Everything you need to know from a dramatic F1 Hungarian GP

Photos courtesy of: F1

The Hungarian Grand Prix marked McLaren’s Australian driver Oscar Piastri’s maiden Grand Prix win. It was an eventful weekend for the McLaren team with their drivers finishing 1-2, as well as for the Silver Arrows as Hamilton recorded his 200th podium finish for his legendary F1 career. 

The season has just gotten better as the amazing race in Hungaroring definitely built up excitement for next weekend’s race, as well as the spicy drama that occurred during and post race. Here’s all you need to catch up on. 

FREE PRACTICE

The Hungarian Grand Prix at Hungaroring finally arrived and the weekend started with a very warm temperature of 50 degrees, but the drivers were just as heated up for the day. Friday morning in Hungary was an elating moment for Scuderia Ferrari as Carlos Sainz went fastest and topped the timesheets, while Charles Leclerc was at P3. It was a big surprise though when Kick Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu topped at P5 with his amazing performance for FP1. It was indeed a hopeful moment for the driver and his team to earn points for this year. McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri earned P6 and P7, respectively, while the Silver Arrows had Russell at P4 and 8-time Hungarian Grand Prix winner Hamilton at P10. 

Aston Martin drivers faced some struggles early in the Free Practice due to the changes in their cars. Stroll managed to get into the Top 10 at P9, but Alonso could not quite get the answers to his problems, only earning P13. Yuki Tsunoda took P8 for RB (formerly known as AlphaTauri).

Later that afternoon at FP2, Monegasque driver Leclerc spun out of the track and suffered greatly at turn 4. The crash into the wall surely cost an overnight of busy work for his team to fix the damages in the car. There was still a glimpse of hope for Scuderia when Sainz finished third for the second practice session.

Just as Kick Sauber tasted a sweet start, Zhou Guanyu unfortunately spun out at Turn 4 as well. He was able to avoid a crash into the barriers, but almost took Perez along with him in the incident. Perez luckily escaped any damage and managed to finish P4. 

The Silver Arrows were optimistic for this race after winning two-consecutive races with Russell’s Austrian Grand Prix win, and Hamilton’s British Grand Prix win. However, the 7-time World Champion only managed to get P7, with teammate Russell two places ahead of him. 

The day ended with McLaren at 1-3 with Norris taking P1, and Piastri at P3, while Verstappen was sandwiched between the two orange cars at P2. 

The last session of free practice took place on Saturday morning, and Norris picked up where he left off as he defended his P1 position with teammate Oscar Piastri taking P2. Earlier in the race, it was predicted that it might once again be a McLaren versus Red Bull battle for pole position when reigning champion Max Verstappen took P3 just three-tenths behind leader Norris. His Red Bull teammate Perez dramatically dropped down from P4 at FP2 to P13 for the last session. 

George Russell led Mercedes at P4, while Hamilton suffered a spin a little later in the session, only earning P10. Scuderia opened the weekend strong, but struggled later on with Leclerc not making it into the Top 10, and Sainz leading the team at P5. 

RB showed an outstanding performance for FP3 as Tsunoda advanced from P19 in FP2 to taking 9th place for the last session. Daniel Ricciardo impressively finished at P6, while Wiilliams’ driver Albon amazingly took P7. 

QUALIFYING 

8-time Hungarian Grand Prix winner Lewis Hamilton opened Q1 strongly that Saturday afternoon as he took P1 which put the driver in a great position. Just as Dutch driver Verstappen was complaining about rain concerns to his radio, teammate Sergio Perez crashed into the barriers at turn 8, and Red Bull was left with a lot of dissatisfaction. 

The huge improvement from Daniel Ricciardo resulted in being the fastest so far, while Alex Albon showed outstanding performance that earned him P5. Russell did not manage to advance to Q2 and was out together with Guanyu, Ocon, Gasly, and Perez who crashed earlier. 

The Silver Arrows team were at the edge of their seats at Q2 when Hamilton was at risk at P10. Bottas, Hulkenberg, and Magnussen tried to knock him off of Q2, and Hamilton barely survived with a slim margin of only 100th of a second. Both Williams drivers Albon and Sargeant were out of Q2 as well. 

Early in Q3, Verstappen took P1 in hopes of another pole position for the Hungarian GP and possibly his 9th of the season. Hamilton also aimed to add to his tally of 9 pole positions for the Hungarian GP, but did not quite get there. Another driver aiming for an addition to his pole position tally was McLaren driver Lando Norris who managed to become fastest. 

With everyone looking to add to their records, Piastri was aiming for his maiden pole position in Formula 1. However, he misses out with only 200th of a second against his own teammate. Scuderia Ferrari tried to answer in the form of Carlos Sainz, but only managed to finish P4 in the leaderboard. Later in Q3, Tsunoda crashed which resulted in a red flag. With still 2 minutes to go, Verstappen refused to come back into the track and finished the Qualifying at P3. 

It was Lando Norris’ third pole position of his career, and a McLaren 1-2. 

THE RACE

The lights were out and away we went! The battle for the lead between Norris, Piastri, and Verstappen was intense, but McLaren’s Australian driver managed to take it away. Norris followed his teammate closely behind, battling with reigning champion Max Verstappen for P2. In said battle, the Red Bull driver went off the track, overtaking Norris when he rejoined. Hamilton joined the feud for P2, but the Silver Arrows driver failed to take it and dropped down to P4 as Norris retook the P3 position. 

Following the overtaking incident, McLaren’s driver Norris was unhappy and believed that Verstappen had to give the position back. Red Bull Racing’s team heard this and delivered it to their Dutch driver. 

“The incident is under investigation. I think our recommendation is you let this go, we can talk about it later,” says Lambiase via the radio. 

Verstappen argued with his radio to show disagreement with a couple of censors occurring, but he gave P2 back to Norris at Lap 4 anyway to avoid a penalty. 

7-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton was the first one of the Top 5 to pit at Lap 17. He went from medium to hard tires. Verstappen’s pit lasted 3.0 seconds which was not the Red Bull team’s average pit time–they usually get the job done with only 2. 

At Lap 35, Hamilton and Verstappen battled for P3. Verstappen managed to take the outside but steered off the track, resulting in Hamilton taking third place. The Dutch driver continued the race with a lot of frustration.

The McLaren team wanted to reestablish their order strategy amidst British driver Norris leading the team in the race. Continuously in the race, McLaren called Norris out for using his tires too much and instigating the driver to “do the right thing”. 

“We need you to save more tires, please. We do want to let Oscar through.” William Joseph said, Lando’s race engineer. 

Later on at Lap 57, he also said, “Okay Lando, we still think you’re using the tires too much: Turn 4, Turn 11 and the rears at exit Turn 6 and Turn 9. Oscar is 3.5. I know you’ll do the right thing.”

At Lap 63, Verstappen and Hamilton once again awakened their rivalry for a podium finish. Max managed to get inside, but made contact with the Silver Arrows car. Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc took advantage of the incident which dropped Verstappen to P5. Max’s radio was full of frustration again. 

Max Verstappen: “He moved under braking.”

Gianpiero Lambiase: “I’m not even going to get into a radio fight with the other teams, Max. We’ll let the stewards do their thing. It’s childish on the radio, childish.”

With just two more laps to go and about 20 laps later after McLaren’s orders to switch positions, Lando Norris slowed down to give way to his teammate Oscar Piastri. Handing over the Australian’s maiden Formula 1 win was a tough decision for Norris, but it was a thrilling weekend for McLaren with a 1-2 podium finish. 

The Hungarian Grand Prix also marked Lewis Hamilton’s historical 200th podium finish which added important points for Mercedes. Charles Leclerc finished at P4, while Max Verstappen finished at P5.

POST-RACE

The drama that occurs post-race is always interesting, and the spicy exchange between Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton in the cooldown room marks the most interesting one for the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend. 

The former McLaren driver was astonished with the team’s performance for the race. Hamilton gave compliments to the team and their respective drivers with his statement: “Phew! You guys are fast.”

Norris then responded with a little bit of an attitude, “You had a fast car seven years ago.” The 7-time World Champion was obviously taken aback by the response and answered, “Seven years ago? Long time. Were you here seven years ago?”

“Yeah, well, you had a quick car, you made the most of it, and now it’s us,” said Norris. Hamilton, although confused with the direction of the conversation, assured Lando that his remark was not ill-meant. 

“I wasn’t complaining, I was just complimenting your car,” said Hamilton.

The cooldown room conversation escalated very quickly on the internet, and fans assumed that Norris was in a bad mood due to having to give up his position for his teammate. In further interviews, the McLaren driver admitted to his initial disagreement with the strategy, but that he planned to follow the orders anyway and surrender his place. After 20 laps and multiple radio messages, Norris did give P1 back to Piastri. 

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen and his exchanges on the radio also became a hot topic for the weekend. When asked whether he plans to apologize for his profanity, he replied that there is no need for apologies, instead there is a need for his team to get better.

“I don’t know why people think you cannot be vocal on a radio. This is a sport. If some people don’t like that then stay home,” he said in an interview with Sky Sports.

Christian Horner, Red Bull’s team principal, enlightened everyone that the ‘childish’ remark from Lambiase was not directly targeted to Verstappen, rather it was for the other teams who were complaining about the penalties. He also added that the Red Bull driver and his radio engineer had been working together for eight seasons; the heated conversations were merely a result of Max’s frustration.

The Dutch driver includes himself in another drama regarding his crash with his former rival Lewis Hamilton. In his radio, Verstappen blamed Hamilton for the incident as the Mercedes driver “keeps turning right”. On the other hand, Hamilton described it as “a racing incident”. After investigation, the stewards decided that no driver was to be blamed for the collision, but stated that Hamilton could have done better to avoid it.  

Verstappen thinks it’s unfair as he was heavily criticized for a similar incident with Norris at the Austrian GP. Hamilton believed that it was merely an incident. “I don’t feel there should be any hostility but of course from his side there always will be,” he says. 

With the iconic rivalry coming together again, and the McLaren 1-2 finish, it is indeed a Hungarian Grand Prix to remember. It is a wonder to many fans how Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes will answer back to the great momentum the McLaren team has been building.

Will it be a repeat of Red Bull 1-2 finish just like last year, or will a different team conquer the Belgian Grand Prix? Maybe it will result in the 8th driver to win a Grand Prix in 2024. A lot of predictions arise here and there, and the Belgian Grand Prix is definitely not a race to miss!