21/07/2024
NEWS STORY
A McLaren one-two in qualifying yesterday and the same again today in the race.
That's the headline from the Hungarian Grand Prix in which Oscar Piastri secured his maiden Formula 1 win, while Lando Norris started from pole and finished behind the Australian. Lewis Hamilton made it to the third step of the podium, recording his 200th top-three finish from 345 Formula 1 Grand Prix starts, a hit rate of 57.97%.
This was McLaren's second win of the season, its 185th in total and the twelfth at the Hungaroring, while their tally of one-two finishes is now 49, the last one dating back to the 2021 Italian Grand Prix when Norris was again second behind an Australian driver, on that occasion Daniel Ricciardo.
As expected, the Medium was the preferred compound for the start: 13 drivers opted for the C4 for the first stint, while four went with the Soft and three, including Gasly who started from pit lane, chose the Hard. Almost the entire field went with a two-stop strategy, with just three drivers doing something different. While the three-stop delivered no benefit for Ocon and Sargeant, as the final pit stop for Soft tyres came when there was no longer anything to lose, it was a different matter for Tsunoda who was on a one-stop and finished ninth mainly due to his managing the tyres well in both stints, (first for 29 laps on the Medium and then 41 on the Hard). Following their choices made during free practice, the two Aston Martin drivers were locked into planning a strategy using all three compounds in the order Soft/Medium/Hard which yielded just one point courtesy of a tenth place for Stroll, who finished one place ahead of Alonso.
The longest stints (41 on the Hard) were completed by the two Racing Bulls drivers, Ricciardo and Tsunoda, while the longest Medium stint went to Stroll on 31 laps and he also did the most laps (14) on the Soft.
Mario Isola: "I think the 310,000 spectators who came to the Hungaroring this weekend and the millions watching on TV and through other channels around the world must have enjoyed themselves. The weekend began like a game of chess and then reached its peak with a very closely contested and open race in which the lead changed hands seven times.
"With temperatures pretty similar to those we had seen in Friday's second free practice session, the Medium probably turned out to be the most efficient compound overall: if it had not been for the collision with Hamilton, Verstappen would almost certainly have finished third. But the Hard, which was definitely the most used compound, was also competitive, not just on the two Mercedes, but on other cars too. In the end, I think this race once again demonstrated how important it is for the teams to carefully work out which are the compounds best suited to their cars, as well as showing how the current range of tyres lets us see how different strategy choices work out on track. After all, that is actually the main objective set for us every year by the FIA, Formula 1 and the sport's other stakeholders, namely to provide tyres that are first and foremost a guarantee of the maximum possible safety, while allowing the teams and drivers to exploit their potential to the full. That what we try our best to achieve, not just in Formula 1, but also in the two junior categories, for which we are the sole tyre supplier."
Check out our Sunday gallery from the Hungaroring here.