How Verstappen was 12km from disaster — what you missed at the 2022 Hungarian GP

Why Max Verstappen's Hungarian GP almost ended before it began; Sebastian Vettel's recovery drive and how it all went so wrong for Yuki Tsunoda: the unseen bits from the Hungaroring

Max Verstappen on the podium after the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix

Victory for Verstappen — but it could have been very different

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The Hungarian Grand Prix was bookended by two multiple world champions announcing their future plans, and filled with the fluctuating fortunes of Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari, who made it a three-team battle in qualifying and the race.

It made for an unpredictable Grand Prix, where all the attention was focused on the six-driver fight for the top spots — and then the aftermath of Ferrari’s questionable strategy, which left Charles Leclerc 80 points behind Max Verstappen in the drivers’ championship.

It would have been easy to miss the action elsewhere: here is what you might have missed from the 2022 Hungarian GP as F1 now heads into its summer break.

 

Sunday could have been a disaster for Verstappen 

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There was a chance Verstappen wouldn’t be able to race

In hindsight, it is a good job Verstappen had a disappointing Saturday because that’s what allowed him to win 24 hours later.

During Q3, an engine-related problem struck which meant the world champion had to back out of his final flying lap, consigning him to P10.

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Verstappen was fitted with a new engine for Sunday and had the problem not happened in qualifying, Christian Horner confirmed he wouldn’t have been able to race at all.

“We changed the power unit because there’s a component that broke in Max’s car yesterday,” Red Bull’s team boss explained.

“Thankfully, sitting here now with 20-20 hindsight, we’re grateful that it did break yesterday because [with] another 12 kilometres it would have broken on the way to the grid.

“So we elected to change the whole power unit rather than try a repair in the field. And as a precaution, we also changed Checo’s.”

Had the problem not struck on Saturday, we could be sat talking about Mercedes’ first one-two of the season.

 

Vettel for driver of the day, anyone?

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Like Verstappen, Vettel also ploughed through the field for a good result

What a topsy-turvy weekend it was for Vettel, who went from announcing his retirement, to crashing in final practice, to a points finish on Sunday.

Amid that was a Q1 exit which had him starting down in P18, from which a top ten result looked unlikely for the four-time world champion.

But after being the centre of attention in the build-up to the race, little of his advance into the points was shown on the live feed. His Sunday didn’t get off to the best of starts after Alex Albon went into the side of him at Turn 2 on the opening lap, but Vettel remained calm and showed patience to make his way up the field.

By lap 22 he was 15th and into the top 10 halfway. But with five laps to go, Vettel was back out of the points and in P11 with Lance Stroll in the way.

Team orders brought Aston Martin’s driver the final point and he could have even gone one better.

“We had to fight hard for a point today and we came close to a second point when I was chasing down Esteban [Ocon] in the final laps,” said Vettel.

“The team switched cars because I had a better opportunity to catch Esteban, but obviously the virtual safety car hurt us and we ran out of time. I was very close on the final lap, but I needed just one more corner to make a move.

“It was a fun race with lots of fights and overtakes.”

 

Nicholas Latifi topped his first-ever F1 practice session

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Latifi led Albon for a Williams one-three in the final practice session

Yes, that is right: Latifi really was the fastest man in the final practice session.

With the rain pouring at the start of FP3, the track then began to dry towards the end and drivers started to set faster lap times.

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The final man of all to cross the line was Latifi, with a 1min 41.480sec lap, which was over half a second quicker than Leclerc in second.

“Even before going P1 I was feeling quite good,” said Latifi. “It wasn’t by fluke, everyone was doing lap times at the same times, at the same track conditions, so we’re obviously getting something right as a team there.

“And I’m clearly not a bad driver, I mean you still have to drive the car in the wet and it is still very difficult to drive, so it was a nice moral victory for sure, moral boost.”

 

What happened to Tsunoda?

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The worst possible race for Tsunoda heading into the summer break

With his spot on the 2023 grid not yet fully confirmed, Yuki Tsunoda can’t afford to have many more days like he had in Hungary.

Coming home in P19, he was last of all the finishers, a minute behind Latifi – who even had front-wing damage – and the only driver to get lapped twice.

He had various warnings for track limits and spun on lap 35. After the race, he complained that he had no grip throughout. So a day to forget for Tsunoda, who has now not finished inside the points since the Spanish GP in May.

 

What it all means for the championship

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Do Ferrari now need to focus more on retaining second, rather than fighting Red Bull for the title?

After squandering yet another opportunity to close the gap to Red Bull, Ferrari now needs to look over its shoulder with Mercedes closing in.

Despite a problematic start to the season, the Silver Arrows trails Ferrari by just 30 points in the championship.

On top of that, Lewis Hamilton has now stood on the podium more times this season [6] than Leclerc [5], despite the Monégasque being Verstappen’s closest challenger.

Although Ferrari arguably has the quickest car on the grid, will it waste that and finish third in the standings?

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