August 3, 2022
It is time for summer break! The Hungarian Grand Prix was full of twists and turns: the weather was up and down, we watched Ferrari act like fools again, Mercedes had pace, Red Bull had some surprising issues, and Williams went P1 at one point. If Williams is at the top of the charts, we know something is up. Anyway, here is the madness that was the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix.
FP1: July 29, 2022
Carlos Sainz put his Ferrari in P1 during the first practice session of the weekend. Max Verstappen’s Red Bull was P2 and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari was P3. Sergio Perez, who was sneezing and struggling with allergies during the season, went P6.
Lando Norris went P4 after going out on soft-compound tires late in the session. His McLaren teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, went P8. Both drivers were in the top ten, so hopefully McLaren’s upgrades are paying off.
The Mercedes were off the pace of the Ferraris and Red Bulls. George Russell was in P5 and Lewis Hamilton was in P7.
Kevin Magnussen’s newly upgraded Haas was in P17. FP1 was the first time KMag drove with these upgrades and the team was testing them, so hopefully P17 was just a result of the team figuring out the upgrades.
Sebastian Vettel was P11 and Lance Stroll was P12. With 0.031s between the Aston Martins, we could be seeing the two fight each other for points again.
FP2: July 29, 2022
Leclerc and Sainz swapped positions for FP2. Leclerc was in P1 with a 1m 18.445s and Sainz was in P3, four-tenths off of Leclerc’s pace.
Lando Norris was in P2! He first set a lap time that went P1, but Leclerc managed to beat it. Daniel Ricciardo was in P5, meaning that McLaren has some really good pace this weekend. Both of them finished ahead of the Alpines, so hopefully this means we will get some good points (and maybe a podium) during the race.
Mercedes struggled with car balance and their tires kept locking up. This put Russell in P8 and Hamilton in P11. Mercedes better fix this if they want to perform well on Sunday.
Valtteri Bottas was in P10. Alfa Romeo is running a new floor on Bottas’ car for testing. If all goes well, as it seems it is, Zhou Guanyu will get the new floor at the next race.
Alex Albon was in P20 after spinning into the runoff and flat-spotting his tires at Turn 1.
FP3: July 30, 2022
After a very hot and dry Friday, the teams were greeted with pouring rain for FP3. Throughout the session the rain got lighter, but for the most part, the drivers were on intermediate tires.
I am convinced that the world flipped upside down on Saturday morning. It was raining and cold in the middle of a heat wave, and Nicholas Latifi (frequent resident of the P20 grid slot) was in P1. His teammate, Alex Albon, was in P3. And what’s crazier? Charles Leclerc’s FERRARI was in P2 and over SIX-TENTHS of a second behind Latifi.This margin was a result of Leclerc spinning on his flying lap.
Verstappen was in P4 and a full eight-tenths behind Albon. What has gotten into Williams? Perez was in P20 after struggling to find grip on his intermediate tires.
George Russell was in P5 after finding it difficult to warm up his tires on the cold, wet track. Lewis Hamilton spent the majority of FP3 in the garage while the team worked on his engine. When he came out at the end of the session, he was only able to put in a lap time worthy of P11.
Sebastian Vettel crashed at Turn 10, causing a Red Flag with ten minutes left of the session. He lost control of the car on the wet track and couldn’t recover it.
Qualifying: July 30, 2022
By the afternoon, the track had dried up from the morning’s rain. There was still a chance for rain but it was predicted for the end of qualifying.
Q1:
Mercedes went P1 and P2 with Carlos Sainz closely behind in P3. Sainz’s Ferrari teammate was in P8 after struggling to set a top lap time.
Eliminated: Tsunoda (P16), Albon (P17), Vettel (P18), Gasly (P19), Latifi (P20)
The damage from Vettel’s FP3 crash was fixed but he couldn’t find the pace to go faster than P18.
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Seb helped his mechanics fix his car after the FP3 shunt |
Pierre Gasly’s final flying lap was enough to get him to P11 and into Q2. However, the stewards found that he violated track limits at Turn 5 and deleted that lap time, demoting him to P19.
Latifi made a mistake in the final corner, costing him a lot of time and putting him in P20.
Both AlphaTauris were caught out of Q1. Their upgrades were intended to improve their Qualifying results, making getting points in the race easier. However, Q3 still seems impossible for the team to reach.
Q2:
Verstappen went quickest in Q2. Leclerc was P2 and Alonso made a shock P3. The Mercedes pace started to wear off as Hamilton went P5 and Russell was P7.
Eliminated: Perez (P11), Zhou (P12), Magnussen (P13), Stroll (P14), Schumacher (P15)
Perez had his first lap time of Q2 deleted for track limits. While it was reinstated after further review found that he didn’t exceed track limits, that lap wasn’t enough to get him into Q3. Perez ran into traffic on his final flying lap, and unable to improve, he missed Q3 by 0.071s.
Q3:
After being P1 all of Q3, Sainz extended his lead with his final flying lap. Leclerc, who was in P3, also improved his time and went to P2. It looked like we would get a Ferrari front row lockout. But then, out of nowhere, George Russell’s final lap went fastest overall and he claimed the first pole position of his F1 career. This pushed Sainz down to P2 and Leclerc to P3.
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George Russell celebrated his maiden pole position |
Verstappen struggled with his power unit throughout the session and on his final lap, he completely lost power. He qualified P10.
Lando Norris got P4! He will need to get a good start though because the Alpines are both starting right behind him (Ocon P5 and Alonso P6). This means that there is opportunity for them to overtake Norris into Turn 1 at the start of the race.
Hamilton only qualified P7 because of a DRS issue that forced him to go back to the pits and abandon his final flying lap.
Race: July 31, 2022
Pierre Gasly started the race in the pit lane after taking a penalty for getting a new power unit. The Red Bulls were also fitted with new power units but since the parts they took were within the limit of extra parts they could use, they didn’t have to serve any penalties. Gasly got a penalty because he had gone over the allowed amount.
The starting grid was a mix of soft- and medium-compound tires. The track was relatively cold and drivers were struggling with grip on their way to the grid, so hard-compound tires weren’t really an option for the beginning of the race.
George Russell had a great start and was able to maintain P1 with the two Ferraris in tow. The other Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton also had a good start when he put himself in P5 by going around both Alpines. Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez made up a few places, going to P8 and P9 after the first lap.
The action came to a halt after a few corners when a Virtual Safety Car was deployed. Kevin Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardo had a collision and Sebastian Vettel and Alex Albon made contact. All of the cars and drivers were ok, but both incidents led to debris on the track.
On Lap 3, the race restarted and Russell got away well. The Red Bulls tormented the Alpines by staying in their mirrors. At Turn 3, Fernando Alonso (P7) went wide and Verstappen went through to overtake him. Within another lap, Verstappen overtook Alonso’s teammate Esteban Ocon and was right behind Hamilton.
By Lap 10, drivers who started the race on softs were being told to slow down and manage their tires. This led Hamilton and Verstappen to overtake Lando Norris, who was on softs and in P4. On Lap 13, Norris was overtaken by Perez and the top six of the race were now all Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari.
On Lap 16, Russell became the first of the top six to pit. He stopped for mediums and came back onto the track at P6. Ferrari responded to Mercedes and pitted Sainz on Lap 17 but he got released in sixth, between the Alpines with Russell ahead. Leclerc was now in the lead with Hamilton eleven-seconds behind.
Hamilton and Leclerc were both on medium-compound tires, so they were able to go long and pit later than those who were on softs. Verstappen pitted on Lap 19, and in response, Hamilton pitted on Lap 20. The undercut ended up working for the Red Bull when Hamilton came out in P7 and Verstapen was in P5. Leclerc then stopped for another set of mediums on Lap 22. Russell was back in the lead and Leclerc was in P2.
Alpine had decided to take the risk and go for a one-stop strategy. Around Lap 24, they pitted their cars for hard-compound tires. However, this proved to be a mistake because by Lap 30, both cars were struggling and being overtaken by the Aston Martins. In the end, they ended up staying in the points, but were far off the pace they wanted. The hard tires were a mistake.
Back to the battle for P1, Leclerc was within DRS range of Russell by Lap 27. The two were wheel-to-wheel for a few laps until Lap 31, when Leclerc used DRS and late braking to go around the outside of Russell at Turn 1. Leclerc was once again, in the lead of the race.
Verstappen ended up pitting for another set of mediums. The strategy was to undercut the others and go long for the rest of the race. Here is where Ferrari messed everything up: in an effort to cover off Verstappen and protect their lead, Ferrari pitted Leclerc for hard tires. The same hard tires that Alpine lost the race with. Mercedes also responded to Verstappen by pitting Russell for medium tires. Verstappen ended up ahead of Russell and very close behind Leclerc. One lap later, Lap 41, Leclerc’s tires were still cold and he was really just a sitting duck. Verstappen went down the inside of Turn 1 to overtake Leclerc. Later in the lap, Verstappen did a 360 spin and Leclerc retook his position. This didn’t last very long though, and Verstappen regained the position a few laps later.
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Max Verstappen's spin |
Carlos Sainz was leading the race at this point, but his medium tires were wearing so he pitted for softs. Ferrari unfortunately messed up again and the stop was slow, so Sainz went from P1 to P5. Hamilton was now leading Verstappen and Leclerc.
Hamilton pitted on Lap 51, promoting Verstappen to the lead. At the same time, the other Mercedes was catching up to Leclerc and by Lap 54, Russell overtook Leclerc for P2. On this same lap, Ferrari basically gave up on the race and pitted Leclerc for softs. Hamilton’s pit stop put him out in P5, but within a few laps he was able to come back and overtake his teammate for P2.
Just as all of us Ferrari fans hoped for the madness to end, Vatteri Bottas stopped on the side of the road from a loss of power, leading to a Virtual Safety Car and extending the duration of the race. There were three laps left.
Within one lap, the VSC ended and Verstappen still had a comfortable lead. He ended up going on to win the race with 7.834s between him and Hamilton, in P2. Mercedes got their second double podium in a row, with a podium that mirrored that of the French Grand Prix. Leclerc came very close to overtaking Perez, but couldn’t get to him in the end. He had to settle for P6 while his teammate settled for P4. It was NOT a good day for Ferrari.
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Hungary 2022 Podium |
Lando Norris, who started in P4, ended up P7. This is pretty good because he was just outside the top three teams and he finished ahead of both Alpines. Daniel Ricciardo, Norris’ teammate, ended up P15 after getting a five-second time penalty for causing a collision with Lance Stroll on Lap 48. Alpine and McLaren scored the same amount of points this weekend, so Alpine is still just four points ahead in the Championship. Hopefully we can catch them in Spa.
Just like in France, Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll were fighting for P10 again. This time, Vettel ended up winning and overtook Stroll for the final point.
Yuki Tsunoda had a spin on Lap 36 that dropped him down to last on the grid. Since Bottas ended up retiring from the race, Tsunoda was P19.
Honorable Mentions:
Not very honorable, but Ferrari wanted a one-two finish and got a four-six finish instead. The constant mistakes that they are making aren’t good. In this race, if Ferrari hadn’t pitted Leclerc for hards, they could have gone long on that second set of mediums and pitted for softs at the end. Timed right, this strategy could have won them the race. The Red Bull’s strong suit is not slow-speed circuits, it is high-speed circuits. They should not have been able to win this race, especially with Verstappen and Perez starting in P10 and P11. They might have gotten a podium, but winning should not have been possible with Ferrari on the track. Ferrari need to figure out their strategies before summer break is over because they will never win a championship if they keep making these mistakes.
In lighter (more chaotic) news, Fernando Alonso has announced that he will fill Sebastian Vettel’s spot at Aston Martin next year. Why is this chaotic? Well, it seems that Alonso did not tell his current team, Alpine, that he was moving teams. They probably found out through social media like the rest of us. Then on Tuesday, Alpine announced that Oscar Piastri would be taking Alonso’s seat at Alpine for 2023. Everyone was excited for the new rookie but a few hours later, Piastri posted that Alpine was wrong. He said they posted that announcement without his consent and that he wouldn’t be driving for Alpine in 2023. So now, no one knows what is happening and we are just enjoying the drama! (I can’t wait to see what Drive To Survive makes of this mess. That will truly be entertaining.)
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Oscar Piastri's post disputing Alpine's claims (Twitter via @OscarPiastri) |
Today, Alex Albon and Williams announced that Alex will stay with Williams for 2023 and beyond. He signed a multi-year deal that will allow us to see Albon and Williams have many more seasons together. Congratulations to Alex Albon on his contract extension and congratulations to Williams for announcing it properly (after they informed their driver and he signed the contract). Alpine should take notes!
Well, it has been one crazy week in F1. We had Sebastian Vettel retire, Latifi lead a practice session, George Russell get his first pole position, Verstappen go from P10 to P1 to win a race, Ferrari mess up and lose a lot of points, Alonso pull a switch-a-roo, and Alpine become even more confusing than Ferrari’s strategies. It’s safe to say summer break came at a good time. I will be using this time to heal my heartbroken Ferrari heart and look at the @albon_pets instagram to see how the new safari kittens are doing (for those who don’t know, Alex Albon’s family got four new kittens). Hopefully the next part of the season will be less painful than this first part.
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Two of the Four new kittens |
Enjoy the break and I will be back at the end of August for the Belgian Grand Prix (my favorite!).
~ Divya
Where I got these
from:
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1117/hungary/practice-1.html
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1117/hungary/practice-2.html
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1117/hungary/practice-3.html
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1117/hungary/qualifying.html
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1117/hungary/race-result.html
https://racingnews365.com/why-red-bull-havent-been-penalised-for-their-engine-changes