Ferrari looked to have the pace to beat Red Bull in the preceding French Grand Prix before Leclerc badly let it down with his crash. But that event also featured the team’s botched strategy with Sainz after he’d blotted his copybook by driving through Ferrari’s pitstop red light and getting a penalty. Sainz had insisted the day before that criticism of Ferrari’s strategy calls was unfounded – a claim that is becoming ever more bizarre.

In Hungary, having edged back to pressure early leader Russell in the first stint, Ferrari looked to have the pace and track position to win once Leclerc had finally cleared the Mercedes in yet another brilliant pass this season. But putting him on hards, which it had not run in the dry Friday practice, cost so much pace he even needed an extra stop. Sainz was not put on the hards, but Ferrari still found a way to cost him time – in this instance with two slow pitstops.

Team boss Mattia Binotto claimed Ferrari lacked the pace to beat Red Bull even with the same strategy, but this goes down as yet another example of the red team itself preventing its drivers from achieving their best results. Indeed, Horner said of his rival’s decisions: “You have to think on your feet… [Ferrari] boxed themselves into a corner”.

READ: THE AERODYNAMICS OF A F1 REAR WING – CFD EXPLAINED IN MOTORSPORT

Verstappen and Red Bull really show their class to take shock victory

The 2022 rule changes may have made racing much better even on the tight and twisty Hungaroring (more on that later), but a driver would never choose to start a race at this venue from 10th – especially with the chance that weather won’t intervene.

As the rain just about stayed away at the Budapest track last Sunday other than drizzle falling at various points and with no safety car to bunch the pack up, that Verstappen and Red Bull came away victorious from that grid spot was mightily impressive.

The team spotted Verstappen’s struggles for grip on the laps to the grid in the coolest conditions of the weekend and so decided to stick with the softs for the race start. This proved to be a vital decision as it meant Verstappen could use the mediums for the remainder and avoid the hards, which would undo Ferrari.

The world champion’s passes were brilliant and he heads into the summer break with an 80-point lead. That’s so big Verstappen can now afford to finish second to Leclerc at every round and the final sprint (although he’d need to nick a fastest lap point, which his rival needs at every race, to avoid losing the title on victory countback).

READ: WHAT IS CASTER ANGLE?

Even engine and clutch issues, plus smoky spin couldn’t stop Verstappen’s victory

Things did not look so rosy for Red Bull after qualifying, when a sudden engine issue robbed Verstappen of power ahead of the final Q3 runs. But Red Bull team boss Christian Horner estimated that had that not happened, the engine would’ve failed during Verstappen’s laps to the grid and caused a DNS.

Overnight, Red Bull swapped to fresh engines for both Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez and although Horner says the previously used units can be repaired, it does raise the prospect of them taking grid penalties for running further engines later in the season.

During Sunday’s race, Verstappen’s clutch was heating to the point of nearly burning, so Red Bull had to hold him back when chasing Carlos Sainz after the first stops. But once it had figured out a way for him to drive around the issue, he was unleashed again.

Verstappen says the issue causing his wheels to slip when applying throttle contributed to his spin having just passed Leclerc for the first time. But his pace was so great – and Perez’s defensive action against the quickly-arriving Russell helped avoid further lost time – he was able to quickly recover.

READ: HOW F1 DRS WORKS?

Mercedes “unconventional” tactics bear fruit with Hungary pole

George Russell claimed his first F1 pole by topping qualifying at the Hungaroring, which ended a 13-race streak since Mercedes’ last pole – taken by Lewis Hamilton at the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP.

Afterwards, team boss Toto Wolff credited his squad testing its typical processes by trying new things – such as running a new floor at Silverstone that had not been trialled in its windtunnel due to correlation issues spotted in its at-track data across the season so far.

This, Wolff felt, contributed to Russell’s pole, while Hamilton reckoned the team could’ve qualified in a 1-2 without his car having a DRS issue just as he started his only new tyre run in Q3. The pair ended up finishing second and third for the second race in a row, with Hamilton following Verstappen home.

“This season, we have done unconventional things,” said Wolff. “I remember having a chat with a very clever lady in aerodynamics and she said: ‘if you would have told me last year that we’re putting a floor on the car that we haven’t run in the windtunnel, I would have said we are never going to do this.’ We did and everybody was proud of the results.

“It’s been same thing every weekend, and more so on Friday and Saturday here. We’ve tried things.”