A Sunday of tension
You can say anything about the last one Hungarian Grand Prixexcept that it was characterized by calm within various teams. The most evident proof was in the exchange between Verstappen and his track engineer in the team radio, or in the team order at McLaren, with an exchange of positions that was decisive for Oscar Piastri’s first career victory. A scenario that could have also been seen in Aston Martinhad it not been for Lance Stroll’s total refusal to give up 10th place to Fernando Alonso a few laps from the end, in a context similar to that faced by the Woking team.
Team order not respected
The Canadian, who was on fresher tyres due to a later pit stop than his teammate, was given the chance by the team to attack Tsunoda. With 8 laps to go, Aston Martin warned both drivers to first give Alonso, who was 10th at the time, the chance to close the gap to the Japanese in order to pass him, but in the event of a failed mission the Spaniard would have given up tenth place, the last for the points zone, to Stroll. However, if the latter had also failed in the same objective of passing the RB driver, the Canadian would have had to give tenth place back to Alonso, thus returning to the pre-order positions. A strategy that was not at all appreciated by Stroll right from the initial stages after the indications of his track engineer Andrew Vizard, with the commentary of the #18 on the radio: “I would have overtaken Fernando, but that’s okay”. Once he moved up to 10th, despite suggestions from his engineer to give 10th place back to Alonso as agreed, Stroll did not respond to the instructions, crossing the finish line in the points and ignoring the team’s plan.
No comment
An action not contested by the two-time world champion after the race, in a weekend in which the Spaniard had made a stinging comment about the package of updates brought by the team to Hungary, on the same circuit where the #14 obtained the first victory of his career in 2003. Now, awaiting the next GP in Belgium, the Asturian analyzed his race like this, without commenting on what happened at the end: “Unfortunately we lost the points and we didn’t optimize our race – has explained – we pitted quite early and from then on we had quite a long race to manage the tyres. It’s the first long distance we’ve done with the new package, so we need to analyze the new updates and learn more in preparation for Belgium”.
There is no shortage of criticism
Points zone, therefore, for Lance Stroll, also without comments on the team order not respected. In addition, the placement in the points zone was almost overshadowed by the difficulties underlined: “It was a difficult race for us. I don’t think we optimized the strategy and we weren’t competitive enough. We also struggled with tire degradation.and we have a lot of work to do as a team for the next round. Spa is a very different track, so hopefully it will suit our car better.”
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