Verstappen untouchable in Hungary as Red Bull breaks record
Monday, 24 July 2023
Max Verstappen romped to his most emphatic victory of the year in Budapest, as Red Bull's winning run hit historic heights.
Red Bull Racing set an F1® record by winning a 12th straight Grand Prix in Hungary, Max Verstappen taking his seventh win in succession as the team broke McLaren's 35-year-old benchmark for the most consecutive wins in the sport's history.
Verstappen increased his championship lead to 110 points after 11 of the season's 22 races after being beaten to pole position by 0.003secs by Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), the seven-time world champion taking pole in Hungary for a ninth time, the most poles by one driver at one single circuit.
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Verstappen stormed down the inside at Turn 1 after the start to take an advantage he'd never relinquish, his winning margin of 33.731secs his biggest of a year where he's now won nine of the 11 races.
Behind – a long way behind – the Dutchman was McLaren's Lando Norris, who finished second for the second race in a row, while Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez put a poor run of results to bed with a fighting drive from ninth to third, using an alternative hard tyre strategy to push to the podium and be voted Driver of the Day by the sport's fans.
Aussie watch
After his career-best fourth place at the British Grand Prix last time out, Hungary initially looked even better for Oscar Piastri; the McLaren rookie qualified fourth, and played the first corner of the race perfectly to pass pole-sitter Hamilton and teammate Norris to slot into second behind Verstappen for the opening 18 laps.
Piastri fell behind his teammate after Norris made his first pit stop one lap earlier, and then struggled with tyre wear in the final two stints of the race as he dropped to fifth after 70 laps.
Daniel Ricciardo made his F1® return with Scuderia AlphaTauri, the same team he drove for in 2012-13 when it was known as Toro Rosso, after Nyck De Vries was let go after the British Grand Prix. In the first race since the 2013 season finale in Brazil to feature two Australian drivers, Ricciardo qualified 13th and beat teammate Yuki Tsunoda in an unfamiliar car before being hit by Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo) at the first corner, dropping to the back of the field.
A marathon 40-lap stint on medium tyres saw the 34-year-old recover to where he started, gaining valuable experience in an AT04 chassis he'd never driven before Friday's opening practice session.
Unsung hero
It's hard to be classified as 'unsung' when you drive for Red Bull, but Perez's podium was both long overdue and timely, given Ricciardo's arrival in Red Bull's B-team served as an unofficial turning up of the heat on the Mexican, whose qualifying struggles had seen his initially promising season go south.
Perez made it into Q3 for the first time in six Grands Prix, and raced like someone with a point to prove, forthright passes of George Russell (Mercedes) and Piastri among the highlights of his surge from ninth to third, his sixth podium finish of 2023.
Number to know
1.097: The advantage, in seconds, of Verstappen's fastest race lap (1min 20.504secs on lap 53) over the best of the rest (Hamilton's 1:21.601 on lap 54), showcasing the advantage the RB19 in Verstappen's hands has over the rest in race trim. "It's like a field of Formula 2 cars against a Formula 1," Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff commented afterwards.
As a young kid I remember watching the McLarens of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna achieving that incredible feat – to think we've now bettered that...
Hungarian Grand Prix: top 10
1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) 1hr 38mins 08.634secs
2. Lando Norris (McLaren) +33.731secs
3. Sergio Perez (Red Bull Racing) +37.603secs
4. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) +39.134secs
5. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +62.572secs
6. George Russell (Mercedes) +65.825secs
7. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +70.317secs
8. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) +71.073secs
9. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +75.709secs
10. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +1 lap
Standings (top 5)
Drivers' championship
1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) 281 points
2. Sergio Perez (Red Bull Racing) 171 points
3. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) 139 points
4. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 133 points
5. George Russell (Mercedes) 90 points
Constructors' championship
1. Red Bull Racing (452 points)
2. Mercedes (223 points)
3. Aston Martin (184 points)
4. Ferrari (167 points)
5. McLaren (87 points)
Next race
Round 12: Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium (July 28-30)
