Formula 1 saw a clash of old and new as Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen engaged in a fierce battle during the 2019 Hungarian GP.
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The 2021 Formula 1 world driver’s championship between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen has been fascinating to watch. One of the main reasons for this is that Hamilton finally has a challenger since Nico Rosberg who is pushing him to the absolute limit. But it is also the case of a new young upstart going up against the established order. As such, the title race takes on a whole new meaning. And while this is the first time they are competing for the title in the same year, it isn’t the first time they’re competing for a race win. The 2021 season’s latest race takes place in Hungary later today (August 1). The Hungarian GP has notably witnessed an intense battle between the two drivers in 2019. So what better time to look back at that race?
As we gear up for the 2021 edition of the race, we revisit the Hungarian GP 2019 that had both hard racing and a sudden change in strategy swinging the race.
The 2019 season was into it’s 12th round at the time, but little stood in the way of another Hamilton title win. By that point he had won 7 of the 11 races held.
Verstappen was, at that point, the only non-Mercedes driver to have won races during the season. It helped little that his then-teammate Pierre Gasly wasn’t getting the best out of his car.
Nevetheless, it was Verstappen who took pole position in qualifying. Bottas started behind him, with Hamilton in third. The stage was thus set for Verstappen to build on his recent wins in Germany and Austria.
The race started with both Mercedes cars look to attack Verstappen, which saw the Dutchman defend on the inside. He managed to get away clean from them after Hamilton was forced wide on the outside.
However, the Englishman would overtake teammate Bottas soon enough, who also lost a position to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. To make matters worse, Bottas’ front wing was clipped by both Hamilton and Leclerc.
This forced him to pit and change the nose, costing him plenty of time. However, it also meant the duel for the lead was now a two-horse race.
Verstappen held on to the lead comfortably until he pitted on lap 25. Hamilton and Mercedes went for the overcut i.e. staying out longer than the car ahead and attempting to build a lead before pitting and emerging ahead.
However, by the time Hamilton pitted for hard tyres on lap 32, he did not have a big enough lead and emerged 5 seconds behind. He went on the attack, something hindered by both drivers encountering lapped cars.
Yet this worked well for Verstappen – it slowed Hamilton slightly and also gave the race leader DRS, meaning he kept his lead.
However, Hamilton almost made the decisive move on lap 39. He managed to overtake but ran out of track space and thus yielded the position back to Verstappen.
Now though, things were starting to look bleak. Hamilton’s assault on the race leader overheated his brakes. He had to back off to let them cool but lost precious time.
Mercedes, sensing something radical was needed to win the race, decided to switch tactics.
At the end of lap 48, Mercedes called Lewis Hamilton into the pits for fresh medium tyres. This was something of a surprise, since most teams preferred a one-stop in the era of Pirelli tyres.
Hamilton himself wasn’t sure of the strategy when exiting the pit lane. “I don’t know if that was the right call man,” he said over team radio and was told he had 19 seconds to make up on the race leader.
Verstappen, meanwhile, enquired over the radio why he too had not pitted if Hamilton wasn’t making significant gains. He was told that Mercedes would have got the undercut and he would have come out in second place.
The race was on again, but Hamilton was on fresh rubber and went for the kill. Initially the switch didn’t gain him a lot of ground; he was 15 seconds away with 14 laps remaining. However, by the end of lap 60, Hamilton began to gain significant ground.
It helped that Verstappen was struggling to manage his tyres, declaring them “dead” over team radio. And by the start of lap 67, Hamilton made a DRS-assisted move from the outside and kept the lead till the end.
On the cool-down lap, Hamilton apologised over radio to the pit wall for doubting the strategy. Verstappen and Red Bull, while happy with second, knew they let one get away from them.
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