Max Verstappen raced his way to his eighth win of this season in Hungary, P1 in a grand prix in which three teams fought for victory.
Eventually it went to Verstappen, the Red Bull driver taking the lead on lap 52 of the 70-lap grand prix with Ferrari again putting Charles Leclerc on a questionable strategy, one that left him down in sixth place.
Lewis Hamilton put in a late charge to take second place off pole-sitter George Russell, Mercedes recording back-to-back double podiums for the first time this season.
MAX VERSTAPPEN WINS!!!
Hamilton takes second with team mate Russell coming home in third#HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/axK773gQQq
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 31, 2022
George Russell made a great start to keep P1 against charging Carlos Sainz, the Spaniard all over the place as he tried to edge ahead while also defending against Charles Leclerc. Lando Norris held on to fourth ahead of Hamilton and Esteban Ocon.
The VSC was deployed on lap two due to debris from Alex Albon v Sebastian Vettel, the Williams driver losing his front right endplate in the contact. Fernando Alonso was on the radio complaining about his team-mate Ocon’s defending.
Russell continued with his run of epic VSC restarts as he leapt to an almost instant 2.5s lead over Sainz, Verstappen up to eighth ahead of Sergio Perez who was reporting a “strange sound”, Red Bull saying it is “all good”. Kevin Magnussen held on to the final points-paying position in the early running.
LAP 5/70
Verstappen makes a move on Alonso and he’s now P7#HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/7Vqc95BRXM
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 31, 2022
On a track where the drivers usually complain about the difficulty in overtaking there was a spate of passes in the top 10 with both Red Bulls attacking the Alpines one by one before chasing down Norris and Hamilton. The McLaren driver dropped from fourth to sixth in the space of two corners on lap 12, Hamilton passing at Turn 1, Verstappen at Turn 2. Then he lost sixth to Perez a lap later.
Despite seemingly on a charge, Verstappen reported he had “slip” to Red Bull, the team telling him there was a “fail 21”. The problem was short-lived, the driver back on the pace a lap later.
Ferrari, meanwhile, threw a dummy to Mercedes telling Sainz to ‘box’, he stayed out, Russell stopped. So did Verstappen with Sainz then in a lap later. Hamilton and Perez stopped four laps after that, Leclerc leading the grand prix before he stopped on lap 22. That saw Russell…
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