Lewis Hamilton’s opposition to Max Verstappen did not last a curve at the Hungaroring. The long-awaited duel between the seven-time English champion and the two-time Dutch champion, both starting from the front row at the Hungarian GP for the first time since late 2021, was easily resolved in favor of the Red Bull driver at the first corner. Verstappen swiped the first position from Hamilton and took off to finish sweeping Lando Norris with a 33-second advantage, and sign up his ninth victory of the course (of 11 races) and the best lap.
A meritorious third position for Checo Pérez who started ninth and with a changed tactic climbed to the podium -he was named Driver of the Day-, and the performance of the Spaniards was very discreet: Carlos Sainz, who was finishing fifth, finished eighth behind his teammate Charles Leclerc, and Fernando Alonso signed a nondescript ninth place on a track more favorable to Aston Martin, but which was overtaken by the McLarens and the Mercedes.
Since Abu Dhabi 2021, the race in which there was a change of reign, Hamilton did not start with Max Verstappen in the first row at the start. He would not remember how the Dutchman spends them, because Mercedes’ English started fatally. He accelerated well on the straight, but in the braking of the first corner the Red Bull was better and he conquered the first position entering the corner. He was already a leader.
But not only was Verstappen better, the two McLarens also passed Lewis, Oscar Piastri, who took second taking advantage of the fact that Mercedes had to brake to avoid eating Red Bull, and Lando Norris, third. Hamilton had to be content with starting the pursuit race from fourth place.
The two Spaniards came out quite well. Above all, Carlos Sainz who, with soft tires (one of the three on the grid) jumped five squares, from 11th place on the grid to 6th (just behind his teammate Leclerc), while Fernando Alonso gained one position (above Bottas), from 8th to 7th, behind the man from Madrid, and with the incisive Checo Pérez behind.
After the logical overtaking of the Mexican to the Asturian (v. 8/70), the race fell into a bland succession of laps in which Verstappen only kept seconds ahead of Piastri and Norris, unable to follow him closely. Just as Hamilton could not get close to the McLarens and fight for the podium.
The first pit-stops began to rush from lap 16. First it was Sainz, to put on the medium tires; followed him (v. 17) Hamilton to put on the hard ones; and then (v. 18), Norris and Leclerc. But the Monegasque had problems -a Ferrari classic- at the stop, and he lost 7 seconds when a hydraulic gun got stuck. Charles lost position with Sainz and Stroll, and dropped to provisional 7th place.
The one who gained position with a manual undercut was Norris, who in his stop overtook his teammate Piastri to take second position. McLaren’s Englishman was 9 seconds ahead of Hamilton, his main threat.
Alonso extended his stop until lap 21 to try to gain positions, but the pit-stop (3.4 seconds, one more than usual) left him 11th when he returned to the track, behind Bottas. He left the Finn behind quickly to be tenth and start to climb.
The leader Verstappen was the third from last to stop (v. 24; his teammate Pérez would follow him and in the end, Russell) and he did it without any problem so as not to give up the lead in the race. The gap kept her at over 5 seconds over Norris and over 8 over Piastri… and almost 20 over a Hamilton who didn’t understand why he was “so slow” in fourth position.
In the fifth was a Checo Pérez with changed tactics (with means, the rest with hard) and wanting to make up for his terrible performances in recent GPs. The Mexican struck Sainz with an ax and another at Russell to get behind Hamilton and seek fourth position.
The man from Madrid rested on his laurels. He had gained two positions after the pit-stops, but he did not know how to defend the position from Pérez’s attack at the end of the straight, taking advantage of the fact that the man from Madrid slowed down having Russell in front of him.
The Hungaroring race-procession reached its halfway point (v.35/70) with Verstappen having already set the victory on track with 10 seconds over Norris and 17 over Piastri.
The only animation was provided by the two drivers with changed tactics, the two who wore medium tires against the rest with hard ones: Pérez (who had started 9th) approached Hamilton threateningly to pass over him and take fourth position, and Russell was climbing from 13th (9th, behind Alonso).
Hamilton was spared the humiliation of being overtaken by Pérez -who was on his rear wing- because Red Bull advanced the second stop to the Mexican (v. 43). Checo was launched with the medium tires and ate Piastri in turn 1-2 to be fourth (v. 47).
The second stops were then rushed to cover all their positions from the undercuts. The loser was Sainz, who gave up 6th place to his teammate Leclerc (his stop was 5 tenths faster) -although the Monegasque had a 5-second penalty for speeding in the pit-lane-, and Hamilton, who Pérez ended up passing at the stop and dropped to 5th place.
The Englishman from Mercedes had at least 22 laps to go before he overtook Piastri and regained fourth place. He got to the Australian rookie and easily bit him (v. 57) to finish fourth, since he had Pérez too far away, more than 10s away, although he ended up getting closer to him by less than 2s, without worrying the Mexican.
Sainz’s final debacle resulted in Russell overtaking, sending him down to 8th with four laps to go. The Englishman from Mercedes, who had started 18th, finished sixth, ahead of Leclerc (who was paying the 5-second penalty).
For his part, Sainz was unable to take advantage of this penalty and ended up in 8th place, 7 tenths behind his teammate. Alonso finished ninth, after a very discreet race without rhythm, in which he lost one position compared to the start. The Aston Martin was surpassed this time by the usual Red Bull and Ferrari, but also by Mercedes and McLaren.
