Max Verstappen dominated the Hungarian Grand Prix to take a record-setting 12th consecutive victory for Red Bull ahead of Lando Norris.
The championship leader extended his advantage beyond 100 points after passing pole winner Lewis Hamilton at the start and leading every lap to take a comfortable victory. Norris finished second, with Verstappen’s team mate Sergio Perez rising from ninth of the grid to take the final podium position.Before the start of the race, the top eight drivers lined up on the grid on medium compound tyres, with Hamilton taking up pole for the first time since 2021. When the lights went out, Verstappen got a good start and took the inside line on the run to turn one, taking the lead of the race as Hamilton was passed on the exit of turn one by the two McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Norris.
Behind, Zhou Guanyu in fifth had a terrible start and fell down the order. He then ran into Daniel Ricciardo under braking for turn one, which sent the AlphaTauri into Esteban Ocon who then hit Alpine team mate Pierre Gasly. The clash caused terminal damage to both Alpine cars but the race was able to continue without the need for any Safety Car intervention, and Zhou was later handed a five-second time penalty for causing a collision.
With Verstappen in the lead, he pulled out a small gap of two seconds to Piastri behind by lap seven as the McLarens pulled out of DRS range of Hamilton’s Mercedes behind. Further back, many teams decided to pit their drivers early for the hard compound tyre before the end of lap ten, while the leaders seemed content to stay out.
Hamilton was the first of the leaders to pit for hard tyres at the end of lap 16. The two McLarens followed suit over the next two laps, with Norris able to undercut his team mate to beat Piastri out of the pit lane and move ahead. Verstappen remained out on his mediums until lap 23, switching to the hard tyres and rejoining six seconds ahead of Norris.
Verstappen pulled away from the McLarens behind over the second stint, stretching his advantage to well over 10 seconds by half-distance. Meanwhile, his team mate Perez caught up to the back of Hamilton in fourth, before pitting for a second set of medium tyres. The two McLarens also came in for mediums soon after, holding their positions ahead of Perez.
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Perez soon put Piastri under pressure and despite the McLaren rookie’s best efforts the Red Bull overtook him around the outside of turn one to split the McLarens. Hamilton eventually pitted from second place and rejoined behind Perez and Piastri in fifth, leaving Verstappen as the last driver yet to make a second stop.
The leader eventually pitted on lap 51, taking the mediums for his final stint of the race. He emerged from the pit lane 12 seconds ahead of Norris, but soon began to extend that margin further by setting the new fastest lap of the race. Hamilton in fifth caught up to the back of Piastri’s McLaren, passing him comfortably into turn one to take fourth position.
Verstappen leisurely cruised through the remaining laps at a pace quicker than anyone else. At the end of the 70th lap, he took the chequered flag to secure his ninth win of the season and seventh consecutive win to also set a new all-time record of 12 straight wins for his Red Bull team.
For the second race in a row Norris followed him home. Hamilton almost completed the British Grand Prix podium reunion but Perez beat him to the final podium place. Piastri faded to fifth, well over 20 seconds off of Hamilton.
George Russell claimed sixth after starting 18th thanks to a five-second time penalty for Charles Leclerc for speeding in the pit lane. Carlos Sainz Jnr finished in eighth, with the two Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll completing the top ten.
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2023 Hungarian Grand Prix reaction
- Check back shortly for more race reaction
Jere (@jerejj)
23rd July 2023, 16:20
What a start by Zhou, who was seemingly asleep when the lights turned off, but I just heard that was about a rev issue he’d never faced before.
Nevertheless, that, unfortunately, hampered his teammate in the process, although rear-ending Ricciardo & as a chain reaction, causing Alpine’s second consecutive double DNF was all on him.
Ricciardo out-performing Tsunoda again, which isn’t a good look for the latter.
Ferrari & Leclerc especially was nowhere, while Piastri’s pace drop further into the latter half was weird.
Ciaran (@ciaran)
23rd July 2023, 16:33
I know Zhou and Alfa Romeo had start issues last year, but this looked nothing like that. Very odd.
BasCB (@bascb)
23rd July 2023, 20:56
I guess he let it drop into anti stall.
drmouse (@drmouse)
23rd July 2023, 16:52
So many people were hoping that this would finally be the day Max had to actually fight for a win, yet nobody was even close after the start and he finished over half a minute ahead, the largest margin of the season. I seriously doubt we will see him troubled at all this year, and probably not even next year.
Behind him, though, we did get some great action. I’m really glad McLaren have got their form back, and it’s was good to see Hamilton fighting back at the end.
Ferrari… What can I say? They just don’t seem to be able to get anything right. You can hear the massive frustration from Charles and Carlos, and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear of them jumping ship of they have a reasonable opportunity.
Riccardo seems back on form, I can see him picking up a good handful of points this season.
Edvaldo
23rd July 2023, 16:58
now let’s wait and read somebody dare to say this is not by far the best car.
30 secs, and it would be more if they just covered Norris, but again were so far ahead, they didn’t even need to react.
The gap was increasing and would be even larger with a couple more laps.
osnola
23rd July 2023, 17:56
Nobody denies it’s the best car, (contrary to Mercedes years) but also the best Driver.
Edvaldo
23rd July 2023, 18:15
there is people saying it’s not BY FAR the best car.
melanos
23rd July 2023, 20:52
Much. much, much less than the W05 was.
Have you noticed that Perez also drives a RB19
With the W05 my beagle’s fleas would have won any number of WDCs. with the RB19 it takes a Max to win one
Edvaldo
23rd July 2023, 21:09
It doesn’t take a Max to win one if Perez is 2nd in the standings having a very bad season. lol.
And remember : W05 had a lot of reliability problems. The car caught fire at least 2 times that season.
Other than small glitches on qualifying, i don’t remember this RB beast suffering nothing remotely similar.
David (@davidjwest)
23rd July 2023, 23:20
Perez has won twice this season and is easily 2nd in the table.
Probably the most dominant car ever, just they do a lot more managing now than they used to.
Statistically it is THE most dominant.
CP
23rd July 2023, 18:18
Surely he needs to be up a semi decent teammate? Perez is the worst on the grid.
drmouse (@drmouse)
24th July 2023, 8:20
Nobody denied that Mercedes had the best car. What people argued against was the idea that it was just the car, which was just as wrong then as it is now.
Alex (@)
23rd July 2023, 17:03
The real record here is the reliability of modern cars.
Plenty of past cars have had bigger margins. The Red Bull deploys its margin race after race without mechanical failure.
AlanD
23rd July 2023, 20:44
Good point Alex. Cars rarely suffer engine failures these days, because engines cannot be pushed, and tyres are rarely run down to the canvas or with massive flat spots which are shaking the cars apart. Added to that, the freezes and budget caps means that a dominant team is harder to catch. So yes, Red Bull are in the record books, but somehow it doesn’t feel as jaw dropping as streaks in the past.
MichaelN
23rd July 2023, 17:12
Would be fun to get DTS cameras in an office where one of the 8 other chief designers argues why they should be paid the kind of money they’re making. Even with the regulatory stability, the BoP-testing restrictions for Red Bull, and over a year and a half to copy working solutions… this is the best these teams can do? It’s bad.
DaveW
23rd July 2023, 17:56
But if they had just rushed to copy the RB19 last year the owners would say, why did we hire you just to copy the fastest car. We want our Own Concept.
Illusive (@illusive)
23rd July 2023, 18:26
Havent seen a driver in tune with his car since Vettel at RB in 2013. Having a dominant car and being clinical is 2 different things.
Darryn Smith (@darryn)
23rd July 2023, 18:30
That was dull. Got through it in 10 minutes or so. Total of an hour and 20 minutes saved on this fine Sunday.
David (@davidjwest)
23rd July 2023, 23:18
Thank god the cost cap has made the racing closer.
ADUB SMALLBLOCK (@waptraveler)
24th July 2023, 2:12
Max is making it look so easy, he is thinking of installing “CandyCrush” on his steering wheel display! LOL
MCG (@malrg)
24th July 2023, 5:08
Max has taken a very good car and made it look exceptional.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
24th July 2023, 8:01
Early on this season, after the first race, an article came up on this site asking in a poll if red bull would win all races, and a lot of you said it was premature: as you can see, when a team dominates that much, it’s not a premature question to ask.
I voted for the 2nd highest option as I recall, but at this point since verstappen is relentless and the car reliable, I would no longer be surprised if they won all.
drmouse (@drmouse)
24th July 2023, 13:32
Agreed, and I think that’s how I voted too.
If I had to put my money on it, I’d still put it on someone else winning at least one race this year. The car looks superb, Max is at the top of his game, but it only takes one incident or breakdown. Perez is looking less and less like he’ll be there to pick up any wins Max loses out on. However, it’ll take some serious bad luck from RBR & Max for anyone else to even have a chance of a win.