Ferrari blunder hands Hungarian Grand Prix to Verstappen and Red Bull

Reigning champion, Max Verstappen, scored his and Red Bull’s second back-to-back victory of the year after a tenth to first place drive in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

In a race threatened from the start with rain, which eventually arrived in small trickles towards the end, the Dutchman shrugged-off not only a poor qualifying performance, but also a mid-race spin brought-on by an apparent slipping clutch to secure his 28^th career Formula 1 win.

The final race before the European summer break though is unlikely to be one Ferrari will want to remember after a strategy blunder resulted in Charles Leclerc finishing sixth after what seemed to be a certain victory.

Starting from second behind first-time pole-sitter, Mercedes’ George Russell, the Monegasque initially slipped behind teammate Carlos Sainz, remaining third until lap 18 with the first round of pit-stops.

With the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Sergio Perez, who started 11^th after problems in qualifying, making progress through the field, also consisting of the Alpines of Fernando Alonso and last year’s winner Esteban Ocon, as well as the McLarens of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, the decision to leave Leclerc out longer saw him feed back in front, but not behind an already stopped Russell.

The stops went the opposite way for seven-time’s champion Lewis Hamilton though, who returned to the track not only behind Verstappen, but both still-to-be-serviced Alpines and down in seventh position.

By lap 27, a determined Leclerc set about Russell and despite the best efforts of the 2018 Formula 2 champion, a brilliant move round the outside of turn 1 using DRS saw the Ferrari take the lead on lap 31.

With Russell dropping back and both Sainz and Verstappen on the march, Leclerc’s hopes of making-up for the disappointment of losing the French Grand Prix last week ended bizarrely on lap 40 during his second stop.

In a surprise and ultimately fatal move, the un-favoured hard compound tyre was put on in a move immediately questioned. The proof was Russell departing the pit on the same lap with the faster medium tyres.

With his visit to the pits on the previous lap, a move that saw him leapfrog Sainz, Verstappen didn’t waste any time passing a struggling Leclerc on lap 41, only to almost blow it on the next with the mentioned rotation at the second-to-last corner.

By lap 45 however, the medium-tyre shod Red Bull was past and with Leclerc continuing to drop back, Verstappen eventually took command on lap 50 after race-leader’s Hamilton second stop.

ALSO READ: WATCH: Leclerc error hands French Grand Prix win to Verstappen

A switch to soft tyres for Leclerc on lap 55 with 15 left failed to have any impact as sixth behind Perez remained sixth at the flag.

With Verstappen clearing off, an inspired Hamilton soon displaced not only Sainz, but also his teammate Russell to lead home a Mercedes 2-3 behind the Red Bull.

Behind a frustrated Leclerc came Norris, Alonso, Ocon and the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel, who on Wednesday confirmed his retirement from the sport at the end of the year.

The four-time champion’s teammate, Lance Stroll, crossed the line eleventh ahead of the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly, Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu and the Haas of Mick Schumacher.

Having been in the top ten for the first half of the race, Ricciardo crossed the line 15^th after picking-up a five second penalty for colliding with Stroll on lap 48.

Taking 16^th after a collision at the start that required dangling pieces of the front wing endplate to be removed was the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen, followed by Williams’ Alex Albon, whose tangle with Vettel on the opening lap caused a virtual safety car that lasted less than a lap as marshals proceeded to remove debris from turn two.

Albon’s Williams teammate, Nicholas Latifi, finished 18^th ahead of the second AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda, whose spin at the turn 12 chicane on lap 28 brought out the yellow flags with no otherwise ill effects.

The sole retirement was Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas who pulled off the track with two laps to go with a suspected engine failure.

Despite yet another virtual safety car being declared, station had largely taken across the field with no position changing battles taking place.

“I don’t exactly know what are the reasons behind this decision yet, but we’ll speak with the team for me to understand, but clearly it wasn’t the right decision. And I made it clear that I felt good on the medium, so I don’t exactly know what happened,” Leclerc told f1.com after the race.

“I lost 20 seconds with the pit, another maybe six seconds on five laps on the hards because I was just all over the place with that tyre. Yes, that’s where we lost our race.”

With his victory, Verstappen now leads Leclerc by a mammoth 80 points with Perez holding station in third ahead of Russell, who jumps above Sainz, but still ahead of Hamilton, Norris, Ocon, Bottas and Alonso.

As mentioned, the championship now breaks for just over two weeks before retuning with the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps on 28 August.

Results (Top 10)

1. Max Verstappen – Red Bull
2. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes: +7.834 sec
3. George Russell – Mercedes: +12.337 sec
4. Carlos Sainz – Ferrari: +14.579 sec
5. Sergio Perez – Red Bull: +15.688 sec
6. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari: +16.047 sec
7. Lando Norris – McLaren +1 min 8.300 sec
8. Fernando Alonso – Alpine: +1 Lap
9. Esteban Ocon – Alpine: +1 Lap
10. Sebastian Vettel – Aston Martin: +1 Lap

Driver’s Championship

1. Max Verstappen – 258 pts
2. Charles Leclerc – 178 pts
3. Sergio Perez – 173 pts
4. George Russell – 158 pts
5. Carlos Sainz – 156 pts
6. Lewis Hamilton – 146 pts
7. Lando Norris – 76 pts
8. Esteban Ocon – 58 pts
9. Valtteri Bottas – 46 pts
10. Fernando Alonso – 41 pts

Constructors Championship

1. Red Bull – 431 pts
2. Ferrari – 334 pts
3. Mercedes – 304 pts
4. Alpine – 99 pts
5. McLaren – 95 pts
6. Alfa Romeo – 51 pts
7. Haas – 34 pts
8. AlphaTauri – 27 pts
9. Aston Martin – 20 pts
10. Williams – 3 pts