was scorching hot, as the qualifying got underway. Air was 28 degrees Celsius, whilst the track temperature was as high as 58 degrees. Both Mercedes and Red Bull sent their drivers out on the medium compound at the beginning of the second session. However, the Mercedes drivers were the only ones being able to set a lap time competitive enough on that rubber. Q2 was red-flagged with 6:40 remaining in the clock, as Ferrari's Sainz lost control of his SF1000, ending up into the tyre wall in the last corner. The Spaniard's qualifying turned into a bitter disappointment. As the session was resumed, Verstappen went fastest on the softs, with McLaren's Norris second and AlphaTauri's Gasly third. What was significant, though, was the fact, that both Hamilton and Bottas had made it among the top ten on the mediums.
Hamilton claimed provisional pole by three tenths to his teammate Bottas. Surprisingly, Verstappen in third was half a second off the reigning world champion. Perez in the sister Red Bull was fourth and Leclerc in the sister SF1000 was fifth. Hamilton led the pack for the last flyers but kept such slow pace, that Perez proved unable to start his last attempt in time. Neither Hamilton nor Verstappen was able to improve in the end, so Mercedes locked the front row after quite a while. Verstappen and Perez had to settle for the second row, with Gasly and Norris lining up behind them. Charles qualified 7th, whilst teammate Carlos was left in P15 due to a mistake of his own. Red Bull's streak of five poles now ended, as Hamilton conquered his 8th pole in Hungary.
It was raining at Hungaroring, as the race start approached. The rain wiped away Mercedes' advantage in terms of tyre strategy, as everyone had to opt for the green-walled intermediate tyres. And what a chaos the start turned out! Bottas in P2 got a lousy start, and the Finn badly misjudged his braking into Turn 1. The Finn crashed into the rear of McLaren's Norris, who ended up hitting both Red Bulls. Meanwhile, Aston Martin's Stroll crashed into Charles' Ferrari, who hit McLaren's Ricciardo. These chain reactions ruined the race for all of them. Verstappen was the only one to able to continue the race, but his RB16B had severe damage on the left side pod and the floor. He had dropped down to P13, as the race was red-flagged due to the massive amount of debris on the track. Hamilton had been able to avoid the first-lap catastrophe and was leading the race. The running order behind the Briton was a lot more surprising. Alpine's Ocon was second, Aston Martin's Vettel was third and Carlos Sainz was fourth, having started to the race from P15! Quite amazingly, the Williams duo of Latifi and Russell were 6th and 8th respectively, split by Alpine's Alonso.
After a 20-minute suspension the teams were getting ready for the restart. Red Bull mechanics were busy fixing Verstappen's car with duct tape. After a formation lap there was to be a standing start. I couldn't believe my eyes, when I saw what happened after the formation lap. Hamilton was the only driver to line up on the grid, as everyone else pitted for slicks! What a horrendous mistake from Mercedes indeed! Hamilton came in a lap later, dropping dramatically down to the very back of the pack. Esteban Ocon was now leading the race! The damage on Verstappen's car proved costly, preventing the Dutchman from getting through the pack.
Mercedes called Hamilton in on lap 20. The Briton switched to hard Pirellis, losing only one position due to his pit stop. Verstappen pitted a lap later for a similar tyre choice, only to witness Hamilton getting ahead thanks to undercut. Ferrari called Carlos in not until on lap 33. The Spaniard rejoined the track in P4, right ahead of Hamilton, who had made an excellent recovery. After the pit stops it was hair-raisingly close between race leader Ocon and ex Ferrari ace Sebastian Vettel, as the two were within DRS distance from each other.
Verstappen pitted again on lap 41, for a fresh set of medium Pirellis. It was a tough race for the Red Bull ace, who rejoined the track in modest P12. Hamilton, too pitted for fresh mediums some six laps later. Now it was going to be hammertime till the end. And what a battle came alive for the last podium place. For 15 laps Hamilton was right at the very tail of Alonso's Alpine, trying desperately to find a chance through. But the two-time world champion defended his position brilliantly, blocking Hamilton's every move. Not until with five laps to go, Hamilton finally made his way through, moving fourth. After passing Alonso, Hamilton made it within striking distance from Carlos, who had very little to do to defend his position. Hamilton stormed past the Spaniard, moving up to third.
Unbelievable but true, Ocon grabbed his maiden win! Vettel had been at the very tail of the Frenchman throughout the entire race, but had to settle for being the runner-up. Hamilton recovered from the shocking mistake made by his team and completed the podium. Carlos finished fourth, bringing valuable points for the Scuderia. Alonso, who was voted as the Driver of the Day, finished 5th and Gasly 6th. Tsunoda was a surprise 7th for AlphaTauri, and both Williams drivers finished in the points (8th and 9th). In the end, Verstappen managed to struggle in P10.
There was more drama to come after the race, as Sebastian Vettel was disqualified from the results due to an unsufficient fuel sample. So Carlos was promoted on the podium after all. We start the summer break with Hamilton leading the drivers' championship standings by 6 points and Mercedes topping the constructors' standings by 10 points. Ferrari are now only three points behind McLaren. Have a great summer break and forza Ferrari!
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
Comments
Authorize to comment