In Formula 1®’s 74 years of rich history when racing began in 1950, it’s taken 1,114 races for a team’s strategy to be scrutinised after securing a front row lockout in qualifying followed by a 1-2 race finish…. Hungary was petering out to what seemed to be a straight forward victory for the McLaren garage, with the race yet again ignited following the last round of pit stops…
McLaren secured their first front row lockout since Brazil in 2012 on Saturday afternoon, as Norris and Piastri opening lap times in Q3 were quick enough to make it an all-orange front row, before Tsunoda helped by practically ending the session early by bringing the red flag out towards the end of Q3. Silverstone’s pole sitter, Russell was brought quickly back down to earth, as a fuel shortage ended his session early on a rapidly drying tack and led to a Q1 exit. Russell was joined by Perez who kept his recent form in qualifying going, securing his 4th Q1 exit in the last 7 races after crashing in Hungary. Sargeant opens his lead on Perez, now 4 – 2 up in Qualifying since Monaco.
In hindsight, the money spent to repair Perez’s car could be spent better elsewhere (possibly on further upgrades) by Red Bull who won the first 7 races, now have only won 1 in the last 6… Red Bull did bring their biggest package of upgrades of the season to Hungary, yet still seem to be struggling to match the pace of the McLaren, the lack of recent development in to the RB20 coincides nicely with Adrian Newey resignation in May 204. Verstappen punched his steering wheel in frustration as he crossed the line in Qualifying, as it may have dawned on him that he wasn’t walking away with this year’s race, like he did in 2023 winning by 33 seconds. If qualifying was anything to go by, Sunday race was always going to be fascinating….
This was the fifth consecutive race in 2024 that the polesitter has failed to win. After turn 1, the McLaren drivers had reversed their starting positions (not through team orders this time) as Piastri got Lando in the first corner. The Australian initially was cruising to victory in just his 35th F1 race, to secure his maiden win in Formula 1 and become the 5th Australian driver to win in F1 and the 1st driver born in the 21st century.
Norris was informed he could race team mate Piastri until the mid-forties in terms of laps completed, before being told to box on lap 45 with McLaren worried about the undercut from Hamilton. Piastri was pitted on Lap 48 to return to the track with the view of Lando’s rear end…. 20 Laps followed of a gripping conversation between Lando and his race engineer Will Joseph who was trying every trick in the book, to persuade Norris to swap positions with his teammate, which he eventually did on lap 68. Another weekend goes by with Lando missing out on the top step of the podium, even after pulling a 6 second lead on his team mate, still cutting the deficit to 76 points to Max in the championship standings. The race winning team, can only blame themselves for their controversial win who should have pitted Oscar first to save the headache of the undercut. Although on the brightside, at least the McLarens drivers respected team orders better than the Aston Martin garage, with Stroll ignoring team orders to give 10th place back to Alonso who couldn’t pass Tsunoda. Lance Stroll left Hungary with the 1 championship point, which will be followed up by an uneasy conversation with Aston Martins Owner Lawrence Stroll…. Stroll remains in 10th in the championship standings curtesy of this 1 point in Hungary.
Verstappen possibly tired after his 3am stint in the 24 Hours Sim Racing event at Spa was as busy on the team comms as Will Joseph was during the latter stages of the race, although slightly more of a colourful choice of language used… It’s the first time since the end of 2021 that Max has gone three races without a win. Max frustration boiled down to the poor strategy choice that cost him what he thought was a straight forward podium finish for 3rd. Although the Red Bull strategy didn’t account for his “dive bomb” over taking technique as he tried to go by Lewis, who kindly stopped / slowed Max down from hitting the wall as they made contact at turn 1.Remarkably, the stewards ruling "no driver was predominantly to blame" for the clash, who believed the Mercedes car was equally to blame as he could have avoided the incident, so no punishment was handed out. At least Lambiase, his race engineer, referring to Max as “childish” would have helped his mood, as Max’s old friend Lewis secured his 200th career podium with an ever-improving Mercedes car. Just in time for his move to Ferrari.
Piastri became the seventh different winner of the year, with four different drivers leading a lap of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the first time since Italy in 2021 that that consecutive Grands Prix have had four or more different leaders. Unfortunately, Spa doesn’t have the sprint races next weekend as a number of drivers will fancy their chances winning the historic race in Belgium.
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