Whilst the on-track action was limited in some aspects, the team radios from the race made it a thoroughly entertaining Hungarian Grand Prix. Find out who kept a cool head in the heat of the Budapest summer and who struggled during round 13 of the 2024 season:
Top of the class:
Oscar Piastri – Qualifying: 2nd | Race: 1st
The Aussie followed in the footsteps of Jenson Button and more recently Esteban Ocon in taking their maiden F1 wins around the Hungaroring, making him the seventh different winner of the season. The shine was rather taken off of it by some pretty dreadful team management by McLaren (more on that later), but Oscar deserved to climb to the top step of the rostrum.
Having missed out on pole by just 0.022 seconds to teammate Lando Norris, the two drivers ensured McLaren’s first front-row lockout since Brazil 2012. Piastri would then have an excellent start in Sunday’s race by taking the lead into turn 1.
He looked untroubled out front until the second round of stops, when he was undercut by teammate Lando. The Aussie then struggled to catch up by running in the dirty air and traffic, until the team eventually convinced Lando with team orders to slow down on the pit straight to let Oscar through.
Piastri would take the chequered flag to win by just over two seconds, you feel like the victory was a victory for the #81 after McLaren’s strong run of form, but the celebrations were unfortunately rather subdued. On a more positive note, Oscar now sits just five points off P4 in the Championship.
Lewis Hamilton – Qualifying: 5th | Race: 3rd
Buoyed from that special victory at Silverstone last time out, Lewis was at another one of his best tracks. It is then no surprise that he secured podium #200 in Sunday’s race, but he certainly had to work for it.
Despite performance upgrades, the car didn’t suit Budapest as well as it did in the last two years, as neither Hamilton nor teammate George Russell could fight for pole, but race pace looked strong.
Making a decent start to run fourth, an aggressive two-stop strategy saw Lewis undercut Max Verstappen twice, and he successfully held off the Red Bull driver on both occasions despite the tyre delta being in the Dutchman’s favour.
There was a flashpoint on lap 63 as Max steamed down the inside after breaking too late, launching the Red Bull airborne as his rear right made contact with Hamilton’s front left. But ultimately both continued and the Stewards ended up ruling this a racing incident.
All that was left for Lewis was to nurse home his Mercedes on ageing hard tyres to score another solid haul of points which moved him up to P6 in the Championship.
Yuki Tsunoda – Qualifying: 10th | Race: 9th
A huge Q3 smash doesn’t detract from Sunday’s race result, which justifies the Japanese driver’s inclusion in this list. It only cost him one place on the grid, as on pure pace the Aston Martin’s just shaded the midfield battle.
The VCARB team gambled on an ambitious one-stop strategy, and it paid off. After starting on the medium tyres, Tsunoda ran until mid-distance before bolting the hard tyres. He was able to hold off both Fernando Alonso and later Lance Stroll to take home two vital Championship points.
His performances should justify a shout for a Red Bull seat, especially with how miserable Checo has been performing in recent races, but I don’t see it coming his way. This is a shame considering he doubled the points haul of teammate Daniel Ricciardo and scored in seven out of 13 races.
Honourable mention of the day goes to Charles Leclerc, after a wretched run of form in recent races, his strong tyre management on the medium tyres brought him into podium contention despite starting from P6. The Monégasque had to settle for P4, but it’s his best result in two months and perhaps signals the team are in harmony with the SF-24 once again.
The struggle bus:
McLaren strategy
Arguably the most spectacular fumble of a 1-2, despite them still securing the same result since Ferrari at Austria in 2003. Especially when you take into consideration that the team is in the best position to fight Max for the Championship, they are just making it so difficult for themselves.
The team elected to pit Lando first not once, but twice in spite of Oscar leading the race, which eventually led to Norris taking the race lead after the second round of stops. Several radio messages that bordered on gaslighting were sent the Brit’s way, which eventually saw Norris let Oscar through with four laps to go.
It left a rather sour note on what should have been cause for celebration for the team. Norris and Piastri seem to have a good relationship as teammates, as good as you can have with your immediate rival, but with strategies and team orders like this McLaren is just setting them up for failure.
Carrying on with 1-2s for the next 10 races, they could very much be in a fight for the Driver’s and Team’s Championships in the season finale at Abu Dhabi, but I get the sense McLaren will have more troubled waters to bridge if their Hungary strategy is repeated anytime soon.
Sergio Pérez – Qualifying: 16th | Race: 7th
With rumours swirling of a summer replacement owing to a drop in form, this was the perfect time to re-assert being the rightful driver of the second Red Bull. Unfortunately, the jury is still out on this one.
A hefty smash at turn 8 brought the red flags out in Q1. Despite sitting in the top 10 at the time, others improved, which meant that Checo was knocked out in the early segment of qualifying for the fourth time in six races. Which is simply not a good look.
Credit where it is due, Sunday’s race was a much stronger day, as he progressed nine places to take home P7. Whilst only two positions behind Max when his teammate is having a bad day, Sergio needs to maximise his result, and starting so far down the grid makes this increasingly difficult. No matter how much he tries to make up for it on Sunday.
George Russell – Qualifying: 17th | Race: 8th
Like Pérez, an early qualifying exit for George rather limited the possibilities of Sunday’s result. This was rather puzzling though, as he didn’t do a final run in Q1 despite having the time and tyres.
Starting on row 9, Russell made slow progress up the grid. He was ahead of Pérez but got undercut in the first round of stops, getting stuck behind Yuki Tsunoda on track.
George would come home P8 in the end, still some more points to tally up to his standings – but he most certainly would have been eyeing up a better result in the end.
Dishonourable mention of the day goes Alpine, both drivers didn’t go out for a final Q1 run, consigning them to the back row of the grid. Pierre Gasly had to retire from the race before half distance with a hydraulic, whilst Ocon came home P18. Another weekend to forget for the French team.
The paddock hops back northwest to Belgium for round 14 of the season, the final race before the summer break. The infamous Spa-Francorchamps track plays host to numerous drivers looking to make statements in the Championship and for 2025 drives, tune in on Saturday the 27th & Sunday the 28th of July for all the action.
