- Disaster averted when Aston Martin Red Bull team fixes car on pre-race grid
- Max Verstappen earns season-best result after starting seventh
- Alex Albon gains eight spots to finish fifth in Red Bull Honda
The moments leading to the start of a Formula 1 race are usually fairly sedate ones as everything that can be done to help a team win has usually already been done.
But thanks to Max Verstappen's spin on his way to a wet pre-race grid, the 20 minutes before the start of Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix were far from sedate. Verstappen spun and suffered suspension damage, forcing his team to make 90 minutes worth of repairs in 20 minutes. The team bolted the wheels back on his Honda-powered Aston Martin Red Bull machine just 30 seconds before the deadline for starting the race, and Verstappen repaid the team for its heroic effort, storming to a season-best second-place finish.
Verstappen started seventh, but showed complete confidence in his team by charging up the inside lane on the start to pass four cars in the first two turns of the race. Strong pit work on a Lap 5 stop for slick tires vaulted him from third to second, and fierce driving on the last lap allowed him to fight off the charge of Valtteri Bottas to secure the runner-up spot.
His Honda-powered stablemate Alex Albon had an equally strong run after a trying qualifying Saturday for Honda, scoring his second-consecutive top-five result after starting 13th. Like Verstappen, Albon made up four positions at the start and the Thai-born driver kept gaining ground, leading to a pass of Sebastian Vettel with five laps left that gave him a fifth-place finish.
The Hondas of Scuderia Alpha Tauri fought adversity all day as Pierre Gasly ended his run early with gearbox problems while his teammate Daniil Kvyat threatened to finish in the points for the second consecutive week before settling for 12th.
Verstappen's runner-up finish boosted him to third place in the championship standings after three races while Albon climbed into a tie for fifth. Red Bull's double top-five vaulted the Honda-powered squad into second in the constructor standings, 15 points ahead McLaren and Racing Point and behind only Mercedes, which has won the first three races of the campaign.
The teams in the Formula 1 World Championship get their first off week of the reshaped 2020 season this week before heading to Britain's Silverstone circuit for a pair of races to be held at the former World War II Royal Air Force bomber station.
Toyoharu Tanabe
Technical Director, Honda F1
"After what has been a difficult weekend up until today, to get on the podium with Max in second place with Alex finishing fifth, is a good result. After Max went off on the formation lap, his mechanics did an amazing job to repair the car on the grid and keep him in the race. After that, he had a brilliant start, which combined with a great strategy, ended with second place. We were able to get the very most out of the Power Unit today, which contributed to his great result. Alex raced well to go from 13th on the grid to fifth. Pierre also showed good pace this weekend, despite various problems, so it was a shame he had to retire with a gearbox problem. Daniil had a decent pace but lost places after his pit stop, otherwise he could have been in the points, but at least we have all his data to work with as he finished the race. After this very tough start to the season with three races in as many weekends, we now have a short break and a free weekend. This will give us a bit of time to analyze all our data in Sakura and Milton Keynes, to try and find further performance gains."
Max Verstappen
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Honda
Start 7th, Finish: 2nd
This podium is definitely dedicated to my mechanics. I thought the race was over before it had even started. I braked, locked a wheel, came off the brakes and tried to brake again but went straight on into the wall on the out lap. I couldn't believe it but I managed to reverse out of the wall and get to the grid. As a Team we never give up and the mechanics did an incredible job to fix the car so quickly. The track was still pretty greasy but I had a good start. Going into Turn 1 I saw there was a traffic jam on the inside so I thought I would go around the outside where I knew there was grip in the wet and it worked. The race could have been very different if I was stuck in seventh place for a few laps that's for sure. We then made all the right strategy calls and I just had to manage my tires, be as consistent as possible and manage the backmarkers. To be second between the two dominant Mercedes cars is an unbelievable result and we did not expect it yesterday after such a difficult weekend. We want to try to close the gap to Mercedes, they are really dominant at the moment so it will be very hard to beat them but we won't stop trying."
Alex Albon
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Honda
Start: 13th, Finish: 5th
"If you had told me we'd be P5 after yesterday I would have jumped at it. Today was never going to be easy starting from P13 but we had a good start and we made our way through the field. The car was really good and when we were in clean air we were fast and very competitive. I'm happy with the result and it is good points for the Team after such a tricky day yesterday so we have to be thankful. Today is a bit of a surprise as to why our race pace is so much better than our quali pace, so we need to understand that, but it's positive and means some things on the car are working.
Pierre Gasly
Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda
Start: 10th, Finish: DNF
"It was a very difficult weekend for us. Today we had a drivetrain issue and since the beginning of the race I had problems with gear shifts which we tried to fix on track but we couldn't, so we just had to retire the car. It's a big shame, but we were just unlucky this weekend. Now we have a few days to prepare for Silverstone and I hope to have a better weekend there."
Daniil Kvyat
Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda
Start: 17th, Finish: 12th
"I was happy with the race pace today, I overtook some cars already on lap one and I made a very good call to go on slicks at the right time. I need to review the race to understand it better, because I felt there was a chance of finishing in the points today and to end up only P12 is not really satisfying. Every lap is important and we'll try different solutions to suit the car a little bit more to my driving style in Silverstone."
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