(Motorsport) In what can only be described as a fantastic comeback, reigning Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen went from 10th to 1st at the Hungarian Grand Prix after a combination of brilliant racing combined with intelligent strategic calls from the Red Bull team. The result meant that he increased his lead to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by 80 points following another miserable day for the Italian manufacturer, who got their strategy embarrassingly wrong and failed Carlos Sainz at the pit stops not once but twice. 

After a disappointing qualifying performance for Red Bull and the incredible pace shown by Ferrari, few would have predicted that the Dutchman would finish the race in first place, seven seconds ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton while both the Ferrari cars were nowhere in contention for a win. Mercedes enjoyed a double podium finish, thanks to Ferrari’s inability as a team on the whole and at this point, the most successful F1 team in history are becoming their own worst enemy and gifting their rivals valuable points on a weekly basis. 

Leclerc started the race in third place behind teammate Carlos Sainz and eventually climbed to first place in lap 31. It looked like a much needed victory for the Monegasque driver after his disappointing crash in France but then Ferrari decided to pit Leclerc on hard tyres, despite plenty of evidence from the race so far that the compound was underperforming and wasn’t providing enough pace or traction. This meant that despite Ferrari’s pace, the hard compound resulted in Leclerc being a sitting duck and was overtaken by Verstappen not once but twice and ended up finishing the race in sixth position. 

With the team understanding that they got the strategy wrong, they got Leclerc into the pit again to switch to the soft compound but it was too late. The 24 year old simply couldn’t climb up the grid so late in the race in what was undoubtedly a frustrating race for him. As for Sainz, he couldn’t match up to the pace of Lewis Hamilton and was relegated to fourth after starting the race in second place, a situation that could have been very different had Ferrari not failed him at the pit stops twice. McLaren’s Lando Norris, who began the race in fourth place finished seventh ahead of Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon while Daniel Ricciardo finished 15th after being penalised for a crash involving Lance Stroll. 

Hungarian GP Race Result: Top 10

1) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
2) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
3) George Russell, Mercedes
4) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
5) Sergio Perez, Red Bull
6) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
7) Lando Norris, McLaren
8) Fernando Alonso, Alpine
9) Esteban Ocon, Alpine
10) Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin

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