Never won in Hungary before
Max Verstappen is currently comfortably leading the championship with 63 points ahead. Yet that is by no means a reason for the Dutchman to take it easy on the Hungaroring. He foresees a very strong Ferrari on the short and winding circuit.
The margin that Verstappen has built up in the championship does not really interest him. At the press conference prior to the race weekend, he also made it clear that he is definitely not going to take it easy. “For me, every weekend is about trying to be perfect,” said the reigning world champion. “It’s not like you suddenly relax when you have that gap. I still want to win more races, that’s what we try to do as a team.” Verstappen hopes to win a race in Hungary for the first time. “I think it’s a great track. Of course you try to win every Grand Prix. We haven’t managed to do that yet, but we’ll see what we can do.”
Winning at the Hungaroring will be a challenge. According to Verstappen, the Ferrari is difficult to beat, especially over one lap. “I don’t think it’s terrible with us, but I do think Ferrari will be very strong here, like they’ve been all year. But we’ll see. Also with the weather: I don’t know what’s going to happen happen, how much rain is going to fall, but all these things can come into play and do a lot of things with the result.”
Carlos Sainz, meanwhile, is confident that he can make a difference with Ferrari, although he realizes that all the pieces of the puzzle have to fall into place. “I’m confident we can fight for the win, but we know how complex the previous races have been. We have the ingredients, we just need to put it all together and hopefully celebrate the win on Sunday. We’ll see. “
Verstappen keeps up well
In the first free practice, Verstappen was able to keep up with. Sainz clocked the first time with 1:18.750, Verstappen was 0.130 seconds below that. Both drivers drove on the soft tyre. Charles Leclerc was 0.289 seconds behind Sainz. The times in the first free practice usually don’t say much, but if this pattern continues, it promises to be an exciting race weekend.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl