Hungarian Grand Prix: Race Recap

Hulkenberg took the start on Pirelli P Zero Yellow Medium tires from 11th position but endured a challenging first lap, falling to 15th place, and boxed at the end of Lap two to take on White hard tires. Hulkenberg set a string of fastest laps to gradually elevate up the order before coming in on Lap 29 for another set of hard tires. Hulkenberg took the checkered flag in 13th position.

Magnussen started on Red soft tires from 15th position and made a strong getaway to slot into 10th position, before coming in on Lap six for a set of Hard tires. Magnussen subsequently mirrored Hulkenberg’s two-stop strategy in boxing for another set of Hard tires on Lap 33 and preserved that set through to the finish of the 70-lap race, fending off Valtteri Bottas by just a tenth of a second to scoop 15th place.

Up front, McLaren Racing’s Oscar Piastri claimed his maiden grand prix victory, ahead of team-mate Lando Norris, with Mercedes AMG driver Lewis Hamilton in third position.



Nico Hulkenberg:

“It was a poor start and a pretty bad first lap that caught us out and put us on the back foot, and when you don’t have track position – which it’s all about around here – it’s very difficult. When you’re running behind in dirty air, you have to try something and push your luck, and an early stop was the answer to that. We then had two huge stints to do with hard tires, and we knew that would be challenging as we couldn’t make the tire last long enough. Over one lap, we were pretty competitive but over long runs, not so much, a bit similar to Monaco.”

Kevin Magnussen:

“We rolled the dice a little bit with the soft tire start, which a couple of others did, and I gained a lot of positions on the first lap. I got overcut by a few cars and ultimately, we didn’t have the pace today to fight for points. I feel we could’ve done better in qualifying, but looking at the pace today I don’t think we were in the running for points anyway. Still, we take another lesson from this weekend and then we hope Spa is better.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“It was quite a tough afternoon. Kevin had a pretty decent Lap 1, whereas Nico lost positions in the opening lap. From that point on, we needed to get Nico back into the points and try something different, so we pitted early, but ultimately we didn’t have the pace. On Kevin’s side, because his position was P15, we needed to try something different and he had a brilliant lap one getting to P10, but because he was on the soft tire he still had to pit early. I don’t think it worked really and when you see competitors execute a brilliant one-stop strategy, finishing in the points, we need to look into it. Onto the next race in Spa, and with the level of downforce there, it hopefully will suit us better. We need to regroup and finish the first half of the season on a high before the shutdown.”

Today's Data: 

Event: Hungarian Grand Prix – Sunday July 21
Location: Hungaroring, Budapest
Layout: 4.381-kilometer (2.722-mile), 14-turn circuit
Weather: Sunny
Air Temps: 28.5 degrees Celsius (83.3 degrees Fahrenheit)
Track Temps: 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 degrees Fahrenheit)
Race Winner: Oscar Piastri of McLaren
Team Result: 
Nico Hulkenberg – Started 11th / Finished 13th (Running – 69/70 laps)
Kevin Magnussen – Started 15th / Finished 15th (Running – 69/70 laps)