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Charles Bradley

F1 race results: Max Verstappen wins wild Hungarian GP

MercedesGeorge Russell led from pole but came under attack from Charles Leclerc from one-third distance. Leclerc grabbed the lead with a fantastic outbraking move around the outside of Turn 1.

But Leclerc’s chances of victory were dealt a fatal blow when Ferrari opted for him to run the slower hard tyres, despite evidence of the Alpines struggling badly on them.

On the flipside, title rival Verstappen, who changed his engine after a qualifying disaster, charged his way to the front – despite a spin soon after passing Leclerc.

Lewis Hamilton put on a late-race charge to grab second for Mercedes, ahead of Russell.

2022 Hungarian Grand Prix race results

Cla   Nº   Driver   Car / Engine   Laps   Time 
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 70 -
44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 70 -7.834
63 George Russell Mercedes 70 -12.337
55 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 70 -14.579
11 Sergio Pérez Red Bull 70 -15.688
16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 70 -16.047
4 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 70 -1'18.300
14 Fernando Alonso Alpine/Renault 69 -
31 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 69 -
10  5 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin/Mercedes 69 -
11  18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 69 -
12  10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Red Bull 69 -
13  24 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 69 -
14  47 Mick Schumacher Haas/Ferrari 69 -
15  3 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren/Mercedes 69 -
16  20 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 69 -
17  23 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 69 -
18  6 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 69 -
19  22 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri/Red Bull 68 -
20  77 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 65 -

How the Hungarian Grand Prix unfolded

Russell held his pole advantage on the run to Turn 1, where Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz attacked him around the outside but slotted into second. The second Mercedes of Hamilton made a great start to vault past both Alpines – who were too busy battling each other – to run fifth, before he ran wide on the exit of Turn 1 and rejoined behind McLaren’s Lando Norris.

A virtual safety car interrupted the race to clear the track from debris at Turn 2, and it resumed on Lap 3 with Russell pulling out a handy 2.6s lead over Sainz.

From his 10th-place start, Verstappen worked his way past the Alpines by Lap 7, passing Fernando Alonso after he suffered a big moment at Turn 3 and then outbraking Esteban Ocon at Turn 1 to run sixth. Behind him, teammate Sergio Perez did likewise.

Hamilton and Verstappen used DRS to jump ahead of Norris on Lap 12, and Perez took sixth from Norris a lap later.

Russell’s soft tyres began to struggle against the Ferraris’ mediums by Lap 15, and he pitted two laps later (suffering a sticky right-front wheel change) just as Sainz was about to get into DRS range. Verstappen too stopped at this point to try and undercut past Hamilton.

Sainz pitted a lap later and also suffered a slow 3.7s stop, and he rejoined well behind Russell and, crucially, took a lap to get past a longer-running Ocon. Sainz was now 3s behind the Mercedes.

Leclerc stayed out longest of the leaders, pitting on Lap 22 and rejoining ahead of Sainz in second, 2.7s behind Russell. Leclerc closed the gap on new rubber, getting into Russell’s DRS range on Lap 27, and began attacking a lap later – drawing alongside at Turn 3 but Russell ran him wide.

Leclerc grabbed the lead with a brilliant lunge around the outside of Russell at Turn 1 on Lap 31 and pulled away as Sainz caught Russell – with Verstappen cruising up to their battle too.

Verstappen pitted again on Lap 39 to try and undercut Russell and Sainz, sparking Mercedes to respond. Leader Leclerc also stopped, taking the hard tyre for the planned final stint as it was too early to take softs.

Verstappen got ahead of Russell in the pitstop cycle, while Sainz stayed out in the lead on mediums. Leclerc had no pace on the hard tyre, allowing Verstappen to zoom past him into Turn 1.

But further around the lap Verstappen spun, allowing Leclerc back ahead of him and putting Russell back into the mix. The recovering Verstappen repassed sitting duck Leclerc on Lap 45, who then slipped back into a fight for second with Russell.

Sainz pitted from the lead, switching to softs, but a left-rear problem meant a stop of 4.7s. Hamilton now led for a handful of laps, pitting on Lap 53 for softs, putting Verstappen back in front as Russell got past Leclerc for second on Lap 55.

Leclerc pitted again, to get rid of his unloved hard tyres, dropping him to sixth for a lonely run to the flag on softs.

Hamilton was really on a charge, passing Sainz for third on Lap 63 and Russell two laps later. But he was 10s behind Verstappen, who remained out of reach.

A rain shower on the last lap didn’t impact the result, with Verstappen winning from Hamilton, Russell, Sainz, Perez and Leclerc.

2022 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix fastest laps

Cla   Nº   Driver   Car / Engine   Time   Delay   Lap   km/h 
44  Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1'21.386   57 193.787
16  Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1'21.622 0.236 57 193.227
11  Sergio Pérez Red Bull 1'21.940 0.554 44 192.477
55  Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 1'22.000 0.614 51 192.336
24  Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1'22.029 0.643 58 192.268
Max Verstappen Red Bull 1'22.126 0.740 45 192.041
18  Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1'22.437 1.051 51 191.317
Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 1'22.478 1.092 60 191.221
63  George Russell Mercedes 1'22.766 1.380 57 190.556
10  Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin/Mercedes 1'22.824 1.438 51 190.423
11  Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1'23.043 1.657 47 189.920
12  23  Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1'23.047 1.661 43 189.911
13  47  Mick Schumacher Haas/Ferrari 1'23.151 1.765 50 189.674
14  10  Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Red Bull 1'23.199 1.813 58 189.564
15  20  Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1'23.511 2.125 37 188.856
16  22  Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri/Red Bull 1'23.538 2.152 58 188.795
17  Daniel Ricciardo McLaren/Mercedes 1'23.654 2.268 64 188.533
18  14  Fernando Alonso Alpine/Renault 1'23.979 2.593 47 187.804
19  77  Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1'24.002 2.616 60 187.752
20  31  Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1'24.149 2.763 60 187.424

 

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