The leader of the World Cup awards the twelfth consecutive victory for his team, which surpasses McLaren’s record in 1988. Sainz, eighth and Alonso, ninth, without podium options.
Halfway through the World Cup, with a couple of bizarre regulation changes included, Red Bull’s abuse of power remains as valid as the first day. If people get bored it is not inconvenient for max verstappenwho won at the Hungaroring with a 33-second advantage over Lando Norrisescorted to the podium by his partner Sergio Pérez, ninth on the grid. Irrefutable facts against which he could not fight lewis hamiltonauthor of the pole, but fourth at the finish line after a disastrous race. Neither Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso They have the resources to interfere with the best. As the championship unfolds, the only question is whether Red Bull will leave some crumbs for the rest.
Sainz, eighth at the finish line, had enough to survive Ferrari’s mistakes. Alonso, ninth, couldn’t even give us a ponytail of genius. Relegated to that middle zone where he had suffered so much in Alpine, the Asturian was dragged by the nondescript. Without rhythm in his Aston Martin, clearly behind McLaren and Mercedes, on Sunday it was a mere procedure to take some points to the garage. Two for him and one for Lance Stroll. This baggage, which at the beginning of the course could be interpreted as acceptable, now seems scarce.
From another dimension, beyond space-time, Red Bull must be evaluated, which at the Hungaroring broke another legendary record: 12 consecutive victories, one more than McLaren in 1988. Verstappen’s ninth in 11 races. And the sixth podium for Pérez, capable of resisting Hamilton’s last attacks despite the weakness of his tires. This tyranny can be glossed in a thousand ways, but none will do true justice to what has been achieved by Christian Horner and Adrian Newley.
alpine drama
Not so long ago, Mercedes was in a similar situation, but now any breath shakes its structure. Like this outing in Hungary, when Hamilton focused on defending against Verstappen, forgetting what happened a little further with the McLarens. There he left his privileged pole to take off to fourth place. The Alpine drama, with an incident between Pierre Gasley and Esteban Ocontriggered the French double abandonment, a drama comparable to the Australian GP.
Bad fate for the heirs of Renault, given that the greatest share of responsibility had to be attributed to guanyu zhoustuck in the starting blocks and overrevving before Daniel Ricciardowhich ended up taking the men of otmar szafnauer. The commissioners immediately acted against the Chinese driver, although his five-second penalty, the minimum contemplated by the regulations, must be classified as insufficient.
In contrast to such calamity, Sainz’s start-up on the soft tires was magnificent. From the eleventh to the sixth square, in the wake of charles leclerc, untouchable for the Maranello staff. To the courage of Carlos we must add the mettle of Alonso, who did enough to hold down Sergio Pérez before Red Bull, assisted by his DRS, snatched seventh place at the end of the straight.
“Have you turned off the engine?”
When Sainz observed the Mexican in the mirrors, he already told his engineers to come in immediately to renew his shoes. Actually, they should have put him in the pits much sooner to mount the new hard ones. Even with the strategic error, the man from Madrid, again eleventh ahead of Stroll, at least was not exposed to the blunder of the red mechanics with Leclerc. The left rear wheel got stuck and the Monegasque stop was going to take 9.4 seconds.
Although to the chagrin, the one from Hamilton, who was trying the undercut before Norris when he suddenly found himself nine seconds behind. The classic It’s hammer time, the battle cry of his engineer, coincided with a debacle for the seven-time champion, unable to warm up his hard tires. His caustic question must have stung in the Mercedes garage: “Have you turned off the engine?” For not staying silent Pete Bonington He replied that they were wasting too much time on the straight and in turns 10 and 14.
With the McLaren without resources before an unapproachable Verstappen, it was necessary to dive into the fine print so as not to get too bored. On lap 47, Perez sent Piastri unceremoniously into the grass. The FIA, as usual in recent races, left Checo unpunished, but showed the Australian a black and white flag for going over the white line at turn 4. Meanwhile, Leclerc added another notch to his fateful Sunday by exceeding the speed limits in the pit lanepenalized with a five-second penalty.
With 18 laps to go, Verstappen complied with the last paperwork in boxes to rejoin the asphalt with 12 seconds on Norris. With the yellow compound, without traffic or other trifles, the two-time world champion stopped the clock in 1:20.504, almost three seconds better than McLaren’s records. A quick turn to melt logic. With 46C on the asphalt and with the new Pirelli compounds, let no one dare challenge the next world champion either.
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