Verstappen Hungarian GP Victory – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen stormed to a dominant 44th-career victory at the Hungarian GP and ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris who was second and team-mate Sergio Perez who rounds out the top three.
This was the seventh-straight win for the Dutchman to increase his Driver’s Championship lead to 110 points over team-mate Perez and it was Red Bull’s 12th victory in a row as the Milton Keynes based-outfit made history for most consecutive wins by a constructor.
When the 70-lap Hungarian GP began, pole-sitter Hamilton gets a great start, but Verstappen moves onto the inside of the Mercedes and takes the lead into turn one.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris also made their way past Hamilton to slot into second and third place.
Behind them, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon came together following a collision by AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda.
After the opening tour, Verstappen’s lead was up to 0.898 seconds ahead of Piastri with Norris third, Hamilton fourth and the Ferrari pairing of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz who were fifth and sixth respectively.
Gasly pitted and was forced to retire early along with his team-mate Ocon.
On lap five, Verstappen’s gap increased to 1.450 seconds over Piastri, with Norris third, Hamilton fourth and Leclerc rounding out the top five.
Lap six, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was all over the back of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in the battle for seventh place with the latter defending hard from the Mexican.
On lap eight with DRS on the main straight Perez made his way past Alonso down the inside into turn one to make the move stick to grab seventh place.
Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon was the first to pit on lap nine for a fresh set of mediums, with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Valtteri Bottas following suit a lap later to react to the Thai-Briton.
Lap 10, Verstappen posted the fastest lap of a 1:24.637 and increased his lead to 3.437 seconds over Piastri with Norris third, Hamilton fourth and Leclerc completing the top five runners.
On the 15th tour, Verstappen’s gap was up to 6.678 seconds over Piastri with Norris third, Hamilton fourth and Leclerc rounding out the top five.
Lap 16 saw sixth-placed Sainz pit for a fresh set of C3 white side-walled harder compounds and emerged in 11th place behind AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo who was running the mediums.
A tour later, Hamilton came in from fourth, also for a set of the harder rubber and in-front of Ricciardo in eighth.
McLaren reacted to Mercedes on lap 19 as Norris pitted for a set of hards, coming out in fifth place behind Alonso. Leclerc also stopped for a fresh set of hards and suffered a left-rear tyre pit-error and emerged behind Stroll.
Piastri also came in for a set of the harder tyre and came out behind McLaren team-mate Norris in fifth place.
On lap 20, the yet-to-pit racer leader Verstappen was 21.470 seconds clear over team-mate Perez with Alonso third and the McLaren duo Norris and Piastri who rounded out the top five.
Behind them Leclerc overtook Stroll for ninth place on the inside of the Canadian into turn two.
On the 21st tour, Alonso pitted from third and emerged in 11th place behind Alfa Romeo’s tenth-placed Bottas.
Lap 24 saw race leader Verstappen stop for a fresh set of harder tyres and came out 3.137 seconds ahead of team-mate Perez who was yet-to-pit after starting on the harder compounds.
Perez followed suit on lap 25 for a fresh set of the C4 yellow-marked mediums and came out in seventh place behind Sainz.
Hamilton also made his way past team-mate Russell into turn two for fourth place.
On lap 27, Perez with DRS assistance dived in on the inside of Sainz to take sixth place from the Spaniard who was tucked behind the yet-to-pit fifth-placed Mercedes of Russell.
A lap later, Perez jumped on the inside of Russell to moved into fifth place and managed to keep the Briton behind.
Russell stopped for a set of the fresh set of mediums and came out in 14th behind Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg.
On lap 30, Verstappen held a comfortable 6.826 second lead over Norris with Piastri third, Hamilton fourth and Perez who rounded out the top five with the latter holding the fastest lap bonus point.
Lap 35 saw Russell make his way past Bottas into ninth place from a inside overtake of the Finn into the opening corner.
On the 36th tour, Hamilton was told by his team to “lift and coast” meanwhile Perez was given the message “podium is on” with the Red Bull driver closing in on the fourth-placed Briton.
With 30 laps remaining, Verstappen was 15.889 seconds ahead of Norris with Piastri third, Hamilton fourth and Perez right behind the Mercedes in fifth.
On the 42nd lap, Perez got even closer to Hamilton in the fight for fifth place and tried to make his past the Mercedes around the outside into turns one and two, but Hamilton held his ground.
Lap 43 saw Piastri pit from third to take on a set of mediums and emerged in sixth place behind Leclerc meanwhile Perez also stopped for a set of mediums behind Piastri in seventh.
On the 44th tour, Leclerc was called in to stop for a set hards and came out behind seventh-placed Russell and Alonso also pitted and emerged in ninth behind the Ferrari.
Norris stopped a lap later and returned on track in third place ahead of McLaren team-mate Piastri.
Perez made his way by Piastri with DRS assistance on the main-straight around the outside for fourth place into turn one and kept the Australian at bay on the inside into turn two.
With 19 tours remaining, race leader Verstappen built a solid 35.343 second gap over Norris with Perez third, Piastri fourth and Hamilton who emerged in fifth place after stopping for a set of mediums.
On lap 52, Verstappen came in for his final stop for a set of mediums and came out 12.783 seconds clear of Norris.
With 15 laps left, Verstappen’s gap was up to 13.081 seconds ahead of Norris with Perez third, Piastri fourth and Hamilton holding fifth and closing in on the McLaren.
On lap 57, Hamilton got into the slipstream of Piastri and with DRS assistance dived on the inside of the Australian into turn one and made the move stick for fourth place.
With eight tours remaining, Verstappen was 22.362 seconds in-front of Norris with Perez 3.441 seconds behind the McLaren in third, Hamilton fourth and Piastri completing the top five.
With five laps remaining, Russell was tucked right behind Sainz out of the last corner and breezed past the Ferrari into seventh place.
Verstappen crossed the line to take a crushing victory by 33.371 seconds over Norris to give Red Bull their 250th podium in the sport as Perez came home third in the other RB19 entry.
Hamilton finished the Grand Prix in fourth place and in-front of McLaren’s Piastri who was fifth and Mercedes team-mate Russell who claimed sixth after Leclerc was hit with a five second timed-penalty for speeding in the pit-lane and thus demoted to seventh.
Ferrari’s Sainz ended the race in eighth as Aston Martin pairing Alonso and Stroll completed the top ten.
Williams Racing’s Albon placed outside the top 10 in 11th place and ahead of Alfa’s Bottas who took 12th and AlphaTauri’s Ricciardo who finished his return to the sport in 13th.
Haas F1 Team’s Hulkenberg came home 14th and in-front of AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda who was 15th.
Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen brought up the rear.
Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant retired late on and joined Alpine pairing Gasly and Ocon whose race ended in the early proceedings.
2023 Hungarian GP – The Top Three
2023 Hungarian GP Winner – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing – Honda-RBPT, RB19:
“Over one lap, it was a bit of a struggle but today we had a car that was good on any tyre, we could look after the tyre wear and that’s what made the difference. For the team, 12 wins in a row is just incredible, the last two years have been unbelievable. Hopefully we can keep this momentum going for a long time.”
2nd Place – Lando Norris, #4, McLaren Formula 1 Team-Mercedes, MCL60, +33.371:
“Tough race, not an easy one, especially with Checo catching up at the end. Another podium for us and McLaren, which is amazing. At the minute the [Red Bulls] are too quick, but we are happy with the progress we have made – a few races ago, struggling to get out of Q1 to fighting for poles and podiums.”
3rd Place – Sergio Perez, #11, Oracle Red Bull Racing – Honda-RBPT, RB19, +37.603:
“We got close to P2, unfortunately we had to go through a lot of backmarkers. The track was dirty offline, so I had some pickup, but in the end, a great strategy from the team and a great result. I look forward to being on the podium every weekend. Let’s keep it up.”
Formula 1 Qatar Airways Hungarian Grand Prix 2023 Race Results Classification (70 Laps)
| POS | NO | DRIVER | CAR | LAPS | TIME/RETIRED | PTS |
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | 70 | 1:38:08.634 | 26 |
| 2 | 4 | Lando Norris | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 70 | +33.731s | 18 |
| 3 | 11 | Sergio Perez | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | 70 | +37.603s | 15 |
| 4 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | MERCEDES | 70 | +39.134s | 12 |
| 5 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 70 | +62.572s | 10 |
| 6 | 63 | George Russell | MERCEDES | 70 | +65.825s | 8 |
| 7 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | FERRARI | 70 | +70.317s | 6 |
| 8 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | FERRARI | 70 | +71.073s | 4 |
| 9 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 70 | +75.709s | 2 |
| 10 | 18 | Lance Stroll | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 69 | +1 lap | 1 |
| 11 | 23 | Alexander Albon | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 69 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 12 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | ALFA ROMEO FERRARI | 69 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 13 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT | 69 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 14 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | HAAS FERRARI | 69 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 15 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT | 69 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 16 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | ALFA ROMEO FERRARI | 69 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 17 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | HAAS FERRARI | 69 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 18 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 67 | DNF | 0 |
| NC | 31 | Esteban Ocon | ALPINE RENAULT | 2 | DNF | 0 |
| NC | 10 | Pierre Gasly | ALPINE RENAULT | 1 | DNF | 0 |
* Provisional results. Note – Verstappen scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race.
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1215/hungary/race-result.html
Click here for the 2023 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings.
Round 13 of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the famous Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Stavelot, Belgium for the Formula 1 MSC Cruises Belgian Grand Prix 2023 from Friday July 28-Sunday July 30.
#HungarianGP Qualifying: @LewisHamilton stuns @Max33Verstappen to pole by 0.003 seconds. #F1
#HungarianGP FP2: @CharlesLeclerc tops time-sheets ahead of @LandoNorris. #F1
#HungarianGP FP1: @GeorgeRussell63 tops rain-soaked session. #F1
#F1 Qatar Airways #HungarianGP 2023 Preview. #Formula1 #HungarianGrandPrix