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The wet start and the strategy dilemmas it created gave plenty of scope for both heroics and miscues in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Most emerged with great credit in Edd Straw’s driver ratings, but some wasted chances.
Disagree with Edd’s scores? Got your own strong views on who was hot and who was not? Debate the ratings with Edd in the comments at the bottom of the page live at 6pm UK time today.
Started: 1st Finished: 1st
Qualifying
Practice laps: 58
Gap to team-mate: -0.107s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.024s
While it was a one-horse race team-wise thanks to the supremacy of Mercedes, Hamilton had to be at his best to ensure he beat Bottas to pole position. It looked comfortable until the final run of Q3, when Hamilton did have to improve to secure top spot.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: 0
3 stops – inter/medium/medium/soft
Three seconds clear at the end of lap one and never looked back, managing the tyres well and keeping the race very much under control prior to that late third stop to take fastest lap.
VERDICT: Faultless, but the straightforward circumstances offer limited scope to showcase his excellence.
Started: 2nd Finished: 3rd
Qualifying
Practice laps: 60
Gap to team-mate: +0.107s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.000s
Bottas looked set to qualify two to three tenths of a second behind Hamilton, but he dug deep on his final lap and was just a tenth slower. Considering how strong his team-mate is at the Hungaroring, and the fact it would have given him pole had Hamilton’s final lap gone wrong, that’s a good effort.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: DOWN 4
3 stops – inter/medium/medium/hard
Bottas was briefly as low as seventh on the first lap after mistaking a dash change for the lights going out, moving and then having a terrible getaway. While he escaped a penalty, having to fight his way up from sixth meant any hope of victory was gone and he couldn’t quite catch and pass Verstappen for second after making that third stop.
VERDICT: Dug deep at the last in qualifying, but start mess cost him and ultimately meant he underachieved.
Started: 5th Finished: 6th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 56
Gap to team-mate: -0.043s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.029s
Did a good job in qualifying to get the best from the car and just shade Leclerc in what is proving to be a fascinating battle between the pair.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: UP 1
2 stops – inter/medium/hard
Jumped to third at the start, but a snap exiting Turn 1 allowed Verstappen to get past him. When he stopped on lap four, traffic in the pits meant he lost around six seconds to a long hold, ultimately dropping him to ninth. Perez’s brief off on lap five gave him one position with Vettel passing Leclerc and jumping the Haas drivers in the pits for fifth – only to throw away the place to Albon with a late mistake.
VERDICT: Qualifying was strong and pitlane traffic cost him, but letting Albon past with that late error undid some of the good work.
Started: 6th Finished: 11th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 58
Gap to team-mate: +0.043s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.062s
Just lost out in the qualifying battle to his team-mate, with sector three the key difference thanks to Leclerc not quite nailing it on his best lap. But the margin was tiny.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: UP 1
2 stops – inter/soft/hard
Leclerc’s eagerness to come in for slicks while running fifth should have set him up for a strong finish, but Ferrari’s decision to put him on softs doomed him. After losing time on an 18 lap second stint, he was buried deep in midfield traffic and couldn’t get back into the points despite passing Norris – spectacularly – and picking off a few stoppers.
VERDICT: Quick and unlucky, although couldn’t find that final half-a-tenth that Vettel could.
Started: 7th Finished: 2nd
Qualifying
Practice laps: 50
Gap to team-mate: -0.739s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.016s
The Red Bull was a real handful and Verstappen ended up just behind the two Ferraris in an unfamiliar seventh place with the damage done in the last sector. A tenth would have put him fifth.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: UP 4
1 stops – inter/medium/hard
The agony of shunting at Turn 12 on a reconnaissance lap might have broken lesser drivers, but not Verstappen. After a superb repair drop by the team, he charged to third at the start then picked off Stroll before holding Bottas at bay – with some impressive pace on ageing tyres along the way.
VERDICT: The pre-race shunt takes a little of the shine off his overachievement in the race.
Started: 13th Finished: 5th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 50
Gap to team-mate: +0.739s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.104s
Albon struggled with the difficult-to-drive Red Bull more than Verstappen, with his problems compounded by being at the back of the queue in Q2 and his own frustration. But in very difficult circumstances, and with Verstappen in a similar track position, he should have got more out of the lap.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: UP 2
2 stops – inter/medium/hard
This was a fine recovery after a difficult qualifying, overtaking both Ferraris (Vettel twice) along the way to take fifth place on a conventional two-stop strategy. An incisive, charging drive – just what he needed after qualifying.
VERDICT: Struggled on Saturday but recovered with a fine and incisive race drive.
Started: 8th Finished: 13th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 49
Gap to team-mate: -0.061s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.119s
Making Q3 given the pace of the McLaren wasn’t a foregone conclusion, but Norris got there and shaded his team-mate – although seventh-placed Verstappen’s time might have been beatable as he didn’t quite string the lap together as the sector times suggest was possible.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: DOWN 5
2 stops – inter/medium/hard
Norris’s race was entirely defined by a difficult start from the more slippery side of the grid, dropping to 13th. That lost ground was compounded by having to run a lap longer than he wanted before stopping. This added up to 18th place once out on slicks and a long afternoon in traffic.
VERDICT: Qualifying was good but the race got away from him from him in the early laps, although there wasn’t a great deal he could have done to prevent it.
Started: 9th Finished: 9th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 59
Gap to team-mate: +0.061s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.179s
Qualifying was solid, although he probably had the pace to pick up a couple of places with a perfect lap. But he struggled with the rear end in the final sector and ended up just behind team-mate Norris.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: UP 1
2 stops – inter/medium/hard
Sainz had a good first lap, including a great pass on Ricciardo at Turn 4, to run eighth, but lost out in the pitlane lottery as he was held while traffic passed – before having Latifi released into his path. This left Sainz 12th in the queue, but a great pass on the struggling Leclerc on lap 60 having already jumped Grosjean was critical, ensuring he was close enough to Magnussen to pick up ninth when the Haas drivers were penalised.
VERDICT: Hard work, but passes on Ricciardo and Leclerc helped him take two points from a difficult race.
Started: 11th Finished: 8th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 43
Gap to team-mate: -0.081s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.325s
The Renault didn’t look easy to drive in qualifying, although a scrappy final sector cost Ricciardo a shot at Q3.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: UP 2
2 stops – inter/medium/medium
A good start got Ricciardo to ninth and laid the foundations for another fine drive to eighth place. A marathon stint on the mediums gave him a pace advantage late on but he couldn’t find a way past Perez.
VERDICT: The Renault isn’t an easy car to get on top of, but Ricciardo extracted plenty from it and executed his race superbly.
Started: 14th Finished: 14th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 56
Gap to team-mate: +0.081s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.125s
Ocon was unhappy with both the car balance and the strategy in Q2. Using mediums on the first run meant he had only one shot on softs in a car that was very tricky on a quick lap. But he was still within a tenth of Ricciardo.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: DOWN 2
2 stops – inter/medium/hard
Ocon was strangely reluctant to pit for slicks in the early stages for a driver who excels in those conditions, which condemned him to an afternoon buried in the midfield.
VERDICT: The gap to Ricciardo in the results doesn’t reflect how close he was, but still not yet at his team-mate’s level in the dry.
Started: 10th Finished: DNF
Qualifying
Practice laps: 27
Gap to team-mate: -0.437s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.047s
Gasly went into Saturday with no dry running, but did a superb job to reach Q3 despite engine problems – even if he was unable to participate in the final stage of qualifying. Once again, had a clear pace advantage over Kvyat.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: Down 2
1 stop: inter/softs
Gasly was shuffled down a few places when squeezed between Latifi and Albon out of Turn 1 and was 14th after stopping for slicks – avoiding the spinning Latifi at Turn 1 along the way. After a few laps being furious at being held up by Kvyat, growing engine problems forced an early retirement.
VERDICT: Engine problems rarely let him show it, but driving wise he was again impressive.
Started: 17th Finished: 12th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 57
Gap to team-mate: +0.437s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.134s
Kvyat again struggled with his qualifying pace and admitted “me and the car talk different languages”. He describes the AlphaTauri as having a temper and appears to lack confidence in what he’ll get on turn in.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: –
2 stops – inter/soft/hard
Kvyat wanted to pit for slicks on the formation laps but the team was not allowed to respond, so he stopped at the end of lap one but ended up 13th. He effectively held position for the whole race, finishing behind Sainz and passing the struggling Grosjean late on.
VERDICT: A solid race that could have been better had he been allowed to pit, but still struggling badly with the car in qualifying compared to Gasly.
Started: 4th Finished: 7th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 41
Gap to team-mate: +0.168s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.091s
Perez couldn’t match Stroll in qualifying, although he did say after the session he was battling dizziness and felt well below his best. This was later put down to the physical demands of the intense run of races, but it’s impossible to say how much, if at all, this impacted his performance.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: DOWN 3
2 stops – inter/medium/hard
Wheelspin at the start dropped him to seventh, then he threw away places to Vettel and Albon with an off coming through Turn 10 on lap five. Without those errors, he would have finished at least two places higher.
VERDICT: Not at his best physically, his poor start and error in the race proved costly even though he did salvage a passable result.
Started: 3rd Finished: 4th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 56
Gap to team-mate: -0.168s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.000s
From Q2 onwards, Stroll had the edge on Perez and while his first Q3 lap was a little untidy, the second was strong and gave him his best dry-weather qualifying position. Considering the backdrop of speculation about Vettel’s arrival, this was a well-timed performance.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: UP 1
3 stops – inter/medium/medium/hard
Ran second early on but once he slipped behind Bottas for third, he lost touch with the battle for the podium positions. But didn’t put a foot wrong.
VERDICT: A strong qualifying and good race, but perhaps short of the outstanding performance that could have netted a podium.
Started: 20th Finished: 15th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 41
Gap to team-mate: +0.108s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.022s
His final qualifying lap started well, then he struggled for rear grip as it progress, suggesting the rear tyres were perhaps a little too warm at the start of the lap. But he always looked to be that fraction slower than Giovinazzi – albeit having missed all the dry running on Friday. His reward was qualifying last on merit for the first time in his F1 career.
Race
Penalties: 5s time penalty (out of position on grid)
Positions gained/lost lap 1: UP 6
2 stops – inter/medium/hard
Perhaps thrown by the absence of the two Haas cars that were due to line up ahead, Raikkonen overshot his grid slot and was given a 5s penalty. After an attacking first lap and an early stop for slicks he settled into 15th place and moved to 14th when Gasly retired, but the time penalty cost him positions to Ocon and Norris at the second stop.
VERDICT: A costly grid-slot error and average qualifying lap combined with solid, but unspectacular, race pace added up to an unremarkable weekend.
Started: 19th Finished: 17th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 59
Gap to team-mate: -0.108s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.000s
The disappointment in his brief response when informed how far he was off Q2 after a decent lap tells you everything you need to know about the Alfa’s performance. But he at least had the edge on his team-mate.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: UP 1
2 stops – inter/soft/medium/hard
Giovinazzi’s first pitstop was too late and second-stint tyre choice poor, which ruined his race before it had even really started. He did what he could, undercutting his way past Russell but the 20s gap to Raikkonen was largely down to that poor strategy and subsequent time loss in traffic.
VERDICT: A good qualifying followed by an underwhelming race, largely thanks to poor strategy calls.
Started: 18th Finished: 16th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 56
Gap to team-mate: +0.255s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.000s
Grosjean looked to have the edge on Magnussen on the first two runs in Q1, but horrendous backing up in the final sector (it took him 33 seconds to get from the penultimate to the last corner) meant he had to abort his final attempt early.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: DOWN 2
1 stop – medium/hard (inters on formation lap)
On paper, it looks like he was well off Magnussen’s pace, but before the clash with Albon on lap 27 he had only lost a small amount of time to his team-mate. The damage, which he perhaps could have avoided by ceding the palce once it was clear Albon was committed, meant his pace then dropped and doomed him to slide into obscurity.
VERDICT: Much better than the results suggest, with qualifying undermined by traffic and race place fading thanks to damage.
Started: 16th Finished: 10th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 50
Gap to team-mate: -0.255s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: 0.000s
Magnussen was frustrated not to make Q2, falling just half-a tenth short, with his final lap-improvement slightly compromised by tyre temperatures.
Race
Penalties: 10s time penalty (formation lap driver aids)
Positions gained/lost lap 1: DOWN 3
1 stop – medium/hard (wets on formation lap)
While the switch to slicks before the start was costly thanks to earning him a 10s time penalty for so-called driver aids, this put him up to third. From there, it was about not losing time in battle and pacing himself well, which he did to perfection despite perhaps his stop for hards being slightly later.
VERDICT: Qualifying could have been fractionally better, but the race drive was beautifully executed.
Started: 15th Finished: 19th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 50
Gap to team-mate: -0.846s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: 0.000s
While he had nothing like the pace of team-mate Russell, Latifi did have the slightly slower car specification and did a solid job to make Q2 for the first time in his F1 career. Some risky set-up changes meant he struggled for pace in Q2.
Race
Penalties: 5s (unsafe release)
Positions gained/lost lap 1: UP 5
Jumped to a sensational 10th at the start and held position in the three laps before he pitted, save for Albon’s questionable pass on him at the chicane on his in-lap. The rest of the race is best forgotten as Latifi was released into the path of Sainz, suffered a puncture then later spun while battling car damage on his way to last.
VERDICT: Not as quick as Russell but followed his decent run to Q2 with a glorious early-race cameo then wasn’t at fault for what followed.
Started: 12th Finished: 18th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 54
Gap to team-mate: -0.846s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: 0.060s
His Q1 lap was outstanding, but a combination of the runplan and having used the limited qualifying engine modes meant he was marginally slower in Q2. He was frustrated because a perfectly-executed Q2 might have resulted in a top 10, but that was more down to circumstances than his own driving.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: DOWN 3
3 stops – inter/soft/medium/medium
Struggled with wheelspin at the start and slipped to 15th but once the pitstops had shaken out the race pace of the Williams meant all Russell could do was try to keep Norris, Giovinazzi and Latifi behind him. The McLaren and Alfa jumped him in pitstops, not helped by the odd decision to put Russell on softs for the second stint, and he slipped to the penultimate position the Williams race pace demanded.
VERDICT: Qualifying was excellent, particularly Q1, but in the race he was powerless to fight gravity with the slowest car in the field on Sundays.
