Picture Credit: F1
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen pulled off a stellar performance in the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix as he won the race from the 10th position. The Dutchman also batted off a 360 - spin to solidify his lead at the top of the drivers' championship.
But after the race, Verstappen had some harsh words for his fans as they were seen burning Lewis Hamilton merchandise. The 2021 World Champion labelled the incident as ‘disgusting’. He stated: “These individuals, I definitely don’t agree with that because that’s just disgusting. That video of burning merch, I think that’s disgusting.”
Verstappen also advised his fans to commemorate the drivers on the podium instead of burning merchandise. He said: “Overall, I think the majority of the fans were cheering a lot, I think, throughout the race, and also on the podium, for every driver. I think that’s how it should be.”
Talking about the race, Verstappen had a clean start and pulled off a soft-medium-medium strategy with perfection. This strategy allowed him to undercut the Ferraris and overtake Charles Leclerc, who was on the hard tires, for the lead. He later admitted that this victory from 10th on the grid was a miracle as he also had power unit issues in the qualifying.
He said, “Yes, I think nobody really expected this, but we said to each other we have to remain calm before the race, and I think we did that; we made all the right calls and the race was a bit hectic… in the first lap, getting a bit boxed in and staying out of trouble.”
“But after that we did a few overtakes. But yes, we pitted at the right time, we put the right tires on the car, I think that at the time we planned it, and then I basically saw that Charles was struggling a lot on the hard tire so that was my moment to try and attack him. I got him, then I spun, did a 360, lost a position again, but yes, it was a bit unlucky of course. But then we kept our heads down, got them back again and pulled a gap,” he continued.