Out of nowhere George Russell took pole position at the Hungaroring yesterday. Carlos Sainz will start next to him on the front row today. Behind that, Leclerc and Norris leave from row two. Red Bull had an unfortunate qualifying, as a result of which Verstappen starts from P10 and Pérez from P11. The track is still dry when the race starts, so all drivers start on the dry tires.
George Russell has a good start and manages to keep his lead. He keeps the Ferraris behind him who also keep the same spots. Behind it, both Red Bulls are also gone. After the first lap, Verstappen is eighth, with Pérez behind him. Then a virtual safety car comes immediately, because part of Albon’s front wing is on the track.
Max cuts through the field
After that VSC, Verstappen works his way forward. After twelve laps he is in fifth place, behind Lewis Hamilton. On lap seventeen, both Verstappen and Russell come in for new medium tyres. Sainz does the same a lap later, but then comes out of the pit lane behind Russell. And he also has to let his teammate Leclerc pass when he makes his pit stop. Hamilton makes his pit stop on lap 20 and then sees Verstappen driving in front of him.
On the new medium tyres, Leclerc is a lot faster than Russell. After several unsuccessful overtaking attempts, he takes the lead on lap 31 by slamming on the brakes late into the first corner. Then Sainz and Verstappen attack Russell, but they do not get past the Mercedes.
Ferrari goes wrong
On lap 40, Verstappen goes in for new medium tires. He is followed by Russell, who then loses his place to the Dutchman. Leclerc then switches to the hard tires, but they take too long to warm up. That is why Verstappen can overtake the Ferrari after a lap to take over the virtual lead. Shortly after, however, he spins into the next-to-last corner. That is why Leclerc is again passing him by.
He quickly corrects his mistake as four laps later he overtakes Leclerc again. The other Ferrari makes its second pit stop a few laps later and then switches to the soft tires. The hard tires just won’t work for Leclerc’s Ferrari. It doesn’t take long before Russell also knocks on the door for second place. The Englishman can pass Verstappen’s title rival without too much effort.
It gets worse for Ferrari
Leclerc doesn’t want the hard tires anymore and then switches to the soft tires. As a result, he falls back to P6. It gets even worse for Ferrari as Hamilton is a lot faster than Sainz and takes the last podium spot from the Ferrari driver. And Lewis goes even further as he also overtakes his teammate for P2.
Verstappen is then no longer under pressure and dominantly wins the race after starting from tenth place. Lewis Hamilton takes second place and Russell can be on the last podium spot. The Ferraris finish fourth and sixth and will have to scratch their heads and the summer break.
Results of the Hungarian GP 2022
- Max Verstappen
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Carlos Sainz
- Charles Leclerc
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