BUDAPEST, Hungary, Jul 31 (AP) \u2014 Formula One champion Max Verstappen overcame a spin and his worst starting spot of the season to win the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday. His eighth win of the season pushed Verstappen\u2019s lead to 80 points over Charles Leclerc as F1 heads into its midseason break.
\nMercedes placed both its cars on the podium for the second straight race; seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton carved his way from seventh to a second-place finish, teammate and pole-sitter George Russell was third.
\nCarlos Sainz Jr. finished fourth in another disastrous day for Ferrari. Leclerc was sixth, one spot behind Sergio Perez of Red Bull.
\nVerstappen\u2019s eighth win of the season was the 28th of the Dutchman\u2019s career.
\n\u201cWho would have thought when we woke up today we\u2019d get this result? Amazing,\u201d Verstappen told his team, letting out a laugh. \u201cI was battling a lot of guys and it was a lot of fun out there. That was a crazy race but (we) stayed calm and we won.\u201d
\nHe qualified a season-worst 10th because of a loss of power on Saturday, then in Sunday\u2019s race Verstappen did a 360-degree spin.
\n\u201cUnbelievable Max, that is right up there with your best,\u201d Red Bull team principal Christian Horner replied. \u201cFantastic.\u201d
\nRussell, who started from the pole for the first time in his career, led 30 laps until Leclerc passed him on the outside as dark clouds rolled over the Hungaroring circuit and a light rain began to fall.
\nWith Leclerc leading, Verstappen undercut for quicker tires. Ferrari made a mistake in choosing the more durable hard tires for Leclerc.
\n\u201cThese tires are (expletive),\u201d Leclerc said.
\nMoments later, Verstappen lost grip and spun on track, allowing Sainz to take the lead from Hamilton. Leclerc passed Verstappen, only to lose position soon after because Verstappen had faster tires.
\n\u201cIt was very tricky conditions out there but we had a really good strategy,\u201d Verstappen said. \u201cWe were really reactive, always pitting at the right time. Even with the 360 we still won.\u201d
\nFerrari\u2019s strategy woes just won\u2019t go away. Leclerc has seen two nailed-on wins disappear \u2014 at the Monaco GP and the British GP \u2014 after team calls dropped him down from a dominant position into fourth place.
\nFerrari botched Sainz\u2019s next tire stop on Lap 47, taking too long to fit his rear left tire. Hamilton stayed out but was losing time to Verstappen as the rain increased.
\nLeclerc, who crashed when leading the French Grand Prix last week, came in for a third tire change on Lap 55.
\nLando Norris finished seventh for McLaren, Fernando Alonso was eighth and his Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon was ninth. Sebastian Vettel of Aston Martin was 10th.
\nAfter a month-long break the season resumes with a triple header in Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy.
\n\u201cFor both cars to be on the podium is really special for us. The other guys have an edge but we\u2019re clearly closing the gap,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cHopefully we\u2019ll bring more into the second half of the season and start fighting with the guys at the front.\u201d
\nAlphaTauri\u2019s Pierre Gasly started from the pit lane after being penalized for multiple engine-part changes and finished 12th.
\nMcLaren\u2019s Daniel Ricciardo showed some of his old form with a great double overtake on Ocon and Alonso approaching midway through the race, celebrating with an exuberant expletive.
\nBut Ricciardo wasn\u2019t laughing later on as the Australian driver got a five-second time penalty for clipping Lance Stroll\u2019s Aston Martin and sending him off track. Ricciardo placed a lowly 15th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BUDAPEST, Hungary, Jul 31 (AP) \u2014 Formula One champion Max Verstappen overcame a spin and his worst starting spot of the season to win the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday. His eighth win of the season pushed Verstappen\u2019s lead to 80 points over Charles Leclerc as F1 heads into its midseason break. Mercedes placed both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-196840","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}