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Max Verstappen scored his seventh consecutive win of 2023. The reigning two-time champion jumped polesitter Lewis Hamilton off the line and never looked back, leading all 70 laps to win by over 33 seconds. It also marked Red Bull’s 12th consecutive victory to start a season, and 13th dating back to 2022, breaking McLaren’s 35-year old record.
F1 Hungarian GP Results: Who Won the Race?
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Max Verstappen won the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Dutchman got a better start than poleman Lewis Hamilton, who was also passed by McLaren pair Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. Piastri fell down to fifth by the end of the race, while Sergio Perez put on a solid recovery drive to finish third from ninth on the grid. Norris made it back-to-back runner-up finishes, following up on his British GP podium.
Bad Getaway for Hamilton, Lightning Start for Piastri
Hamilton didn’t get the best of starts. The polesitter was immediately swamped into turn 1 by Verstappen and by a flying Piastri, who was already up to second from fourth on the grid. On turn 2, it was Norris’ turn to get down the inside of his fellow Brit and move into third place, demoting Hamilton to fourth.
Zhou Guanyu stalled from fifth on the grid and dropped all the way down to 16th. The Alfa Romeo driver tried to make up for the poor start by braking late into turn 1 and ran into the back of Daniel Ricciardo‘s AlphaTauri, who in turn got launched against Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly. The Alpine pair ended up colliding, picking up terminal damage retiring at the end of the opening lap. Zhou picked up a five-second penalty for his role in the crash.
Norris Jumps Piastri for Second
At the end of lap 16, Hamilton was the first of the front-runners to stop, switching to a set of hards. Norris and Piastri followed in on laps 17 and 18, respectively. The undercut worked for Norris, who got around Piastri into turn 2 for second place.
Verstappen waited until the end of lap 23 to head into the pits, switching to hards and retaining the lead with a comfortable gap. A few laps later, it was the hard-shod Perez’s turn to pit from second. The Mexican driver switched to a set of mediums and emerged seventh, setting on a charge to fight for the podium.
In back-to-back laps, Perez pulled off aggressive moves on Carlos Sainz and George Russell for sixth and fifth. Verstappen, meanwhile, pitted with 25 to go and comfortably reemerged in the lead.
Perez Moves Onto the Podium
Red Bull pitted Perez on lap46, looking to undercut Hamilton for fourth place. McLaren also called Piastri in from third, with both drivers switching to mediums. Red Bull did the fastest stop of the race, getting Perez back in just 1.9s and shaving off a second from Piastri in the process.
The fight for third was on. Perez got around the outside of Piastri into turn 1 on lap 47. The Australian rookie tried to fight back around the outside of 2, but got squeezed onto the grass.
Hamilton pitted a lap later, emerging in fifth place. But with fresher rubber, the Mercedes driver closed down the gap to the Piastri and eventually pulled off a move down the inside of turn 1 on lap 57.
The order then remained unchanged until the checkered. Verstappen crossed the line with a massive 33.7s gap over Norris, picking up the extra point for the fastest lap. The Dutchman now leads the standings by 110 over Perez, who crossed the line third. Hamilton, Piastri, Russell, Leclerc, Sainz, Alonso and Stroll completed the top 10.
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