After the euphoria of qualifying 24 hours earlier came the reality check of the race itself. And with it the realisation for Lewis Hamilton that Mercedes are “not fast enough”.
The seven-time world champion had enjoyed a stunning return to form over the one-lap format at the Hungarian Grand Prix to take his first pole position for nearly 600 days, eclipsing what was in theory a quicker car in Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.
It quickly turned from celebration to frustration when Hamilton suffered a wheelspin and found himself back in fourth within the opening salvos of Sunday’s race.
It was a position he would end the race in and the 38-year-old cut a deflated figure in the aftermath of the grand prix.
“Yesterday [Saturday], I felt like it was me being back to my best,” he said. “And I haven’t been at my best for over a year.
“It’s obvious that we’re not the quickest. We were just too slow in the first two stints. I’m really proud of myself for the job that we did in qualifying to outperform the world champion and the other two cars that were quicker than us. But today is reality… we’re not fast enough.
“We have a lot of work to do. We’re a long way off from beating the Red Bull in a race and now we’re behind the McLarens so we’ve got to keep pushing.”
For the second successive race, McLaren were clearly the best of the rest, Lando Norris finishing runner-up to comfortable race winner Verstappen, with team-mate Oscar Piastri a tad unlucky to end up in fifth come the chequered flag.
Despite the apparent pace of the McLaren, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said: “I think we had the second quickest car today. We just didn’t monetise it. Verstappen is just far off at the moment. It’s like a field of Formula 2 cars against Formula 1.”
Verstappen’s winning margin of 33 seconds was the biggest since the 2021 Russian Grand Prix, and ought to act as some sort of wake-up call for F1 bosses.
It also extended the team’s winning streak to 12 races, eclipsing the previous best by the dominant McLaren team of the 1988 season.
And Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said of Verstappen: “What we’re witnessing is a sportsman at the top of his game. He deserves all the credit in the world for the way he’s driving at the moment.”
