In Pictures: Hungary 2022
What. A. Drive. From 10th to 1st.
This was the last race before the summer break and 4-times World Champion Sebastian Vettel took to his new Instagram account to announce his retirement as an F1 driver at the end of 2022. Needless to say, it took many by surprise, and messages started pouring in on social media, thanking, and praising him for so much. We wish him the best in his future endeavors.
FRIDAY
The temperature was hot but cooler than in France, nevertheless, practice 1 was busy as the risk of rain on Sunday was relatively low and there might not be as much dry running during the rest of the practice sessions. As expected, Ferrari and Red Bull exchanged the fastest laps among the four drivers, but particularly between Leclerc and Verstappen.
We have never seen a driver sneeze while driving at speed until TV showed Checo Perez sneezing quite heavily on the Hungaroring straight while going around 180 MPH at the time. Odd but amusing moment.
In the end, it was Carlos Sainz the fastest, from Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc.
For the second practice, the track was in very similar conditions to what it was during FP1. Cars quickly came, especially Aston Martin, eager to test their new innovative (albeit controversial) rear wing. In any case, as the first practice, it was Ferrari and Red Bull topping the charts. Although the big surprise was the McLaren, comfortably sitting second and fifth for most of the session. And it was Charles Leclerc doing the fastest lap of the day, ahead of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz.
SATURDAY
It was wet, very wet. A few minutes before the final practice the heavens opened and lots of rain started flooding the Hungaroring. The marshals were working very hard to clean as much water off the track as possible. Safety Car went on track to assess conditions.
Practice three started and as the rain eased up, cars were getting prepared to get out on track, but although FP3 was as important as ever, this hour was a bit more as qualifying was going to be in similarly wet conditions later. Charles Leclerc was the first coming out on blue tires (heavy rain), and it was visibly sleek. He was followed by the other drivers, but conditions were complicated to say the least as there was a huge risk of crashing into the wall at any time.
Alonso was the first one to venture with intermediates (green tires), although the track was a bit too wet for them. Then, as the track was getting a bit better, it started to rain heavily, again, so most drivers came back to the pits, and the waiting game began.
The rain eased off and some drivers came out on intermediates (green tires), going faster than before, although Leclerc’s time was still the fastest. With fifteen minutes left in the session, most drivers came out, notwithstanding, Leclerc did a 360, struggling for grip on the straight towards turn 4. Then, with less than ten minutes left, Vettel went off, hitting the tire wall at turn 10, and bringing out the first red flag of the weekend. He had the second fastest lap at the time.
And with less than four minutes left on the clock, about half the cars came out to gather as much information as possible in the short amount of time left. Then, on pure merit, Williams’ Nicholas Latifi went fastest of the session, and by more than 1/2 a second from Leclerc. Albon was third in the other Williams.
QUALIFYING
The weather wasn’t as bad as during FP3, and it was dry enough for the qualifying session to be as normal as ever. Nevertheless, Hungary always has surprises up its sleeve.
Q1
First laps were done and it was Verstappen the fastest, and the Ferrari duo down in 6th and 11th, but track evolution was as fast as the cars, and times continued coming down. For the last few minutes, solid laps from almost everyone, nevertheless, Tsunoda, Albon, Vettel, Gasly, and Latifi didn’t manage to improve and were out of qualifying. The big surprise was to see both Mercedes on top with Hamilton fastest, edging his teammate by just 0.033 of a second.
Q2
The second part of qualifying started with a big statement from Verstappen setting the fastest time of the weekend so far, a blistering 1:17.703, 0.418 from Norris in second, both on new soft tires (red). And as we saw in Q1, the track was ever evolving with most times tumbling down. To add up a bit of controversy, Perez had his first flying lap deleted for exceeding track limits but was reinstated after revision. In any case, it wasn’t enough, and the Mexican got knocked out of qualifying, as were Zhou, Magnussen, Stroll, and Schumacher.
Q3
And then there were only ten. Q3 started with everyone going out early on to set the fastest lap possible as dark clouds loomed up above the Hungaroring. Sainz setting the fastest time of the weekend so far, a 1:17.505. Most came back into the pits to prepare for one more flyer. Then, as Verstappen was desperately informing of no power in his RB18, George Russell surprised everyone, getting his first Pole Position in F1, ahead of the Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc. Verstappen ended up tenth. The final positions were Russell, Sainz, Leclerc, Norris, Ocon, Alonso, Hamilton, Bottas, Ricciardo, and Verstappen.
SUNDAY
Conditions have changed dramatically as the day started with some rain in and around the track, drying out before pre-race preparations began, ah, and it was cool and windy.
Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, and Pierre Gasly got new power units. No penalties for Red Bull as they’re not a change of spec and they’re still within their allocations for the season. On the other hand, Gasly, who was already starting near the back, started from the pit lane, as the changes were done without the approval of the FIA technical delegate.
Other changes during parc ferme included new front and rear brake drums plus rear wing for Lewis Hamilton, DRS actuator for Lando Norris, steering wheel for Yuki Tsunoda, and front brake friction material for Fernando Alonso.
As the starting time neared, the cars went into the track, with some of them, read the Red Bulls, doing many, many ‘reconnaissance’ laps.
About ten minutes before the start, there were a few drops of rain as the drivers got to their respective cars for the formation lap, but not enough for intermediate tires. Russell, Norris, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Perez, Stroll, Tsunoda, Albon, Vettel, and Gasly on soft tires, everyone else on mediums.
The race started, and although there was some fighting up front, the top four stayed the same, but behind them, a fantastic start for Hamilton, now fifth. Then, before the first lap could be completed a VSC (Virtual Safety Car) was deployed as there was some debris at turn 1 from a bit of contact between Albon and Vettel. At the start of lap 3/70, the race resumed, but Sainz did not restart as quick as Russell, losing more than two seconds to the Briton. Meanwhile, Perez reported issues with his RB18. By lap 9/70, the Red Bulls were 6th and 7th. On lap 12/70, Hamilton and Verstappen passed Norris, for 4th and 5th respectively. Perez did the same a lap later and was not 6th. And it was now Verstappen reporting issues with his RB18.
Russell was called to the pits for his tire change on lap 17/70, and so was Verstappen. Russell came out just behind Alonso and had a bit of a fight before passing the Spaniard for 6th. A lap later, Sainz came in for another set of mediums, but it was a slow stop, and he came out behind Russell and Alonso in 6th.
The order up front on lap 20 was Leclerc leading, with Hamilton, Russell, Sainz, and Ocon completing the top five. Hamilton stopped that same lap, coming out behind Alonso. Leclerc stopped a lap later for mediums, coming out behind Russell, but ahead of Sainz.
On lap 24, as Alonso and Ocon were fighting for position, Ricciardo made a fantastic move on them, overtaking both Alpine drivers in the same corner!
Fantastic scrap between Russell and Leclerc as the battle for 1st place continued for several laps. On lap 31, Leclerc launched his F1-75 at turn 1, overtaking the Mercedes, who now was threatened by Sainz and Verstappen, not much behind Russell.
By lap 38, more and more drops of rain were visible. Verstappen came into the pits for a new set of medium tires, coming out behind 6th, behind teammate Perez. Then Leclerc came in for a new set of hards, followed by Russell, for new mediums. The order was now Sainz, ahead of Hamilton, Leclerc, Perez, and Verstappen. As expected, Verstappen passed Leclerc going into turn 1, as the Ferrari driver struggled for grip on the hard tires. A lap later, Verstappen lost the rear of his RB18 and had a spin, recovering his car but having to fight with Hamilton and Perez. Hamilton overtook Leclerc and was now 2nd. On lap 45, Verstappen overtook Leclerc.
Sainz came in for a new set of reds but was a very slow stop. Hamilton was now leading the Grand Prix. But lost it to Verstappen when he came into the pits for a new set of softs. The order on lap 53 was Verstappen, Leclerc, Russell, Sainz, and Hamilton. Great battle between Leclerc and Russell though, with Russell on DRS and Leclerc still struggling for grip on his white tires. On lap 54, Russell finally passed the Ferrari. Leclerc was called into the pits for new softs, coming out 6th, behind Hamilton.
I’m not into criticizing, but cannot understand Ferrari's strategies, making it hard for the Tifosi to cheer for the team as they were in line to fight for a 1-2 and were now 3rd and 6th, and not in the best positions to fight for the win.
On lap 62, Hamilton started his moves on Sainz for 3rd place.
A VSC was deployed as Bottas’ Alfa Romeo stopped on the side of the circuit with no power. The race resumed on lap 70, as rain was reported by many drivers.
In the end, the dismal Ferrari strategies did not overshadow the fantastic race from Mercedes, and especially Max Verstappen, winning the Hungarian Grand Prix after starting tenth on a track known for being difficult to overtake. Hamilton came in second, Russell third.