With Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team getting another double podium, the Hungarian Grand Prix has historically been a good stomping ground for Lewis Hamilton. This season, he had a good opening stint on medium tyres, moving up from seventh position to fifth.
George Russell also had a secure first stint where he fought off the Scuderia Ferrari cars, holding on at the front from pole position before falling back to third. The weather often plays a big part in Hungary but it wasn’t going to be the biggest threat for drivers this weekend. Instead, the issue affecting a lot of drivers was the tyres.
Toto Wolff, the team principal of Mercedes, said, “George had a great qualifying session with pole and drove a solid race. He was in the fight utilising the tyres but ran out of them in the second stint. Lewis’ fight today was unbelievable, Budapest continues to be a success story for him. He came out of nowhere and was quicker than everyone else.
“I think we lost the race with him yesterday with the DRS failing. Otherwise, we would have been able to fight at the front for the victory today. Second and third twice in a row is great but we want to fight for the win.“
Hamilton got to second place and Russell fell back to third. Toto Wolff continued, “We have a result we can work with, given we had a really bad Friday. It’s very frustrating and not easy to pick yourself up and stay motivated, so it’s a learning process.
“Today, we had good pace, but we need to stay humble and look at race weekend after race weekend so we can try to gain more learnings and experiment to put us in a situation where we can actually fight for wins at the end of the season.”
“Well done to the whole team!” – Andrew Shovlin
Hamilton started the race on medium tyres, changing to new medium tyres on lap nineteen and onto soft tyres on lap fifty-one. This meant that on his final stint, he was on fresher tyres than his competitors.
Russell, on the other hand, started on soft, changed to mediums on lap sixteen and to new mediums on lap thirty-nine.
The trackside engineering director for Mercedes said, “The team and drivers can be really proud of the way we’d turned the weekend around after Friday. George’s first pole and the team’s first with the W13 was a nice achievement and another double podium is a great way to head into the break.
“We still need a little more to get that first win of the season but every week it feels like it’s getting closer and closer and the team is determined to make it to the top step soon. It’s been the hardest start to a season that we’ve had for a long time, but it’s been hugely satisfying to see the team and drivers work so hard to get the car back to where we need it to be.
“Everyone is looking forward to the shutdown for some time to rest and recharge, but we’ll be wanting to continue where we left off in Spa and hoping for a strong finish to the year“, he concluded.
Mercedes is now third in the Constructors’ Standings, 30 points behind Ferrari and can enjoy their well-deserved summer break.
