F1 race results: Max Verstappen wins wild Hungarian GP

Mercedes’ George Russell led from pole but came under attack from Charles Leclerc from one-third distance. Leclerc grabbed the lead with a fantastic outbraking move around the outside of Turn 1.

But Leclerc’s chances of victory were dealt a fatal blow when Ferrari opted for him to run the slower hard tyres, despite evidence of the Alpines struggling badly on them.

On the flipside, title rival Verstappen, who changed his engine after a qualifying disaster, charged his way to the front – despite a spin soon after passing Leclerc.

Lewis Hamilton put on a late-race charge to grab second for Mercedes, ahead of Russell.

2022 Hungarian Grand Prix race results

Cla	Nº	Driver	Car / Engine	Laps	Time
1	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	70	-
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	70	-7.834
3	63	George Russell	Mercedes	70	-12.337
4	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	70	-14.579
5	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull	70	-15.688
6	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	70	-16.047
7	4	Lando Norris	McLaren/Mercedes	70	-1'18.300
8	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine/Renault	69	-
9	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine/Renault	69	-
10	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin/Mercedes	69	-
11	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin/Mercedes	69	-
12	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri/Red Bull	69	-
13	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo/Ferrari	69	-
14	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas/Ferrari	69	-
15	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren/Mercedes	69	-
16	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas/Ferrari	69	-
17	23	Alexander Albon	Williams/Mercedes	69	-
18	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams/Mercedes	69	-
19	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri/Red Bull	68	-
20	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo/Ferrari	65	-

How the Hungarian Grand Prix unfolded

Russell held his pole advantage on the run to Turn 1, where Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz attacked him around the outside but slotted into second. The second Mercedes of Hamilton made a great start to vault past both Alpines – who were too busy battling each other – to run fifth, before he ran wide on the exit of Turn 1 and rejoined behind McLaren’s Lando Norris.

A virtual safety car interrupted the race to clear the track from debris at Turn 2, and it resumed on Lap 3 with Russell pulling out a handy 2.6s lead over Sainz.

From his 10^th-place start, Verstappen worked his way past the Alpines by Lap 7, passing Fernando Alonso after he suffered a big moment at Turn 3 and then outbraking Esteban Ocon at Turn 1 to run sixth. Behind him, teammate Sergio Perez did likewise.

Hamilton and Verstappen used DRS to jump ahead of Norris on Lap 12, and Perez took sixth from Norris a lap later.

Russell’s soft tyres began to struggle against the Ferraris’ mediums by Lap 15, and he pitted two laps later (suffering a sticky right-front wheel change) just as Sainz was about to get into DRS range. Verstappen too stopped at this point to try and undercut past Hamilton.

Sainz pitted a lap later and also suffered a slow 3.7s stop, and he rejoined well behind Russell and, crucially, took a lap to get past a longer-running Ocon. Sainz was now 3s behind the Mercedes.

Leclerc stayed out longest of the leaders, pitting on Lap 22 and rejoining ahead of Sainz in second, 2.7s behind Russell. Leclerc closed the gap on new rubber, getting into Russell’s DRS range on Lap 27, and began attacking a lap later – drawing alongside at Turn 3 but Russell ran him wide.

Leclerc grabbed the lead with a brilliant lunge around the outside of Russell at Turn 1 on Lap 31 and pulled away as Sainz caught Russell – with Verstappen cruising up to their battle too.

Verstappen pitted again on Lap 39 to try and undercut Russell and Sainz, sparking Mercedes to respond. Leader Leclerc also stopped, taking the hard tyre for the planned final stint as it was too early to take softs.

Verstappen got ahead of Russell in the pitstop cycle, while Sainz stayed out in the lead on mediums. Leclerc had no pace on the hard tyre, allowing Verstappen to zoom past him into Turn 1.

But further around the lap Verstappen spun, allowing Leclerc back ahead of him and putting Russell back into the mix. The recovering Verstappen repassed sitting duck Leclerc on Lap 45, who then slipped back into a fight for second with Russell.

Sainz pitted from the lead, switching to softs, but a left-rear problem meant a stop of 4.7s. Hamilton now led for a handful of laps, pitting on Lap 53 for softs, putting Verstappen back in front as Russell got past Leclerc for second on Lap 55.

Leclerc pitted again, to get rid of his unloved hard tyres, dropping him to sixth for a lonely run to the flag on softs.

Hamilton was really on a charge, passing Sainz for third on Lap 63 and Russell two laps later. But he was 10s behind Verstappen, who remained out of reach.

A rain shower on the last lap didn’t impact the result, with Verstappen winning from Hamilton, Russell, Sainz, Perez and Leclerc.

2022 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix fastest laps

Cla	Nº	Driver	Car / Engine	Time	Delay	Lap	km/h
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1'21.386		57	193.787
2	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1'21.622	0.236	57	193.227
3	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull	1'21.940	0.554	44	192.477
4	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	1'22.000	0.614	51	192.336
5	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo/Ferrari	1'22.029	0.643	58	192.268
6	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1'22.126	0.740	45	192.041
7	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin/Mercedes	1'22.437	1.051	51	191.317
8	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams/Mercedes	1'22.478	1.092	60	191.221
9	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1'22.766	1.380	57	190.556
10	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin/Mercedes	1'22.824	1.438	51	190.423
11	4	Lando Norris	McLaren/Mercedes	1'23.043	1.657	47	189.920
12	23	Alexander Albon	Williams/Mercedes	1'23.047	1.661	43	189.911
13	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas/Ferrari	1'23.151	1.765	50	189.674
14	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri/Red Bull	1'23.199	1.813	58	189.564
15	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas/Ferrari	1'23.511	2.125	37	188.856
16	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri/Red Bull	1'23.538	2.152	58	188.795
17	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren/Mercedes	1'23.654	2.268	64	188.533
18	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine/Renault	1'23.979	2.593	47	187.804
19	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo/Ferrari	1'24.002	2.616	60	187.752
20	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine/Renault	1'24.149	2.763	60	187.424