For Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, packing for Formula 1’s annual summer holiday will be a joy – buckets and spades and, no doubt, a Scandi-noir crime fiction spot thrown in with abandon. They bring the joie de vivre of drivers who will be taking a well-deserved rest after taking the top three places at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Ferrari, however, could consider the holiday canceled and consider just packing up to call it up to the Scuderia after a woeful performance at the Hungaroring that has left Verstappen with one hand on the title.
On an afternoon of intense change, Hungary was important on several levels. For Verstappen, his victory was a triumph. What had started with the expectation of damage limitation led to an immense run from 10th on the grid as he and his Red Bull team pulled off an absolute coup.
Mercedes, in turn, produced their best performance of the year, while in stark contrast Ferrari wallowed, going from leading the race to fourth and sixth for Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.
Verstappen’s touch and judgment when coming up the field was unquestionable and Red Bull’s race management and strategic calls were executed to perfection. So much so that the world champion was even moved to refer to the inexplicable decision that had cost Ferrari so much.
“No one expected this,” he said. “We had to stay calm and make all the right calls. We had a few overtakes, pitted at the right time and put the right tires on the car. That was the most important thing today.”
The Dutchman had to make repeated passes but was so confident, so dominant that he now seemed to be almost toying with the opposite, the hapless mouse Leclerc, which he put out of reach but only for a few seconds.
Verstappen spun mid-race, to lose a place to Leclerc who had just caught up, only to settle and pass him once more several laps in, before heading down the road to claim his eighth victory of the season in 13 meetings. It was a blow to Leclerc’s championship hopes. Verstappen’s lead over the Monaco driver is now an 80-point chasm, a seemingly insurmountable advantage with nine races remaining.
At Mercedes, although a victory is still a long way off, the pleasure of it was palpable. They scored second and third last time in France, but here they did it with their car showing it could really challenge. Indeed, it was enough for Hamilton to move from seventh to second and he and team-mate Russell to third, to finish ahead of the Ferraris and Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who was fifth.
His car, a mercurial beast this year, is a handful to ride, balance and put in the window of operation. This weekend, until qualifying, he had been monitoring his performance with petulant diablo. They found their sweet spot on Saturday when Russell took pole and on Sunday the car was faster and more manageable than it has been all year. Hamilton believes a victory is indeed achievable.
“There was potential to win this weekend,” he said. “If we can occupy that space in the second half of the season, we can start to fight. This is the first time we can fight with Ferrari. That’s huge for us.”
There was also, in common with Red Bull, well-managed pit wall decision-making. Control, calm and class up front, but, behind, bewildering Ferrari chaos.
Sainz and Leclerc had started in second and third, the race must surely be dictated. He started promisingly, his pace was evident and after the first few pit stops, Leclerc took the lead with a bold move, braking late on the outside of Russell at the first corner.
So far so good, it looked like victory was within reach, but he broke down again.
At his second stop, they put the slower, harder tires on Leclerc, so he was able to make it to the finish without another stop, waiting for the rubber to pick up speed with track time. It was a calamitous miscalculation.
Those who followed him had stuck with the faster and medium tires and he was eaten up in no time. First Verstappen passed, spun with a clutch problem, before passing again. Then Russell also found him a sitting duck.
The exasperation emanating from Leclerc’s cockpit danced in the air like a heat haze. Ferrari was forced to face him again on soft tyres, but the damage was done and he went sixth, from which he could not come back.
Leclerc was as perplexed as the rest of us as to why the team chose the hard tires and bemoaned Ferrari’s mistakes. “A race like this is frustrating and we have to improve as a whole,” he said. “It always felt like something was going on, whether it was reliability, bugs or whatever.”
Team principal Mattia Binotto said they had been misled by the tire’s performance data. Verstappen, Hamilton and Russell confirmed that the use of hard tires was not even considered by their teams.
A summer break awaits them to lick their wounds and do some serious self-examination. The Scuderia had bravely attacked in their own direction, one that led to a dead end where Red Bull pounced on them.
Lando Norris was seventh for McLaren, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon eighth and ninth for Alpine and Sebastian Vettel 10th for Aston Martin.