How Hamilton beat Verstappen with INCREDIBLE lap revealed by F1 aero analyst

Lewis Hamilton pulled out a special lap to get the pole at the Hungarian Grand Prix beating Max Verstappen by just 0.003 sec.

Hamilton looked completely one with the car in qualifying and the stunning tour around the Hungaroring is a good reminder to everyone who forgot just how good the seven-time world champion is. Let us deep dive into his qualifying lap.

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Overview

In the GPS plot, we can see that Hamilton nails T1 while Verstappen gets all the time back in T2. The next couple of turns both drivers are pretty neck to neck until the high-speed section of T11 arrives, wherein the Red Bull shows its prowess in high-speed sections. Hamilton makes all the time back in T12,13,14 under braking and by the end of the lap, they are split by 0.03 sec. Can’t really qualify that or can we?

Detailed Breakdown

Turn 1

Hamilton was the strongest driver in T1, all throughout qualifying. As you can see in the plot below he is able to brake a bit later and still carry the same min apex speed as Verstappen. Not only that, he is back on the throttle at the same time as Verstappen which allows him to keep his 0.15 sec advantage in T1.

T 12-13-14

Again T12 and T13, we see the same pattern, wherein Hamilton brakes later and still has a rear-end planted to be able to carry similar speed to Verstappen into the apex of the corner.

The rear-end stability also allows him to get back early on the throttle and match Verstappen’s exits. T14 however, he overcooks it a bit but is still able to hold onto pole by the end of straight.

Shubham Sangodkar is a former F1 Aerodynamicist with a Master's in Racing Car Design specialising in F1 Aerodynamics and F1 Data Analysis. He also posts aerodynamics content on his YouTube channel, which can be found here.

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