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Peter Windsor analyses qualifying Hamilton and Verstappen Hungary 23

Windsor: 'Sectors of Verstappen were faster than Hamilton'

22 July 2023 at 21:24
Last update 22 July 2023 at 22:50
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  • Kada Sarkozi
  • Editor

F1 expert Peter Windsor savours the 'resurgence' of Lewis Hamilton who took his ninth pole position at the Hungaroring to everyone's surprise. In doing so, the Brit beat Max Verstappen by three thousandths of a second. In the end, Verstappen had the faster individual sectors.

Windsor discusses that in a video on YouTube. His analysis of qualifying discusses the particularly small differences between the teams. The front-runners drove within just a few tenths of each other and the number one and two were almost equal, yet Hamilton was a fraction faster. A shame for Verstappen, as the Dutchman had it in him to go three tenths faster than Hamilton.

Individual sectors faster for Verstappen

Windsor: "In the last run run [of Q3] with the second set of soft tyres, he [Verstappen] only went quicker [than Hamilton] in sector two. He just found a couple of tenths in sector two, whereas Lewis went quicker in sectors one and two [...] Here's the sting in the tail, if you take Max's three best sectors from those two runs in Q3 and put them alongside Lewis Hamilton's three best sector times from his two laps, Max would have been on pole."

It shows that Verstappen probably did have the speed to go for pole. Stringing the sectors together was his pitfall. Windsor further explains: "The problem was, of course, that he didn't go quickly enough in a couple of areas in his second run. That was possibly because the car was surprising him, and because he had already got a track limits infringements [in Q2]."