Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) in Hungary: Did that one mistake ruin everything?

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur displayed a sense of gallows humour. On Sunday evening, following the thrilling Hungarian Grand Prix, the Frenchman grimaced and remarked: “We had the fastest cars on the track, but unfortunately on the wrong day.”

On the first day at the Hungaroring, Ferrari seemed to be living up to its role as favourite, and many a Tifoso was looking forward to a front row of red – it would have been the first time since Mexico 2023.

But then, during qualifying, Ferrari failed to warn its superstar Lewis Hamilton that McLaren driver Oscar Piastri was closing in; Hamilton swerved his Ferrari to the side too late, so the Briton didn’t secure second on the grid, but only P5, after being penalised by the race stewards, who show no mercy when it comes to obstructing rivals.

For long-serving Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle (158 Grands Prix, 9 podium finishes, sixth in the 1992 World Championship), one thing is clear: “That was a mistake that sent Lewis’s weekend with Ferrari in the wrong direction. But the decisive mistake didn’t come until later.”

The 67-year-old World Sportscar Champion and Le Mans winner, in his post-race analysis on Sky: “Throughout free practice, Ferrari looked like the team to beat, and most people in the pit lane considered them the favourites, even when Norris snatched pole position from under their noses.”

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“Hamilton had cleverly saved a brand-new set of soft tyres by getting through the first qualifying segment on medium tyres. The new soft Pirellis would have been extremely useful from his front-row starting position, but he incurred a three-place grid penalty for a hard, albeit unintentional, blocking manoeuvre on Piastri.”

In the race, the next penalty followed for Lewis Hamilton: the stewards ruled that the Ferrari star had been driving too fast in the pit lane. The logical consequence – a five-second time penalty added to his total race time. This saw Lewis drop back to P5 behind his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Brundle continued: “It turns out that Lewis did indeed lift off the speed limiter a moment too soon in order to beat Kimi Antonelli, who was on the track, at the all-important safety car line – which crosses the entire circuit and determines who has the right of way – the driver coming out of the pit lane or the driver on the track. It was determined that Antonelli was there a split second earlier, and so Hamilton had to give way, even though he entered the corner ahead of Kimi. Ferrari correctly instructed him to give up the position.”

“That was the pivotal moment for the final podium place, and so the stewards’ decision that driving too fast in the pit lane constitutes a potential competitive advantage was ultimately correct – however narrow the margin may be.”