Qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix was anything but normal, between two red flags, in and out of rain, and some wonderful drivers making it to Q2. It ended with a McLaren lock on the front row, with Lando Norris on pole and Oscar Piastri just 0. 022 seconds back in P2.
It is the Woking-based team’s first one-two finish since 2012. It also gives McLaren the chance to take a share of Red Bull’s lead in the constructors’ standings, given that Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez are ranked 3rd and 16th. McLaren seems to be the team to beat this weekend.
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Towards the end of the third quarter, Yuki Tsunoda suffered a major shunt that briefly sent him airborne. Qualifying was red flagged, but with two minutes and thirteen seconds remaining, qualifying resumed. The question was whether everyone could finish their lap. before the checkered flag fell. However, two drivers failed to finish the session: Verstappen and Fernando Alonso, who jumped out of their cars in the final red flag period. As for those who restarted, not all drivers finished their laps before the checkered flag fell, but only Daniel Riccardo improved, beating Tsunoda by 0. 03 seconds.
The other red flag came in Q1, thanks to Pérez. Given the recent tension circulating amid his decline in appearance, the Red Bull driver needed a blank weekend and looked in good shape until the accident. But it was not the only knockout in Q1: George Russell lost the opportunity to do a hard lap on a dry track due to lack of fuel.
As the paddock prepares for the Hungarian GP, our latest race preview highlights those intrigues and much more.
What’s the biggest wonder here?#F1 #GP of Hungary pic. twitter. com/cnYwXvEY6b
– Formula 1 (@F1) July 20, 2024
Saturday’s qualifying consultation reminds us that Formula 1 is a sport with thin margins.
Ricciardo said that on Thursday’s walk down the track, the few participants noticed that the edge was going down into that corner. “We have this idea that if you put a wheel in there, she’ll just skateboard and literally do whatever she wants. “So there is no margin for error in this turn.
Then there is the case of McLaren, which saw its drivers qualify 0. 022 seconds apart, while Carlos Sainz, who will start 4th, almost a second (0. 469 s) behind the leader. pole position for Norris. In recent weeks, McLaren have proven to be a very sensible team, but sometimes, like at Silverstone, they have lost races that they may have simply won.
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Norris expects Sunday to be a difficult race, given the close gap between him, Piastri and Verstappen in Saturday’s qualifying. Although McLaren seems to be the team to beat this weekend, the first corner of the first lap will be key. The high-profile 2021 incident in which Valtteri Bottas, then a Mercedes driver, caused several injuries at Turn 1 arose when Norris asked about the rules of engagement between him and Piastri at that corner. Norris told Verstappen: “You’re coming from the back of my car?That’s not very pleasant.
A rainy time with huge implications for the entire grid in 2021?#F1 #HungarianGP pic. twitter. com/478z9MDzlG
– Formula 1 (@F1) July 17, 2024
This opening component gives riders more opportunities to move forward due to the distance between the start and the corner, allowing for a wake effect. Last year, Piastri came in fourth, got a smart start and moved forward in the moment. place.
“Honestly, it’s something we’re going to communicate about, and how we’ve done it,” Norris said of the rules of engagement. “We kept it clean. I think we treated each other well, respectable, one and all, and we helped each other when we needed it. So yeah, no worries on our part.
McLaren is confident. Hungary presents an opportunity for the team to continue the 78-point gap between Red Bull in the constructors’ standings and overtake second-placed Ferrari. But can he convert his double and maximize the weekend?
“Of course I need to take the lead, but yes, we have both cars on the front row,” Piastri said about Turn 1. “We have a big task ahead of us to try to win this championship as a team. and we will be smart. We have a very fast car. It worked incredibly well this weekend and we need to keep the double, and I think we will fight among ourselves to see who takes one.
After crossing the finish line in Q3, Verstappen did nothing to hide his frustration at colliding with his steering wheel. Despite a significant gain on his final lap before the red flag, it was not enough for pole, with a gap of 0. 046 seconds. Norris leaving him 3rd between the two McLarens.
“Don’t I have the right to be frustrated?” said Verstappen when asked about his reaction. “Yes, that’s what happened. “
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Good margins, but following the recent trend of Red Bull not having the speed to say they have the fastest car. Even with the innovations in Verstappen’s RB20, he was unable to beat the papaya cars when necessary.
“I think throughout the weekend we were a little bit late, and I think that’s the case in qualifying as well,” Verstappen said. “I tried to get as close as possible, but unfortunately, not close enough. “
It’s possible that the race will play out differently, Verstappen admitting that his speed on the long runs “wasn’t anything fantastic or special”. Despite the updates, he also revealed that the Red Bull car felt “similar” in terms of driving difficulties to recent races.
On a weekend that he said would be “important” in terms of how Red Bull could compete for the rest of the season, that’s not the kind of weekend he would have wanted to have. Fighting alone against the McLarens on Sunday from P3 is a difficult task compared to the three-time world champion.
Conditions were not favorable during the first quarter.
It was raining before the Array consultation, leaving the track rainy at the exits (including the pit lane). On some stretches of the track, it rained harder and harder as the test progressed, Perez said, such as in Turn 8, where he hit the wall. The Red Bull driver said he lost the car, thinking he had “cut the pavement. “
“It’s had a huge impact,” he told media on Saturday. “Thankfully everything is fine, a bit of pain in the leg but other than that everything is fine but in race condition. “
In retrospect, it’s 20/20. Looking back on the session, Perez considered that “we were sure, we didn’t want to do that trick, but you also know a lot of things afterwards. It hurts me that this is going down again, especially in the career I’m going through, but yes, I’m determined to change course.
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The Mexican driver started the year with four podiums in six races, but at Imola in mid-May his performances began to deteriorate. Some weekends Perez lacked rhythm, but on Thursday he took over because of his recent performance. It looked like Hungary would be Perez’s chance to turn the page, so to speak. Before the weekend started, he was at the factory “trying to figure out how to get into a bigger window with the car and the settings. I think we’ve definitely made smart progress, so we’ll continue to strive to turn things around.
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But this is Perez’s second consecutive race weekend in which he drops out of qualifying not because of an inadequate lap time. At Silverstone, the RB20 failed in the gravel in Q1. The pressure continues to mount for Perez as rumors circulate about a halfback option. -Change of season driver. If that happens, Liam Lawson, Red Bull’s reserve driver, will most likely be hired instead of Ricciardo or Tsunoda.
These next two races before the summer holidays, Hungary and the Belgian GP, are very important for Red Bull. Obviously, the team is not happy with the functionality and needs to take a look at the scenario before the summer holidays.
“I’m not worried,” Perez said. I’m completely determined to turn my season around and focus on my performance. “
Hopes were high for Mercedes’ arrival in Hungary. After back-to-back victories in Austria, with a stroke of, and in Britain, by natural merit, it seemed a real risk to be at the top of the F1 field once again.
The team has followed moderate expectations, given that the demands of the Hungaroring and its tyre requirements, especially in hot climates, would suit the strengths of the W15 and the last two circuits. And the qualifiers almost completely failed.
The brutal elimination of Toto Wolff in George Russell’s Q1 ? #F1 #HungarianGPhttps://t. co/RJxw87Okye
– Formula 1 (@F1) July 20, 2024
For the second straight year, Russell suffered a surprise first-quarter knockout in Hungary and will start 17th on Sunday. Mercedes didn’t put enough fuel in their car to keep running until the end of the session, when the conditions were better, which caused them to drop the order. Russell is blamed for not being fast enough in the first place.
Lewis Hamilton nearly left him at the back of the grid, qualifying for Q3 by just one hundredth of a second. The eight-time Hungarian Grand Prix winner qualified fifth, but he admitted after qualifying that he had struggled a lot this weekend, especially in warmer conditions.
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“It’s been very difficult to find a balance where the car is rarely very active,” Hamilton said. “If you look at the Red Bull and the McLaren, they just don’t have oversteer. The car is just on rails. “
Ferrari finds itself in a similar position, having suffered from the type of functionality of Red Bull and McLaren, reaching a war to be “the most productive of the rest” on Sunday. Realistically, the fight for fourth position will be between Hamilton and the Ferrari pairing of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc he has on the grid. This is not territory either team needs to play in, but it is true of their speed in Hungary.
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Logan Sargeant’s long career in F1 has been in jeopardy for much of this season. He scored just one point in his 33 F1 races, but it didn’t compare well to the pace of teammate Alex Albon. Sargeant was even benched in Australia after Albon crashed his own car in testing.
The American driver didn’t feel the Williams drivers were on equal footing in terms of vehicles until Austria, halfway through the recent triple, with the more modern and lighter parts given to Albon until this race. Last time out at Silverstone, Sargeant recorded his most productive result of the season, completing P11, but was still 20 seconds behind Albon, who finished ninth.
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In Hungary, Sargeant went a step further and at times narrowed the gigantic gap between his teammates. He was just 0. 091 moments behind Albon in FP1, 0. 097 moments behind in FP2 and one minute behind in FP3. In qualifying, only 0. 114 moments separated the Williams. The drivers, who qualified for Q2. (However, the American driver crashed into the barrier in Q1 and the team had to fix the car. )
Albon and Sargeant complained about the dirty air. Albon said: “There’s two-tenths of dirty air in sector two, that’s for sure. “Sargeant expressed frustration with traffic on team radio and echoed a similar point to Albon in Saturday’s report. Team summary.
“We had a lot more speed in Q2, but I had dirty air in all sectors and other people stayed in front of you longer and put dirty air on your front wing,” Sargeant said. “There are tenths on this track, so it’s overly negative, especially with the overheating that occurs. “
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Albon and Sargeant have the same car specifications. With the dynamic driver market and his future in F1 in doubt, Sargeant will have to constantly close the performance gap with Albon. Aligning with his teammate allows him to do just that and capitalise on his functionality at Silverstone.
(Main symbol via Lando Norris and Sergio Pérez: SIPA USA Getty Images)