Formula 1: Max Verstappen rubbed salt into the wounds of Ferrari after winning the Hungarian GP and it was only made possible by the decisions taken by Red Bull’s strategist Hannah Schmitz. Ferrari again endured negligible results at Hungaroring as their strategist made errors with their decisions. Follow Formula 1 updates on InsideSport.IN
After winning the Hungarian GP, Max Verstappen said, “It’s incredibly important if you want to fight for a Championship. You know, you can’t afford many mistakes. It’s of course, very hard, to always be on the good side, let’s say it like that. But I think we have a lot of good guys in the team and girls. Today, I think Hannah, our strategist, was insanely calm. Yeah, she’s very good.”
The Dutchman drove from tenth on the grid to come out on top in the race quite comfortably, with Lewis Hamilton his closest challenger. For Ferrari, notwithstanding, it was one more end of the week to forget as their most recent strategic error cost Charles Leclerc the opportunity to seek triumph.
An emphatic overtake from Verstappen 💪
Leclerc was powerless against the charging Red Bull #HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/7Ly0OM9Y9x
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 31, 2022
Notwithstanding having the information from different groups to direct them, the Italians chose to pit Leclerc and change to the hard compound. Yet, in the low track temperatures, the Monegasque attempted to get any intensity into the tyres and fell back through the order, limping home in the 6th spot.
LAP 55/70
Leclerc is back into the pits to swap his hard tyres for softs.#HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/4Iwf9i2pQK
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 31, 2022
It was a long way from their first strategic screw-up of the year, amounting to a whole lot of the attention was on Ferrari after the race. Verstappen, in the meantime, had the option to celebrate one more race win and was quick to call attention to exactly the amount he can depend on his own strategic division.
Meanwhile, after winning his eighth race of the season, Verstappen was pleased with his own performance as he spun in the race but still manage to take the first spot. “I was struggling a bit with the shifts and the clutch, and we had to change a few things around that to basically burn the clutch,” Verstappen added.
“That cost a bit of performance and I think that caught me out of that corner. But luckily, I could do a 360 so I only lost one spot. I was, of course, hoping that I could get close to a podium. Very tricky conditions out there. But I think we had a really good strategy,” Verstappen further added.
“We were really reactive and always pitting at the right time, I think we had some good out laps. Then, at the end, even with a 360, we won the race. I was battling a lot of guys so it was a lot of fun out there. Crazy race, and I’m very happy I won it,” Verstappen concluded.
Just Max pulling a 360° mid-race 😃#HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/eWVDOf407Y
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 31, 2022
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