F1 2020 Hungarian GP Update

On Monday 20th July, I presented an F1 update on the third round of the 2020 championship on Daytime. The race was the Hungarian GP and it was not quite as thrilling as the first two rounds but still provided some great battles.

Mercedes continued their dominant form with Lewis Hamilton winning his second race in a row and a record 8th at the Hungaroring. The Mercedes driver also set the fastest lap of the race on the last lap after a free pit stop for the soft tyre after building up a 30+ lead over the second place driver, Red Bull’s Max Vertsappen.

Below is the top 5 classification after 70 laps of the 2020 Hungarian GP:

• 1st: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
• 2nd: Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
• 3rd: Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)
• 4th: Lance Stroll (Racing Point)
• 5th: Alex Albon (Red Bull)

Some notable highlights of the race included:

• Williams’s Nicholas Latifi had a torrid afternoon as the Williams mechanics released the FW43 into the path of Carlos Sainz’s Mclaren which was deemed unsafe by the stewards. He also made a mistake on track and spun off at T5.
• Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was trapped in his pitbox after the Ferrari mechanics were very cautious to release him into the path of oncoming traffic as drivers pitted to get rid of the intermediate tyres and switch to slicks following a damp start.
• Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was voted driver of the day by the fans, that’s after crashing out before the race had even begun and broke his RB16’s suspension. He then went on a lightning drive from P7 on the grid, to hold of the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas to finish second after the Finn made a late pitstop to switch to the medium tyres.
• Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc endured a forgettable race after he pitted early for the Soft tyres as his team got his strategy all wrong. He was them overtaken for P10 by McLaren’s Carlos Sainz at T1 as his 40 lap year old hard tyres faded.
• Haas also scored their first points of the 2020 season with Kevin Magnussen 10th for the American based outfit.

Driver Of The Day: Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

Fastest Lap: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) (1:16.627) (S)

I will be back next week on Gateway 97.8 for a preview for R4 of the 2020 season as the F1 teams head to Great Britian for two back to back races at Silverstone as well as all the latest news from the sport.