There were contrasting fortunes for the Alfa Romeos in Hungary. Kimi Raikkonen was pleased with seventh and pace that he reckons bettered McLaren’s in the early stages. As for Antonio Giovinazzi, his disappointment was plain to see.

Raikkonen was in the top 10 for each of the practice sessions in Hungary so it was perhaps no surprise to see him line-up 10th on the grid. That became P7 inside five laps.

A pit stop on lap 29 had him emerge just behind Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly, and for the last five laps the Finn was right on Gasly’s tail. He just couldn’t make the pass on the narrow bends of Hungary. Raikkonen, though, was pretty pleased with the car's performance, saying it was better than McLaren, who had Carlos Sainz finish to places up the road in fifth.

“Well, that was quite good,” said Raikkonen of his race. “The car behaved great, I did a good job in the first lap and stayed out of trouble and then we had even better speed than the McLaren, but it was impossible to overtake.

“After the pit stop we knew that it was impossible to overtake and I had to save the tyres for the end, and we lost a position in the pit stop then gained one [due to Nico Hulkenberg’s Renault being stuck in safe mode], maybe the only thing we could’ve done better is stop a lap earlier, but that’s how it goes,” he concluded.