Red Bull sets record of 12th consecutive win with dominant Verstappen victory in Hungary.
Max Verstappen stormed to victory over Lando Norris and Sergio Perez with another commanding performance in the Hungarian Grand Prix, giving the reigning double world champion his seventh straight triumph and the Red Bull their 12th in a row – beating McLaren’s long-standing record.
Verstappen passed pole-sitting Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton at the start before settling into the lead and pulling clear of the chasing pack by over half a minute, chalking up a lights-to-flag win along with the bonus point for fastest lap, Verstappen extended his championship lead over teammate Sergio Perez to 110 points at the midway point of the season.
It means Red Bull continue their 100% winning run for the 2023 season, while setting a new outright milestone in terms of successive race wins, with their staggering tally now one clear of the 11 McLaren achieved with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost during the 1988 campaign. The win was also Verstappen’s seventh win in a row, 250th podium for Red Bull as a team.
“What an unbelievable rocket ship that was today,” Verstappen said.
“The start was very important to me,” Verstappen continued. “I wanted to get a good first stint and it meant I was able to look after my tyres well and extend it compared to the others. The car felt really good today and the balance was right with the increase in temperature. We had the struggle over one lap all weekend in qualifying, but I think that means it was the right call for the race. If I had a choice between the two, I would pick my race performance every time but we will always make changes and keep trying to improve the car. I think people forget a little bit that to win 12 races in a row is extremely hard but I hope it doesn’t stop there. We have to keep going and I will always try to challenge myself. I had a lot of fun out there today and I was just smiling in the car, it was one of those days where everything just goes perfect. Well, almost perfect, I think I will ask McLaren to pay for a new trophy for me! We need to review the footage, like VAR, to see who really broke it because I heard Lando is blaming me.”
Verstappen took the checkered flag comfortably clear of Norris, who dropped behind fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri early on but regained the place at the first round of pit stops, while Perez – one of only two drivers, along with George Russell, to go long in the first stint on hard tires – rose from ninth to third with another strong recovery drive.
Hamilton’s hopes of turning his 104th pole into a 104th win were dashed at the start when he lost out to Verstappen, Piastri and Norris in quick succession, before that was compounded when he fell victim to Perez’s “man on a mission” strategy, but the seven-time champion at least salvaged fourth via a late move on the Australian rookie Piastri.
Charles Leclerc crossed the line in sixth position but dropped behind the other Mercedes of Russell – who battled his way from 18th – after the checkered flag when a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane was applied, with Ferrari team mate Carlos Sainz coming home eighth.
Aston Martin ended an anonymous race weekend with a minor double points finish, Fernando Alonso the last driver to stay on the same lap as winner Verstappen in ninth and team mate Stroll finishing one tour down in 10th to round out the points.
Daniel Ricciardo started and finished 13th on his return to Formula One with AlphaTauri. The Australian, who has replaced Nyck de Vries for the rest of the season, was hit by Zhou Guanyu at the first corner and dropped to last place. He recovered to 13th after opting to pit into free air midway through the race and nurse a set of tires over 40-lap stint to the finish.
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Red Bull head into next weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix with a points lead of 229. Verstappen, can clinch a third straight Championship with ease by finishing second the rest of the year.
At this point, the math would indicate that Verstappen has a chance to wrap up the title by the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas in October, four races before the finale.
