Max Verstappen Wins 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won an entertaining 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix to extend his title lead. 

Verstappen began the race from 10th on the grid but quickly worked his way up to fifth by his first stop on Lap 17, which enabled him to jump Lewis Hamilton for fourth before he then performed a crucial undercut pit stop on Lap 39 which gave him victory despite a spin at Turn 13 on Lap 41.

Hamilton recovered from seventh on the grid to finish second ahead of pole-sitter, George Russell, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon.

Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top ten with the final point, having announced pre race weekend that he is retiring at end of this season.

In the driver standings, Verstappen now holds a 80 point lead over Leclerc with Perez five points further behind in third as Russell, Sainz and Hamilton rounded out the top six.

Red Bull meanwhile lead Ferrari by 97 points in the constructor standings with Mercedes a further 30 points back in third, whilst Alpine lead McLaren by four points in their battle for fourth.

Embed from Getty Images

Pre-race, Red Bull opted to change Verstappen and Perez’s power units without grid penalties, due to the replacement power units coming from within their permitted pool of three power units for this season.

AlphaTauri meanwhile opted to make power unit changes to Pierre Gasly’s car which meant that the Frenchman started the race from the pitlane.

Throughout the weekend, there had been a threat of rain with only FP3 affected until showers swept in 20 minutes prior to the race start, yet everyone opted to start on slick tyres with Russell and Norris on softs whilst Sainz and Leclerc began on medium tyres as rain drizzled down.

At lights out, Russell fought off Sainz and held his lead to both Ferrari drivers at around two seconds per lap until he pitted at the end of Lap 16 with Sainz following suit a lap later whilst Leclerc stayed out until end of Lap 21 and leapfrogged Sainz as both Ferrari drivers stayed on mediums.

Verstappen meanwhile quickly worked his way up to sixth by the end of Lap 6 but had to wait six laps, until he was able to follow Hamilton through pass Norris into fifth in the opening two corners of Lap 12.

Leclerc though was able to reel in Russell quickly by Lap 28 but found himself frustrated for three laps until he swept round the outside of Turn 1 to lead and built his gap to over five seconds when he and Russell both pitted on Lap 40 for hard and medium tyres respectively.

Leclerc however struggled to switch his hard tyres on and was passed by Verstappen – who had pitted on Lap 39 – on Lap 41 only for the Dutchman to spin at Turn 13 to concede third to Leclerc, yet was able to regain the position on Lap 45 at Turn 2 after getting a switchback out of Turn 1.

Leclerc eventually finished sixth after he was forced to pit on Lap 55 for soft tyres due to a lack of pace, marking the latest of many strategy blunders at Ferrari in recent seasons.

Up front, Sainz and Hamilton went longer on their medium tyres to the end of Lap 47 and 51 respectively before pitting for softs, which gave Verstappen the lead to the checkered flag amidst “light drizzles” of rain as described by the reigning champion.

Russell comfortably sat second but Hamilton managed to switch his soft tyres on quickly and reeled in Sainz, with his pass completed on Lap 63 into Turn 1, before Russell let the seven-time champion through two laps later into second.

The Virtual Safety Car was deployed on Lap 68 for one lap due to Valtteri Bottas stopping on track at Turn 5 with a power unit failure, which made him the only retirement from this race.

Once racing resumed, the rain had turned into moderate showers as Verstappen clung on to record his 28th victory in F1, ahead of Hamilton, Russell, Sainz, Perez, Leclerc, Norris, Alonso, Ocon and Vettel.

F1 now heads on a summer break with the season resuming at Spa Francorchamps, Belgium, across weekend of 26-28 August.

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	70	1h 39m 35.912
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	70	+ 7.834
3	George Russell	Mercedes	70	+ 12.337
4	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	70	+ 14.579
5	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	70	+ 15.688
6	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	70	+ 16.047
7	Lando Norris	McLaren	70	+ 78.300
8	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	69	+ 1 Lap
9	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	69	+ 1 Lap
10	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	69	+ 1 Lap
11	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	69	+ 1 Lap
12	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	69	+ 1 Lap
13	Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo	69	+ 1 Lap
14	Mick Schumacher	Haas	69	+ 1 Lap
15	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	69	+ 1 Lap
16	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	69	+ 1 Lap
17	Alex Albon	Williams	69	+ 1 Lap
18	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	69	+ 1 Lap
19	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	68	+ 2 Laps
RET	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	65	Power