Even as his advantage continues to grow, Verstappen isn’t thinking ahead. “It’s obviously a big lead,” he said. “But if you want to fight for the championship, you can’t afford too many mistakes.” Mercedes put both their cars on the podium for the second race in a row. Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton moved from seventh to second, teammate and pole-sitter George Russell third. Carlos Sainz Jr. he finished fourth in another disastrous day for Ferrari. Leclerc was sixth, one place behind Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. Verstappen’s eighth win of the season was the 28th of the Dutchman’s career. “Who would have thought that when we woke up today we would have this result? Amazing,” Verstappen told his team, laughing. “I battled a lot of guys and it was a lot of fun out there. It was a crazy race, but we stayed calm and won.” He qualified a season-worst 10th due to a loss of power on Saturday, then in Sunday’s race Verstappen did a 360-degree spin. “Incredible Max, he’s right up there with your best,” replied Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. “Fantastic.” Russell, who started from pole for the first time in his career, led 30 laps before Leclerc passed him on the outside as dark clouds rolled over the Hungaroring and a light rain began to fall. With Leclerc leading, Verstappen is cut back for faster tyres. Ferrari made a mistake in choosing the most durable hard tires for the Leclerc. “These tires are (exaggerated),” Leclerc said. He later explained that he thought it was a wrong call. “I made it clear that I wanted to keep (the medium tyre) as long as possible, but we pitted too early for the hard, which we have to understand why. I think stopping for the hard part was the turning point,” said Leclerc. “Before we think about the championship, to be honest, as a team we need to understand what we need to do to get better. Because otherwise it will be very difficult.” Moments later, Verstappen lost grip and spun onto the track, allowing Sainz to take the lead from Hamilton. Leclerc passed Verstappen, only to lose his position soon after because Verstappen had faster tyres. “It was very difficult conditions out there, but we had a very good strategy,” Verstappen said. “We were really reactive, always bet at the right time. Even with the 360 we kept winning.” Recalling the spin, Verstappen said: “I hit the gas and I completely missed the rear, it caught me.” Ferrari’s strategy woes simply won’t go away. Leclerc saw two nail-biting victories disappear – at the Monaco GP and the British GP – after team calls dropped him from a commanding position to fourth. The Ferrari failed at Sainz’s next tire stop on Lap 47, delaying too long to accommodate his rear left tyre. “I always feel something is going on, reliability, mistakes, whatever,” said a clearly frustrated Leclerc. Hamilton stayed out but was losing time to Verstappen as the rain increased. Leclerc, who crashed while leading the French Grand Prix last week, pitted for a third tire change on lap 55. Ferrari’s strategy even calls out to the confused Verstappen. “I think Ferrari chose the wrong tires in their last stint before they pitted again,” Verstappen said. “Ferrari were too fast, they just made the wrong call with the hard tire (for Leclerc).” Lando Norris finished seventh for McLaren, Fernando Alonso was eighth and his Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon was ninth. Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel was 10th. Vettel, who won his four F1 titles with Red Bull from 2010-13, retires at the end of the season, so Verstappen may well surpass his F1 record of 13 wins in a season from 2013 . F1 said 290,000 attended the three days of racing in Hungary. On Saturday, F1 released a video condemning all forms of abusive behaviour. Spectator abuse overshadowed the Austrian Grand Prix three weeks ago, where fans — particularly women — made F1 aware of rampant harassment, sexism, racism and homophobia. Verstappen was asked to comment after his race win on Sunday in a video posted on social media this weekend showing an orange-clad fan burning what appeared to be Mercedes merchandise. “This is of course not acceptable,” said Verstappen, who called for increased security in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday. “I definitely don’t agree with that, because it’s just disgusting.” After a month break, the season resumes with a triple header in Belgium, Holland and Italy. “Having both cars on the podium is really special for us. The other guys have an advantage, but we’re clearly closing the gap,” Hamilton said. “Hopefully we’ll bring more in the second half of the season and start to compete with the guys up front.” Russell pointed out how, not too long ago, Mercedes were well behind Red Bull. “We were finishing a minute behind and now we’re 10 seconds behind,” he said. Verstappen also has good reason to welcome Mercedes’ revival. “It’s a good thing they’re competitive,” he quipped. It means they can steal more points than Ferrari. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly started from the pit lane after being penalized for multiple engine component changes and finished 12th. McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo showed some of his old form with a superb double pass on Ocon and Alonso nearing mid-race, celebrating with exuberant exuberance. But Ricciardo wasn’t laughing later as the Australian was handed a five-second penalty for clipping Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin and sending him off the track. Ricciardo finished a lowly 15th.
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