Hungary Race Reaction
Image: Formula One Media
After a thrilling end to the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix, it was Max Verstappen who surprised spectators to take a commanding win, his second win in a row at the track. With so many key moments to process, let’s have a look at the main takeaways from this race.
Chaos at the start
At the start of the race, the track surface was extremely hot, meaning teams had to rethink tyre strategy as degradation seemed higher than usual. Mostly everyone started on the medium-compound tyres, with Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll, Pierre Gasly, and Yuki Tsunoda starting on soft tyres. In a bid to get a great result, Perez started on the hard-compound tyres, with the intention to be on a softer compound towards the end of the race, which proved to be handy.
Polesitter Lewis Hamilton lost three positions, getting overtaken by Verstappen at Turn 1 and both McLaren cars by the end of the first sector. Zhou Guanyu, after getting bogged down at the start, hit the Alpha Tauri of Daniel Ricciardo who tapped the rear of Esteban Ocon, who ran into the side of his teammate Gasly, resulting in a second successive double-DNF for Alpine. The incident resulted in Guanyu receiving a five-second time penalty, not the start the Chinese driver wanted.
Sainz had a lightning-quick start, gaining five positions on the opening lap, but Ferrari failed to let the Spaniard past 5th place Charles Leclerc in the opening stages of the race, preventing Sainz from attacking Hamilton in P4. Sergio Perez had an amazing start and moved past Fernando Alonso into P7 after much difficulty thanks to the Aston Martin driver’s impeccable ability to defend.
The scorching track temperature meant that the soft-compound tyre runners including Stroll and Tsunoda had to pit for hards, showing that these Pirellis can’t withstand warmer temperatures.
By Lap 11, the only soft runner was Carlos Sainz, who was being pressured by Perez from behind, the Ferrari driver pitted for hards on Lap 15. Charles Leclerc’s first pitstop of the race couldn’t have been worse, losing almost seven seconds in the box, compromising the Monegasque’s race.
As the evolving track surfaces continued to degrade tyres quicker than expected, many drivers pitted for the hard-compound tyres, including polesitter Hamilton and Piastri, and Lando Norris. Despite Piastri being the lead McLaren in the first stint, Norris jumped his rookie teammate and moved ahead.
Verstappen continued to lead from his Turn 1 overtake on Lewis Hamilton and controlled the field. The Dutchman seemed right at home managing his medium-compound tyres, whilst everyone struggled with a lack of grip. Verstappen pitted on Lap 24, having preserved his medium tyres and swapped them for the extremely popular hard-compound tyres, maintaining his lead over Perez, who found himself over a pitstop behind his teammate.
Halfway through the race, Verstappen reported that his hard tyres were “stiffer but easier to work with,” after the Red Bull driver reported problems with grip earlier in the weekend. Despite this, he had such a great lead, he was 35 seconds ahead of second place-runner Norris on Lap 50, before making his final pitstop of the race.
Hammertime postponed?
After the ecstasy of achieving his first pole position in 33 races, Hamilton lost positions at the start, not happy with the overall feel of his Mercedes W14. The man from Stevenage was stuck in P4 as the McLaren cars pulled away, clearly demonstrating McLaren’s sheer speed.
Hamilton, despite swapping positions with Russell on Lap 25, accused Mercedes of turning his engine power down, after the Brit was nearly 19 seconds behind race leader Max Verstappen. Hamilton’s teammate Russell was flying by Lap 32, setting the fastest lap of the race. The seven-time world champion was told to lift and coast by Mercedes, who struggled with tyre degradation, whilst being caught by Sergio Perez.
Hamilton finally pitted for new medium tyres with just 20 laps to go and overtook Piastri for P4 shortly afterwards.
The closing stages of the race saw an attempt from Lewis Hamilton to rescue a disappointing result, with the seven-time world champion overtaking Oscar Piastri to take P4. Hamilton had some fantastic pace in the final ten laps of the race, chasing down Sergio Perez in P3, who seemed to have hit a wall with his tyre degradation.
Sergio Perez, deservedly the driver of the day, made a valiant effort to catch Norris but the young McLaren pilot drove beautifully to keep the rapid Red Bull at bay, despite encountering traffic in the final ten laps of the race.
Hamilton’s teammate Russell, who found fantastic grip on his rubbered-in medium tyres, overtook Sainz on Lap 66, and crossed the finish line within five seconds of Leclerc, and inherited P6 thanks to the Ferrari driver’s penalty. Overall, it was a great recovery drive from Russell, who had a nightmare qualifying session on Saturday.
Other key moments
Sergio Perez’s P3 finish may seem normal to the average fan but this was an excellent effort from the Red Bull driver, whose seat has been threatened by the arrival of Daniel Ricciardo to Alpha Tauri. It was a fantastic effort from the Mexican driver who came home to finish P3, holding off a late charge from Hamilton, but failing to overtake Norris. Speaking of Norris, this P2 finish marks his first time achieving back-to-back podiums, cementing McLaren as serious competition to the likes of Mercedes, Aston Martin, and maybe even Red Bull.
“From now on I look forward to being on the podium every race.”
Alpine, with its double-DNF, have slipped down to sixth in the constructors, 40 points behind McLaren, cementing the Woking-based team as clear frontrunners. Both Haas drivers, as always, tumbled down the order after a great qualifying result, with Magnussen finishing last, not the best season for the team from Kannapolis.
Daniel Ricciardo, on his return back to the sport, had a dismal race and found himself almost a pitstop behind his teammate, not the best performance from the Honey Badger. In general, the Alpha Tauri cars put in a poor result, with Ricciardo finishing P13, where he started the race and with Tsunoda in P16, behind Nico Hulkenberg.
Speaking of Williams, the British team suffered a similar fate to what it’s sadly accustomed to, with Sargeant spinning in the last few laps of the race and retiring from the race on the final lap, Alex Albon came home to finish P11, just a few seconds behind Stroll in P10.
Fernando Alonso found some fantastic pace and gained some time on the Ferrari cars, relishing the challenge of fighting the Scuderia. Inevitably, the slower pace of the Aston Martin meant that Alonso couldn't gain any time on the Ferraris and drove a very lonely race in ninth.
The Aston Martin drivers had a dismal race, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll in P9 and P10 respectively. The sudden drop in the pace of the Silverstone-based team seems to be down to the new structure of the Pirelli tyres, an issue which Alonso highlighted earlier in the weekend. Whilst Alonso remains third in the championship, just six points ahead of Lewis Hamilton, it looks as if Mercedes and McLaren have leapfrogged Aston Martin as the main challengers behind Red Bull.
Ferrari’s woes continued as Leclerc complained about the team’s strategy decision, by Lap 42 Leclerc was running in P7, just under two seconds behind his teammate Carlos Sainz. Leclerc made his final pitstop of the race on Lap 45 but received a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pitlane, eventually demoting the Ferrari driver to P7.
It was also a horrid race for the Alfa Romeo Sauber outfit - a shame, after such a promising qualifying result with Valtteri Bottas starting P7 and Zhou Guanyu starting P5. The Swiss team take home zero points, clearly a race to forget.
Catch me if you can
This result marks Verstappen’s seventh win in a row, demonstrating his immense talent and speed. This win also marked Red Bull’s 12th win in a row, a feat that’s never been achieved before, shattering McLaren’s streak in 1988 with the legendary Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. This clearly places Verstappen in the top leagues, positioning Red Bull as definite world champions, both driver and constructor.
Can anyone catch Red Bull? It doesn’t seem so. At this rate, the Milton Keynes locals could claim its sixth constructors’ title by the Italian Grand Prix, and Verstappen could be a triple world champion by Singapore. What’s certain is that the fight for P2 and P3, both in the team and driver’s standings, will be extremely intense, as we race on towards Spa.
Stay tuned on our website and on our Twitter and Instagram for our coverage of the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix. We’ll also be reporting live from the London EPrix for the final round of the Formula E World Championship, so expect a lot of content from us very soon!
Final race results
1st - Max Verstappen (NED)
2nd - Lando Norris (GBR)
3rd - Sergio Perez (MEX)
4th - Lewis Hamilton (GBR)
5th - Oscar Piastri (AUS)
6th - George Russell (GBR)
7th - Charles Leclerc (MCO) (+5 sec)
8th - Carlos Sainz (ESP)
9th - Fernando Alonso (ESP)
10th - Lance Stroll (CAN)
11th - Alexander Albon (THA)
12th - Valtteri Bottas (FIN)
13th - Daniel Ricciardo (AUS)
14th - Nico Hülkenberg (GER)
15th - Yuki Tsunoda (JPN)
16th - Zhou Guanyu (CHN)
17th - Kevin Magnussen (DNK)
DNF - Pierre Gasly (FRA)
DNF - Esteban Ocon (FRA)
DNF - Logan Sargeant (USA)
