The F1 Hungarian GP had some solid action on track between the two leaders, which also presented solid numbers to crunch.
Already on Saturday, there was a new record with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen claiming his first pole ahead of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas for F1 Hungarian GP at Hungaroring circuit.
The race on Sunday provided more action with Verstappen giving Lewis Hamilton a hard fight after early trouble for Bottas. It ended up being a two-horse race but still a good watch with Hamilton taking the win.
Verstappen was second as Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel worked well on his strategy to get ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc, while McLaren’s Carlos Sainz did a big job to finish fifth as the best of the rest.
He beat Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly as Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen was seventh as he fended off the late charge from a recovering Bottas, with McLaren’s Lando Norris and Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon in the Top 10.
Here’s some key statistics and information from the F1 Hungarian GP weekend:
- Hamilton registered his 81st career win, eighth of 2019. It is also his seventh win in Hungary, which is a personal best for him as he has no other circuits with seven wins.
- Mercedes scored its 97th victory, fourth in Hungary and 10 in 2019.
- Hamilton scored his 144th F1 podium, Vettel his 117th and Verstappen his 27th.
- Verstappen took his first career pole to become the fourth youngest at 21 years 307 days with Vettel retaining his record from Leclerc and Fernando Alonso in between them.
- Verstappen is also first Dutch driver to claim pole position as he became the 100th different pole-sitter. Co-incidently, Hungarian GP also witnessed the 100th different F1 winner when Heikki Kovalainen scored his only win in 2008.
- Red Bull had its first pole since 2018 Mexico GP as Honda got its first hybrid era pole and first since 2006 Australian GP courtesy Jenson Button.
- Verstappen took his third fastest lap of the 2019 F1 season with seven in total now.
- Ricciardo gained the most places, starting last and finishing 14th but Renault endured another non-double points finish.
- Sainz and Raikkonen gained the most of any driver in the points, both gaining three places to be fifth and seventh. It was Sainz’s second consecutive Top 5 finish in different conditions.
- There was only one change in the drivers’ championship with Raikkonen gaining a place to be eighth from ninth.
- Williams remains the only team with 100% reliability so far as George Russell beat Lance Stroll and Antonio Giovinazzi in the race. He came close to making it into Q2 for the first time but fell short by 0.053s.
- Hamilton has now 24 consecutive race finishes in points, while Verstappen has 21 – it is not only 21 consecutive in points but all have been Top 5 finishes for the Dutchman.
- McLaren had its fourth double points finish of 2019 which already one more than the whole of 2018. The last time they had more the four double points finish was in 2014.
- Mercedes are the only team with both drivers to be in Q3 in all the 12 races so far.
- Giovinazzi was the sole receiver of a penalty point for impeding Stroll in qualifying. His total sits at four.
The stats were compiled by Jack Elleker and Darshan Chokhani