The reigning world champion got himself in front during plenty of drama at the first corner and dominated the rest of the field in trademark fashion at the Hungaroring on Sunday, leading the whole way thereafter to secure his seventh successive triumph and ninth in 11 races in 2023. It was his 44th success overall in F1 so far.
The only two grands prix not won by Verstappen so far this season were claimed by team-mate Sergio Perez, with Red Bull now moving clear of 1988 McLaren with an all-time mark of 12 race wins in a row.
“It’s just incredible, what we’ve been going through the last few years is just unbelievable and hopefully we can keep this momentum going for a long time and also just to work with the whole team is always very enjoyable,” Verstappen said of Red Bull’s achievement, having again hailed his car as a “rocket ship”.
“Of course you know it’s always good to look into it, yesterday for example to keep pushing, wanting to do better, but today is just perfect.”
It was a tough day for Lewis Hamilton, who could not even convert his first pole position since 2021 into a podium place, dropping to fourth during a disastrous start and ending the race in that same position despite a late push.
Lando Norris claimed second spot – ensuring back-to-back podiums – for resurgent McLaren, ahead of Perez, who was arguably the driver of the day after an aggressive showing full of bold overtakes.
Norris’ team-mate Piastri was fifth, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who gave up sixth spot to George Russell – who had started the race down in 18th – after being given a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
Carlos Sainz came eighth for Ferrari, with the top 10 rounded off by the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
Daniel Ricciardo’s first race back on the grid saw him finish 13th for AlphaTauri, having been bounced down the order after an early second pit stop and first-corner clash that saw Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou punished for causing a heavy collision between Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly that wiped out both Alpines for a second successive double DNF.
More to follow
