“Finishing Fourth With Pole Is Almost an Art”: With 17 Points to His Name, Ex-F1 Driver Criticizes Lewis Hamilton Over Fatal Mistake at Hungarian GP

For the first time since the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP, Lewis Hamilton led everyone off the line at the Hungarian GP last weekend. After 33 race weekends, he clinched pole position by the slimmest of margins. The Brit pipped Max Verstappen by just 3 milliseconds. In the process, he became the first driver to get pole position 9 times at the same venue. The Hungaroring, one of his favorite tracks, witnessed history on Saturday after Hamilton got his record-extending 104th pole position. Although he would’ve wanted to make history even on Sunday with a 104th race win, he couldn’t quite do it. To add insult to injury, he has now got criticized because of it.

Former Formula 1 driver Marc Surer competed in F1 from 1979 to 1986 and had a troubled time in the sport. Having raced for Ensign, ATS, Theodore, Arrows, and Brabham over his six-and-a-half years in F1, he scored 17 points, with his best finish being a P4. Now, as a 71-year-old, he is an F1 expert for Motorsport-Total.com. After every race, he and a group of editors—along with Motorsport-Total users—rate driver performances, much like F1’s Power Rankings. So after the Hungarian GP, where Hamilton started on pole and finished only fourth, he couldn’t help but criticize the seven-time champion.

Hamilton’s launch from the line wasn’t great, which gave Verstappen the room to overtake the Brit even before Turn 1. But it wasn’t just the Dutchman who overtook him. Lando Norris from P3 and Oscar Piastri from P4 did too, and Hamilton was left fighting to stay fourth. The W14 undoubtedly had a good race pace comparable to the McLarens. But Piastri and Norris’ overtake on him was crucial for McLaren’s race and proved costly for Hamilton. Hamilton had the pace to keep up with them. However, he didn’t have the pace to overtake them. As a result, he had to settle for fourth while crossing the finish line—finishing behind Verstappen, Norris, and Perez, and ahead of the damaged MCL60 of Piastri.

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Considering this was Hamilton’s first time starting on the front row, let alone on pole, in 33 races, you would think Surer would’ve gone easy on him. If not that, his race pace and management should’ve helped his case, but Surer thought otherwise. As quoted by Motorsport-Total.com, he said, “Finishing fourth with pole is almost an art.“ He condemned the Brit for losing out at the beginning, which cost him at least a podium finish. On a grade scale of 1 to 6, with 1 being very good and 6 being unsatisfactory, he awarded Hamilton a 3. Hamilton took the 6th place on Motorsport-Total’s driver rankings. But it was Max Verstappen who stole the show with his performance.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull capitalized on Lewis Hamilton’s errors

Hamilton failed to make history at the Hungaroring. However, Red Bull seized the moment and created a history of their own. Coming into the Hungarian GP, the Milton-Keynes outfit had 11 consecutive wins, equaling McLaren’s 1988 record. Budapest provided a chance to break that 35-year-old record, and Red Bull grabbed it with both hands.

Although Verstappen missed out on pole position, he made up for it within the first few meters of the race. And from there on, it was almost certain Red Bull was going to secure 12 consecutive wins. Verstappen drove a flawless race and crossed the line 33 seconds ahead of Norris in second. The 2x champion absolutely demolished his opposition—winning his 44th race. And for this performance, he received a grade 1 from Surer. In light of breaking McLaren’s record, he also has a broken trophy to go with the occasion—courtesy of Norris.

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What do you think of Surer’s criticism of Lewis Hamilton?