21/07/2024
NEWS STORY
Lewis Hamilton finished third and George Russell eighth in Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix. Lewis made it five races in a row with one of the team's cars on the podium and took his 200th top-three finish overall in F1.
Starting from P5, Lewis ran a two-stop Medium/Hard/Hard strategy. He moved up to P4 on lap one, passing the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, before completing a successful undercut on the Red Bull of Max Verstappen at the start of his second stint. He fought off the Dutchman in the closing stages, with contact between the pair at turn one fortunate not to conclude with any race-affecting damage.
George meanwhile also ran a two-stop strategy, starting and ending on the Hard tyre whilst taking the Medium compound in his middle stint. He worked his way through the field but was unable to catch the Red Bull of Sergio Perez in the closing stages, having to settle for P8.
George was able to take the fastest lap of the race for an additional point, securing the 100th fastest lap for the team since returning to the sport in 2010.
A McLaren 1-2 made it the 18th podium lockout for Mercedes-Benz power, a new record for a Power Unit manufacturer in F1. Mercedes-Benz power has also now surpassed 600 podium finishes in F1, with today's result securing numbers 600, 601, and 602
Lewis Hamilton: Firstly, a huge congratulations to McLaren on the one-two and Oscar (Piastri) on his maiden victory. They were incredibly strong today and deserved the result. Oscar has been doing a fantastic job ever since he got into F1, been very consistent, and it was only a matter of time before he got a win.
The team has done a great job to continue making progress with our car. We knew we didn't have the speed of Oscar or Lando (Norris) today, but we were able to secure the final spot on the podium. It was a challenge at times to keep Verstappen behind whilst also making the tyres last. Our battle at the end was a little hair-raising but that's motor racing. I'm really happy to be back on the podium and for another solid points haul. We now head to Spa looking to finish the first half of the season on a high.
George Russell: Congratulations to Oscar on his victory today. McLaren have been really strong, and he's been driving really well so it is well deserved.
We knew after yesterday's issues in qualifying that we were likely aiming for 'best of the rest' today. We struggle a little more in these very hot conditions, so we weren't quite able to achieve that. The Red Bull of Sergio Perez was quicker than we expected but we gave it a good go to get ahead of him. Getting P8 and fastest lap was still a solid recovery.
We can also take the positives of the team being on the podium five races in a row. We have made consistent steps forward and the car has been performing much better in recent Grands Prix. Lewis drove a great race today and showed what the car was capable of. It is very close at the front between several teams now. We know we need to maximise every opportunity we have and execute clean weekends to score good points. We will be looking to do that starting next week in Spa.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO: Claiming a podium finish, our fifth race in a row doing so, feels good. The McLarens were very strong today and out of reach for us in these hot conditions. Congratulations to them and Oscar; they deserved today's victory. We were able to maximise the result with Lewis though and that is encouraging. To see Lewis get his 200th podium in F1, and his 151st with our team, was great.
Yesterday's setback with George meant he had to fight through the field. In the end, it was a good recovery from where he started. It was a challenging race for him with plenty of traffic in his pit window throughout much of the afternoon. Without that, he may have been able to claim one more position, but it was still a solid effort. We now head to Spa where the conditions will likely be cooler and hopefully that will suit us a little more.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: Firstly, well done to McLaren and Oscar. A 1-2 finish is a very difficult result to achieve, and they are setting a very high bar at the moment.
It was great to see Lewis on the podium today. Going from P5 to P3 was a good achievement considering we had to get ahead of Verstappen to achieve that. We were able to maximise the result with him today as, without incidents, we simply didn't have the pace to race McLaren.
With George we qualified well out of position yesterday. That denied him the chance to race for much more than the minor points positions. He made a good recovery, coming close to chasing down the Red Bull of Perez, but we'll make sure we take the learnings from yesterday and perform better in future.
We now look ahead to Spa. We've still got work to do to be right at the front every weekend, but we're moving in the right direction. The energy and enthusiasm in the team is palpable. We've got a few days to regroup and prepare; it will be interesting to see how the W15 responds to cooler conditions than we experienced here in Hungary this weekend.
Check out our Sunday gallery from the Hungaroring here.