Race Sundays follow one another and look alike for Max Verstappen and Red Bull: in Hungary, the leader in the Formula 1 World Championship offered himself a new solo rider, giving his team a record 12th victory in a row.
The horizon was still clear for “Mad Max” on the Hungaroring track, where he signed his seventh victory in a row this season – the ninth this season in eleven Grands Prix. A triumph that allows the Austrian team, undefeated since the end of 2022, to score a 12th victory in a row, which breaks McLaren’s record dating from 1988.
“For the team, 12 wins in a row is just incredible […]I hope we can continue this momentum for a long time” to savor the reigning double world champion, author of the 44th victory of his career in F1.
“In 1988, I remember watching Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna win all those races. It took all these years to beat this record. It’s an incredible performance, ”welcomed Christian Horner on the French television channel Canal+.
In the drivers’ championship, the Dutchman is now 110 points ahead of his teammate Sergio Pérez, the only other driver to have won in the GP this season.
Second podium in a row for Norris
The expected duel between Lewis Hamilton and his opponent of yesteryear Verstappen only lasted a few meters: starting in the lead position for the first time since December 2021, the Mercedes driver will not have resisted the onslaught of “Mad Max” for long.
Worse, the seven-time world champion was taken by surprise by the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. At the end of the first lap, Hamilton was 4th.
“It wasn’t my worst start, but it wasn’t as good as the others,” he said after the race. “I went wide and I got ripped off by the McLarens. Then I didn’t have the rhythm to keep up with them.”
The Briton, more efficient at the end of the race, finished at the foot of the podium, behind Norris, second, and Pérez, third after starting 9th on the grid. Oscar Piastri completes the Top 5.
In Hungary, the McLaren drivers confirm the good form of the English team since the British GP in early July. Norris gave the team its first podium of the season by finishing second while Piastri finished fourth.
For Norris, the podium was decided on the first lap: “If I hadn’t passed Lewis at the start, I’m not sure I would have passed him later,” he explained.
Alpine on the mat
Behind, George Russell (Mercedes), who started 18th, took sixth place at the Hungaroring. The Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Spaniard Carlos Sainz finished seventh and eighth.
Leclerc suffered from a far too long pit stop by the Scuderia, which made him lose precious seconds. The Monegasque also later received a five-second penalty for speeding into the pit lane, losing his sixth place to Russell.
Behind the Ferraris, the Spaniard Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), in great shape at the start of the year, is 9th: “We had a somewhat lonely race, with no threat behind, but also without gaining ground on our competitors in front. »
At Alpine, the black series continues since the French Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were the main victims of a pileup at the start of the GP also involving the Australian Daniel Ricciardo (AlphaTauri) and the Chinese Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo), found guilty of the incident.
If the last two pilots were able to stay on the track, those of the French team had to abandon, the single-seaters having been too damaged. Ocon even had his seat snapped in half in the accident.
For Alpine, this is the second double abandonment in a row after the one in Great Britain. “Things do not line up for us,” lamented Gasly on Canal +.
“Now we have to focus on Spa [où se tiendra le Grand Prix de Belgique le week-end prochain] and quickly stop this series of events”, which is expensive for Alpine, only sixth in the constructors’ championship and which sees McLaren moving away in front of it.