For the next chapter in Formula 1 history, series winner Max Verstappen quickly got a slap from Papa Jos. The almost playful success of the double world champion in Hungary was his Red Bull team’s twelfth win in a row, surpassing McLaren’s record from 1988. “It’s incredible, just crazy. A day like this is just perfect,” said Verstappen.
The Dutchman himself secured his seventh win in a row at the Hungaroring, the ninth in the eleventh round of the season and the 44th of his career. “It’s such a pleasure to drive this car,” enthused the 25-year-old. At the finish, he was 33.7 seconds ahead of second Lando Norris in the McLaren – in Formula 1, that’s worlds.
Verstappen had already snatched the lead from Lewis Hamilton at the start and then drove away from everyone. If the Dutchman also wins in Spa next Sunday and at the home game in Zandvoort after the summer break, he would also equalize Sebastian Vettel’s record series from the 2013 season. In the overall World Championship standings, Verstappen extended his lead over team-mate Sergio Pérez to 110 points. The Mexican finished third, just ahead of Hamilton. Nico Hülkenberg remained pointless in the defeated Haas in 14th place.
Hamilton with pole position record
Verstappen had found it difficult to get going in the days before, although his team had screwed new components to his car. In qualifying, his series of five pole positions in a row surprisingly broke. Silver Arrow star Hamilton was three thousandths of a second faster and took first place on the grid for the first time since December 2021.
As the first racing driver in Formula 1 history, the Briton has now conquered nine pole positions on a race track. All in all, Hamilton started from the front for the 104th time in a Grand Prix.
But the lead was gone before the first corner. Verstappen stayed hard on his line and pushed past Hamilton. The record world champion also had to let the McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Norris go. “Sorry about that, guys,” Hamilton radioed to the Mercedes pits.
There was a bang further back in the field. Alfa Romeo driver Guanyu Zhou initially stalled at the start and a little later triggered a chain reaction. The cars of Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were severely demolished and both had to retire. Zhou would receive a five-second time penalty. Forgotten was his strong performance in the hunt for a starting place the day before, when the Chinese surprisingly finished fifth.
Extension of the Hungarian guest performance announced
The picture familiar from the past few weeks developed at the top. World Championship leader Verstappen constantly increased his lead, much to the delight of the thousands of Dutch fans in the stands. According to the organizers, around 303,000 spectators came to the Hungaroring over the weekend.
Formula 1 had already announced the early extension of the contract for the Hungarian guest appearance by another five years until 2032 on Saturday. Linked to this is a modernization of the route, with a new pit building and a new main grandstand to be built by 2026.
The aging track near Budapest is known among experts as “Monaco without walls” because overtaking is so difficult here. This time, too, there were changes of place, mainly due to the pit stops. In the battle for the podium places, Norris came to his tire change earlier than his McLaren rival Piastri and squeezed past the Australian a little later.
Verstappen drove a lonely race there. He came to the garage late for service and stayed in the lead afterwards. Team-mate Pérez meanwhile patiently worked his way up the field, starting from eighth place, the Mexican was chasing fourth-placed Hamilton halfway through the race. “Are you turning my engine down?” Hamilton, who was dissatisfied with his lap times, asked the command post via the pit radio. Answer: The Mercedes crew was concerned about the temperatures of the engine.
Verstappen gets an extra point
In the race for the podium places, Hamilton was far behind for a long time. Pérez got the stumbling Piastri in the superior Red Bull, but in the end it was increasingly difficult to save third place from Hamilton. Verstappen grabbed the extra point for the fastest lap and provided further proof of his overwhelming dominance.
Hole in the porcelain cup
Lando Norris doesn’t blame himself for the damage to Max Verstappen’s Hungary winner’s trophy. After the race, the Briton had banged his champagne bottle on the podium so hard that the trophy fell from the top step to the ground. “Max put him too close to the edge, and then he fell down, it’s not my problem, it’s his,” McLaren driver Norris said with a mischievous smile to the scene.
A larger hole was visible in the porcelain cup after the mishap. “Sorry Max,” tweeted the McLaren team. In allusion to the record of twelve wins for the Red Bull team in a row, Verstappen’s racing team composed an image of the broken trophy: “Record broken, trophy broken”.
