Verstappen clinches eighth win of F1 season at Hungarian Grand Prix – TSN.ca

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Formula One champion Max Verstappen overcame a spin and his worst grid position of the season to win Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix. His eighth win of the season extended Verstappen’s lead to 80 points over Charles Leclerc as F1 heads into the mid-season.

Even if his lead is increasing, Verstappen does not think ahead.

“Obviously that’s a great lead,” he said. “But if you want to fight for championships, you can’t afford to make a lot of mistakes.”

Mercedes placed both cars on the podium for the second straight race; Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton made his way from seventh to second place, with teammate and pole-sitter George Russell third.

Carlos Sainz Jr finished fourth in another disastrous day for Ferrari. Leclerc was sixth, one place behind Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

Verstappen’s eighth win of the season was the 28th of the Dutchman’s career.

“Who would have thought when we woke up today that we would get this result? Amazing,” Verstappen told his team and laughed. “I fought a lot of guys and it was a lot of fun out there. It was a crazy race but (we) stayed calm and won.”

He qualified as the worst 10th of the season due to a loss of power on Saturday, then Verstappen made a 360-degree turn in Sunday’s race.

“Incredible Max, he’s at the top,” replied Red Bull team boss Christian Horner. “Fantastic.”

Russell, starting from pole for the first time in his career, was leading 30 laps until Leclerc passed him on the outside as dark clouds rolled over the Hungaroring and a light rain started to fall.

With Leclerc at the helm, Verstappen is undercutting for faster tires. Ferrari made a mistake when choosing the more durable hard tires for Leclerc.

“These tires are (expletive),” Leclerc said.

He later explained that he thought it was the wrong call.

“I made it clear I wanted to keep (the medium tyre) for as long as possible but we pitted very early for the hard so we need to understand why. I think stopping the hard was the turning point,” said Leclerc. “To be honest, before we think about the championship, we have to understand as a team what we have to do to get better. Otherwise it will be real difficult .”

Moments later, Verstappen lost his footing and spun on the track, allowing Sainz to take the lead from Hamilton. Leclerc passed Verstappen only to lose position shortly after because Verstappen had faster tyres.

“It was very difficult conditions out there, but we had a really good strategy,” said Verstappen. “We were very reactive and always pitted at the right time. Even with the 360 ​​we still won.”

Verstappen recalled the spin and said: “I accelerated and completely lost the rear, it got me.”

Ferrari’s strategy problems just won’t go away. Leclerc has seen two pinned wins slip away – at the Monaco GP and British GP – after team calls knocked him back to fourth from a dominant position.

Ferrari messed up Sainz’s next tire stop on lap 47, taking too long to mount his left rear tyre.

“It always feels like there’s always something going on, reliability, mistakes, whatever,” said a visibly frustrated Leclerc.

Hamilton stayed out but lost time against Verstappen as the rain picked up.

Leclerc, who crashed while leading the French Grand Prix last week, came to a third tire change on lap 55.

Ferrari’s strategy even calls for a confused Verstappen.

“I think Ferrari chose the wrong tires in their last stint before they pitted again,” said Verstappen. “Ferrari was very fast, they just made the wrong decision with the hard tire (for Leclerc).”

Lando Norris was seventh for McLaren, Fernando Alonso eighth and his Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon ninth. Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel was tenth.

Vettel, who won his four F1 titles with Red Bull from 2010 to 2013, will retire at the end of the season. At this point, Verstappen may have broken his F1 record of 13 wins in a 2013 season.

According to F1, 290,000 attended the three days of racing in Hungary. On Saturday, F1 released a video condemning all forms of abusive behavior.

Abusive behavior by spectators overshadowed the Austrian Grand Prix three weeks ago, as fans – particularly women – brought F1 to the attention of rampant harassment, sexism, racism and homophobia.

Verstappen was asked to comment on a video posted to social media this weekend, after winning Sunday’s race, showing an orange-clad fan what appears to be burning Mercedes merchandise.

“Of course that’s not acceptable,” said Verstappen, who called for more security in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday. “I definitely disagree with that because it’s just gross.”

After a month-long hiatus, the season resumes with a triple header in Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy.

“Having both cars on the podium is something very special for us. The other guys have an advantage, but we’re clearly closing the gap,” said Hamilton. “Hopefully we’ll bring more into the second half of the season and fight with the guys at the top.”

Russell pointed out that not so long ago, Mercedes lagged far behind Red Bull.

“We were a minute behind and now we’re 10 seconds behind,” he said.

Verstappen also has good reason to welcome Mercedes’ resurgence.

“It’s good that they’re competitive,” he joked. “It means they can steal more points from Ferrari.”

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly started from the pit lane after being penalized for multiple engine part changes and finished 12th.

McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo showed some of his old form with a great double overtake on Ocon and Alonso approaching mid-race and celebrated with an exuberant expression.

But Ricciardo wasn’t laughing later when the Australian driver received a five-second time penalty for clipping Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin and sending him off the track. Ricciardo finished a low 15th.

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