Verstappen laughs his way to second title
And to think this had to be one of Red Bull’s weakest races of the season… The Hungaroring seemed perfectly suited to the powers of the superbly agile Ferrari F1-75 with high downforce, the track lacking the long straights to make Red Bull’s full straight advantage felt. Ferrari’s chances only improved when the Red Bulls struggled in qualifying, Sergio Perez (still half-asleep after securing his contract extension) crashed out in Q2 and Verstappen lost power in Q3. Let it not go unnoticed that Max Verstappen is now first after starting P10, without Safety Car intervention, and even has time for a spin in between. #HungarianGP 🇭🇺 #F1 — PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) July 31, 2022 However, despite their problems on Saturday, Red Bull could take heart that even then – on a Ferrari track and with their main competition out of contention – Ferrari were still making things difficult for themselves, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz somehow got to pole position from George. Russell’s Mercedes. Tenth on the grid and with healthy points to keep, Verstappen entered the race hoping to get somewhere close to the podium places. But as the opposition fell in front of him – Russell and Sainz faded and Leclerc, always the real threat, sent a hard-tired dead end from the Ferrari pit wall – he found himself leading by almost 10 seconds in the final laps, even after a mid-race spin in the penultimate turn. The team radio as he took the checkered flag – extending his Championship lead to 80 points – said it all, Verstappen smiling to himself as he was congratulated by race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase and team principal Christian Horner. They won’t admit it yet, of course, but this title fight is done.
Another day, another Ferrari disaster
If it’s not credibility, it’s strategy. if it’s not a strategy, it’s a driver error. If there’s a way to lose a grand prix in 2022, rest assured Ferrari will find it. After Leclerc’s retirement in France – his third DNF while driving at a race this season – Hungary had become a race Ferrari could ill afford to miss if they were to keep their title hopes alive after the summer break. The manner of their defeat in Hungary was perhaps the worst of all, especially in the context of Red Bull’s problems in qualifying – at a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult – and Leclerc’s ominously strong pace in the opening stages of the race. The demise of both Alpines after switching to hard tires should have been enough to put everyone else in the pitlane from the smell of white-striped Pirellis, but when he reacted to Verstappen’s second stop on Lap 39, Leclerc was inexplicably equipped with a set of his own. Having a serious lack of traction, Leclerc realized the gravity of the mistake almost immediately. He has become expert at pointing out Ferrari’s flaws in recent months, but after admitting he wanted to extend his stint in the middle for as long as possible, it was yet another example – like Monaco and Silverstone – of Leclerc lacking vision and power. of Sainz to guide the team to the right call? Once respected, team principal Mattia Binotto has had a more confused atmosphere in recent months, having to explain again and again the thinking (or lack thereof) behind Ferrari’s latest strategic masterstroke in the paddock after a race. Having stubbornly defended the decision to keep Leclerc out behind the Safety Car at Silverstone, Binotto at least finally admitted they made a mistake on this occasion. This is progress…sort of.
Two cars on the podium again, but is Mercedes really here to stay?
With two cars on the podium in consecutive weekends and a first pole position of 2022 in the bag, Mercedes ended the first half of its toughest season in a decade on a high. It didn’t look like that was going to happen either on Friday or during Saturday morning’s wet FP3 in Hungary, with Russell and Lewis Hamilton battling desperately for grip and spending much of the session towards the end of the timesheets. A few hours later, however, Mercedes were back on top after Russell’s stunning last lap in the closing seconds of Q3 secured his maiden pole position. How to explain such a dramatic reversal? Had the cold temperatures on a green track conspired to favor cars with inherently less downforce, the extra slip producing more tire temperature than the usual pacemakers? Lewis Hamilton is in P2 and is the fastest man on the track… #HungarianGP 🇭🇺 #F1 pic.twitter.com/MYH447HuQO — PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) July 31, 2022 This may explain why Nicholas Latifi’s Williams set the third-fastest time in the first field throughout qualifying – faster even than Leclerc, Verstappen and Hamilton – despite being the slowest overall in Q1. Stranger things happened on Saturday – and not just Latifi setting the pace in final practice – and so it would be unwise to treat Russell’s pole as a momentous moment for Mercedes. You often feel that even they don’t fully understand how their luck swings from weekend to weekend, sometimes from session to session. What has become clear, however, is that their pace over a stint is far superior to that over a single lap and if Russell faded in the race as he found himself reacting to the cars around him after a strong start, Hamilton gradually caught up. in front of seventh place on the grid. The team and driver were convinced he could have won without the DRS problem in qualifying – just as he could have won at Silverstone without the slow stop and safety car and just as he could have won at Barcelona without the crash in the first round. “There’s no doubt we’re making progress,” Russell concluded after the match. “We were almost a minute behind winning the race at the start of the season and it’s been 10 seconds in the last two races. “If we can continue on this path, we’ll definitely be in the hunt.”
Hints of tension at last in the Alpine?
The only real surprise is that it took so long for tensions to develop between two of the most combustible personalities on the gridiron. Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon have formed quite a strong partnership since the start of last season – driving Alpine forward, celebrating each other’s successes and taking it in turns to defend like lions. But leopards, to continue the big cat theme, tend not to change positions and one day to the day since Alonso helped Ocon win in Hungary, the team-mates turned on each other. This is the way in the animal kingdom that is an initial grid F1… Alonso’s anger – “never in my life have I seen a defense like Esteban’s,” he complained over team radio – was focused on Ocon’s move at the start, leading him towards the pit wall and allowing Hamilton to pass them and the two in the first corner. “Never in my life have I seen defense like Esteban. Never.” Fernando Alonso wasn’t happy with his teammate’s start there 😬#HungarianGP 🇭🇺 #F1 — PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) July 31, 2022 Later, after Alonso’s attempt at his own team-mate failed to bear fruit, the Alps were so busy fighting each other that they allowed Daniel Ricciardo to get away with a strong contender for the season’s best. Alonso – who claimed he was “a hundred times faster” than his team-mate over the radio in Canada earlier this season – eventually passed Ocon and led the team’s sixth two-car finish in the last eight races in P8. The flashpoint comes at a sensitive time in Alonso’s contract negotiations with Alpine, with the two-time World Champion said to be seeking a multi-year extension and the team hoping to promote 2021 F1 Champion Oscar Piastri to a race position in the near future future. , unwilling to commit to Alonso beyond 2023. There is friction there and with Alonso making his position clear in Budapest, insisting a deal could be agreed within 10 minutes if both parties really wanted it, could this have an impact on his future?
Norris continues to shine for McLaren
As the weeks passed, Lando Norris’ podium finish at Imola in April almost signaled the end of his F1 adolescence. It was a result – a weekend – straight from his breakout season in 2021, Norris smiling to himself in post-session interviews after finishing third in both qualifying and the race, not sure how he got there and not quite knowing how good he really was. The last few months have felt like a return to reality, Norris can no longer reach the heights he did last year with a woefully inconsistent McLaren, but the potential remains very much there. After Mercedes split the grid in France, only Russell’s pole prevented Norris from taking most of the credit for his own heroics in Hungary. His lap for P4 was only two tenths slower than Leclerc’s Ferrari, McLaren another team whose usual vices were potentially masked by the nature of the conditions and set-up. The top teams were untouched on race day, of course, but Norris recorded his third straight P7 finish, crossing the line 22 seconds ahead of the struggling Alps and was the only driver outside the top six to avoid a lap. Last season’s key results may be out of reach right now, but Norris continues to shine in the shadows.
