2020 Hungarian Grand Prix
The painful Hungarian loss in 2019 for Red Bull was tough to take but they were the stars the following year after Verstappen made his life much more difficult before the lights had even gone out.
On a damp track, the Dutch driver slid off the circuit and into the wall, damaging his left front suspension arms in the process. A Herculean effort by the mechanics fixed the broken parts on the grid, enabling their driver to take the start.
He repaid them immediately, rising from seventh on the grid to third in the first corner and a switft switch to dry tyres in the opening laps put him P2 and in range of Hamilton, who’d led from pole.
Unfortunately for Verstappen there was no catching the leader as Hamilton claimed another record in the process with win number eight in Hungary, but the pace he’d shown was promising and by the end of the 2020 season, Red Bull looked a match for Merc.
This year has proven that to be the case and then some. It’s likely to be Mercedes doing the chasing this weekend despite a few updates at Silverstone as Red Bull still appears to have the measure of them over the course of a race distance.
That advantage was comfortably demonstrated in the Sprint Qualifying race as Verstappen kept Hamilton at arms length to claim pole, leading to the elbows-out brawl for the lead on the opening lap of the British Grand Prix.
With the added downforce requirements of the Hungaroring and the circuit not exactly condusive to overtaking, pole position will be crucial and as demonstrated by his 2019 lap, Verstappen is hardly a slouch in Hungary.