HUNGARY: Yet another winner.

NUMBER THIRTEEN

We’ve hit the half way point in Hungary, and the vibes are…interesting.

But first, let’s give Piastri his moment of glory for his first ever Grand Prix win. Always cool, calm, and collected at just 23 years old, I don’t think this is the last win we’ll be seeing from Oscar Piastri.

However, while a McLaren P1 P2 should be a cause for celebration, this one is somewhat tainted. Norris starts on pole and is immediately overtaken by Piastri in turn 1. Piastri leads a good chunk of the race, with Norris given the all clear to compete with his teammate. Norris is called in for his final pit 2 laps before Piastri. The thinking from McLaren is to allow Norris to protect them both from incoming Hamilton. I feel this is where the team momentarily forget the inherently competitive nature of every single driver on that grid. With Norris boxing first, he slips into the lead. He is told to let Piastri catch up and overtake him. But Piastri goes wide onto the gravel and sits over 3 seconds behind his teammate. To call for a driver who is leading a Grand Prix, and running second in the Championship, to essentially slam his brakes on to let another driver win is a big ask. 3 laps before the end Norris eventually does as he is told. Piastri takes the win. I would not like to sit in on the McLaren debrief.

While the pit wall at McLaren has a lot of radio chat for Norris, at the Red Bull pit wall the chat goes the other way. Verstappen is not a happy bunny. The car is not at the level he feels it should be, and he makes that very clear. There is also a tendency to play the blame game in this race. When he goes wide in turn 1 it’s Norris’ fault, and when he locks up and goes airborne off Hamilton’s front wing it’s Hamilton’s fault. It’s an angry race for Verstappen, and I think the car is capable of more than his P5 finish.

We see a range of strategies across the race, and not all drivers are over the moon with their team’s choices. Unhappy boys over the radio: Hamilton, Alonso, Albon. Going for the undercut, Hamilton is called in early for pits and has to nurse his tyres to the end – this allows Verstappen to get close and nearly costs him the podium. Fortunately for Mercedes, Verstappen locks up and Hamilton keeps his position, finishing P3. Alonso drives a tactical race for Aston Martin by holding back midfield to give Stroll a longer stint on softs to attack for points, yet when Stroll fails to catch Tsunoda and is ordered to swap positions, he ignores the call. Stroll takes the points at P10, leaving Alonso out of points at P11. Albon’s frustrations are with indecisive strategy calls from his team, and he comes in at P14.

The award for most unproblematic team this race goes to Ferrari. No shouty radios, just quick laps and focus. They sandwich Verstappen, with Leclerc P4 and Sainz P6. It is also a positive race for Russell and Perez. After a poor qualifying from both, Russell manages to climb from P17 up to P8, and Perez (having crashed in Q1) jumps from P16 to P7.

Elsewhere, Tsunoda picks up points again up at P9 while his teammate Ricciardo has a disappointing drop to P12, having qualified P9. Haas drops into the lower midfield with Hulkenberg P13 and Magnussen P15. With new upgrades, Bottas has a good start at P12 and competes with the likes of Russell and Perez for P9, but end up finishing down at P16. Gasly faces yet another retirement mid race for Alpine, with his teammate only managing P18, below Sargeant at P17 and just above Zhou at P19.

The second half of the season is well and truly underway.