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F1 has been turned upside down in recent weeks, and Hungary was further proof of the winds of change sweeping through the sport. A frankly lacklustre Max Verstappen and Red Bull, another first time winner in 2024 in the form of Oscar Piastri, and a devastated Lando Norris having to hand over a certain win. So much to talk about - let's get started!
Piere Gasly, Alpine (Hydraulic Leak, Lap 33): 6/10
Alpine looked to be recovering from their slump with four back-to-back races reaping points, but Silverstone was a bust and now they come away from Hungary similarly empty-handed after a pretty rotten weekend in Budapest. A team strategy miscall robbed Pierre Gasly of a chance of making the first cut in qualifying, and taking a new battery demoted him even further to a pit lane start for the race. And then halfway through, the A524 sprang a hydraulic leak and he became the only retirement of the race. As the saying goes, if Gasly didn't have bad luck this weekend he'd have had no luck at all. The driver himself was blameless and he did all he could in the circumstances.
Zhou Guanyu, Sauber (P19): 5.5/10
Sauber in general just look completely stuck in a rut at the moment. While Valtteri Bottas is occasionally able to wring something from the C44, Zhou Guanyu is just looking stubbornly inert. He's not doing anything particular wrong, and mistakes are few and far between, but the current deficiencies in the hardware available to him seem to have ground him to down to the point where he's going through the motions but still getting no where as a result. That was true again in Hungary which he spent the afternoon at the back jostling with the likes of Bottas, Logan Sargeant and Esteban Ocon to little advantage.
