Max Verstappen scored a huge P10 victory on Sunday, but who else impressed our judges at Hengelin? Here are the strength ranking scores for the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix.
How it works
Our panel of five judges evaluates each driver after each Grand Prix and rates them (out of 10) based on their weekend performance – excluding the mechanics and then averaging out our experts' scores to produce a race score that then accumulates on our overall strength rankings
In qualifying, his Red Bull car had problems with the power unit, so at the Hungarian Grand Prix he finished the race in tenth place. However, the defending champion managed to improve his ranking with a clean start and was completed by Red Bull with a perfect two-stop strategy that ultimately locked in an easy victory. His only blemish was the spin in the penultimate corner, but that barely swayed the Dutchman, who completed a full 360-degree spin before continuing to the flag.
Lewis Hamilton, like Verstappen, lost in the third quarter – the Mercedes driver was seventh for DRS problems. However, the seven-timer fought hard, running long in the first stage and longer in the second stage, finishing the race with a soft tyre and finishing second after teammates Russell and Verstappen, his fifth consecutive podium finish.
George Russell took a sensational first pole position on Saturday and led the most laps on Sunday (24) but ultimately lost to Leclerc in the second stage before being snatched away by Verstappen. When Hamilton finished his final stop on the soft tyres, Russell lost to his teammates on the mid-size tyres – but still retained the final podium spot.
Lando Norris may not have been excited about finishing in seventh place, leading by more than a minute, but the McLaren driver was the last driver to lead and easily ahead of Alonso. Coupled with his P4 qualifying lap, it's clear why Norris took such a solid power ranking score.
Fernando Alonso was overtaken by teammate Esteban O'Conn and found himself behind the Frenchman for most of the game, but eventually overtook him on lap 41. He finished in eighth place, three seconds ahead of Ocon in ninth place, thanks to his slightly better performance in the race – both Alpine drivers adopted a one-stop strategy.
Carlos Sainz had to back off as Russell overtook him by 0.044 seconds and the Spaniard ended up out on match day due to slow pit stops. However, he managed to run longer in the second stage and finish the race on the soft tyres, which allowed him to outpace Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc and Red Bull Racing's Sergio Pérez. While Sainz couldn't stop Hamilton, he was behind another Mercedes due to a later virtual safety car that limited his podium chase.
Leclerc was overtaken by Sainz in qualifying but still managed P3 at the start, while Monegsaque eventually broke Russell's staunch defense for the lead. However, the decision to have Leklerk in a hard tyre pit on lap 39 cost him two losses to Verstappen, after which he made his third pit stop on lap 54 because of a soft tyre. In the soft-tyre stage of that night, Leclerc finished in sixth place, a few tenths of a second behind Perez, but the Austrian Grand Prix champion seemed to be hampered by the team's strategy for the day.
Esteban Ocon overtook his Alpine teammate Alonso in P5 in qualifying, the Frenchman who held his colleague back for much of the race but ultimately had to let him pass as Alonso's pace proved to be better than Ocon's, with Ocon finishing ninth with a 0.2-second lead and 0.8 seconds ahead of Vettel to finish eighth.
As mentioned above, Sebastian Vettel was unable to snatch the P9 from Ocon, and he will most likely do so if VSC is not deployed at a later stage. But the P10 was a consolation, as the Aston Martin driver's Saturday was far from ideal: after the FP3 crash, he finished with the humble P18 in qualifying in the starting zone. However, the soft-medium-medium strategy combined with a strong race rhythm allowed Vettel to score the last point at the expense of a teammate strolling at the weekend, when the German announced his retirement from F1 at the end of the season.
Pierre Gasly finished disappointingly 19th in Q1 due to track restrictions before departing from the pit after changing the power unit in Parc Ferme conditions. The Alfatauri driver overtook many midfield opponents to finally score an impressive 12 points in the final minute – a position lifted by Walteri Bottas' final-minute stop.