Introduction
Max Verstappen stormed to victory over Lando Norris and Sergio Perez with one other commanding efficiency within the 2023 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix, giving the reigning double world champion his seventh straight triumph and Red Bull their twelfth in a row – beating McLaren’s long-standing document.
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Verstappen handed pole-sitting Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton initially earlier than settling into the lead and pulling away from the chasing pack with aplomb, chalking up a lights-to-flag win that places additional distance between himself and teammate Perez within the drivers’ standings.
It means Red Bull continues their 100% successful run for the 2023 season whereas setting a brand new outright milestone by way of successive race wins, with their staggering tally now one away from the 11 McLaren achieved with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost throughout the 1988 marketing campaign.
Verstappen took the chequered flag comfortably away from Norris, who dropped behind fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri early on however regained the place on the first spherical of pit stops, whereas Perez – one among solely two drivers, together with George Russell, to go lengthy within the first stint on onerous tyres – rose from ninth to 3rd with one other robust restoration drive.
Hamilton’s hopes of turning his 104th pole right into a 104th win had been dashed initially when he misplaced out to Verstappen, Piastri and Norris in fast succession earlier than that was compounded when he fell sufferer to Perez’s alternate technique, however the seven-time champion not less than salvaged fourth by way of a late transfer on the Australian rookie Piastri.
Charles Leclerc crossed the road in sixth place however dropped behind the opposite Mercedes of Russell after the chequered flag when a five-second penalty for dashing within the pit lane was utilized, with Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz coming house eighth.
Aston Martin ended an nameless race weekend with a minor double factors end, Fernando Alonso the final driver to remain on the identical lap as winner Verstappen in ninth and teammate Stroll ending one tour down in tenth to spherical out the factors.
Fresh from their latest points-scoring exploits, Alex Albon and Williams needed to accept eleventh this trip, adopted by the lead Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas in twelfth after the Hinwil staff’s high-flying qualifying show turned bitter on race day by way of incidents and a common lack of tempo.
Indeed, Zhou Guanyu’s fifth-place beginning place turned a lowly sixteenth on race day after he tried to make up for a gradual getaway and bumped into F1 returnee Daniel Ricciardo initially, triggering a four-car collision that led to each Alpine drivers retiring from proceedings as soon as once more.
Ricciardo recovered to take thirteenth in his first race again because the 2022 season finale in Abu Dhabi, forward of Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg, AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda, the aforementioned Zhou and last finisher Kevin Magnussen.
Williams rookie Logan Sargeant pulled into the pits after a late spin, with Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly doing the identical within the early phases as a result of vital injury their vehicles picked up within the chaos sparked by Zhou.
Mario Isola, Motorsport Director, Pirelli:
It was a really fascinating weekend which noticed a trial of a brand new tyre allocation format and analysis, bringing a trio of compounds one step softer than up to now. As for the ATA, at first, it must be identified that will probably be trialled once more at Monza this coming September on a observe with utterly completely different traits to this one. The information shall be analysed very rigorously. Apart from that, I’d say the 2 salient factors from this weekend had been that yesterday’s qualifying was extra unpredictable than ordinary as a result of it introduced the drivers with new challenges: the necessity to adapt shortly to the change of compound and the truth that having two units of every compound for the race launched higher flexibility by way of technique.
The reality that every one the drivers made two stops in highly regarded situations with a observe temperature that was 53 levels initially, with no excessive degradation issues, confirms that the three compounds we selected to carry right here had been the proper ones, on condition that 4 drivers even used the Soft for his or her first stint, exhibiting that it was not out of the query to race with it.
Now we come to the ultimate spherical earlier than the summer time break, at Spa-Francorchamps, one of the crucial fascinating tracks on the calendar, with completely completely different traits to these of the Hungaroring, each by way of its format and in relation to the kind of climate we will anticipate. Belgium would be the third spherical of the season to characteristic the Sprint format, which ought to guarantee an much more thrilling present.
How the race was received from the tyre standpoint:
(*1*)
Max Verstappen took his ninth win of the season, taking his complete variety of Formula 1 victories to 44. It was their twelfth consecutive win for Red Bull, a brand new outright document. Although he missed out on pole place yesterday afternoon by simply three thousandths, the reigning world champion nonetheless managed to steer throughout the road for all 70 laps of the race. He made probably the most of the truth that polesitter Lewis Hamilton didn’t get the very best of begins and in addition got here off finest in an exciting duel with Oscar Piastri within the McLaren. From then on, Verstappen was in dominant type, successful by over 30 seconds from Lando Norris, who secured his second consecutive podium end. Rounding off the rostrum trio was Sergio Perez, who staged an incredible climb up the order from ninth on the grid.
As extensively predicted, all of the drivers opted for 2 stops, though there have been a number of permutations. For instance, the highest two finishers opted to go Medium/Hard/Medium, whereas Perez began on Hard earlier than twice becoming Mediums. Four drivers began on Softs: Sainz, Gasly, Stroll and Tsunoda. Making the very best use of the additional grip afforded by the C5 was Ferrari’s Spanish driver, who crossed the road sixth on the finish of the opening lap, having began eleventh. AlphaTauri’s Japanese driver used all three out there compounds, whereas within the Williams, Alex Albon did probably the most consecutive laps (38) on Hard tyres. Sainz drove the longest stint on Softs (15 laps), whereas Ricciardo did no fewer than 40 laps on one set of Mediums. The most used compound was the C3 (770 laps, 61.5%), adopted by the C4 (448, 35.78%) and the C5 (34, 2.72%).
What’s subsequent?
The Belgian Grand Prix takes place subsequent week at Spa-Francorchamps, one of many historic Formula 1 venues, the place tyres are subjected to vital lateral and vertical forces. Pirelli will carry the C2 compound as P Zero White onerous, C3 as P Zero Yellow medium and C4 as P Zero Red delicate. The Ardennes circuit hosts one other F1 Sprint weekend, following on from these in Azerbaijan and Austria. Saturday is given over to the Sprint Shootout and race whereas qualifying for Sunday’s race takes place on Friday afternoon.
2023 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix Race Results
| Pos | No | Driver | Country | Team | Time | Points | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 1 | Max Verstappen | Netherlands | Red Bull Racing | 1:38:08.634 | 26 | 281 |
| 2. | 4 | Lando Norris | Great Britain | Mclaren Racing | +33.731s | 18 | 42 |
| 3. | 11 | Sergio Perez | Mexico | Red Bull Racing | +37.603s | 15 | 171 |
| 4. | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Great Britain | Mercedes-AMG Petronas | +39.134s | 12 | 133 |
| 5. | 81 | Oscar Piastri | Australia | McLaren Racing | +62.572s | 10 | 27 |
| 6. | 63 | George Russell | Great Britain | Mercedes-AMG Petronas | +65.825s | 8 | 90 |
| 7. | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Monaco | Scuderia Ferrari | +70.317s | 6 | 80 |
| 8. | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Spain | Scuderia Ferrari | +71.073s | 4 | 87 |
| 9. | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Spain | Aston Martin F1 Team | +75.709s | 2 | 139 |
| 10. | 18 | Lance Stroll | Canada | Aston Martin F1 Team | +1 lap | 1 | 45 |
| 11. | 45 | Alexander Albon | Thailand | Williams Racing | +1 lap | 0 | 11 |
| 12. | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Finland | Alfa Romeo F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 5 |
| 13. | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Australia | Scuderia AlphaTauri | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 14. | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Germany | Haas F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 9 |
| 15. | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | Japan | Scuderia AlphaTauri | +1 lap | 0 | 2 |
| 16. | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | China | Alfa Romeo F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 4 |
| 17. | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Denmark | Haas F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 2 |
| 18. | 2 | Logan Sargeant | USA | Williams Racing | DNF | 0 | 0 |
| 19. | 10 | Pierre Gasly | France | Alpine F1 Team | DNF | 0 | 16 |
| 20. | 31 | Esteban Ocon | France | Alpine F1 Team | DNF | 0 | 31 |
| 21. | 21 | Nyck De Vries | Netherlands | Scuderia AlphaTauri | DNS | 0 | 0 |
2023 Constructor Standings
Here are the team-by-team highlights:
