Introduction
Oscar Piastri has taken his first victory at the 2024 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix after intra-team drama played out, with McLaren teammate Lando Norris belatedly responding to an order to hand back the lead to the Australian who had lost out due to the team’s pit stop strategy.
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After the duo surged three-wide alongside Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the start, Piastri emerged as the leader into Turn 1 and maintained control for much of the Grand Prix. However, when Norris was called in for his second pit stop ahead of Hamilton to defend his position, the Briton emerged in the lead.
This led the team to repeatedly instruct Norris to cede the position to his McLaren teammate, a directive he hesitated to comply with for several tense laps. Yet, Norris eventually eased off on Lap 68 of 70 and allowed Piastri through.
The 23-year-old Australian then powered ahead to secure the victory, crossing the finish line two seconds clear of Norris. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton overcame his own challenges, including a skirmish with Max Verstappen in the closing stages, to clinch Mercedes’s third and final podium spot.
Charles Leclerc was fourth for Ferrari, while Verstappen dropped down to fifth. He will also be investigated by the stewards for his incident with Hamilton. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz followed in sixth, ahead of the Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who made ground from his P16 starting position.
George Russell also took points after starting back in P17, having crossed the line in P8, while RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll completed the top 10.
Fernando Alonso just missed out in P11 for Aston Martin, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, who had a somewhat disappointing day in the RB after lining up in P9 on the grid.
Nico Hulkenberg took 13th place in the Haas, while Alex Albon followed for Williams in 14th, and Kevin Magnussen put his Haas into 15th place.
Kick Sauber’s search for points continues as Valtteri Bottas ended the day in P16, with Williams’ Logan Sargeant behind in P17.
Alpine’s tough weekend also endured as Esteban Ocon took P18, while Kick Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu was the final classified runner in P19.
Pierre Gasly became the sole retiree after suffering a suspected hydraulic leak in the Alpine.
Mario Isola, Motorsport Director, Pirelli:
The 310,000 spectators who came to the Hungaroring this weekend and the millions watching on TV and through other channels worldwide must have enjoyed themselves. The weekend began like a chess game and peaked with a closely contested and open race in which the lead changed hands seven times.
With temperatures 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, the most used compound, was also competitive on the two Mercedes and other cars.
Ultimately, I think this race once again demonstrated how important it is for the teams to carefully work out which compounds are best suited to their cars and how the current range of tyres lets us see how different strategy choices work out on track. After all, that is 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 is 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.
The day on the track:
As expected, the medium was the preferred compound at 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 the 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 during free practice, the two Aston Martin drivers were locked into planning a strategy using all three compounds in 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.
2024 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix Race Results
| Pos | No | Driver | Country | Team | Time | Points | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 81 | Oscar Piastri | Australia | McLaren Racing | 1:38:01.989 | 25 | 149 |
| 2. | 4 | Lando Norris | Great Britain | Mclaren Racing | +2.141s | 18 | 189 |
| 3. | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Great Britain | Mercedes-AMG Petronas | +14.880s | 15 | 125 |
| 4. | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Monaco | Scuderia Ferrari | +19.686s | 12 | 162 |
| 5. | 1 | Max Verstappen | Netherlands | Red Bull Racing | +21.349s | 10 | 265 |
| 6. | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Spain | Scuderia Ferrari | +23.073s | 8 | 154 |
| 7. | 11 | Sergio Perez | Mexico | Red Bull Racing | +39.792s | 6 | 118 |
| 8. | 63 | George Russell | Great Britain | Mercedes-AMG Petronas | +42.368s | 5 | 116 |
| 9. | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | Japan | Visa Cash App F1 Team | +77.259s | 2 | 22 |
| 10. | 18 | Lance Stroll | Canada | Aston Martin F1 Team | +77.976s | 1 | 24 |
| 11. | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Spain | Aston Martin F1 Team | +82.460s | 0 | 45 |
| 12. | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Australia | Visa Cash App F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 11 |
| 13. | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Germany | Haas F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 22 |
| 14. | 45 | Alexander Albon | Thailand | Williams Racing | +1 lap | 0 | 4 |
| 15. | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Denmark | Haas F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 5 |
| 16. | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Finland | Kick Sauber F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 0 |
| 17. | 2 | Logan Sargeant | USA | Williams Racing | +1 lap | 0 | 0 |
| 18. | 31 | Esteban Ocon | France | Alpine F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 3 |
| 19. | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | China | Kick Sauber F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 0 |
| 20. | 10 | Pierre Gasly | France | Alpine F1 Team | DNF | 0 | 6 |
2024 Constructor Standings
| Pos | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Red Bull Racing | 389 |
| 2. | McLaren Racing | 338 |
| 2. | Scuderia Ferrari | 322 |
| 4. | Mercedes-AMG Petronas | 241 |
| 5. | Aston Martin F1 Team | 69 |
| 6. | Visa Cash App F1 Team | 33 |
| 7. | Haas F1 Team | 27 |
| 8. | Alpine F1 Team | 9 |
| 9. | Williams Racing | 4 |
| 10. | Kick Sauber F1 Team | 0 |
Here are the team-by-team highlights:
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