Like in Austria, but this time Mercedes loses out
The end of Q3 in Hungary was decidedly spectacular and controversial. Exactly as it had happened a month ago in Austria, a yellow flag became crucial in the last seconds – just as it had happened in Spielberg – it was caused on the last corner by Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver spun and forced the marshals to wave the yellow flag to signal the presence of his RB22 stopped at the side of the track.
Read more Hamilton at risk of penalty, Vasseur: “We warned him too late, he couldn’t do anything”
Unlike what happened in Austria, however, this time the most penalized by Verstappen’s error were the Mercedes drivers: Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell. The Italian had improved his personal best in the first and second sectors but was forced to lift off the throttle in the final section of the track. He still slightly improved his previous time, but only by a tenth. Even worse was his teammate Russell, who was already slower than his previous lap in the first two sectors and who found Verstappen re-entering the track after the error in the final section of the circuit. At that point, the Briton definitively lifted off, aborting his lap.
Norris fast and lucky
Then the #63 of the Silver Arrows was in turn the protagonist of another yellow flag – this time self-inflicted – because he stopped in turn 1 due to an apparent problem with his Mercedes. In this case, however, his stop obviously did not cause problems for the other drivers who still had to reach the finish line: his improvised ‘parking’ did not force anyone to slow down. Lando Norris benefited from this chaos, as he did not slow down at all in the last corner, also because he shouldn’t have: Verstappen, as mentioned, had already restarted after his spin and that point of the track was completely ‘clear’.
Read more Antonelli: “The yellow flag distracted me. My lap was for third place”
The yellow flag shown in the graphics referred to Russell’s stop, which was in turn 1 and therefore did not affect in any way those who had to complete their fast lap. This time, therefore, it was Mercedes that had to swallow a bitter pill for Verstappen’s umpteenth off-track excursion in Q3. Nothing to complain about at Ferrari, given that both Hamilton and Leclerc had crossed the finish line before Verstappen’s spin but still without managing to improve their time.
