Max Verstappen storms to seventh straight win with Hungarian Grand Prix success, Lewis Hamilton finishes fourth

Max Verstappen stormed to his seventh successive win of the season at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The championship leader overtook pole sitter Lewis Hamilton at the lights and never surrendered the position, increasing his advantage in the standings to a healthy 110 points.

Verstappen’s victory at the Hungaroring makes it a record-breaking 12th consecutive win for Red Bull who continue their 100 per cent record this season.

“We had a really good start – I’m happy with that because we’ve been working on that quite a bit – and when I had the inside, that corner was mine. From there onwards, I could drive my race and the car was really, really fast,” Verstappen said in parc ferme.

“Over one lap this weekend it was a bit of a struggle, but maybe that was a good thing for today. The car was good on any tyre, we could manage the tyres well and that’s why we could create such a big gap.”

Hamilton initially got off to a great start at lights out, but Verstappen hogged the inside line to take the lead into Turn 1. With some wheelspin on the Mercedes, both McLarens pounced and went past, Oscar Piastri taking second ahead of Lando Norris. However, Norris drove a magnificent out lap after his first pit stop to overtake his team-mate 20 laps in.

He retained P2 from there and secured back-to-back podiums for the first time in his F1 career.

“It was a tough race, especially with Checo [Perez] catching at the end. But it’s another podium for us which is amazing,” he said post race.

Asked about the potential of a race win, Norris commented: “If Max retires or something then maybe – Red Bull are too quick just now! At the minute, I’m very happy with the progress we made from where we were four or five races ago to fighting for poles and fighting for podiums. Our time will come later on in the year.”

Sergio Perez rounded out the podium, having delivered a driver-of-the-day performance as he charged from ninth on the grid all the way up to third. He even looked in contention for runner-up in the late stages, edging in ever closer on Norris, but eventually had to focus on what’s behind rather than in front of him, beating Hamilton to the final podium spot by one and a half seconds.

“Overall, it was a great strategy from the team and we managed to get an excellent result,” he said after his statement drive. “This performance and pace does help [to build confidence] and from now I look forward to being on the podium every weekend.”

Speaking about his aggressive overtake on Piastri that forced the McLaren off the track Perez said: ‘I was on fresh tyres, so I went for it around the outside through Turn 1 and into Turn 2. It was a little bit close, but that’s hard racing.’

Despite returning to pole position for the first time since late 2021, Hamilton struggled with pace for most of the race. Throughout the stints the Mercedes gradually improved, but it was too little too late and Hamilton had to settle for fourth.

Piastri came home in fifth, continuing a great trend started with a fourth-place finish at the British Grand Prix last time out. Meanwhile, George Russell was up against it in the race following a shock Q1 exit in Saturday’s qualifying. Nevertheless, the Mercedes driver delivered a clean, well-controlled performance and crossed the line in seventh. He inherited sixth from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who was awarded a five-seconds penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

The race was affected early by a multi-car incident on the opening lap. Coming together with Zhou Guanyu, Yuki Tsunoda made contact with Esteban Ocon who, in turn, was forced to touch Pierre Gasly, removing the rubber on the Frenchman’s rear tyre. Both Gasly and Ocon had to retire, meaning a second consecutive double DNF for Alpine.

Daniel Ricciardo too was affected by the incident, dropping five places down the field, while Valtteri Bottas also had to sacrifice positions to avoid damage.