Lewis Hamilton suggested Max Verstappen’s victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix “says pretty much everything about his car”.
The Dutchman went from 10th on the grid to claim a relatively comfortable win at the Hungaroring as he made his way through with a combination of perfect strategy and nice overtakes.
In fact, Verstappen was so much faster than race leader Charles Leclerc, who rued a switch to hard tyres, that he could even afford a rare spin in between moves on the Ferrari driver.
“If you look at Max’s race, he started 10th, spun, and still won,” Hamilton said post-race. “That says pretty much everything about his car.”
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As for the seven-time world champion, he too made his way through from P7 to claim P2 after a strong final stint on the soft tyres.
“I honestly don’t know,” he said when asked to explain where his pace came from. “I was definitely struggling at the beginning of the race and wasn’t sure whether I’d be able to catch the guys up.
“But bit-by-bit got a bit more comfortable with the balance, had a really good start as well.
“I definitely think being a little bit cooler seemed to work a bit better for us. I can’t tell you exactly why, but grateful for it.
“I was hoping it would rain at the end so I could challenge Max, but we ran out of laps.”
Nice battle, boys ?pic.twitter.com/OqLnnuZL5j
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) July 31, 2022
Hungary was another very encouraging weekend for Mercedes, as teammate George Russell claimed their first pole of the season in qualifying.
And Hamilton thinks victories will come after the summer break.
“I hope so. It’s what we are working towards,” he said.
“This weekend there was potential for a win. You saw George on pole and with a bit of a better qualifying, [if] the DRS had been okay yesterday, we would have been in the run for the win.
“If we had both been up there we could have worked a bit better together as a team, one of us would have been able to support the other strategy-wise.
“But either way, two seconds in a row, I’m really really happy.
“If we’re able to take this pace into the second half of the season, for sure, we can start to fight with these guys.”
These guys ???❤️ pic.twitter.com/CbhpFCsD5F — Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) July 31, 2022