Hungary: post-race analysis
Hungary has thrown up its share of rubbish races over the years but also some very good ones, and this time around it was sort of in between, being interesting rather than fascinating. Having overestimated passing potential last time I overestimated the difficulty of it this time. Not sure why the French circuit made it so much harder than almost everywhere else. Oh well.
Mixed bag of soft and medium tyres at the start, with Russell soft and Hamilton medium, the Ferraris medium, both Red Bulls soft.
Off the line Leclerc had a great run at Russell who defended firmly but fairly to retain his lead. After a slightly ropey start Verstappen set about carving his way through the field. Norris soon got passed by various drivers, unable to reproduce the qualifying pace in the race.
The race settled into a Russell-Leclerc-Sainz mode as the likes of Hamilton and Verstappen sought to close the gap. All switched to the medium for the second stint, which meant Russell did not have to stop again but the Ferraris did for another compound. Meanwhile, Verstappen was getting ever closer.
On the second stints, Sainz and Hamilton were 1-2 but stayed out longer. Ferrari buggered up their Leclerc side of things by pitting him for the hard tyre, which had been bad on every other car. It turned out to be bad on the Ferrari and the Monegasque, who has clearly been cursed by some sort of swamp-dwelling hag, got passed on track by Verstappen. He then had to pit for soft tyres, but unlike Hamilton couldn’t make progress on them. He had passed Russell on track to lead at one point but ended up being passed while on the hard tyres and finished a paltry 6th.
Verstappen, meanwhile, had great pace and even with a strange spin (spot of water?) was able to use that to grab a comfortable 1st, though the last lap rain must have been nervy. Perez finished 5th, making this a great recovery for Red Bull, aided by incredibly inept Ferrari strategy. Again.
Mercedes got a 2-3 with Hamilton pitting late for soft tyres
to roar past everyone except Verstappen (he was catching rapidly but didn’t have
the lap to get close). Russell led perhaps 20 odd laps and may feel slightly
disappointed with 3rd, behind his team mate, but it was a solid
drive for a slab of points on a circuit at which Hamilton has traditionally
excelled.
Ferrari.
Why do you keep hurting yourself? Sainz drove well and got 4th, but Leclerc should have been in the top 2. The shift to the hard tyres ruined his race. They should have kept him out for longer until soft were possible, or started on the soft tyre. By going medium-medium they forced a choice and they chose wrong. Leclerc and Sainz have both made a small number of mistakes this year (perhaps one DNF can be chalked up to this) but the points they’ve shed from strategic ineptitude is a critical matter. 4-6 from starting 2-3 due to terrible strategy is just not good enough.
Norris succeeded in his mission to stay ahead of the Alpines, bringing home his hard-clad McLaren in 7th (Alonso and Ocon followed, both also on hard tyres). As an aside, it seems Alonso was less than delighted with Ocon’s antics early in the race so some internal discussion may be had there. Vettel managed to snag the final point for Aston Martin.
It wasn’t only Ferrari that got things wrong. My assumption passing would be harder than it was meant both bets ended up red, which is not fantastic. I was also quite surprised Bottas was the only DNF (reliability) given how poor multiple teams have been on that front.
We now have a long break until Spa, at the end of August.
Morris Dancer
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