2024 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix – Drive

2024 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix – Drive

Oscar Piastri won the 2024 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix ahead of Lando Norris, but McLaren’s double victory became bittersweet due to their strange tactics and team instructions, which the British driver did not want to listen to. Lewis Hamilton was third behind them with Mercedes, but he also collided with Red Bull’s Dutchman, Max Verstappen, on the way here.


The 70-lap race, which took place in somewhat cloudy weather, was started by the front group on medium tires, but there were also those who chose soft and hard tires in the middle field.

At the start, Lando Norris, who started from the front, got a little stuck, which his McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri, who started from second place, easily took advantage of. Max Verstappen also got next to Norris, but he could only pass the Briton in the pit, so he returned the position in the fourth lap – when the case was already being investigated.

Image: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Behind Verstappen were Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) – the Spaniard had by now already got over a blade change with Fernando Alonso, who also had a good start on the soft tires. Behind the Aston Martin in the other green car, Lance Stroll, Alexander Albon (Williams) and Kevin Magnussen (Haas) completed the top 10.

F1: After a huge team drama, a new winner at the Hungarian Grand Prix 2

Carlos Sainz is Fernando Alonso (Kept: Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Nico Hülkenberg (Haas) changed a tire early on, at the beginning of the 3rd lap. As it turned out, it wasn’t such a perverted thing, because those who started on softer tires already started to switch to hard tires in the 7th lap – a total of 8 people changed within a few laps. At the front, the intermediate tires maintained a 1.5-2.5 second difference compared to each other, only Hamilton was only about one second behind Verstappen in the 3rd-4th. place.

After 12 laps, Piastri’s lead increased to over 3 seconds and he began to pull away from Norris and Verstappen. Hamilton continued to try to stick to the Dutchman, as did Leclerc, but Sainz was better, 4 seconds behind his teammate. The gap behind them was already huge at that point – it was interesting that Valtteri Bottas (Kick Sauber) was able to keep George Russell (Mercedes) and Sergio Perez (Red Bull) from the end of the field in 9th place.

The leading group started changing tires on the 17th lap led by Hamilton – the seven-time champion got hard tires. At that time, Norris held a gap of around 3.5 seconds against Piastri, but Verstappen was already further away from him. In the 18th lap, however, he pulled out of the line, and hard Pirellis were put on his McLaren after he braked well at the entrance to the pit lane.

In the 19th lap, Piastri also took his turn, so Verstappen temporarily took the lead, who complained about his brakes. In his wake, Leclerc and Sainz arrived, and Piastri, Norris and Hamilton in 4-5-6. they arrived at Turning to lap 22, both Verstappen and Sainz pitted, while the Monaco man opted for Plan C – perhaps the one pit stop – and stayed on the track. With the change, Verstappen got behind Hamilton, but he was able to chase the Brit on fresher tires with 5 laps, while Sainz was well back in the field, in 9th place.

Leclerc didn’t last long either, and on the 24th lap he also switched and continued racing in fifth place, almost 7 seconds behind Verstappen. At that time, there were even more people in the middle field who did not change tires, such as Cunoda Juki (6th, RB/VCARB) on medium tires, or just behind him Russell and Perez – although their pace was already declining by then. By the 26th lap, Sainz had all three competitors behind him, so the order of the top six was settled again.

Hamilton’s pace has dropped so far: the McLaren pair – with a following distance of 3-4 seconds between them – moved by 6-7 tenths of a second per lap, and Verstappen and Leclerc were close behind by the same amount. At the height of the 30th lap, we saw another wave of wheel changes: there were (Perez, Cunoda) who visited the pits for the first time, but Hülkenberg and Alexander Albon (Williams) made their second visit to their team. Russell was the last to change on lap 34.

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George Russell (Kép: Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Piastri could have made a mistake in the lead on the 33rd lap, his lead of almost 5 seconds was reduced to less than 2. Verstappen overtook Hamilton in this lap, the Dutchman could attack for the podium. Hamilton braked at the end of the home straight at the start of lap 35, but heading into Turn 2 the Dutchman ran too wide and ran into the pit lane. Everyone stayed where they were. In the meantime, Gasly – who started from the pit anyway – gave up the race.

By lap 38, Verstappen was able to pull himself together again to attack. His attempts were unsuccessful, but he was just enough of a threat to slow them down. The advantage of the McLarens, who were only 1.3 seconds apart, increased to almost ten seconds, and Leclerc also approached them.

Hamilton finally drove to the pits for fresh tires on lap 41 together with Leclerc. While the hard tires were on the Mercedes, the medium tires were on the Ferrari with 29 laps to go. Verstappen was not happy because of the Ferrari cut-off, and he was upset about it on the radio.

In the 45th lap, Norris visited the pits for the second time. He came from two seconds behind on medium tires, so there was every chance that McLaren would switch the two cars with the wheel changes. The Australian eventually pitted for second on lap 47 and moved back behind Norris. In theory, this is how the British led.

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Oscar Piastri (Kép: Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

While Piastri also pinched the gravel bed at the exit of turn 12, McLaren informed Norris that they would switch positions, i.e. Norris should let the Australian go. The Brit then ran the fastest lap and increased the distance.

Verstappen came out of the front on lap 50 for fresh tires for second. He was only fifth behind Hamilton and Leclerc, not quite 6 seconds behind the Monaco driver.

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Max Verstappen (Kép: Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Piastri was given a nice task for the last tight twenty laps: get close to Norris to be a replacement. The Australian also switched on him, nicely carving his deficit starting from 3.5 seconds, which then jumped back to even more than it was before. Meanwhile, Verstappen was closing in on Leclerc and Hamilton at a high pace, based on his pace, the only question was when the overtaking would happen. Of course, overtaking at the Hungaroring is a different matter.

In the end, at the beginning of the 57th lap, he fought his way past the Dutch Leclerc and moved up to fourth place.

Verstappen joined Hamilton for the podium on the 63rd lap, but they collided with the Briton. The Dutchman took the shortest route: his car was apparently not damaged, but he lost a lot and fell back behind Leclerc, in front of Sainz. Verstappen was completely tickled before he was corrected on the radio that he was behaving very childishly.

With 5 laps to go, Norris was still 5 seconds ahead of Piastri, even though he tried his best to persuade his team to change places. Finally, on the 68th lap, he decided with great difficulty to comply with the team’s request, and the Australian slowed down spectacularly and passed him on the finish line.

This is how the race ended: Piastri took his first Grand Prix victory at the Hungaroring ahead of Norris, Hamilton, Leclerc, Verstappen and Sainz. The remaining points were collected by Perez and Russell, who came up nicely from the back, as well as Cunoda and Lance Stroll (Aston Martin).

F1: After a huge team drama, a new winner at the 6th Hungarian Grand Prix

The complete list of results

Championship standings:

Verstappen – 265 p
Norris – 189 p
Leclerc – 162 p
Sainz – 154 p
Plates – 149 p
Hamilton – 125 p

Red Bull – 389 p
McLaren – 338 p
Ferrari – 322 p
Mercedes – 241 p
Aston Martin – 69 p
RB – 33 p

The World Championship continues in a week with the Belgian Grand Prix.



Source: www.vezess.hu