Twenty-five seconds stood between Max Verstappen making the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix and failing to be ready after he damaged his car's suspension on the way to the grid.
Verstappen finished in second place at the Hungaroring but only after a last-minute rush to get the car ready on the grid. The Dutch driver lost control of his car on a wet track heading into Turn 12 as he drove from the pits to the grid ahead of the race, damaging the front wing and the front left suspension against the tyre barrier.
He was able to continue to the grid where his mechanics completed a job that usually takes 90 minutes in just 20 minutes. Under F1's regulations, the tyres have to be on the car five minutes before the formation lap and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner revealed the mechanics completed the work on the suspension 25 seconds before the cut off time.
"I think Max went off three times on that lap to the grid," he said after the race. "The third one looked pretty terminal so we could immediately see the track rod and the push rod was broken, the big question was had it done the wishbone as well? If it had done the wishbone that would have been game over.
"We decided to drive the car to the grid and do our best to repair the car on the grid. The mechanics did an unbelievable job. What would usually take an hour and a half they did in 20 minutes and with about 25 seconds to go.
"Full credit to them today because without them that result wouldn't have been possible."
Verstappen started from seventh on the grid but was up to third on the opening lap and shuffled his way up to second as drivers switched from intermediate tyres to slicks. He then held off Valtteri Bottas in the closing stages as the Finn recovered from a bad start to finish just 0.750s behind Verstappen in third.
Speaking about the accident on the way to the grid, Verstappen said he thought his race was over before it had even started.
"So basically, I locked up, came off the brakes and tried to brake again, locked again and went straight on," he said. "I was already struggling for grip and I basically locked up and I couldn't get out of it and went straight into the wall.
"I thought the race was over but I was able to reverse the car out of the wall and then you never give up, so I took the car to the grid to see what could happen. Clearly you could see the mechanics did an amazing job, so I was already happy to start the race.
"I think the track rod and the pull rod were broken, so they are the easier things to quickly change but they did an amazing job at doing that. Then I was sitting in the car and I could see the mechanics screaming at each other '10 seconds!' 'Five seconds!' to put the wheel on and the final piece of tape on the suspension.
"Then I put my thumbs up and they said 'Yeah, yeah, away we go'. I was checking the wheel and it felt alright and then during the race nothing weird happened so it was fully fixed."
Horner said Red Bull were concerned the car could have further damage, but was pleased Verstappen was able to repay his mechanics with a second-place finish.
"Always at the back of your mind when you have a thump like that its quite concerning to think what about the components you haven't been able to see," Horner added. "Max was able to put it out of his mind and was obviously a bit embarrassed on the grid having caused that amount of work but he repayed them in the best possible way by putting in the drive that he did.
"We'll obviously get the car back now and fully inspect it, but it did its job."
"Max" - Google News
July 20, 2020 at 12:04AM
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Verstappen's suspension repair job completed with 25 seconds remaining - ESPN
"Max" - Google News
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