Brundle scrutinizes Verstappen's Hungarian GP amid 'difficult days at Red Bull'
Martin Brundle analysed Max Verstappen’s tough weekend in Hungary, which ended with a ninth-place finish and saw him never truly in contention for the top spots.
For Max Verstappen, the Hungarian Grand Prix marked his worst result of the season—excluding, of course, the first-lap retirement in Austria and the penalty in Spain following contact with George Russell, which dropped him to a tenth-place finish.
The four-time world champion’s tough weekend had already begun on Friday, when he finished both opening practice sessions in tenth place, and FP2 all the way down in fourteenth, behind even his teammate.
As we've often seen from Red Bull this season, the Milton Keynes engineers were usually able to turn things around overnight — but this time, they couldn’t pull it off, and Verstappen ended up qualifying only eighth.
In the race, the situation didn’t improve much. Stuck in traffic behind the cars ahead, Verstappen went for an aggressive strategy, pitting on lap 17 and making a second and final stop on lap 48.
After a decent start, he was ultimately unable to get past former teammate Liam Lawson, finishing the race one position lower than he had qualified.
Brundle scrutinizes Verstappen's race in Hungary
After breaking down Lewis Hamilton’s difficult weekend in his Sky Sports column, Martin Brundle also took a moment to reflect on the Dutchman’s race: ''Verstappen wasn't having much of a day either, his Red Bull lacking pace as soon as his tyres overheated.''
''He started eighth and finished ninth, along with the indignity of being behind his earlier in the season short-term team-mate Liam Lawson, who drove the sister Racing Bulls car into a fine eighth place. Difficult days at Red Bull.''
With yet another McLaren one-two and only two points scored in Hungary, Verstappen has slipped even further down the drivers’ standings. He now trails Oscar Piastri by a full 97 points and Lando Norris by 88.
The Red Bull driver is also under pressure from George Russell, who closed the gap to just 15 points with his podium finish last Sunday.
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