In yet another dramatic F1 Hungarian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen drove one of the strongest races of his career to secure his eighth win of the 2022 season from all the way back in tenth place.
The Dutchman, who was expecting a podium-finish as a best-case scenario from Sunday's race, given the overtaking challenges that the Hungaroring poses, was absolutely delighted to have once again significantly extended his lead in the championship standings. What started off as a weekend of damage limitation for Red Bull turned into a very strong weekend when it came to its battle against Ferrari.
Mercedes had a mega weekend in Budapest, securing its second consecutive double podium finish with second and third for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, respectively. While Russell, who set the fastest lap time to take his maiden pole on Saturday, would have liked to secure his maiden F1 race win this weekend after having led 30 laps, he was certainly happy with the progress made by the team.
Ferrari has two unhappy drivers after the race in Hungary. Both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc started off the race in the top three and both missed out on a podium as a result of Ferrari's tire strategy. Despite it becoming abundantly clear that the hard tires were not the way to go by Alpine's underwhelming pace on the same, the Scuderia decided to pit Leclerc and put on the hard compound tires relatively early on in the race.
The Monegasque visibly struggled to gain traction and lost significant track positions, only managing a seventh-place finish in the end, once again putting his title contention at risk. His teammate Carlos Sainz, on the other hand, finished in fourth behind the two Mercedes and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.
Fans were not happy with Ferrari's decision to put Leclerc on these tires that potentially cost him a podium, if not the win.