Verstappen brings home unlikely victory in Hungary: “This was definitely one of my best races”

Championship leader Max Verstappen overcame the odds to take victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix, having started from tenth place after suffering a power issue during qualifying. He praised his team for their efforts and solid strategy calls that helped him achieve the impressive result for Red Bull Racing. 

“It feels crazy to have won the race today from P10, especially on a track like this where it’s very hard to pass. We made all the right calls today, there were some good undercuts and overall we did a great job today as a Team.”

Having been able to charge through the grid and create a solid lead by the race’s end, Verstappen said that the race was one of his top performances, and fans tended to agree, as the Dutch driver took the title of Driver of the Day with thirty-four percent of the vote. 

It was a race that appeared to be in Scuderia Ferrari’s favour, but as the Italian outfit struggled to maintain their position near the front, Verstappen was able to extend his lead over Charles Leclerc with this weekend’s result. He is now sitting at 258 points to Leclerc’s 178 in the Drivers’ standings. 

“This was definitely one of my best races, despite the little 360-degree spin! I’m very happy with the lead that we have, but of course we have to keep pushing and win more races.”

“With a few more laps I think I could have been on the podium with Max.” – Sergio Perez

Team-mate Sergio Perez finished fifth at the Hungaroring, having also recovered well after qualifying eleventh. He said that he enjoyed the complex battle between his team and the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, with several drivers all in the hunt for the win. 

“It is good to go into the summer break strongly. After qualifying it was looking like it could have been a poor weekend for us but we recovered some good points, and it was great fun to have the Mercedes and Ferraris racing up there with us.” 

Perez said that the conditions made for a difficult race, as a couple spots of rain and the late-race virtual safety car caused by Valtteri Bottas’s loss of power made it difficult to keep heat in the tyres. 

“It was quite a tricky race, particularly towards the end, when the conditions changed and especially during the virtual safety car which meant everyone got cold tyres.”

Perez said that the Virtual Safety Car also kept him from being able to fight for the podium, as he felt that with a few more laps time, he might have been able to overtake Carlos Sainz— who ended up finishing just about a second ahead– and George Russell. 

With the solid recovery he was able to put together, however, he further narrowed the gap to Leclerc in the constructor’s championship, now just five points away from taking second place. 

“Overall, we were a little unlucky with the VSC because we were potentially going to get Carlos and George and I felt we would have got a lot closer to them towards the end. I felt a lot stronger in the final stint and with a few more laps I think I could have been on the podium with Max.

“It was a great race though and very fun at times. It was a fantastic recovery for the Team today and it was great to see Max get the win.”

Credit: Francois Nel / Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool /