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2019 Hungarian Grand Prix – what the drivers said

Sian Cowper

2019 Hungarian Grand Prix, Sunday - LAT Images

Formula 1 heads into its four-week summer break following the 12th round of the season at the Hungaroring.

Lewis Hamilton’s seventh career win at the Hungarian Grand Prix leaves him 62 points clear at the top of the drivers’ standings.

The Mercedes driver made a two-stop strategy work to overhaul pole sitter Max Verstappen’s lead.

3 Legs 4 Wheels looks at the drivers’ reactions following the race:

Lewis Hamilton – 1st (Mercedes):

“We’ve been together for seven years, but this feeling never gets old. If it wasn’t for everyone here and back at the factory, this wouldn’t have been possible. I’m so grateful to be a part of it and for the team for continuing to believe in me, push the limits and take a risk. We struggled a little with the brakes today, so I was trying to save as much as I could for when I had a chance to pass Max. It was very, very difficult to get by. I wasn’t sure if I could close the 19-second gap, but the team said to just get your head down, so I did. I kept pushing, the gap closed and the laps were like Qualifying laps. I was on the limit all the way. I take my hat off to the team and I think if Niki were here today, he would take his hat off too.”

2019 Hungarian Grand Prix, Sunday – LAT Images

 

Max Verstappen – 2nd (Red Bull):

“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.”

 

Toto Wolff – Team Principal (Mercedes):

“What an unbelievable comeback. This is why we love the sport, you are holding onto moments like this, where it’s an unexpected result
and this is why it feels so great. We didn’t think it would go this way but the strategy team did so well and made great calls. There was a specific point in the race where we weren’t sure if Lewis would catch Max, but he got his head down and once the Red Bull was in sight, we knew he’d pounce. An incredible drive and a great result to head into the summer break with. On Valtteri’s side, it was a disappointing day. He was so pumped for the race and his Qualifying performance was great. But, the first lap didn’t go well and from there it was tough for him to fight back through the field. It has been a fantastic first half of the season, with 10 wins from 12 races. We will use the break to recharge our batteries – and hopefully return even stronger in Spa.”

2019 Hungarian Grand Prix, Sunday – LAT Images

 

Sebastian Vettel – 3rd (Ferrari):

“We leave Hungary and for a few weeks we can console ourselves with the fact that we made it to the podium in a race in which we knew we were going to struggle. Today, we simply could not match the pace of our rivals. In terms of strategy, the idea was to come up with something different to try and do better than fourth. I managed to extend the first stint to 39 laps and that allowed me to fit Softs and have a stronger pace than Charles in the closing stages. Now we can recharge our batteries and prepare to battle once more in Spa and Monza, tracks where we ought to be more competitive. We know there is still some performance to come from the SF90 and we have to work on that, but I am convinced that there is a margin to get better results.”

 

Charles Leclerc – 4th (Ferrari):

“Arriving in Hungary we knew it would be a tough race for us, and it was. The beginning of the first stint wasn’t bad, but as the race progressed, I started to struggle with my rear tyres more and more and could not match the pace of our competitors. My target now is to understand how to improve this, especially over long runs and on circuits where the degradation is high. I look forward to returning to racing after the break so that we can continue working on making further improvements and give our competitors a good challenge.” 

 

Carlos Sainz – 5th (McLaren):

“Yes! This time, P5 tastes much better than the P5 of seven days ago. We executed the race perfectly. We had a great start, great pace and, in a fairly normal race, we managed to score a top-five finish. Holding Gasly behind in the second stint was intense, but I controlled the pace to counter-attack any opportunity he had to get closer and managed to finish ahead of a Red Bull on pure pace. I really want to thank and congratulate every single member of the team, here and back at the factory. I think these first dozen races show how much progress we’ve made this season, and we now need to keep digging. The ambition is to get closer and closer. Everyone can be proud of how things are going and the consistency we’re achieving. To keep learning in the second half of the season is important to try to build a better car for next year and take another step. Now it’s time to recharge the batteries and come back even stronger. Thank you team, enjoy a well-deserved summer break!”

 

Pierre Gasly – 6th (Red Bull):

“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.”

 

Mattia Binotto – Team Principal (Ferrari):

“We can’t take satisfaction from today’s result, when what was mainly to blame was a lack of aero downforce, which at the moment penalises us even more in the race than in qualifying. The hot conditions did not help and actually caused us more problems in terms of reduced grip levels. Sebastian did a good job of managing the tyres in the first stint, thus lengthening it, which meant he could fit the softs and run with them to the chequered flag. However, we have to understand why Charles’ tyres wore so much and fix it for the coming races. We pitted him, as his rears were very used and there was nothing else we could do. From a track on which we knew we would struggle, we still head home with the same number of points of our closer rivals. Next week we will continue to work on analysing data and preparing for the next two races in Spa and Monza, however, before then we have the summer break which will be good for the entire team, that has really worked so hard over the past few months.”

 

Christian Horner – Team Principal (Red Bull):

“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.”

 

Kimi Raikkonen – 7th (Alfa Romeo):

“Well, that was quite good. The car behaved great, I did a good job in the first lap and stayed out of trouble and then we had even better speed than the McLaren, but it was impossible to overtake. We lost one position at the pit stop but also gained one, so that’s a bit of a shame, but overall I can’t be too disappointed. I’ll take the points and move on. Look forward to spending the summer break with my family, but I’m also happy for all the people in the team, as they work incredibly hard and deserve some time off.”

 

Valtteri Bottas – 8th (Mercedes):

“That was a tough day and not what I expected. Far from it. The first lap was a bit messy, I had a lock-up at Turn 1 which was my mistake.
I was trying to brake as late and as hard as I could, but I locked the front-right and picked up a flat-spot. That caused a bit of understeer and then obviously I had the contact with Charles, which broke the front wing. We had to stop early as a result and that really compromised my race, as I came out in traffic and lost a lot of time. I tried everything I could, but it was really tough to overtake. At least I got some points but we’ll analyse what happened and learn from it.”

 

Lando Norris – 9th (McLaren):

“A good start, where I came up to a lot of the guys ahead, which was good. I got past Gasly straight away but I knew Carlos was somewhere on the inside, so I played it safe and gave him plenty of space. With hindsight, I think I could’ve stayed ahead but I didn’t want to take the risk. P7 in the first stint was alright, following Carlos the whole way. Then we did our pit-stop and I think the left rear was a bit slow. We lost all of our positions there, basically. The pace was good but the Mercedes was a bit quicker at the end. Apart from that it was an alright race.”

 

Alexander Albon – 10th (Toro Rosso):

“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.”

 

Andreas Seidl – Team Principal (McLaren):

“It’s been another very strong weekend for the team. It was a very impressive drive from Carlos after a great start. He kept Gasly behind him all through the second part of the race and didn’t miss a beat to secure P5. Lando was unlucky. He was set up for a higher finish before a problem with the left-rear wheel gun cost him two positions in the pit-stop and left him exposed to Bottas at the end. Very hard work over the last month – both at the track and back at the MTC – is paying off. We were clearly the fourth-fastest team, and scoring another 12 vital points locks us into fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship. Every single member of the team can take heart from that going into the summer break. The next job is for everyone to recharge their batteries and come back even stronger in Spa.”

 

Sergio Perez – 11th (Racing Point):

“I think today was definitely a race of which we can be proud. We did a fantastic race – a good start, great first lap, very aggressive strategy to undercut two cars and then pushing to the limit all the way through. Right at the end Albon came up behind me quickly and we made contact, which damaged my suspension. I was really struggling in the last three or four laps – it was a challenge just to finish in P11. We were expecting a difficult race, but we were in the fight for a point until the very end – unfortunately we just didn’t get it. We gave it everything out there, so I’m happy with that. Hopefully the second half of the season will be more promising for us.”

Sergio Perez, Racing Point RP19, leads Lance Stroll, Racing Point RP19

 

Nico Hulkenberg – 12th (Renault):

“It was a difficult afternoon for us today. We struggled with the car, with an engine control issue from the beginning of the race, which meant I lost consistently three tenths a lap. That made things tricky and we just didn’t have the pace to progress into the points. It’s a good time for a break. As a team we will regroup, think a few things over because we need to up our game in the second part of the season.”

 

Kevin Magnussen – 13th (Haas):

“The car was okay in the race today, not too bad at least, for our level. Considering the problems we’ve had this year, it was pretty quick race pace – not good race pace, but compared to ourselves in the past. I’m happy we’re headed into the summer break now, we all are in the team, everyone’s ready for the break. We’ll come back stronger.”

 

Daniel Ricciardo – 14th (Renault):

“It was always going to be tough starting at the back of the grid, but there were some positive moments. We made the Hard tyres last well and then had good pace on the Soft tyre towards the end. It was frustrating not to get past Magnussen. I felt he was moving under braking, and I couldn’t do anything. I wasn’t happy about that as we could have progressed even further at the end. There are some positives and the summer break will be good for us. We’ll reset, take some time off, we know we’re in it together and we’ll be targeting a better second-half of the season.”

 

Otmar Szafnauer – CEO & Team Principal (Racing Point):

“It was always going to be hard work considering our starting positions, but we gave it everything and came close to scoring a point with Sergio. The move from Albon was very firm and there was significant contact involved, which affected Sergio’s car late in the race. For Lance, we had to react to the cars around us early on, which forced a pit stop earlier than anticipated. We had to react to Giovinazzi pitting, but Russell pitted on the same lap as Lance and we remained stuck behind him. We moved to a two-stop race to see if we could make the fresh tyres work for us in the final part of the race, but ultimately we ran out of laps. It’s disappointing to leave Budapest empty-handed, but we will come back refreshed after the break, determined to have a much stronger second half of the season.”

 

Daniil Kvyat – 15th (Toro Rosso):

“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.”

 

George Russell – 16th (Williams):

Yesterday definitely exceeded expectations, so it was a little bit back to reality today. I had a good first lap and made up two positions on Magnussen and Kvyat at turn four and five, which was pretty fun. It was nice to be racing other drivers. We’ve still got work to do but there are a lot of positives to take from this weekend. We’ve made a good step forward.

 

Guenther Steiner – Team Principal (Haas):

“It was a pretty tough race for us. In the end though we showed some fight with some other midfield teams. A lot is in these tires, which makes these races so unpredictable, and weird almost. Kevin (Magnussen) put up a good fight, and unfortunately Romain’s (Grosjean) tires just died on him, then we had an issue with his water pressure. At the end, it’s a difficult situation to be, in dealing with these tires and getting them to work. We will keep on trying until something changes.”

 

Lance Stroll – 17th (Racing Point):

“There’s not much to say about this weekend, which is a shame. I had a bad start and didn’t make up any ground on the first lap, which is so important here at the Hungaroring. I was stuck behind the Williams of Russell for the whole race so that pretty much sums up my afternoon. We knew this track was going to be difficult for us – because of our car characteristics – plus it’s not easy to overtake here. That’s why it was a frustrating race. We will use the break to regroup and come back fighting in Belgium: a track that should be much more suited to our car.”

Lance Stroll, Racing Point RP19, battle with Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo Racing C38

 

Romain Grosjean – DNF (Haas):

“I was happy with the beginning of the race. The car felt okay on softs, I was holding everyone behind. That’s something we knew from the race pace and I was happy with that. Then we fitted the hard tire, which we hadn’t really run over the weekend, and I think today you didn’t want to be on the hard tire. There was no grip and it was impossible to warm them up. Ultimately we had a water pressure issue and had to retire the car anyway.”

 

Dave Robson – Senior Race Engineer (Williams):

“The lack of high fuel running earlier in the weekend, and the warmer conditions today meant that the optimum strategy wasn’t completely clear. Indeed, the battle at the front between Max and Lewis shows how close the strategies were. We opted to complete an aggressive one-stop strategy, pitting George to cover the Alfa Romeo and allowing him to race Stroll to the end. Robert had a slightly shorter final stint but had to contend with multiple blue flags. Both drivers managed their tyres well, with George able to hold Stroll off on much newer tyres.”

 

Antonio Giovinazzi – 18th (Alfa Romeo):

“It was a very disappointing race for me today. I had contact on the opening lap, when I was squeezed between two cars at turn one, and I had an issue with my first set of tyres that meant I had to cut my first stint much shorter than we were planning. It was a shame to end the first part of the season like this, especially because we had shown good pace in recent races, but it was another day in which we didn’t manage to turn our potential into points. At least we have some holidays now – a chance to hit reset during the summer break and come back to do much better in the second part of the season. The first half of my season hasn’t been ideal, but I can take heart from the improvement we had. It’s been a rollercoaster but I’ll keep working hard to improve.”

 

Robert Kubica – 19th (Williams):

“The race was as expected. We had to manage the tyres to get to the end with a one-stop strategy. The feeling wasn’t great in the car, similar to yesterday. After the break we have completely different tracks, we will have to wait and see if we are able to close the gap, like George was able to do here. It is amazing to see how many people from Poland came here. I would like to thank them for the great atmosphere and hope that they go home with good memories, as I will do.”

Robert Kubica (POL) Williams Racing FW42.
Hungarian Grand Prix, Sunday 4th August 2019. Budapest, Hungary.
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