F1 Talk: Does Verstappen and Hamilton’s Battle Beckon in a new Era

Yet again, Formula One has treated us to a spectacular race. As referenced in the preview for the Hungarian GP, it was going to be a race for the purists but I don’t think anyone thought it would turn out as it did.

Ultimately, Lewis Hamilton extended his points advantage by winning for an eight time this season and coming out on top in one of the best race-long battles you will ever see not just in F1 but in motorsport. As Verstappen closes in on second place in the championship, is this simply the prologue to a generational battle.

No safety cars, no messing around it was both drivers at their very best with both teams having to think on their feet and reacting to the situation rather than going with the computer and sticking to a plan.

Hamilton finished over a minute clear of the Ferrari drivers and himself and Verstappen lapped everyone bar the Ferrari cars.

If you didn’t enjoy that race, you are not a motorsport fan.

Lets see how we got to that situation. Once again, qualifying was very exciting and with the top five drivers (Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel) all making it into Q3, we were all set for a stunning climax.

Verstappen was second quickest in all three practice sessions and was definitely in the game going into qualifying. Ferrari did not quite have the ultimate pace to challenge the front row of the grid so had to settle for 4th and 5th.

Hamilton consistently struggled in sector one compared to his rivals, losing 0.1-0.2 throughout qualifying. It cost him when it mattered as he was outqualified by Bottas with too much to do in the final two sectors.

There was hardly anything between Verstappen and Bottas in all three sectors, even the 20 mini sectors across the lap. Verstappen made the key difference in the final two turns, getting a slightly better drive off the final and penultimate corners to grab his maiden pole position by just 0.018 to become the first ever Dutch driver to start a Grand Prix for first place.

The duct was broken but there was still a big job to do on Sunday. As the old F1 saying goes ‘points on Sunday, not Saturday.’

Red Bull have had some bad starts this season, but Verstappen reversed the norm and held the lead. Crucially for Hamilton, he bravely went around the outside of teammate Bottas at turn two to get the inside line for turn three.

It was a risky move and Bottas looked a little out on control as he locked has brakes into turn one and two, centimetres away from sliding into Hamilton and potentially damaging both Mercedes. For Hamilton, he knew he had to get by Bottas or else he would get stuck behind with Verstappen running away up the road.

Plus, Mercedes generally give the lead driver the better strategy so it was a pivotal moment for Hamilton’s race to overtake Bottas so that he would not be compromised.

Bottas had contact with Leclerc on the run up to turn four, damaging his front wing whilst Leclerc somehow got away without a puncture. At first I thought Leclerc swiped across Bottas and was lucky to not get a penalty but Bottas was equally to blame having drifted to the right himself.

Both drivers were very clumsy and it was a racing incident with nobody predominantly to blame. Leclerc went a bit to the left when he shouldn’t have, Bottas went to the right when he shouldn’t have.

Bottas pitted early for front wing damage but Mercedes strangely left him out there for 3-4 laps too long. Rather than pitting him immediately when it was clear he was losing 2+ seconds a lap, they left him out there with him losing a lot of time, wasting laps that he could have been catching back up to the pack. I don’t get why they did it.

Back at the front, the race was on. Hamilton was sitting comfortably around two seconds behind Verstappen and both drivers immediately built a pitstop’s gap to the Ferrari drivers.

Verstappen pitted first after Mercedes ‘faked’ a pitstop a couple times, something which you are not actually allowed to do, but I don’t mind personally because it adds to the drama and is part of the gamesmanship in F1. Just get rid of the rule, F1 needs less rules anyway.

Hamilton was able to keep a decent pace but unable to match Verstappen’s laptimes on new tyres. He pitted six laps later and came out 6.4 seconds behind after a slow pitstop.

The 5-time world champion came out of the pits like a stabbed rat and put in three excellent laps to get onto the back of the Red Bull gearbox. He was lighting up the timing screens and decided to go all in with his tyres and his power unit.

Verstappen had to follow Daniel Ricciardo through the second and third sectors and also made a small mistake going into turn 12 so Hamilton was right on his tail coming out of the final corner. Hamilton went to the outside at turn one, got a good run down the hill into turn two as they went side by side.

Hamilton cut back to get a great run out of turn two and ducked out of the slipstream before sending the car around the outside at turn four at over 160MPH. Momentarily he was in the lead but went off the track, giving Verstappen the opportunity to get back ahead.

Skill, bravery, racecraft was all shown as both drivers kept it clean, kept it fair while putting on a sensational show. I was surprised how nice Verstappen was actually, given how aggressive he has been in the past. It once again shows how he has matured in the last 12 months.

I was loving it, but more was to come.

Out of nowhere, Mercedes decided to pit Hamilton. A bold decision but one that turned out to be the correct decision. Hamilton was now on the medium tyres.

Could Red Bull have responded. Given that Hamilton had taken a second out of Verstappen in the middle sector on his outlap, I don’t think they could.

It would have taken one of those sub two-second pitstops from Red Bull and even then they would have been side by side with Verstappen on cold tyres. It would have been exhilarating but had Verstappen emerged behind then they would have no chance of getting the win.

The Mercedes pit crew did a great pitstop when it mattered most, had it been a slow pitstop then Red Bull would have had the opportunity to cover Hamilton and pit but because it was a good pitstop they couldn’t respond and were forced to stay out.

A second chase was on. Hamilton had 20 seconds to catch in 21 laps. Over the remainder of the race both drivers were pushing super hard, both trying to get past the traffic as quickly as possible and both on the limit.

There was a three lap period when Hamilton only gained a few tenths of a second and it looked like he had too much to do. But once he cleared the traffic, he set consecutive fastest laps of the race. It was phenomenal.

Hamilton’s laptimes once in clean air and chasing down Verstappen:

1.18.5 (Lap record)
1.18.5
1.18.5 (Lap record)
1.18.5 (Lap record)
1.18.6
1.18.7

This pace is what won him the race and we saw Mercedes being put under pressure and having to deliver everything they had from the car. The intensity of the battle was off the scale and neither driver put a foot wrong in the remainder of the race, Hamilton had to drive qualifying laps to get there and Verstappen was having to maintain an outrageous pace on harder, worn tyres.

Put anyone else on these cars and they would not win the race. For example, if it was Bottas vs. Verstappen then Verstappen would have won, if it was Gasly vs. Hamilton then Hamilton would have won.

Hamilton and Verstappen are the two best drivers in F1 at the moment and have been for over a year. Seeing them go toe to toe over a Grand Prix is everything you could ask for and even though it has been a long wait for it, it delivered in abundance.

The tyres on Verstappen’s car began to degrade and Hamilton caught up with four laps to go. It was a relatively easy move into turn one, as with more grip Hamilton could brake later and sweep around the outside to get the job done.

Verstappen would pit for a second time onto soft tyres with a few laps to go to take the fastest lap. He did a 1.17.1 which was immense in itself. It makes you question if Verstappen maybe could have pitted onto the soft tyre with 10-12 laps to go so he could hunt Hamilton down.

In reality, I think Hamilton had the slightly better car but it was still the driver who made the key difference. As I said before, no other driver could win in the way Hamilton did and no other driver could fend off Hamilton for as long as Verstappen did. It was outstanding.

Hamilton was over the moon to say the least and I think this race means a lot to him, not just because of his poor performance one week earlier in Germany but because many people have said he would not beat Verstappen or crack under the pressure. Well, Hamilton did it on Sunday in a manner and on a level that F1 has not seen for years.

Meanwhile, Vettel managed to overtake Leclerc three laps from the end of the race as the Ferrari drivers differed on strategies; Vettel going long in the first stint to go onto the softs and Leclerc doing what Verstappen did and going from the medium to hard compound. Ferrari will be much stronger in Spa and Monza but there race pace in Budapest was shocking and whilst I knew it would be bad, I didn’t think it would be that bad.

Carlos Sainz was best of the rest, not for the first time this year, and is somewhat going under the radar. Sainz and Kimi Raikkonen have been the standout drivers in the midfield so far this season in my opinion.

Both finished ahead of Valtteri Bottas who Mercedes thought could get to 6th place, instead Bottas was 8th and I was a little surprised he could not gain a few more positions.

Bottas took a long time to overtake Ricciardo, at least 10 laps, even though the Mercedes is in a different league to the Renault and Bottas was on fresher tyres at the time. I do think though that Bottas has done just enough to retain his seat in 2020 and would be a tad surprised if he is not there next year.

Haas continued to struggle to find the very narrow operating window that the VF-19 strangely has. For example, Kevin Magnussen was 0.9 slower from Q1 to Q2.

He was the only driver to not improve his time from the first part of qualifying to the second and to be nearly a whole second slower just 10 minutes after you have done a lap with new tyres, on a track that only gets quicker and quicker and a driver who should gain more confidence as the session progresses, it is baffling and extremely bizarre as to why he went so much slower.

In the race, both Haas drivers (Romain Grosjean and Magnussen) had a train of cars behind them due to their persistent lack of race pace. They swapped places at one point, this time cleanly with team orders involved as Grosjean retired due to a water pressure issue.

But back to the front of the field and a final thought on the titanic battle that played out in Hungary.

I wish we could get this every race, this is a healthy rivalry which might not last long but could be one of the best things to happen to Formula One in a long time. Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen are box office to say the least, the best of the best and we can only hope for more in the near future.

So often drivers are saving tyres, their engine for 90% of the race but for the majority of Sunday’s Grand Prix, Hamilton and Verstappen were pushing like crazy to beat one another. They were punching each other to new heights, forcing the other to up their pace.

Some may prefer the chaos of Germany but the purists and those who love to see drivers on the limit all race long with differing strategies and off the scale intensity and tension throughout the race will see Hungary as one of the best F1 races ever and a key battle in the development of Max Verstappen.

I really do think the race was that good, it was just like Austria last month which was equally as incredible and equally exciting. You have to love a race like that and have to love the two best drivers in F1 going at it over 70 laps on a classic circuit.