Red Bull makes history, breaking McLaren's win streak record in Hungarian GP

Red Bull break McLaren's record for most consecutive wins as Saturday's qualifying format shakes up starting grid.

RedBull and Max Verstappen continue to dominate the 2023 season as Max takes the fastest lap and P1 for the second time at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The race winner crossed the line an astounding 33.7s ahead of Lando Norris who finished P2 for the second week in a row.

Sergio Perez climbed his way up the grid to P3, rounding out the podium for the weekend.

Lando Norris was able to hold off a fast approaching Sergio Perez with a bit of luck from lapped drivers who were caught in between the two. The fight between Perez and Hamilton also helped to slow Perez down, giving Norris more time to stretch the gap between them.

Pole sitter Lewis Hamilton had a slow start off the line and was quickly overtaken by Verstappen, Piastri, and Norris and crossed the line in P4 1.5s behind Checo.

Oscar Piastri finished P5 after a phenomenal race start from P4 that saw him spend several laps in P2.

George Russell took home a well deserved P6 for Mercedes having recovered all the way from where he started in P18.

Ferrari took P7 and P8 as Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz battled most of the race amongst themselves for track position.

A well timed pit stop put Leclerc ahead of his teammate and the Monegasque driver would have taken P6 today, but was handed a 5s time penalty for speeding in the pit lane, ultimately putting him behind George Russell.

Aston Martin closed out the top ten with Fernando Alonso in P9 and Lance Stroll in P10, taking home vital points for their fight with Ferrari in the Constructors Championship.

Alexander Albon continues to fight for points in the Williams, but was just shy today, finishing P11.

Daniel Ricciardo who started P13 found himself at the back of the gird for the first part of the race after a turn one incident with Zhou Guanyu and Esteban Ocon. The new AlphaTauri driver fought back, finishing P13 and ahead of his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda.

The Hungaroring claimed 3 DNFs this afternoon with the Alpines of both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly after the opening lap, and the Williams of Logan Sargeant retiring his car on lap 69.

A turn one incident involving Zhou Guanyu, Daniel Ricciardo, and both Alpines resulted in race ending damage for the Alpines.

Zhou, who dropped out of the points quickly from his P5 start, ran into the back of Daniel Ricciardo, pushing him into the back of Esteban Ocon.

Ocon was then launched into a collision with Pierre Gasly, resulting in both cars off the track at turn one.

Zhou took a 5s penalty for the incident ultimately ending his race in P16.

A record setting weekend

Several records were set this weekend in Hungary. RedBull is celebrating 12 wins in a row, breaking McLaren’s previous record of 11 consecutive wins set in 1988.

Nine of RedBull’s wins this season are held by Verstappen while Sergio Perez took home the remaining 3.

Today’s win in Hungary marks 7 wins in a row for Verstappen, tying him him for most consecutive race wins with Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg, and Alberto Ascari. The current record is held by Sebastian Vettel with 9 consecutive wins.

Lewis Hamilton secured his 104th pole position in Saturday’s qualifying, breaking his own previous record of 103 pole positions.

This comes after a 33 race hiatus from the drive having last seen a pole position in Saudi Arabia in 2021.

McLaren proving themselves on a low speed track

The upgrades McLaren implemented before the race in Silverstone have only benefited the team.

Lando Norris took home another second place podium for the team after a brilliant drive and a favorable team strategy.

Despite Oscar Piastri finishing P5 this afternoon, the rookie driver is proving himself to be what McLaren needs to keep up with Norris.

McLaren started the year off on the backfoot, struggling to provide their drives with competitive cars.

With two podiums under their belt this season and increasing their lead over Alpine, they are looking at finishing the season in the top 4 and a possible podium for their rookie driver.

Where is Ferrari?

The team that has spent most of its time in Formula 1 fighting for the championship finds themselves firmly in the midfield this season.

Ferrari has taken home two podiums this year with Charles Leclerc finishing P3 in Azerbaijan and P2 in Austria.

Ferrari in 2023 are a far cry from where they were in 2022. Charles Leclerc fought most of the 2022 season against Max Verstappen only to be denied the fight by poor race strategy and a plethora of mechanical failures.

This year, under a new team principal, Fred Vasseur, they seem to have a grip on their mechanical failures and race strategy, but remain stuck in the midfield.

The Ferrari car is competitive for single lap speed, but the overall race pace is far behind the race leaders.

Simmering tensions at Red Bull Racing

Sergio Perez secured another podium for the team after rumors swirling around about RedBull making strategic moves to replace the driver with Daniel Ricciardo at the end of the year.

With Daniel Ricciardo returning to AlphaTauri, the same team he started his Formula 1 career just over a decade ago at then Toro Rosso, the Australian driver is looking to move back to RedBull.

Ricciardo stated previously that he would not return to Formula 1 unless it was in a competitive car, but by taking over Nyck DeVries’s seat halfway through the season, it proves to RedBull that he is willing to do what it takes to come back.

However, Daniel’s return to RedBull would come at the expense of Sergio Perez who has been struggling to keep up with teammate Max Verstappen.

Perez will need a clean and competitive rest of the year if he wants to fight for his chance to stay and today’s podium was a positive step in that direction.

The next race will take place in Belgium at Spa, where F1 has been racing since 1950. The race will start at 1500 local time on the 30th of July.

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