On Sunday, Lewis Hamilton celebrated his eighth Hungarian Grand Prix victory and his second of the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship, putting him at the top of the standings.
With a brief season on our hands, every race counts more than usual, and Valtteri Bottas will need to do more to challenge his teammate for the title. But he seemed to have no answer for the six-time champion’s sheer pace over the 2020 Hungarian GP weekend.
In fact, the race offered a gloomy preview of the rest of the season for everyone not named Lewis Hamilton or Mercedes. The car was head and shoulders (cockpit and wheels?) ahead of the competition, and in fact the second-best team in qualifying was none other than Racing Point, whose car has been dubbed the “pink Mercedes” around the paddock for having blatantly copied last season’s title-winning car.
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Max Verstappen, in his Honda-powered Red Bull, was once again the only true challenger to the Silver Arrows, and he almost didn’t get to start. While driving his RB16 to the grid, he lost control and hit the barriers, damaging his suspension only 20 minutes before the start of the race.
Fortunately, he was able to bring the car to his grid slot, where the Red Bull mechanics did an amazing job to repair the suspension. It was a 90-minute job that they somehow performed in 20, with only 25 seconds to spare before the regulations would have forced them to start in the pit lane should they have needed to continue working on the car.
Verstappen ultimately finished the 2020 Hungarian GP in second place behind Hamilton, but ahead of Bottas, and now ranks third in the overall standings despite having failed to finish the first race. It’s no understatement to say the mechanics were the heroes of the day for the Red Bull team.
Though the racing at the front was virtually nonexistent, the midfield continued to put on a good show. It’s not easy to pass other cars at the Hungaroring, particularly in F1, yet there were plenty of overtakes on display during the race, with Lance Stroll, Sebastian Vettel, and Daniel Ricciardo all putting on strong performances.
The next two races will take place at Silverstone, arguably Hamilton’s favorite track. Given that he tends to win the British GP almost any time he has a car capable of it, the results of the upcoming championship are not likely to be exciting for those who were hoping for a change of pace in F1.
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Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.