F1 | Hungarian GP, Red Bull clears the sky over Budapest
Max Verstappen goes from desperation to glory: at the chequered flag is the first car to pass after Lewis Hamilton
Max Verstappen will have plenty rounds of beers to pay to his mechanics: the miracle on the suspension rod at 18 minutes to the formation lap, has been certainly one to remember. Crashing the car during the parade lap before going to the grid was one of the errors that the Dutchman needs to avoid (like crashing during FP3 and in race in two different editions of the Monaco Grand Prix).
His current third stand on the drivers' championship mitigates the high expectations that Red Bull had the year after the troubled season with Honda PUs: for sure the Mercedes-bulldozer armada of the first three races has astonished everyone; but now at Milton Keynes the chance of getting the noses ahead of Maranello is palpable and real.
'Mad Max' was relieved to be able to compete in the 70 laps Hungarian circuit as the damage could have been tremendously serious:
I thought I was not going to race, so to be second is like a victory today. But the mechanics did amazing job to fix the car. I don't know how they did it, but incredible. To pay them back with the second place, I was very pleased with that. We just kept doing our own thing and of course to be able to split the two Mercedes cars is good for us.
He then spoke about the late chase of Finnish Valterri Bottas, not finalized for just some tenths:
I was just trying to do my own pace, and of course I could see he was catching at like a second lap. Following here is quite tricky, so as soon as he was within 1.5 seconds, it was a bit more difficult for him.
When the whole squad's got your back 👊😎 @Max33Verstappen #HungarianGP #ChargeOn pic.twitter.com/nuCaywoW4f
— Aston Martin Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) July 19, 2020
Alex Albon's race was under an axe: in the pre race chaos typical of a wet race, team has been eyespotted by FIA to have dried the grid slot with the engine blowers. As an infringement of the Article 22.3 of the Sporting Regulations, a penalty was said to be likely to be thrown on Thai's race. Inthe end marshals didn't proceed in committing any time penalty to the #23.
A good race indeed: he climbed from 13th to 5th using at his advantage all the tyres superiorities over other competitors like Leclerc, Vettel and the redivive Grosjean. All this after the Q2 elimination that led to some rumours between friend George Russell and teammate Verstappen over possible different technical treatment on the car's setup.
It was a good race and I had a lot of fun with my elbows out. If you had told me we’d be P5 after yesterday I would have jumped at it. Every move you do is always on the limit here but it worked out for us and I enjoy the battles as it’s nice to put on a show. We lost quite a lot of time in traffic today behind the Ferraris otherwise I think we would have been closer but the car was really good and when we were in clean air we were fast and very competitive
