Red Bull set new F1 record as Verstappen wins again

Red Bull set a new record for the number of consecutive wins by an F1 team of 12 in a row as Max Verstappen extended his personal best run with victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

After winning the final race of last season in Abu Dhabi, and the first 11 of this year, Red Bull has captured a mark that had stood for 35 years when McLaren duo Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost won 11 successive races between them.

Once Verstappen passed polesitter Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes on the run down to Turn 1 at the start of the 70-lap race at the Hungaroring, it was the same old story of late of ‘game over’ at that stage barring any mechanical issue.

Given the current impregnability of the RB19, that never materialised as Verstappen took the chequered flag by 33.7s from Lando Norris in his McLaren as the British driver scored back-to-back podiums for the first time in his career.

In a statement drive, Sergio Perez netted only his second podium in the last five races by claiming third after starting ninth. That was fortunate, though, as Hamilton’s W14 came alive in the final phase of the race only for his his charge to fall short by just 1.5s.

Oscar Piastri, who had started fourth and ran in a career-high second for the first 19 laps, had to content himself with what will feel like a disappointing fifth., finishing 62.5 seconds behind Verstappen.

From 18th on the grid, George Russell finished a superb sixth, aided by a five-second penalty for Charles Leclerc, dropping him to seventh ahead of team-mate Carlos Sainz in what was another mundane race from Ferrari.

Aston Martin, the team that was the main threat to Red Bull over the opening few races of the campaign, completed the top 10, with Fernando Alonso ahead of team-mate Lance Stroll.

As for Daniel Ricciardo on his F1 return after eight months away, the Australian started and finished 13th in his AlphaTauri, but that does not tell the whole story given what unfolded in the early exchanges.

Verstappen now has a 110-point lead over Perez, with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso a further 22 points adrift, whilst Hamilton has closed in to within six points of the Spanish driver.

Red Bull, meanwhile, are a staggering 229 points ahead of Mercedes in the constructors’ standings.

From his first pole position since the end of 2021, the second phase of Hamilton’s getaway off the line allowed Verstappen a run down the inside as they powered towards Turn 1.

Despite Hamilton’s best attempts to block Verstappen, it was in vain as he was ultimately edged wide out of the sweeping right-hander, opening the door for Piastri to surge through out of the corner to claim second.

Salt was rubbed into Hamilton’s wounds as Norris managed to get his elbows out into Turn 2, relegating Hamilton from pole to fourth in less than a kilometre of race track.

“Sorry about that,” was Hamilton’s sheepish comment, to which he was told: “Don’t sweat it Lewis. It’s still a long, hot race.”

Further down the grid, disaster unfolded for Alpine, sparked by Zhou Guanyu who made a woeful start from a career-high fifth, which saw the Chinese driver swallowed up by the pack behind him, including Ricciardo from 13th on the grid.

As the cars behind swarmed to his left and right, a late-braking Zhou nudged the rear of Ricciardo on the approach to Turn 1. In turn, the Australian bumped the back of Esteban Ocon, sending him spearing into team-mate Pierre Gasly.

The damage caused to both Alpines resulted in a second consecutive double DNF, and third overall this season, with Zhou given a five-second penalty for causing a collision.

Sadly for Ricciardo, the domino effect of incidents pitched him back to 18th and last given the retirement of the two Alpines.

Running an F1 high of second, Piastri tried to keep Verstappen in his sights before the DRS could be deployed after two laps but the two-time champion managed to break that by opening a gap of 1.2s at that stage.

In the shake-up of the opening stages, two of the big winners were Sainz, who rose from 11th to sixth, and Russell who elevated himself up to 13th from 18th.

With Pirelli running a step softer compound across its range of dry tyres for this weekend compared to last year, and with track temperatures nudging 50 degrees Celsius, unsurprisingly, the pit stops started early.

Of the leaders, Hamilton was the first in after 16 laps, switching from used mediums to new hards, followed a lap later by Norris and Leclerc who, not for the first time in his Scuderia career, was left bitterly frustrated by a pit stop.

A problem in fitting the left-rear tyre culminated in a 9.4s change, dropping him behind team-mate Sainz, in particular, who had taken on fresh rubber two laps earlier.

Norris’ stop was a surprise as ordinarily the lead driver in a team pits first.

But with the Briton taking up that role, it allowed him to perform the undercut on Piastri following a superb out lap, allowing him to sweep by around the outside of Turn 1.

By the end of lap 25, all bar fifth-placed Russell had pitted. Ahead of him, Verstappen was five seconds clear of Norris, with Piastri a further three seconds adrift, whilst Hamilton had fallen off the pace, and was 19 seconds down on the Dutch leader.

It led to Hamilton questioning where he was losing time, and if the engine had been turned down, to which the team said that was not the case, other than they were managing temperatures.

After 28 laps, Russell finally ditched the new hard tyres on which he had started, taking on a new set of mediums, and dropping down to 14th, elevating Perez, Sainz and Leclerc, in particular, up to fifth, sixth and seventh positions respectively.

Two laps later, from 18th, Ricciardo was the first driver to make a second stop, albeit surprisingly so as he had only completed 11 laps on a new set of new hard tyres. That proved strategic, however, as he soon made his way back to the position he started of 13th.

At the half-race distance of 35 laps, Verstappen had opened up a 10.8s cushion to Norris, with Piastri dropping to 7.2s behind his team-mate, radioing in his dislike of the hard tyres and asking for the mediums at his second stop, to such an extent he was starting to fall into the clutches of Hamilton and Perez behind.

Hamilton had fallen to 23.6s behind Verstappen, with Perez closing in behind to just 2.2s, and comfortably ahead of Ferrari pair Sainz and Leclerc, with Alonso running eighth, followed by a rising Russell, with Valtteri Bottas in 10th in his Alfa Romeo.

With Hamilton on hard tyres eight laps older than Perez’s mediums, the latter crawled all over the back of the Briton for four laps before making a stop after 43 laps in a bid to make the undercut work.

Piastri pitted at the same time as Perez, with both taking on new mediums, but with his stop a second slower than that of Red Bull’s phenomenal 1.9s, it meant the Mexican emerged just behind the Australian.

On lap 47, Piastri was bumped off the podium for a second consecutive race when Perez made his way past into Turn 1. Despite an attempted fightback, which saw him seemingly forced off the track by Perez and onto the grass, it was to no avail.

The stewards did at least look at the incident, but very quickly determined no further action was required.

After 49 laps, Hamilton finally pitted for a second time, but after running second for a handful of laps, he dropped to fifth as Norris, Perez and Piastri all moved up a place.

Verstappen took on fresh tyres after 51 laps, and with enough in hand on Norris that by the culmination of lap 52, the gap was 10.9s, with Perez a further 8.5s adrift.

Piastri, meanwhile, had dropped to 5.9s behind the man in front of him, and on lap 57 was easily passed by Hamilton, with the duo trading fourth and fifth places. Despite then doing his level best to reel in Perez, he fell just short.

It allowed Perez to join a rampant Verstappen on the podium as Red Bull celebrated their place in F1 history.