Max Verstappen angry with Red Bull gameplan as he finishes fifth in Hungary

Max Verstappen had to settle for fifth place at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday. The reigning world champion had a frustrating race in his Red Bull car, dropping from third to fifth.

Australian driver Oscar Piastri won his first career Grand Prix in his McLaren ahead of teammate Lando Norris, who was ordered by the team to give Piastri the top spot. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) finished third.

The drama started on the first corner when Verstappen, winner of the previous two races at the Hungaroring, started from third position and seemed to benefit from a poorer start by Norris, who had pole. Piastri was on the inside and forced Norris and Verstappen outside.

However, because the Dutchman had overtaken the Briton by going off the track, an investigation was initiated, and Red Bull instructed Verstappen to let Norris pass again. Verstappen did this amid loud protest and then saw both McLarens running away. "Ok, so you can just run people off the track then? You can tell the FIA that we will race like that from now on, just driving people off the road."

At the first pit stops, Red Bull allowed its driver to continue for a long time, which cost Verstappen a place to Hamilton. The world champion came back but could not get past Hamilton on the circuit, where overtaking is difficult. Verstappen tried on the 35th lap but could not keep the turn on the outside. He complained about understeer in his car and also had Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari close behind him.

Hamilton and Leclerc gained time through an early stop on Verstappen, who fell back to fifth place behind the Ferrari after his pit stop. He angrily let his team know. Saying, "It's quite impressive that we let ourselves get undercut and completely fuck my race." He added to this later by saying, "You guys gave me this shit strategy. I'm trying to save what's left."

Overtaking Leclerc proved difficult, as Verstappen took a few laps to succeed. Verstappen then saw Hamilton's first overtaking attempt fail and made a second attempt a lap later, during which he overshot and was launched from the rear by the entering Mercedes. Verstappen was able to continue, but had fallen back behind Leclerc.

This resulted in more drama on the Red Bull team radio, where Red Bull engineer Gianpiero Lambiase told him that he was acting childish.

In the meantime, Norris had taken the lead from Piastri with an earlier pit stop, although the team wanted Norris to give back the lead. After much insistence, he let Piastri pass, who still achieved his first victory. Hamilton completed his 200th podium finish with third place.

By finishing second, Norris has gained eight points on Verstappen in the season rankings. Verstappen is top with 265 points. Norris is second with 189 points.

The Belgian Grand Prix is scheduled for next week at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.