Courtesy of Red Bull Media Service Team
Red Bull Racing driver secures second after thrilling Hungaroring race.
Max Verstappen
narrowly lost out on a second consecutive grand prix win after being
forced to settle for second place following a race-long battle with
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
His teammate Pierre Gasly recovered from a difficult start to finish as he lined up on the grid, in sixth place.
Scuderia Toro Rosso‘s Alexander Albon completed the top 10, and Daniil Kvyat took 15th.
Verstappen
is the driver who has scored the most points, 81, in the last four
races including Hungary. Another Dutchman took an F1 podium there before
him however – his father Jos, in 1994.
RED BULL RACING
MAX VERSTAPPEN, Finish Position: 2nd, Start Position: 1st
“We
gave it our all but Lewis was clearly a bit faster than us today. It
was nice to see that we had such a big gap to the others though and
second is still a good result. It wasn’t our day in terms of pace but
overall it was a good weekend and getting pole position was a great
step. Of course, when you start at the front you want to win but you
also have to be realistic and to finish second with the fastest lap was
the most that we could do. I tried to keep Lewis behind when we were on
the same tyres but because of the gap to third, he had the option to do a
second stop which worked out for him. I was trying to survive out front
and push on my tyres but when he was closing in by one or two seconds
per lap there wasn’t much I could do. He closed so quickly on the fresh
tyres that I wasn’t surprised he managed to get past. We then pitted to
get the fastest lap, which is one extra point, and I’m of course happy
to get that. No regrets and we tried everything we could. It was a good
weekend for us and I go into the break with a good feeling as we’re
getting closer all the time.”
PIERRE GASLY, Finish Position: 6th, Start Position: 6th
“It
was a difficult race right from the beginning. We had a poor start
which didn’t make life easy, and after that I just tried to attack as
much as I could but I was sliding everywhere and struggling with grip. I
was in a bit of a sandwich in Turn 1, then I was quite close with Kimi
in Turn 2 so I lost a lot of time at the start which didn’t help my
race. The weekend started pretty well and Friday was good, we were happy
with FP1 and FP2, but from Saturday I have just struggled for grip. We
finished the race P6 and scored some points but for sure it was not the
amount we wanted. It’s good for everyone to have a break now and switch
off. I will relax and review the first half of the season, I will look
at what went well and what could have been better so I come back sharper
and stronger for the second half and make sure we score more points.”
CHRISTIAN HORNER, Team Principal
“It
was frustrating the way that things panned out today. Max did
everything we asked of him, he made the start and controlled the race in
the opening laps. We needed to pit earlier to cover Lewis, who pitted
six laps later and Mercedes had great pace today. They pushed, pushed,
pushed and we were able to protect and defend. Max and Lewis were so far
ahead of the field with 22 laps to go that Mercedes rolled the
strategic dice and pitted Lewis for new medium tyres. If we had pitted
to cover we would have conceded track position so our bed was made to
get to the end of the race. Congratulations to Mercedes and Lewis today,
they were able to get the lead with three or four laps to go, at which
point we had nothing to lose but bolt on a new set of softs and take the
fastest lap. With Pierre, he lost places on the first lap but was able
to recover through strategy back up to P6. Second and sixth position
feels slightly frustrating on a day that promised more but nonetheless
we achieved P2, pole position and fastest lap. Max has closed the gap to
Valtteri in the Drivers’ Championship and the whole Team now heads into
a well-earned summer break with real performance on the car in the last
few races.”
SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO
Alexander Albon (STR14-04, Car 23)
Race: Pos. 10th
“I
had quite a good race today. My first stint was average, and I didn’t
feel very comfortable with the Medium tyres, it felt like I had almost
no grip at all, but once I went onto the Hard tyres the car came alive
again. I had two nice fights with Dany, the first one was much closer
than the second one! It was good fun and it was fair racing. I think P10
was the best we could achieve today, so we have to be pleased. Now I’ve
got time to relax a bit, review the season so far and understand where I
need to improve to be ready for the second half of the year.”
Daniil Kvyat (STR14-03, Car 26)
Race: Pos. 15th
“It
was an interesting race and I think it could have been a good day, but
unfortunately, we pitted too early and my tyres hit the cliff with
around 15 laps to go. Once you hit the cliff it’s game over, so the
strategy didn’t work out for us today. It was a nice battle with Alex
when we were both on the same tyres, I managed to overtake him and it
was very good fun, but after that in the last few laps when my tyres
were completely gone it wasn’t enjoyable anymore. Having said that, I’m
quite happy with the way I drove and I got everything I could out of the
car. It’s just a shame we weren’t able to bring home the points.”
Franz Tost (Team Principal):
“Today we had another very exciting Formula 1 race in front of a big crowd with so many fans who came to Budapest, which shows how much interest the fans have for Formula 1.
We didn’t show very good pace from the beginning of the weekend
onwards, so we started the race from P12 and P13. However, during the
race our performance was quite good, but we probably called Daniil in
for the pit stop a bit too early and, as a consequence, in the final few
laps he suffered with his tyres like a few other drivers around him.
Despite this, he still drove a very good race. As for Alex, we called
him in seven laps later than Daniil and this helped him to attack at the
end of the race, which allowed him to overtake Perez and score a point.
It was fantastic to see how Daniil and Alex raced each other – we
didn’t want to give any order from the pit wall and we decided to let
them race – this is what people want to see from the grandstands and on
TV. They fought each other fairly and it was good racing. I think this
was the maximum result we could achieve today, so we have to work very
hard to close the gap to our direct competitors and I think we will
achieve this in the second half of the season. Thanks to the whole team,
the complete working group, for the big effort they put in the first
half of the year. Now we will have two weeks of holidays to come back
with fully charged batteries for the rest of the season.”