How Verstappen went from zero to hero at the Hungarian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton claimed his second win of the season and the 86th of his Hungaroring career, but Max Verstappen managed to stop a second consecutive Mercedes.

However, it was almost a very different story …

Here’s a look at the main talking points of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Verstappen almost missed the race

Twenty-five seconds stood between Max Verstappen, who started the Hungarian Grand Prix and took an early bath. On a greasy track, he locked the brakes as he entered Turn 12 on his grilled lap and ended up in the barriers, damaging his front wing and left front suspension.

What followed was one of the most notable teamwork you’ll see on a race track, as Red Bull mechanics changed the track rod and push rod in the car’s front left corner in just 20 minutes. That kind of job would generally take 90 minutes, but Verstappen mechanics managed to complete the job in less than a third of that … and with only 25 seconds to spare.

“I think Max came out three times on that grid lap,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said after the race. “The third one seemed terminal enough that we could immediately see the track rod and the push rod was broken, the big question was whether it had also made the wishbone.” If I had made the wishbone, the game would have been over.

“We decided to drive the car to the grid and do our best to repair the car on the grid. The mechanics did an amazing job. It would generally take an hour and a half in 20 minutes and about 25 seconds to go.

“Today we give them all the credit because without them that result would not have been possible.”

Speaking about the accident, Verstappen said he thought his career was over before it even started.

“Basically, I locked up, released the brakes, and tried to brake again, locked again, and went straight,” he said. “I was already struggling to hold on and basically locked myself up and couldn’t get out and went straight to the wall.”

“I thought the race was over, but I was able to roll the car up the wall and then you never give up, so I took the car to the grill to see what could happen. You could clearly see that the mechanics did an amazing job.” , so I was already happy to start the race.

“I think the chain link and pull link were broken, making them the easiest things to change quickly, but they did an amazing job doing that. Then I was sitting in the car and I could see the mechanics yelling at each other each other”. 10 seconds!’ ‘Five seconds!’ to put the wheel and the last piece of tape on the suspension.

“Then I held up my thumb and they said, ‘Yeah, yeah, let’s go.’ I was checking the steering wheel and it felt good, and then, during the race, nothing strange happened, so it was completely fixed.”

From there, Verstappen managed to make five positions at the start and embark on a solid two-stop strategy that saw him keep Valtteri Bottas at bay in the closing stages.

“I was just trying to focus on my own pace,” he said of the last 20 laps. “Suddenly I can’t go half a second faster, so I was just trying to handle the tires.”

“Everything looked pretty good, of course, but in the end there was a bit of traffic and as soon as you get there within three seconds you get upset and especially when you use old tires that is not very pleasant.” Three laps were quite complicated but we managed to hold on, so of course we were very happy with that.

“But the mechanics did an incredible job fixing the car in the beginning. I don’t know how they did it, but yes, incredible. So to pay for them with second place, I’m very satisfied with that.”

Mercedes dominance continues

It wasn’t another one-two victory for Mercedes, but it could have been.

Such was the performance of the all-black W11 in Budapest that Lewis Hamilton had time to put on a new set of tires at the end only to chase the fastest lap. Such decisions are not made lightly given the many things that can go wrong at a pit stop, but by that time he was sailing with a lead of more than 23 seconds and it almost seemed obvious to win the extra point being offered. to mark the fastest lap.

And all this on a circuit that was supposed to be suitable for Red Bull. That was the narrative of the weekend, but it was clear from the start that the team was in trouble. As for qualification, Mercedes’ gap with Racing Point in the second row wasn’t really surprising, but the absence of a Red Bull filled it. Verstappen was the outlier, qualifying in seventh place, while Alex Albon’s continued struggles left him 13th.

In the race, Red Bull’s performance was more in line with expectations and was enough to ensure that Verstappen kept Bottas behind him in the final stages. But if Bottas hadn’t messed up his start (more on that later), he wouldn’t have been close between the two, and if he had been as efficient as Verstappen at getting past lapped cars in the final stage while chasing Red Bull, we may have arrived at the rostrum for the second place that deserved the rhythm of the Mercedes.

Going to Silverstone, Mercedes will likely only extend its dominance over the rest of the field on a circuit filled with the high-speed cornering type where Red Bull has struggled.

Bottas crawling errors

If Valtteri Bottas is going to mount a genuine title campaign this year, he can’t afford any more mistakes like the one he made on the grid on Sunday. Starting from second place, he reacted to the rev lights on his steering wheel that went out instead of the starting lights.

The resulting drop to sixth place in the first corner eliminated his chances of fighting Hamilton for the win and meant he had no one to blame but himself for missing Verstappen’s second place. The three missing points may not seem like much at this stage (he is now five years younger than Hamilton in the drivers’ standings), but in a fight against a competitor like Hamilton, he must make the most of every opportunity.

“At first, I was looking at the start lights, there were five lights on, so I was waiting for them to go out, but just before the lights went out, something went on or off and that was all it took for I reacted, since I thought the lights went out.

“Anyway, I was only able to half-see the start lights due to the halo, in the position I was in, so it was a weird situation, that’s all I can explain now. I’m sure we’ll go through all the dashboards and what exactly happens and make sure that nothing changes on the board in the future at the crucial moment, because we don’t want distractions like that at a sensitive moment. “

Why wasn’t it a quick start?

Bottas was fortunate to escape without a jump start penalty, but race director Michael Masi explained that the move was within the tolerances allowed by regulations.

“The means by which a false start is determined is clearly determined by sporting rules and has been the same process for several years, and the transponder installed in the car is the judgment mechanism, and there is a sensor on the road in The track too.

“There is a tolerance within that, as we saw in Japan last year [with Sebastian Vettel] That is the determining factor. There was nothing else. We spoke to the timekeepers immediately and they reviewed all the data, and that was the end of the matter. “

Magnussen clings to Haas’s first point

Kevin Magnussen was one of the most outstanding artists of the race and was as high in the order as third at one point. Haas had benefited from a wonderful pre-race called strategy, pitting Magnussen and Romain Grosjean at the end of the training lap to switch to dry tires.

All the other drivers would do the same for the next four laps, and when all was done, the Haas pair was running third and fourth. However, that pre-race strategic decision was not without controversy, as Haas called the stewards for using the radio to communicate with Magnussen and Grosjean. State F1 rules must drive “alone and unaided” on the formation lap, breaking this. As a general rule, Magnussen and Grosjean received time penalties. For Magnussen, that meant a drop from ninth to tenth. A small kick to the teeth to lose 50 percent of the team’s points, but Haas didn’t deserve to walk away from the race empty-handed and at least leaves Budapest with its first championship point of the season.

Magnussen’s joy was evident in his post-race radio message to the pit wall.

“Can you believe it? Woooohooohooo! Agghhh, I’ve never been so happy with P9” “Hahaha, good man. Thanks. Guys. We can do it, we can do it.”

Speaking to race engineer Gary Gannon, the man who had guided him through the race from the wall of the pit, he said, “You did an amazing thing, you did everything I needed to. I want to kiss you, man!”