Max Verstappen finished second in the Hungarian Grand Prix, pulling off one of the moves of the day on Lewis Hamilton as he bagged his fourth podium finish of the season. But while that overtake certainly played a part in the Dutchman\u2019s result, so did Red Bull\u2019s strategy calls.<\/p>\n
Team boss Laurent Mekies was quick to pay credit to the pit wall for their quick-fire reactions to an ever-changing picture during the race \u2013 with Kimi Antonelli<\/a> looking like one-stopping, the Mercedes man then switched strategy before a late Virtual Safety Car period muddled the pack once again.<\/p>\n Red Bull initially followed the same model as their McLaren<\/a> rivals, starting on the mediums and switching to the hard compound.<\/p>\n But they then opted to bolt on a set of softs for Verstappen<\/a>‘s last stint \u2013 in itself a bold call given he had 32 laps still to complete \u2013 and then they did not bring him in under the VSC, opting for track position instead. A decision that paid off.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, in terms of before the race predictions, for what it was, we felt Lando [Norris] and the two Ferraris would be out of touch,\u201d Mekies explained. \u201cWe felt we could race the Mercedes and probably Oscar. As it turned out, we could race both Ferraris, and Lando was out of reach.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd in terms of the VSC, there have been a number of quite spicy strategy calls made by the guys today, including the one of the VSC, but not only, if you look at the earlier move not to cover Lewis [Hamilton] when he pitted early on, and as always, they always get it right.<\/p>\n \u201cVery well done to the pit wall and to the whole team back home, tyre group, strategy group, and I think as a whole, race execution has been very, very strong here. We have suffered at the beginning of the year with our starts, we are now managing to produce decent starts, strong pit stops, very strong strategy as always.<\/p>\n \u201cSo certainly very happy with the way the team has been operating in these last few races as it’s going to be back to the standard it’s known for.\u201d<\/p>\n