Only Monza has a longer consecutive streak on the F1 calendar than the Hungaroring
For the thirteen seasons between 2005 and 2017, the winner of the Hungarian Grand Prix failed to go on and win the title
F1 had its 100th winner (Heikki Kovalainen in 2008) and 100th polesitter (Max Verstappen in 2019) at the Hungaroring
From higher vantage points, it’s possible to see around 80% of the circuit
Since the race was first held in 1986, rain has only fallen during the race three times
The Weather
The Quotes
Max Verstappen | “[It is] disrespectful if one guy is in the hospital and the other one is waving the flag around like nothing has happened while you push the guy into the wall with 51G.”
Lewis Hamilton | “I don’t believe our behaviour was disrespectful,” said the seven-time world champion. As I said, it’s one thing knowing and then celebrating what happened, and it’s one thing not knowing and celebrating. As I told you, I wasn’t aware – but it’s my home Grand Prix and we worked incredibly hard for god knows how long to get a result like that.
Toto Wolff | “I think the comments that were made, surely out of emotion, were going directly against a seven-time world champion. Words like ‘amateurish’ should have no place and what it triggered was an avalanche of comments in the social media, a lot of controversy and added to further polarisation.”
Sebastian Vettel | “I always enjoy [racing] Fernando [Alonso]. His talent is without doubt, the skills on track one of the biggest that the sport has seen, and he’s done something which I thought was impossible to do, which is beating Michael”
Lewis Hamilton delighted his home fans with victory at the British Grand Prix after recovering from a first-lap clash with title rival Max Verstappen.
Saturday’s sprint qualifying experiment had put Verstappen on pole, leaving Hamilton disappointed after a great performance in the regular qualifying format on Friday evening.
When the lights went out on Sunday, though, it was the World Champion who got away better. The pair fought tooth and nail for half a lap, regularly wheel-to-wheel and once brushing tyres on the Wellington Straight. Hamilton took a wide line around Luffield to get better drive and closed in on Verstappen down the old pit straight. The Red Bull defended but Hamilton sold him a dummy to move up the inside as the pair approached Copse at nearly 200 mph.
And then the clash – which has been narrowly avoided on numerous occasions this year – finally occurred.
Hamilton’s right front and Verstappen’s left rear touched and the Dutchman was sent spearing into the wall at a terrifying speed. Whilst clearly winded and shaken, he was able to walk away from the accident and transported to hospital for cautionary checks.
The Mercedes, meanwhile, had survived with minor damage and the race had been red flagged.
Once the barriers had been repaired, we witnessed our third standing start of the weekend with Charles Leclerc the unlikely polesitter. Hamilton sat in second – the damage to his car repaired with a bit of superglue – with his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, in third and fellow home hero Lando Norris in fourth.
The Ferrari held Hamilton at bay on the run to the first corner, but behind them Norris started well and passed Bottas for a provisional podium spot.
That would – somewhat surprisingly – remain the order through to the pit stops. Hamilton was generally within two seconds of the leader but couldn’t get close enough to fashion a move, despite occasional power issues for the Ferrari.
The Briton had been given a ten-second penalty as a result of his first-lap collision so an undercut was out of the question. He ran longer than those following, pitting on lap 28 and rejoined in what would effectively become fourth place.
A slow stop for Norris had left him behind Bottas and he didn’t fight as his compatriot stormed past into Copse on lap 31.
As Hamilton closed in rapidly on fresher tyres, his teammate was asked to move aside and that left just Leclerc – nine seconds up the road with 12 laps remaining.
By lap 50 of 52, Hamilton was within the slipstream of the Monegasque. Once again he found himself pulling alongside the leader on the run to Copse. This time, slightly further back, he backed out of it but Leclerc – aware of his competitor’s presence – ran wide and Hamilton was through.
Image credit: AFP
The crowd roared and the World Champion repaid their support with his first victory since the Spanish Grand Prix back in May.
Leclerc came home an excellent second for his first podium of the year, with Bottas in third and Norris fourth – the young Briton now impressively moves up to third in the standings.
This collision had been coming. For months, if not years.
Hamilton and Verstappen have come within millimetres of each other on more than occasion this season.
Generally – throughout their time in F1 – Hamilton has been the one to back out. His approach has more often than not been focused in the long term, on the championship. Verstappen, on the other hand, has usually been in a position where he has nothing to lose.
This time, crucially, those roles were reversed, but Verstappen’s approach remained the same.
This season, Hamilton was shoved wide at the first corner in Imola, and was very accommodating as his rival launched a divebomb up the inside a few weeks later in Spain. He learnt a long while back – and the hard way in 2011 – that staying out of trouble is often the best way to earn titles. But now, with the Red Bull the class of the field recently and Verstappen having opened up a 33-point lead, he found himself in a position to take risks again.
That has not been the case for a long time, and perhaps Verstappen thought he simply had the better of Hamilton. The Dutchman’s approach has always been comparable with Ayrton Senna‘s mantra of ‘Either you back out or we crash’.
Here at Silverstone, Hamilton did not back out and they did crash. And it was Verstappen who came off worse.
In hindsight, as the man with the significant points advantage, he should have been more circumspect. But his natural competitiveness and youthful hotheadedness – which has clearly not been totally ironed out just yet – saw him continue to take risks. Twice before their collision, Hamilton had avoided the Red Bull.
At the first corner, Verstappen came back onto the track sharply after running wide and then used up all the track at Brooklands despite entering the corner behind Hamilton.
In the end, a small penalty for car number 44 felt about right. It follows the precedent set by recent incidents where a driver on the inside has clipped the wheel of one on the outside, with an extra five seconds perhaps for the speed involved.
The comments made by Christian Horner and Helmut Marko – who claimed Hamilton should receive a race ban – were frankly ridiculous, inflammatory and unnecessary.
Whatever your opinion on the incident, it has undeniably reignited a title battle that looked to be slipping away from Mercedes and likely provided a real spark between the two protagonists. Hamilton lifted the trophy on Sunday, but F1 was the biggest winner.
What Did We Make of Sprint Qualifying?
This was due to be the main talking point until the lap 1 drama unfolded. But it’s still worth mentioning on a weekend where F1 trialled the biggest change to its format for decades.
Personally, I remain unconvinced. It didn’t sit right with me that the fastest driver over one lap didn’t earn pole position. The sprint on Saturday cheapened the regular qualifying session and acted as a spoiler for the main race, revealing certain elements of teams’ race pace and tyre life that would normally remain a mystery until the headline event.
As for the sprint itself, the first couple of laps were, of course, thrilling, but the remaining 15 were something of a procession as those out front were barely seen and a DRS train formed in the midfield. Fernando Alonso‘s extraordinary start provided most of the remaining entertainment as he slowly fell backwards after moving up from 11th to 5th in the first few corners.
Ross Brown and co are clearly determined to add more events to the race weekend, but they must be wary of quantity over quality on an ever-increasing calendar.
However, a close friend who has never really been interested in F1 messaged me after the race – initially commenting on Hamilton’s “big ball energy”… – to say that he had been drawn in by the new weekend format, with it sounding more interesting to a casual viewer. So, it has clearly had the desired effect.
If something like this ends up as a special occasion at three or four races a year, that could certainly work. The sprint race itself needs some tweaking. Perhaps a reverse-championship-order sprint for a few points to really embrace the mayhem; although the budget cap means teams are unlikely to go for that. Whatever they choose, for the love of god, just call it a race rather than ‘Sprint Qualifying’. It’s quite clearly a short race, and all the members of the media desperately trying to avoid calling it as such was a bit cringeworthy.
The British Grand Prix in 60 Seconds
Answering the Burning Questions
Will the Sprint Qualifying format be a success? A disaster? Somewhere in between? See above. Let’s go with somewhere in between.
Can Mercedes get back on terms with Red Bull at one of Hamilton’s most successful tracks? One way or another, yes.
Will their long overdue upgrades make a big difference? The updates certainly seem to have brought them closer. With Verstappen out of the race and Sergio Pérez stuck at the back, though, it was hard to tell.
Silverstone hosted the inaugural Formula 1 race in 1950
Will now host the inaugural sprint race in 2021
The circuit is built on the site of a World War II airfield
Lewis Hamilton’s seven victories at the track are the most home wins by any driver
In 17 British Grands Prix, Jenson Button never once stood on the podium
There is yet to be a grand prix at Silverstone in which all of the top three on the grid finished the race in the same order
The 2003 British Grand Prix was interrupted when an Irish priest ran on to the circuit – he was later sentenced to two months in prison
The Weather
The Quotes
Ross Brawn | “I am very optimistic. I think it will be a very good event, a great race. And I think the drivers will go for it, because do we think Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton are going to have a different mindset going into that first corner, because it’s a sprint? I don’t think so.”
Sebastian Vettel | “So [the] pole [statistic] goes to the winner of the sprint race, apparently. I didn’t know that. I think that’s wrong. If this is a one-off, then it doesn’t do much harm, but if we end up having 10 sprint races next year or in the future then I think it’s just a bit weird. Pole position should go to the guy who goes fastest on one lap.”
Lewis Hamilton | “[An eighth title is] what I dream of and am working towards. I am massively driven. But it’s a tall order. Their performance has gone a little bit out of reach but we are working as hard as we can to close back up.”
Lando Norris | [On being mugged at Wembley] “It’s tough, it’s been a tough few days since to kind of get over it and make sure I’m sleeping well and everything. So, I’m not in the perfect condition but I’m happy I’m here and I’m still healthy and reasonably good.
The Friday Form
Practice 1 Top 5
1 | Max Verstappen | 1:27.035 | 23 Laps
2 | Lando Norris | 1:27.814 | 26 Laps
3 | Lewis Hamilton | 1:27.815 | 30 Laps
4 | Charles Leclerc | 1:27.828 | 26 Laps
5 | Valtteri Bottas | 1:27.897 | 30 Laps
Max Verstappen dominated a frantic first practice session as the teams and drivers tried to get to grips with the new Sprint Qualifying format.
With qualifying this evening ahead of a second practice session tomorrow, most teams focused on their single lap pace and Verstappen blew the competition away. On hearing his gap to the Dutchman, Lewis Hamilton asked, “Where does that come from?”
Lando Norris continued his impressive form, producing a lap good enough for second on the slower, medium tyre. The McLarens appear strong once again.
It may immediately look like Verstappen’s race to lose but with the huge unknown quantity of the Sprint Race, anything could happen this weekend.
More Austrian dominance for the man becoming the clear title favourite.
Image credit: Getty Images
Seven days after his first domination at the Red Bull Ring, it was a similar serene drive to the win for Max Verstappen at the Austrian Grand Prix.
As predicted, with no freak mechanical issues or weather to intervene, the Dutchman delighted the swathes of fans clad in orange.
Mercedes hoped to have found something to reduce the gap to their rivals in the days since the Styrian Grand Prix. But that was clearly not the case when they found themselves down in fourth and fifth on the grid, behind both Red Bulls and the excellent Lando Norris.
Once the lights went out, Verstappen sailed off into the distance and did not look back. He had a gap easily large enough to pit late on and earn himself the fastest lap – by nearly two seconds – and took the first grand chelem of his career, having also claimed pole position and led every lap.
Lewis Hamilton probably would have settled for more damage limitation in the shape of a second place, and he looked on for just that once he’d found a way past Norris on lap 20. But, just before his pit stop, a piece of crucial aero fell off the back of his car, leaving him with massively reduced rear downforce and costing him half a second per lap.
Image credit: Motorsport Images
It remains something of a mystery what caused this. The World Champion did not run especially wide when the bodywork made a break for it – he was running over the kerbs at Turn 10 as normal. Team Principal Toto Wolff believes it was simply a case of fatigue as teams are forced to make parts last longer amid the new cost cap for 2021.
So, further bad luck for Hamilton and he was helpless to defend as teammate Valtteri Bottas and Norris repassed him. That left the 36-year-old in fourth and he is now a massive 32 points behind his title rival in the standings.
The Future May Be Orange, but It’s Also British
Whilst Verstappen demonstrated once again what we all know – that he will be a superstar for many years to come – there were two other drivers who showed their considerable potential.
Norris’s qualifying lap was extraordinary. He took his McLaren to within five hundredths of a second of the all-conquering Verstappen to take his first ever front row grid slot.
Image credit: Motorsport Images
And Russell was equally impressive, dragging his Williams into Q3 for the first time and ending up eighth on the grid after a Sebastian Vettel penalty.
On race day, Norris defended against the Mercedes pair with nous and composure far beyond his years, even prompting Hamilton to say over the radio, “Such a great driver, Lando”. That is something you very rarely hear from a driver mid-race.
Bottas would only succeed in passing Norris after the young Briton received a debatable penalty for forcing Sergio Pérez wide following a safety car restart early in the race. And the Mercedes driver hardly disappeared into the distance once in front as Norris tailed him home to finish just two seconds back and earn his fourth career podium.
Further back, Russell had recovered from an iffy start to run in a legitimate 10th place through solid race pace and was heading for his first point with Williams. But then came Fernando Alonso. The 23-year-old defended hard from the man he has formed an unlikely bromance with, but eventually had to concede to the Alpine‘s far fresher tyres with just three laps to go.
After a mechanical retirement in the previous race removed Russell from eighth, his luck may not have improved but he continues to earn fans, including Alonso: “I felt a little bit sad for George because he drove an amazing weekend. When I saw P10, I was hoping anyone apart from him…but that’s the sport. He will have more opportunities hopefully for podiums and wins in the future.”
Image credit: Getty Images
Earning compliments from legends like Hamilton and Alonso shows just how much respect these two young drivers have earned over their two and a half years in F1.
In Verstappen, Norris, Russell and Charles Leclerc, the future of the sport looks in safe – and exciting – hands.
Were the Penalties Fair?
The move for which Norris earned his penalty, was mirrored by Pérez himself as he ran Leclerc wide twice later in the race. Each incident earned a five-second penalty.
It is good to see consistency from the stewards for once – though perhaps not in the long term – but were they consistently right or wrong on this occasion?
It’s tricky. The issue is Turn 4, where the two main incidents happened. It is a demanding corner with significant adverse camber and a gravel trap on the outside. So, this was not simply a case of Norris opening the steering up and running Pérez out of road – something we have seen go unpunished many times before anyway. It was more a case of the McLaren naturally understeering towards the edge of the track.
So, the only way to avoid contact or forcing the car on the outside wide would be to get off the throttle and cede the position. Is that something the lead driver on the inside line should ever have to do?
Image credit: Getty Images
The penalty seems more harsh given that it was on the first full lap of racing, when incidents are normally treated with more leniency due to cold tyres, cold brakes and the general mayhem. Case in point: Leclerc not even being investigated for clumsily ending Gasly’s race a week ago, a few seconds earlier in the lap.
Whatever your opinion on the decisions, the penalty points system is clearly broken.
Two penalty points for the incident leaves Norris on ten points – although two will be wiped before the next race – which is just two away from a race ban.
I have touched on the penalty points system as recently as the Azerbaijan Grand Prix – when Norris and Nicholas Latifi were each given three points for tricky situations in which they found themselves somewhat helpless – and they remain unfit for purpose.
Can Mercedes find anything to challenge Red Bull more than last weekend? Nope.
Will the softer tyres make much of a change to the pecking order? Alpine appeared to find some more pace but events conspired to prevent them utilising it.
Any chance of some rain this time? *sigh* Of course not.
The 2002 Austrian Grand Prix was one of the most controversial races ever, as Rubens Barrichello was forced to hand over the win to teammate Michael Schumacher after the final corner
The “Bull of Spielberg” took one and a half years to be built – it is 18 metres high and weighs 68 tons
There were eight different winners in the eight Austrian Grands Prix between 1970 and 1977
At the 1982 Austrian Grand Prix, Elio de Angelis won by just 0.05 seconds to Keke Rosberg
The Weather
The Quotes
Max Verstappen | “We are at the same track but different compounds and it is going to be more difficult with everyone having raced here one weekend already.”
Valtteri Bottas | “We can [catch Red Bull]. We are working hard to do it. We see on Sunday but it is possible.”
Lando Norris | “100% I am doing better this year than last year. I had moments last year where I was doing as well as I am this year but more inconsistently. I am happy with how I’ve been doing. I don’t think I get ahead of myself or get too confident or cocky. I always want more. I am never satisfied with what I’ve done.”
Fernando Alonso | “Favourite at the moment probably is Max because he is performing better. Things can change quickly depending on the performance of the teams and the updates to the car etc.”
The Friday Form
Practice 2 Top 5
1 | Lewis Hamilton | 1:04.523 | 31 Laps
2 | Valtteri Bottas | 1:04.712 | 34 Laps
3 | Max Verstappen | 1:04.740 | 35 Laps
4 | Lance Stroll | 1:05.139 | 33 Laps
5 | Sebastian Vettel | 1:05.268 | 37 Laps
Practice 1 Top 5
1 | Max Verstappen | 1:05.143 | 37 Laps
2 | Charles Leclerc | 1:05.409 | 33 Laps
3 | Carlos Sainz | 1:05.431 | 33 Laps
4 | Valtteri Bottas | 1:05.445 | 31 Laps
5 | Yuki Tsunoda | 1:05.474 | 35 Laps
The morning session went much as expected with Max Verstappen topping the times – albeit with a surprise 2-3 for Ferrari – but Mercedes hit back with a 1-2 in the afternoon.
The Silver Arrows also appear to be at least a match for the Red Bulls on race pace, judging by the long runs in Practice Two, so we could yet have a close fight this weekend
The Aston Martins also looked strong, finishing the afternoon in fourth and fifth, and it would appear that the colder, damper conditions are playing somewhat into the hands of the low-rake cars.
