Autobayng News Team
Aston Martin appeared to fear Fernando Alonso’s fifth place would be under threat from Max Verstappen in the closing laps of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The veteran driver secured his and his team’s best result of the 2025 season so far at the Hungaroring last weekend, taking fifth place. Along with team mate Lance Stroll’s seventh place, Aston Martin jumped from eighth to sixth in the constructors’ championship thanks to their 16-point haul.
Alonso’s race was defined by his extreme tyre management in his opening stint on the medium compound. After being overtaken by Lando Norris at the start of the third lap, Alonso dropped his pace to over a second a lap slower than the McLaren driver ahead to try and make a one-stop strategy plausible. Despite his relative lack of speed, he managed his pace in a way that prevented him from coming under attack from Gabriel Bortoleto in the Sauber behind.
After eventually fitting the hard tyres at the end of lap 39, Alonso rejoined in fifth place, behind world champion Verstappen’s Red Bull. Verstappen soon made a second stop on lap 48, re-emerging in ninth place behind Liam Lawson with fresher tyres than all eight cars ahead of him.
Alonso was encouraged by race engineer Andrew Vizard to turn up his power unit and increase his speed, due to his team’s concern’s Verstappen may catch him before the end of the race. But Alonso wanted to save his power boost until the end of the race in case he had to fight the Red Bull.
“HPP on,” Vizard instructed him at the start of lap 40. “Verstappen is just now in the pit lane, he could be a threat at the end. So just make sure you have good tyres at the end of the race – that is the key.”
“I would prefer strat-11, rather than HPP?” Alonso suggested.
“We’ll go HPP-on and then we can do strat-11 later,” Vizard replied, before the team appeared to change their mind, telling him “now we can do strat-11” at the start of lap 41.
“I don’t need it for the moment,” Alonso said. “It’s better to save it, no?”
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With fresh tyres, Verstappen quickly caught up to Liam Lawson in eighth place. Alonso was warned that the Red Bull driver was eight seconds but four cars behind him. Despite Verstappen being unable to get by Lawson, Alonso ahead continued to push.
“For me, it’s qualifying laps until the end,” he told Vizard. “Tell me otherwise.”
Alonso continued to get updates about Verstappen’s lack of progress behind, but he maintained his pace in the mid-to-high 1’20s over the final 15 laps of the race, keeping out of reach of Bortoleto behind. He was advised to run in strat-11 for the final nine laps, only losing time with a moment of oversteer at turn five on lap 63, which cost him a second.
He would go on to take the chequered flag in fifth place, seven seconds ahead of Bortoleto and 13 ahead of Verstappen who remained behind Lawson.
“Beautiful! Beautiful,” Alonso said when crossing the line. “Sixteen points, isn’t it?”
“Good at driving, good at maths,” Vizard joked in response. “Nice way to go into the summer.”
“Absolutely,” Alonso agreed. “Thank you, guys. We need four or five of these ones…”
Aston Martin now sit one point ahead of Sauber in sixth, 16 points behind Williams in the constructors’ championship. Williams failed to score in Hungary, with Carlos Sainz Jnr and team mate Alexander Albon finishing down in 14th and 15th.
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2025 Hungarian Grand Prix
- McLaren pair equal Senna and Prost’s run in second-fastest ever Hungarian GP
- “For me, it’s qualy laps until the end”: How Alonso responded to “threat” from Verstappen
- Piastri sees no “trend” in Norris’s recent championship gains
- “How’d I lose so much ground?” Full radio from Hamilton’s point-less Hungary slog
- Piastri doubts he would have passed Norris if race had been longer
