Strictly speaking, halfway through Formula 1’s summer break, we’re not at the exact midway point of the season. That came at the finish of the Austrian Grand Prix in early July, when Charles Leclerc’s attacking victory over Max Verstappen had made it two successive Ferrari wins and raised the faint possibility of the Italian team reanimating its failing world title bids.
Then came Paul Ricard and Leclerc’s error to crash out of the race lead, just as he’d forced Red Bull into putting Verstappen onto an inferior strategy, and the Hungaroring, where Ferrari’s strategy shambles aided Verstappen’s brilliant rise to victory from 10th on the grid, his eighth win of the campaign to the three of Leclerc, and an 80-point lead.
Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport’s Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master’s degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.
A lifelong motorsport fan – no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred – Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.
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