F1 – 2020 Aramco Magyar Nagydíj: Event Analysis

Free Practice:

Styria saw 1 wet day, Hungary is set to have 3, with rain forecasted for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Despite this however, FP1 was mostly dry, with Mercedes once again looking dominant, half a second quicker than the rest of the field. Lewis Hamilton just pipping championship leader Valtteri Bottas.

The Racing Points shone, finishing P3 and P4 for Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll respectively, however Stroll was 4 tenths of his teammate. However the team has cause for concern, with the forecasted rain having proven difficult for them in Styria last weekend.

Red Bull surprisingly struggled, on a circuit that should suit their car. Max Verstappen finishing in P8 while Alex Albon was down in P13. In contrast the Ferraris finished the session in P6 and P7 for Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc respectively. They will be hoping their further upgrades will bring them a turn in fortune.

Robert Kubica subbed in at Alfa Romeo for the second week in a row, this time for Kimi Raikkonen, however he spun at Turn 1 after exiting the pits while he let teammate Antonio Giovinazzi past.

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo shone, splitting the Racing Points and the Ferraris in P5, with Esteban Ocon making it 2 Renaults in the top 10.

Pierre Gasly didn’t set a lap, with technical problems forcing him to stay in the garage for the whole session.

By FP2, the heavens had opened, with the session taking place in heavy rain conditions.

Gasly was the first driver out, making up for running lost in FP1. He set a laptime quick enough for P6 at session’s end, however suffered further issues, complaining of something ‘burning’ like a ‘BBQ’ in the back of his AlphaTauri.

Racing Point’s final FP2 standings of P4 and P5 looked good on paper compared to their wet pace in Styria, however both drivers were about 2 seconds off the pace.

Kimi Raikkonen returned to the circuit after sitting out FP1, but struggled a lot with tyre heating. Someone who wasn’t struggling was Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who surprised everyone to go fastest ahead of Valtteri Bottas.

Renault spent the session experimenting with the Intermediate Tyres rather than the Wets, but ultimately were part of the 7 drivers who failed to set a laptime. The 2 Renaults, the 2 Williams, Hamilton, Albon and Magnussen all failed to set a laptime.

Qualifying:

In Q1, I was immediately clear that Mercedes were the team to beat once again, while Racing Point were looking comfortable second, with Mercedes locking out 1 and 2 with Racing Point 3 and 4.

That is, until a certain George Russell shocked everyone by placing his Williams in P3, a stunning lap that showed just how far Williams have come since the woes of 2019.

And it wasn’t just Russell, teammate Nicholas Latifi managed to get through into Q2 for the first time in his short F1 career, with Williams deservingly celebrating.

2 teams that were struggling however was the Alfa Romeos and Haas, with Alfa Romeo locking out the back row of the grid, and Haas lining up P16 and P18, split by the AlphaTauri of Daniil Kvyat. Haas and Alfa have clearly been badly effected by the Ferrari engine this year, and things don’t look like they will improve anytime soon.

During the flurry of improvement at the end of Q1, Racing Point went to the top with Perez P1 and Stroll P2.

In Q2, Gasly’s engine problems returned, however despite this he managed to qualify in the top 10 impressively in the AlphaTauri.

Mercedes were in a league of their own, over 6 tenths clear of the rest of the field, with Hamilton beating Bottas.

Russell managed to qualify an amazing P12, ahead of the Red Bull of Alex Albon and the Renault of Esteban Ocon. After qualifying, Russell jumped to his friend’s defence, saying that Albon had been ‘made to look like an idiot’.

Both Renaults also went out in Q2, a big surprise after showing good pace in Austria, they will be concerned at their pace.

Racing Point took a massive risk to run both cars on Medium Tyres. This nearly cost them a top 10 position, with Perez failing to secure a good second lap, but due to the lack of pace from Albon and the Renaults, he managed to get through safely.

In Q3, Hamilton instantly laid down the marker, setting a new lap record on his first run, the first lap in the 1:13s.

Stroll’s first lap was scruffy, however despite that ended the first Q3 laps in P3, ahead of the Red Bull of Verstappen, with Perez’s lap being deleted for track limits at Turn 4.

Stroll went on to improve his lap the second time round, and secured his best qualifying position in P3 since his front row start at Monza in 2017. Sergio Perez ensured Racing Point locked out the second row.

Ferrari showed better pace, both cars in the top 10, with Vettel outqualifying Leclerc, and locking out the third row, making it a Noah’s Arc formation in the first 3 rows.

Verstappen could only manage P7 despite being on pole last year, and at 1.4s behind Hamilton, proves just how much Red Bull are struggling.

Stroll after taking P3 - photo by Racing Point

The Race:

The drama started even before all the cars got to the grid, with Max Verstappen, famed for his supreme wet weather capabilities, crashing at Turn 12 on his reconnaissance lap. He broke his RB16’s front wing and front left suspension, but managed to drag the to the grid where his mechanics worked ferociously to get the car fixed in under 20 minutes.

Miraculously, with 20 seconds to spare, the No. 33 fired into life – an unbelievable feat achieved by the Red Bull mechanics, but starting from P7 all could still go wrong in the race.

Verstappen crashing his RB16 before the race

The race was declared wet, with almost everyone setting off on the formation lap on Intermediate Tyres, with only Haas’ Kevin Magnussen opting for the Extreme Wets. However, instead of taking the start, Haas called both drivers into the pits to change onto Slick Tyres, believing the track was dry enough to not need the grooved wet weather tyres. AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat also wanted to box for Dries, but his team told him to stay out on Inters.

The race start itself was also dramatic, with Valtteri Bottas jumping the start, before stopping himself and therefore having a dreadful getaway. Hamilton remained unchallenged into pole as Lance Stroll lead the rest of the field in the spray into Turn 1.

Verstappen made an excellent start from P7 and was fighting the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel for P3 into Turn 2 and succeeded in doing so.

Driver’s were coming in very early to fit the dry weather tyres, with Bottas and Leclerc the first of the front runners, with Hamilton and Stroll responding a lap later on Lap 4. Most drivers went onto the Medium Tyres, however Ferrari fitted the Softs onto Leclerc’s Ferrari. Vettel was also told to box for Softs, but demanded he was fitted the Mediums, as the tyre degradation was set to be very high.

During all the pitstop mayhem, Williams released Nicholas Latifi, who made an amazing start and was running in P10, into the path of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz, with Sainz nearly being put into the pitwall and hitting the rear left tyre of Latifi, puncturing it and causing him to spin at Turn 1 and nearly colliding with Kvyat.

After the pitstops had been played out, Haas found that their gamble had payed off massively, finding themselves in P3 with Magnussen and P4 with Grosjean, in a car that is easily 3rd slowest on the grid.

It only took until Lap 7 for Stroll to dive Grosjean into Turn 1 for P4, however Magnussen was able to hold off the Racing Point for quite a long time, but was eventually able to pass.

Bottas found himself in the lower half of the top 10 after his dreadful start, and was in a battle with Leclerc over P7. On Lap 9 he went down the inside into Turn 1, only for Leclerc to perform the switchback and repass the Mercedes into Turn 2, after Bottas nearly crashed into him going over the damp part of the circuit. A lap later Bottas made the same dive into Turn 1 but this time Leclerc was unable to make the switchback move work.

By Lap 17, Bottas had already passed Grosjean and was on the tail of teammate Magnussen, passing the Haas with ease into Turn 1 for P4.

Ferrari’s strategy of using the Soft Tyres was failing miserably, and Leclerc had to box for a set of Hard Tyres to make it to the end of the race. By Lap 31, he was behind fellow Twitch Streamer Lando Norris, and the pair found themselves in a very tight battle, with Norris pushing Leclerc to the grass into Turn 2, forcing him to back off.

A lap later, Leclerc found his way to the inside of Norris for Turn 2, however the Brit gave him the big squeeze before hanging it around the outside, nearly being taken out by the Ferrari as Leclerc caught a massive wobble.

Another lap later, and Leclerc was back on the outside, however this time he was able to hang all the way round the outside of Norris at Turn 2 to finally pass the McLaren driver for P13.

Bottas was struggling to find a way past Stroll for P3, so called him in to make another pitstop in a similar fashion as they did for Hamilton in 2019, in order to get him on fresh rubber to close down the gap and overtake. The Fin made his stop on Lap 34, and 2 laps later Stroll and Racing Point reacted by making another stop themselves, but the damage was already done by Bottas’ undercut and the Mercedes driver was clearly ahead when the both returned to the track.

After such a good start, Latifi’s race was going from bad to worse. On Lap 43, he had a lapse of concentration and made a rookie error going into Turn 5, catching the grass on entry and spinning into the runoff area, flatspotting his tyres.

Pierre Gasly’s weekend was capped off by yet another engine issue, entering the pitlane earlier on in the race with a smoking Honda powerunit, bringing a miserable Hungarian Grand Prix weekend to an end for the Frenchman.

Bottas spent the final phase of the race trying to close the gap to Verstappen with his fresher tyres, and onto the final lap he was finally within DRS range, however he just wasn’t quite close enough that lap, and had he had 1 or 2 more laps Bottas would most likely have taken the position.

But nothing could stop Lewis Hamilton, who dominated the race to take a record 8th win at the Hungaroring, with Verstappen finishing 2nd to reward his mechanics after the pre-race crash.

Post-race, both Haas cars were given a 10 second penalty for receiving instructions on the formation lap, however Magnussen still scored 1 point in 10th place, his and the team's first points of the season.

The full race results can be seen below:

The Drivers' and Constructors' Championship after 3 rounds can be seen below:

Formula 1 returns on August 1st/2nd for the Pirelli British Grand Prix at Silverstone.