What did we learn from the Hungarian Grand Prix?
The 34th Hungarian Grand Prix delivered a brilliant battle between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. In the end, it was the Briton who won the race thanks to Mercedes’ pace advantage and the team’s perfect strategy
Brilliant performance – George Russell was on fire during the qualifying session for the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Briton was able to carry his form over to the race, securing the 16th position after the 70-lap exhausting race. Russell managed to beat his team-mate Robert Kubica, Racing Point’s Lance Stroll and Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi.
On a high – McLaren continued to excel in the Hungarian Grand Prix. The British team once again scored a good amount of points with Sainz’s fifth and Norris’ ninth place. Sainz’s result was particularly encouraging as he managed to beat Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly.
Fastest in the pit lane – It was Red Bull and Max Verstappen again to deliver the shortest amount of time spent in the pit lane for a tyre change. The Dutchman visited the pits two times today and his second pit lane visit was the shortest one with a time of 21.164 seconds.
Six – The Hungarian Grand Prix saw six teams scoring points. The usual suspects, Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari added to their points tally with both their cars, but McLaren also joined them in scoring points with two drivers. Toro Rosso and Alfa Romeo were the only two teams to leave Budapest by collecting points with one car.
Four – The 12th race of the season saw teams being separated by rather big margins. As a consequence, only four cars finished the race on the lead lap. Verstappen finished the Grand Prix 17.796 seconds off the winner Lewis Hamilton while two Ferrari were over 60 seconds separated from the Briton. From Carlos Sainz on, each driver was once lapped and the 15th finisher Daniil Kvyat was already two laps down on Hamilton.
New race lap record – After losing the lead in the closing stages of the race, Max Verstappen’s car was fitted with new soft Pirelli tyres. The Dutchman delivered what his team expected from him and recorded the fastest race lap with a time of 1m17.103, also re-writing Michael Schumacher’s lap record from the 2004 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Not the best of days – Although Hungaroring has been kind to Daniel Ricciardo with the Australian taking his second career F1 victory in 2014, this year’s race was never going to be successful for the Australian. The seven-time Grand Prix winner only qualified 18th, but a tactical power unit change sent him to the back of the grid. Taking the chance of introducing new elements with only losing two places on the grid, Renault installed a totally fresh power for the race.
Increasing gap – With his Hungarian Grand Prix win, Lewis Hamilton managed to extend his lead in the Championship. The Briton now leads the Standing with 250 points, 62 points clear of his team-mate Valtteri Bottas. Max Verstappen is third on the list with 181 point, followed by Sebastian Vettel who is exactly 25 points off the Dutchman. It is only George Russell who is yet to score a point this year.
In the distance – Despite to Valtteri Bottas problems in the race, Mercedes left Hungary with the biggest point haul. The Anglo-German outfit collected a total of 29 points while both Ferrari and Red Bull added 27 points to their previous results. The Hungarian Grand Prix left Mercedes leave the championship by 150 points in front of Ferrari.
Huge interest - The Hungarian Grand Prix saw the attendence numbers increasing for this year. 92000 spectators flocked to the track on Sunday while the weekend was attended by a total of 230000 fans.
