| 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix | |||||
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Race 13 of 24 in the2024 Formula One World Championship
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 Layout of the Hungaroring | |||||
| Race details | |||||
| Date | 21 July 2024 (2024-07-21) | ||||
| Official name | Formula 1Hungarian Grand Prix 2024 | ||||
| Location | Hungaroring Mogyoród, Hungary | ||||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||||
| Course length | 4.381 km (2.722 miles) | ||||
| Distance | 70 laps, 306.630 km (190.531 miles) | ||||
| Weather | Partly cloudy | ||||
| Attendance | 310,000[1] | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | McLaren-Mercedes | ||||
| Time | 1:15.227 | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  George Russell | Mercedes | |||
| Time | 1:20.305 on lap 55 | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | McLaren-Mercedes | ||||
| Second | McLaren-Mercedes | ||||
| Third | Mercedes | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The2024 Hungarian Grand Prix (officially known as theFormula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix 2024) was aFormula One motor race that took place on 21 July 2024 at theHungaroring inMogyoród, Hungary. It was the thirteenth round of the2024 Formula One World Championship.
TheMcLarens ofLando Norris andOscar Piastrilocked out the front row, their first since the2012 Brazilian Grand Prix. Piastri won the race forMcLaren, marking his maiden victory in Formula One. Teammate Norris finished second, marking McLaren’s first 1–2 finish since the2021 Italian Grand Prix.Mercedes driverLewis Hamilton finished third, becoming the first driver to record 200 career podiums.
The event was held at theHungaroring inMogyoród for the 39th time in the circuit's history, across the weekend of 19–21 July.[2] The Grand Prix was the thirteenth round of the2024 Formula One World Championship and the 39th running of theHungarian Grand Prix as part of the Formula One World Championship.[3]
Going into the weekend,Max Verstappen led theDrivers' Championship with 255 points, 84 points ahead ofLando Norris in second, and 105 ahead ofCharles Leclerc in third.Red Bull Racing, with 373 points, led theConstructors' Championship fromFerrari andMcLaren, who were second and third with 302 and 295 points, respectively.[4]
The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.[5]Oliver Bearman drove in the first free practice session forHaas, in place ofNico Hülkenberg.[6]
Tyre supplierPirelli brought the C3, C4, and C5 tyre compounds (the three softest in their range) designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively, for teams to use at this event.[7]
Threefree practice sessions were held for the event. The first free practice session was held on 19 July 2024 at 13:30 local time (UTC+2), and was topped byCarlos Sainz Jr. ofFerrari ahead ofMax Verstappen ofRed Bull and Sainz's teammateCharles Leclerc.[8] The second free practice session was held on the same day, at 17:00 local time, and was topped byLando Norris ofMcLaren ahead of Verstappen and Sainz.[9] The third free practice session was held on 20 July 2024, at 12:30 local time, and was topped by Norris ahead of his teammateOscar Piastri and Verstappen.[10]
Qualifying was held on 20 July 2024, at 16:00 local time (UTC+2).[10]
The first segment of qualifying was held after a spell of rain hit the circuit. The track was sufficiently dry for slick tyres to be used.Logan Sargeant crashed hisWilliams into the barriers at turn 1. This accident brought out yellow flags and Sargeant's car was brought in for repairs.Sergio Pérez, who had been under pressure from hisRed Bull Racing team after poor results, spun into the barriers and destroyed his car, suspending the session while the barriers were repaired. During this red flag period, the rain briefly returned and the track was left wet.Daniel Ricciardo ended the segment fastest.George Russell, in theMercedes, was caught out and was eliminated from qualifying, alongside Pérez,Zhou Guanyu and the twoAlpine cars ofEsteban Ocon andPierre Gasly.[11]
The second segment was topped byLando Norris in theMcLaren.Lewis Hamilton struggled to improve much during this session, managing a time only good enough for tenth.Nico Hülkenberg,Valtteri Bottas,Alexander Albon, Sargeant andKevin Magnussen were eliminated from this segment.[11]
Norris set the fastest time of the session, granting him provisional pole position.Yuki Tsunoda in theRB was involved in a heavy crash that left his chassis destroyed. Red flags were flown for the second and final time this session, and only Ricciardo (9th) was able to improve after the session was restarted.Oscar Piastri qualified second, which meant that McLaren secured a front-row lockout, their first since the2012 Brazilian Grand Prix.Max Versappen was third.[11]
Notes
The race was held on 21 July 2024, at 15:00 local time (UTC+2), and was run for 70 laps.[10]
Pierre Gasly had changes made to his power unit during parc fermé, facilitating a pit lane start. He later retired from the race on lap 33 due to a suspected hydraulics leak.[15] Most cars started on the medium compound tyres with some others opting for hard compound or soft compound. PolesitterLando Norris lost position to teammateOscar Piastri at the start. Championship leaderMax Verstappen, starting from third, took second from Norris off-track. He let Norris retake second on lap 4, to avoid a potential penalty for gaining a position off track. The pit window was open by lap 17, and everyone went in for their scheduled stops, briefly givingCharles Leclerc the lead ahead of his stop.Sergio Pérez, who ended qualifying early after damaging his car, was able to recover to the points, eventually finishing seventh.[15]
Lewis Hamilton soon saw himself engaged in a battle with Verstappen, who ended up being undercut by Hamilton and Leclerc. Verstappen, who had grown increasingly frustrated throughout the race, criticised the team's strategy calls and the handling and pace of theRB20 over team radio.[16][17] Verstappen soon caught up to Hamilton and was subjected to strong defenses; later, an attempted overtake from Verstappen caused a collision between the two, prompting an investigation from the stewards. No penalty was given for the contact with the stewards determining that no driver was primarily at fault.[18] Norris was first up to pit for mediums in an attempt to cover off the potential risk of being overtaken by Hamilton; soon after, race-leading Piastri came in for mediums. Throughout the closing stages of the race, McLaren invokedteam orders asking Norris, who had gained the lead via anundercut, to swap positions with Piastri. Eventually, Norris slowed down at the start-finish straight on lap 68, giving Piastri the lead and eventual maiden race win. Hamilton rounded off the podium, becoming the first driver to record 200 career podiums. Verstappen finished in fifth after losing fourth toCharles Leclerc due to the collision with Hamilton earlier.[19]
This was McLaren's first 1–2 finish since the2021 Italian Grand Prix.[15] McLaren's decision to swap Norris and Piastri was controversial, as Norris had gained a six-second lead over Piastri with the pit-stop strategy. There was doubt from McLaren management and observers that Norris would obey the team orders, with Norris being instructed to swap positions over a twenty-lap period. Norris later stated that he always intended to swap positions and that he thought it was fair to give Piastri the win.[20] Ahead of the followingBelgian Grand Prix, Norris stated he regretted that team orders had overshadowed Piastri's win and stated that he should have ceded position to his team mate sooner to avoid adding to the controversy and to allow him an opportunity to challenge Piastri for the lead if McLaren's team orders allowed it.[21][22]
Notes
As a consequence, Norris narrowed the gap over Verstappen in the Drivers' Championship to 76 points. In the Constructors' Championship, Red Bull's lead in the standings decreased to just 51 points after McLaren managed to score maximum points for the first time this season, enabling the British outfit to leapfrog Ferrari for second in the Constructors' Championship with 338 points, 16 points ahead of Ferrari.
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| Previous race: 2024 British Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 2024 season | Next race: 2024 Belgian Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix | Hungarian Grand Prix | Next race: 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix |
