Start, Hungaroring, 2019

Rate the race: 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix

2019 Hungarian Grand Prix

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What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Hungarian Grand Prix.

RaceFans has held polls on every F1 race since 2008 to find out which fans thought of each round of the season.

Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix out of 10

  • 10 (8%)
  • 9 (27%)
  • 8 (37%)
  • 7 (19%)
  • 6 (5%)
  • 5 (2%)
  • 4 (1%)
  • 3 (0%)
  • 2 (0%)
  • 1 (0%)

Total Voters: 300

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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100 comments on “Rate the race: 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix”

  1. Classic slow-burner race. 8/10

    1. It was one for the “connoisseur” as the French say (said with delboy tone)

  2. On racing alone, anticlimactic. On the brilliance of Mercedes and their decision… That alone was worth a bump. Good 7/10

    1. anticlimatic? maybe if you are a Max fan, but other people surely found this very entertaining to see overtakes for the win and for 3rd place with a couple of laps to go.

      8 given the high quality of races we’ve seen lately, otherwise it would have surely been a 9.

      1. Exactly @gechichan! We had Hamilton on Max’ tail for most of the first 2/3rds of the race, always being there, having a few good goes at Max and almost had him but Max’ defended great to keep ahead.

        We also had lots of cars chasing others throughout the field, close racing great fight between the STR cars too, we had Magnussen and Ricciardo and Bottas did make some solid passes as well I thought.

      2. @gechichan overtakes for the win only if you take it as a very literal sense. A pit overtake has been more exciting than this. The speed delta was too big.
        And the anticlimactic was mainly aimed at how, the moment Hamilton pitted, it was an inevitability leading up to the result. All credit to Mercedes, all credit to Hamilton, that the moment they took it Verstappen was doomed – and that Hamilton was that close all along. But an inevitability does not strike me as too exciting.

        1. And the anticlimactic was mainly aimed at how, the moment Hamilton pitted, it was an inevitability leading up to the result.

          really? for me anitclimatic would have been if Lewis wouldn’t have been able to catch and have been stuck at 5-10 seconds behind.

    2. anti-climatic? Pretty good race, shame about the gaps and team orders and drs. 9

      1. I gave it a 6, but you have convinced me, it was actually better that that. Guess I’m a bit spoilt by the excitement of the last few races.

  3. 8 out of 10.

  4. Great race. Hamilton, best driver in Formula 1 :)

    1. Change my mind @kingshark haha

    2. @david-br What a sad remark. The role of the driver in this was literally zero. How about we enjoy the close racing and Mercedes’ tactical brilliance, and not this ridiculous tribalism? Thanks

      1. Yeah, closing a 6.4 second gap to under a second in a few laps is what every driver was doing out there. If the role of the driver is nothing then why do we bother racing ? Let’s just play chess.

        1. How did the gap get to 6.4 seconds on harder tyres in a few laps? This is such a nonsense remark, the flux of timing is totally unrepresentative. Let’s play chess – the individual has much more influence in that, you…

          1. The lap got bigger because RedBull pitted first. Hamilton was on 20 something lap old tyres so was obvious much slower. When they were both on the same tyre the gap dropped like a stone and Hamilton was all over Verstappen for the rest of the race. If you’d rather play chess then stop crying on an F1 forum and go to chessfans.com…

      2. @hahostolze Sense of humour bypass! I was just quoting the Max fans yesterday, try not to take everything so literally. It was an enjoyable race.

        1. @david-br the whole discussion yesterday was so tedious, I do apologise for missing the humour. Verstappen’s quotes to Mark Hughes in Motorsport taken so out of context that everyone was all offended.. was sad to reckon you amongst them.

          1. @hahostolze OK, I was being provocative admittedly :P

      3. The role of the driver wasn’t zero at all. That’s a very silly comment.

        Both Verstappen and Hamilton are world class drivers. Great race.

        1. @john-h half this field would have taken the requisite time. Mercedes played a blinder. But for Hamilton it was a cake-walk. Take nothing away from him, but no need for a circle-jerk either.

          1. There’s a good reason Bottas and Gasly weren’t fighting for the win. Your comment that Hamilton had to do literally nothing inspired me to reply, that’s all.

          2. Take nothing away from him but also call it a cake walk ? You can’t have your cake and eat it… no matter how salty it is.

      4. BUT…all we heard yesterday was how VER had snatched the Batton from Lewis. Reports of Lewis’ demise have been greatly exaggerated so don’t be surprised if us HAM fans give everyone a slight nudge & wink today.
        However…what-A-race! Bravo to Max… a worthy adversary to Lewis. Long may this rivalry continue!

        1. You don’t have to be a HAM fan specifically to see Lewis showed everyone today who’s the top dog in F1. Only he could make that strategy work by putting in lap record after lap record to close the gap.

          You don’t have to be a VER fan to see he’s coming for Lewis in the near future and you don’t have to be a Leclerc hater to see he has talent but is quite a bit off from challenging at that level.

      5. @hahostolze I’ll agree on 1 thing, that was no overtake, it was a drive through, I haven’t seen an old school battle in over 10 years.

        1. William Jones
          4th August 2019, 16:43

          Did you miss the two cars side by side in this very race for 4 corners?

          1. Yeah, some people will always say everything was better way back when. I’ve been watching F1 since the mid 90’s I can tell you that F1 in the 90ś and 00’s looked a lot more like the race we saw in France this year, only with more mechanical faillures.

            Of course, Mercedes is winning an unprecedented % of poles and victories nowadays and F1 cars don’t scare people anymore when they approach because of these lawnmower engines, but today’s F1 actually has much smaller gaps, more close racing and is actually more exciting than it used to be imho.

            It’s just that people have changed and demand instant gratification or they will throw the toys out on social media. That and a lot of my generation viewers of 30+ yr olds suffer from the cliché that is ‘old man whining that everything was better in their day’.

      6. You are missing the point of F1. It’s a team sport and to say that the driver had nothing to do with the outcome must mean you didn’t watch the first 2/3rds of the race. The war between Hamilton and Verstappen and Verstappen’s brilliant driving forced the strategic decision. It was by no means a forgone conclusion that that decision would result in the outcome that it did. Hamilton’s brilliant driving in making up the difference was in the face of his statement in the car that it might have been a mistake. Yes the actual pass was not the hair raising event of 20ish laps previous attacks but we had those events as well. This was EVERYTHING F1 should be. You want constant close calls and crashes go watch nascar. You want brilliant engineering supporting different levels of driving where you actually have to think through all the variables to understand where the excitement is see F1. I was on the edge of my seat for all the laps watching data for comparison split times and the live feed and various incar camera shots all on F1 TV. If I’d have only watched the live feeds and heard the announcers, who many times had it very wrong, I might have had a different take. But this was one VERY exciting race.

        1. the previous commaent was to @hahostolze

      7. It’s ridiculous to say the role of the driver was zero. OK Mercedes made a great strategy call but Hamilton still had to put the car where it needed to be.

        In the end the pass was easy but he had to be close enough to do it. Lewis caught Max much faster than anyone was expecting. But you are saying this has nothing to do with the driver?

        Don’t let bias overcome your objectivity. By the way I am no means a big Hamilton fan.

      8. The role of the driver was tire and brake management. Max didn’t have to manage his brakes, Hamilton did a better job of managing his tires (while managing brakes), and Hamilton pretty much controlled the race– He could pressure Max any time he wanted, and preserve his tires and brakes any time he needed.

        Claiming it’s just the car is massively unfair to both drivers. I’ve been critical of Max over the past few years for not seeming to learn from his mistakes, but he put in a very solid race– but I think Hamilton was just a little bit better on management than Verstappen.

  5. That my friends is why you don’t write off Lewis Hamilton. What a race.

  6. An exciting race for Hungaroring’s standards. Not quite like 2011, ’14, and ’15 races, but only bettered by those.

  7. Josh (@canadianjosh)
    4th August 2019, 15:52

    8 out of 10, a very incompetent Bottas and an absolute rubbish Gasly provided Lewis with a free stop unfortunately for Max but the racing was pretty good and Lewis deserves that win for sure.

    1. @canadianjosh incompetent bottas? he got chopped off by Lewis, but I agree the gaps and relative team strenghts meant in the end it was as ever in the past 10 years, everything was predictable. RB knew they didn’t have the speed just track position and mercedes knew RB wouldn’t have tread by the end of the race and so the overtake was nervy but absolutely inevitable, rubbish overtake for an great race.

      1. William Jones
        4th August 2019, 16:44

        It was the contact with LeClerc that damaged his wing, though it was certainly a rather needless chop.

    2. @canadianjosh Bottas and Ghastly struggled bigtime today, I agree, but actually where in the world was Ferrari today?

      Ferrari should have been in that podium fight (preventing the free stop for Mercedes in the process) and their drivers didn’t struggle today. Their car did. Appalling from the team with the biggest budget in F1, really.

  8. Apparently you can push on these tires.

    Incredible. Single stop was slower, Vettel got the softer tire work in the end aswell.

    Drivers were pushing like crazy. I got that 2000’s wibe again. Cars moving about, temperatures over critical, battle for the lead was imense and done on strategy followed by multiple all out laps.

    Lewis today showed what that Mercedes could do. That was their maximum.

    As a viewer this is what I want to see. Drivers pushing 100% for many laps.

    1. @jureo Not as convinced one stop was slower but Mercedes made RedBull push on the first half of the stint hurting their hard tyres and leaving them vulnerable after. In Hungary, you need quite big pace difference to have a chance of overtaking and Mercedes played that superbly today.
      Maybe one stop with the right switch and tyre management was the faster strategy but we won’t know and RBR didn’t have the chance to manage the race being put under pressure.

    2. @jureo

      I got that 2000’s wibe again

      I wish, I don’t think 56 laps at Hungaroring ever worked, cars running out of tread and inevitable overtakes are a bit meh.

  9. Panagiotis Papatheodorou (@panagiotism-papatheodorou)
    4th August 2019, 15:53

    A solid 8/10. Nice fight for the win, some good battles in the middle field and also a good overtake by Vettel to steal the podium from Leclerc. Not as great as Germany, but the last 4 races are great.

  10. 9/10. Fantastic race. Shows you don’t need plenty of overtaking to make a race exciting.

  11. So much better than last week. This is what I watch F1 for, not that silly lottery.

    1. How about a mix of races, some like this and occasionally some more random due to the rain? Not sure what’s wrong with that to be honest myself. This isn’t 2012 thankfully.

      1. @john-h i’d go for a 2012, actual teams racing each other, rather than predictability of a 2 tier championship

      2. A mix of races is already available. F1 and Indycar, say ;)

  12. I was really enjoying it up until Lewis made that 2nd stop, Seeing Max & Lewis nose to tail really fighting each other hard with Lewis trying everything to get past is the sort of racing I love watching & want to see more of.

    As soon as Lewis pitted & we lost the close fight & with his pace became clear Max wasn’t going to have anything to fight back with it just really sapped the fun out of it for me & I spent the last 10-15 laps just waiting for the inevitable which I just don’t enjoy.

    Had we got the Max/Lewis fight through to the end with Lewis really having to fight his way past it would have been a 9/10, But with how it ended up playing out it’s just a 7.

    1. @stefmeister unfortunately the only thing that kept the first fight interesting, was that Max kept getting backmarker DRS every time Hamilton was near enough for DRS.

      Without that, it would probably have been the same driveby.

      1. +1 was so frustrating seeing Max pick up a back marker almost every time Lewis had DRS down the main straight.

        1. OTOH, it would probably have meant a pretty boring race if Max hadn’t.

    2. @stefmeister I 10000000000% agree.

      First half of the race was amazing with a really great close fighting for the lead but the pit strategy totally ruined the end of the race and it became very dull and predictable indeed given Hamilton’s pace over the last 20 odd laps.

    3. I thought Hamilton would catch Max but would by then have run out of tyres himself, surprised they lasted so well at that pace.

  13. 9/10

    Such a slow burner, but that was a heck of a drive from Hamilton 20 seconds in under the same number of laps with plenty to spare. Mercedes rolled the dice and came up sixes. They were in 2nd and really had nothing to lose.

    Credit to Verstappen for making him work for it though.

  14. Good race. But, the only interesting battle was the one for first. That’s weird.

    1. And 14th. And 3rd. And 16. And 5th. And 11th. TV doesn’t show everything.

  15. Gave it a 9, a successful hunt down in the closing stage of a race is always exciting, what’s not to like ?

  16. Verstappen should’ve pitted at the same time after Hamilton pitted.

    1. The Skeptic (@)
      4th August 2019, 16:07

      how could RB know to do that? Hindsight is always 20/20

    2. @alfir3dz1
      You should have told him before the race.

    3. Lewis had the pace over Max all afternoon. If Max gave up track position it was all over anyway. Great call by Merc. Great racing from Lewis & max.

  17. Yes! The fight between Hamilton and Verstappen I was waiting for. As a Verstappen fan I say “too bad”, as a race fan I say “Wow, incredible race by Lewis”. 9/10.

    1. +1 as Lewis fan I give it a 10/10. Give Lewis that wonky Hungarian Crown…now! Bravo to Max too… a truelly worthy adversary.

  18. The Skeptic (@)
    4th August 2019, 16:05

    A brilliant job by Mercedes and an amazing drive by Hamilton.

    Lap after lap of qualifying driving in the race, and he didn’t put a wheel out of place. A good overtake for the lead too.

    That’s now four good races in a row!

    The only shame is that Ferrari were so slow. An average of 1 second per lap slower than Mercedes and Red Bull is awful…

    1. A good overtake for the lead too.

      @theskeptic Depends on your definition of good.

      A DRS/Tyre dominated overtake where the car behind is 25kph faster with tyres 2 seconds a lap faster with the car ahead having zero possibility to defend with ‘no tools to fight with’ as brundle put it is not a good overtake.

      It’s the polar opposite of a good overtake in my book and a massive part of whats wrong with f1 today. I want to see some real hard fights with some real overtakes and not this fake drs tyre silliness non-racing we have to put up with.

      It is a shame as the race was fantastic to start with but then strategy had to go and totally ruin it. The last 20 odd laps were totally anti-climactic knowing verstappen was going to get highway-passed with zero tools to fight it. That ain’t exciting, It’s predictable and boring and i say that as a fan of Hamilton who should be thrilled with todays result!

      F1 is in such a sad state if this is what is now been classed as a good overtake.

      1. You are entitled to your opinion and you may have a point about DRS but lets be real here… If we had no DRS today Lewis Would have passed max before he did. DRS kept max in it (as well as his great defensive driving). That was a thrilling race today… how anyone can judge differently I really don’t know.

      2. When drivers dont need to leave space on the outside….it’s impossible to pass each other om å normal flight.
        And you would have to admit ut was a huge gamble by Mercedes. They pitted Bottas and checked his tires and gambled that Max would run out of tires. They would easily have been wrong by a couple of laps….

    2. Huge screw up by Mercedes letting Hamilton take the lead on lap 67. Should have waited until lap 68 to prevent Verstappen from getting the FLAP point.

      Just kidding.

  19. Was really good fun until Hamilton got the free pitstop. Before that, it was incredibly tense! Watching a Red Bull, powered by Honda staying ahead of a works Mercedes was pretty amazing. After that, with dying tyres you knew Verstappen couldn’t hold him and then it just became miserable to be honest.

    Bottas & Gasly were more terrible than usual. Kinda surprised Leclerc didn’t get some punishment for trashing Bottas’s front wing. Opportune of Vettel, but Ferrari were absolutely nowhere – if they had have been closer to Hamilton & Verstappen Mercedes pitting wouldn’t have worked. As for the championship it’s dead, just give him the trophy.

    1. Watching a Red Bull, powered by Honda staying ahead of a works Mercedes was pretty amazing.

      @rocketpanda – it might not have been a win for RBR-Honda, but Honda themselves might go away with the feeling of a victory. Good performance, vastly improved reliability. Their last few years with McLaren have conditioned me so much that I was half-expecting to see a retirement just due to the hard racing going on at the front.

      1. @phylyp Honestly, same on expecting the Honda under pressure to pop. As you say it’s got to be encouraging for both Honda & Red Bull that the car’s operating well and the engine’s capable of fighting strongly at the front. At the moment they look a lot more of a threat to the Mercs than Ferrari. Just a bit of a shame that RBR-Honda seem to only have one car…

        1. Just a bit of a shame that RBR-Honda seem to only have one car…

          @rocketpanda – LOL.

          I admire RBR’s ambition – competing in both F1 and F1.5 simultaneously. Bottas took the nickel tour of F1.5 today, let’s see what he decides to do.

          As you say it’s got to be encouraging for both Honda & Red Bull that the car’s operating well and the engine’s capable of fighting strongly at the front.

          I was often confused whether RBR were being too aggressive with Renault about the PU, or Renault were delivering a poor product. I think a picture is definitely emerging that Renault have not been doing a good job with this engine formula at all, despite running 6 cars for a few years.

      2. Honda are much improved, no doubt, but they are trashing their Pus at present. I expect RB to incurr at least 2 penalties for exceeding the allowed PU allocation. Still…it’s progress. I don’t believe their pace is a true comparison with Merc though as Merc are managing Pus.

  20. Well, a race with a great fight for the lead – we saw a lot less of the midfield today, but I still gave it a 9, because variation like this is great.

  21. What a gripping race and fight for the win. 10/10. Cant get a better dry Hungarian GP.

  22. A good race (7/10) which could have been 9/10 if we had a lesser effect of the DRS.

    Sometimes it’s better to have a realistic chance with much older tyres against a generally faster straight-line speed car with much better tyres.
    If that was the case – it could have been a historic battle – in our case it was “just one of those passes”.

  23. Great race. Great battle mid-race. Excellent strategy by Merc. 9/10

  24. 9 of 10. Shame that Valtteri Bottas and Charles Leclerc collided, otherwise Valtteri could add more “spice” to the fight for the victory.

  25. 8
    Tense, tactical, dissapointing (Ferrari/Bottas/Gasly), and 3 (one reasonably) happy people on the podium.
    Ferrari, start doing your job!

  26. What is wrong with the FOM and Mclaren, Sainz has hold a Red Bull with DRS for more than 20 laps and not a single image of the fight, they were battleing for the 5th place!!! weird
    Great race anyway

  27. Better than last race, some actual racing and strategy skill at work instead of just luck. 9/10

  28. 9out of 10. Very nice battles through out the field. And of course what I want: a fight for the top spot!

  29. 9/10 – Race winner decided in the last few laps and also the 3rd place on the podium, nice close racing up front for most of the race too.

    4 great races on the trot, can’t remember a streak like this ever before…………..

  30. 3/5 thanks to the late pass for the lead. Way below average otherwise.

  31. What an awsome race
    For those who belittle lewis Hamilton’s role, pls note
    1. He made a scintillating overtake on his team mate with the same car
    2. He pushed max all the way in the first stint, keeping the pressure on
    3. Chose to push max while his tires were fresh in the second stint, this i think was the most critical step. This burned through max’s hard tires, eventually losing all of it with three laps left.

  32. Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
    4th August 2019, 17:08

    Not as crazy as Germany and not as good in terms of battles as Britain, but a very decent race nonetheless, especially for the Hungaroring. we actually had different tactics for once.
    8

  33. Some salty people voting 1s and 2s I see. Had massive bets on someone other than Hamilton did they?

  34. 7, it was solid. We had a nice battle for the lead and also a more action than you usually get at Hungaroring.

  35. Hamilton, Verstappen, Kvyat provided clever drives today. Kudos for them.
    The Merc strategy and Lewis’ hunting down were marvellous!
    And reading some comments here I can’t help but thinking many of us like drivers nut motorsport, I sincerely can’t see nothing wrong with a good call from pitwall helping out the way the race unfolded.
    About the DRS: less disappointing than watching a car skidding behind another one.
    I really don’t get some people: there will always be a team that provides the best package, for instance, RBR/Renault didn’t even needed KERS working properly in the past to win some GPs (please correct me if I’m wrong). Even in MotoGP there is some periodical dominance.

  36. LoL.
    Losing money is a good explanation to that, or Verstappen’s start.

    1. @nikkit
      Is trying to reply your comment.

  37. In time: didn’t Leclerc drive into Bottas?

  38. There wasn’t thrilling on-track action like the last couple of races, but the tension and the strategy made this a very interesting race. 8

  39. Ι gave it a 6, but i reckon i was kinda harsh and i should have given a 7. Although it was a pretty good race for the Hungaroring standards, the battle between Hamilton and Verstappen was a really solid one and we saw a battle between the best current drivers. The reason why i gave it a low ranking was Ferrari being 1 minute behind and pretty much running their own race and i was kinda annoyed from the move Leclerc did on Bottas. For a second race in a raw he got away with it, but both cases should have a different outcome. For me, this is the biggest problem currently. Racing is pretty good and the aero changes have massively helped when closely following. What annoys me is the stewarding standards, which differ from race to race and from frankly they lack stability…

  40. 7/10.

    How some people gave this a 9 or above I really don’t know. It was an interesting race strategy wise and there was always something happening but it was no classic.

    There was a very large gap between the top 2 and anyone else. Mercedes strategy call was a great decision.

    1. “Bravo Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. Pushing 70 laps to the maximum. More than one minute to the third, nearly + one lap and a half to the top five. Both Impressive. Thanks for the show.”
      Fernando Alonso, 04/08/2019
      :)

  41. 8/10.
    Congrats to Hamilton and Max, class of the field and fantastic to watch.

  42. 8/10 Great race by the two upfront, where even though I can’t stand HAM, he showed is class and hunted down VER.
    I was considering a 7/10 but in the end the attack by HAM prior to his 2nd Pit stop and the constant up and down on the timing screen got it that extra point on my rating.
    Hard to match what we got to see last week. Some good battles further back but nothing special.
    Now that we had pretty much 4 great races in a row, I hope that the Big guys in charge try to think that nothing is wrong with F1 and keep things unchanged.
    The fact that there was such a big gap to P3 and almost the entire field being lapped is a problem for me. Even my wife was feeling a let down after seeing Leclerc down 16 seconds after just a few laps. Knowing that this will be a race between only 2 guys.

  43. Decent race, I gave it 8, would’ve preferred a verstappen win, was around 7,5 actually, it had quite some action to be a hard track for overtakes.

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