Max Verstappen overcame an error of judgement on the formation lap of Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix to hit back for second place behind winner Lewis Hamilton.
The Aston Martin Red Bull Racing driver crashed into the Turn 12 wall – which required some urgent grid repairs – however, the Dutchman used it to fuel a superb drive that split the two Mercedes racers on the podium. Teammate Alexander Albon drove well too on the day around the Hungaroring track to finish fifth as Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda’s Daniil Kvyat finished 12th and Frenchman Pierre Gasly did not finish.
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
Max Verstappen – 2nd
“This podium is definitely dedicated to my mechanics. I thought the race was over before it had even started. I braked, locked a wheel, came off the brakes and tried to brake again but went straight on into the wall on the out lap. I couldn’t believe it but I managed to reverse out of the wall and get to the grid. As a Team we never give up and the mechanics did an incredible job to fix the car so quickly, I don’t think anyone could actually believe they managed it but they all stayed very calm. The track was still pretty greasy but I had a good start. You cannot plan to go into Turn 1 but I saw there was a traffic jam on the inside so I thought I would go around the outside where I knew there was grip in the wet and it worked. The race could have been very different if I was stuck in seventh place for a few laps that’s for sure. We then made all the right strategy calls and I just had to manage my tyres, be as consistent as possible and manage the backmarkers. To be second here between the two dominant Mercedes cars is an unbelievable result and we did not expect it yesterday after qualifying and such a difficult weekend. We want to try to close the gap to Mercedes, they are really dominant at the moment so it will be very hard to beat them but we won’t stop trying.”
Alexander Albon – 5th
“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. Today was never going to be easy starting from P13 but we had a good start and we made our way through the field. It’s not easy to overtake at this circuit so we had to do some big moves to get past people. 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. When we fight we tend to come out on top and the car is good on the brakes so it’s nice to make these moves. 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. I’m happy with the result and it’s good points for the Team after such a tricky day yesterday so I think we have to be thankful. Today is a bit of a surprise as to why our race pace is so much better than our qualification pace, so we need to understand that, but it’s positive and means some things on the car are working.”
Team Principal Christian Horner
“The mechanics did an amazing job today and Max owes this result to them. To get his car repaired in 20 minutes on the grid is incredible and you could see the sweat dripping off them. The guys have been doing an amazing job, especially with the number of specification changes we’ve had this weekend, as well as breaking curfew on Friday night. We were obviously on the ropes in qualifying yesterday so to bounce back and split the Mercedes with a P2 here is great. Max drove the wheels off the car and Alex drove a great race too. Considering where he started from on the grid, he put the lap times in and all credit to him as the passing moves he did today made for a great recovery drive. The car is in better shape in race trim and strategically we are sharp but we have updates that aren’t behaving as expected, compared with pre-season testing, so we need to go through all the data we’ve collected and understood it before Silverstone.”
Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda
Daniil Kvyat – 12th
“I was happy with the race pace today, I overtook some cars already on lap one and I made a very good call to go on slicks at the right time. After the pit stops I ended up behind cars I had already overtaken on the first laps. I need to review the race to understand it better because I felt there was a chance of finishing in the points today and to end up only P12 is not really satisfying. I’m still working on understanding the car with my engineers and we learnt a lot during the last three races. Every lap is important and we’ll try different solutions to suit the car a little bit more to my driving style in Silverstone.”
Pierre Gasly – DNF
“It was a very difficult weekend for us. For some reason, we struggled the whole time, with a few issues here and there. Today we had a drivetrain issue and since the beginning of the race I had problems with gear shifts which we tried to fix on track but we couldn’t, so we just had to retire the car. It’s a big shame, but we were just unlucky this weekend. Now we have a few days to prepare for Silverstone and I hope to have a better weekend there.”
Technical Director Jody Egginton
“Not a great result today. We had to retire Pierre’s car early on due to a gearbox issue and we were not able to move Dany forwards into the points, both of which are disappointing. The inter tyre was the obvious choice for the start of the race but the soft tyre we elected to fit at the first stop suffered more degradation than we expected, so we were forced to bring Dany’s second stop forward, fitting the hard and trying to go longer. With the forecast rain not materialising we, unfortunately, had no opportunity to get back into the fight for points today, finishing 12th. Overall, although the car has shown some reasonable pace at various points this weekend, we have not got it all together here in Hungary and this is something we will be working hard to resolve ahead of the next race.”
