Analysis: things we learned from the Hungarian Grand Prix

F1 Grand Prix, GP Hungary, Hungaroring

Double world champion and championship runaway leader Max Verstappen claimed his 44th win and a record-breaking 12th consecutive victory for Red Bull at the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix. F1Technical’s senior writer Balázs Szabó picks out the key lessons from the Budapest F1 race.

Long drought – Everything seemed positive around seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton on Saturday after the Briton secured his 104th career pole position. It happened after a long drought for Hamilton as his last pole position came at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

However, the eight-time Hungarian Grand Prix winner was unable to turn his 104th pole into a 104th win as his hopes were dashed at the start when he lost out to Max Verstappen.

New record – Despite starting only from second on the grid, reigning world champion Max Verstappen secured his seventh straight triumph and his 44th career victory. The Dutchman’s win also means that his team Red Bull clinched their 12th triump in a row, beating McLaren’s long-standing record of 11 consecutive victory.

Fastest lap – Max Verstappen clinched not only his 9th victory of the season, but he also set the fastest race lap at the Hungarian Grand Prix. It was the sixth time this year that the double world champion recorded a fastest race lap.

Displaying great speed in his last stint, Lewis Hamilton posted the second fastest time with a 1m21.601s which he clocked on Lap 54 on a used set of yellow-banded medium compound, five laps into his last stint. It was almost nothing to choose between George Russell, Lando Norris, Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, Oscar Piastri and Fernando Alonso, who all set comparable fastest lap time.

Interestingly, while most of the drivers set their quickest lap in the dying minutes of the race, Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu recorded his own benchmark very early on in the race on Lap 12. Daniel Ricciardo set his quickest lap in the latest point of the race as the Australian clocked his best time of 1m23.934s on Lap 67. Confirming his great tyre management was the fact that he had an extremely long final stint on the medium compound, and he posted his best time 37 laps into his last stint.

Commenting his first race in 2023, Ricciardo said: "Our pace wasn’t bad, maybe we could’ve been in the points today, I don’t know, but our strategy was good, we were just a bit unlucky. On the other hand, the contact at the start could’ve ended my race, so I’m grateful the car was still ok, and I was able to do 70 laps to learn as much as possible.

"I’ll learn from the mistakes I made to get better and better, and I made little mental notes, which I will share with the team. Overall though, there are a lot of things to be happy about.”

Penalties – Two drivers were handed out penalties during the Budapest F1 race. First, Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu received a 5-second time penalty and two penalty points on his driver license for causing a collision at the start of the race.

The stewards explained that the Chinese driver failed to slow down and brake in time at Turn 1 on the opening lap and collided into the back of Daniel Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri. With the incident causing a chain reaction, not only Ricciardo was sent to the back of the field, but the two Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon crashed out as well.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc exceeded the pit lane limit which was set at 80kph at the Hungaroring by 0.7kph. The Monegasque was given a five-second penalty which dropped him to P7 and gave George Russell the seventh position.

Off-track incident – Lando Norris smashed up Max Verstappen’s trophy on the Hungarian Grand Prix podium. The McLaren star intentionally banged his champagne bottle on the rostrum, causing Verstappen’s trophy to fall off the top step.

The trophies were manufactured by Herend Porcelain Manufactory that is specialized in luxury hand painted and gilded porcelain. The estimated value of the trophy that has been smashed by Norris was EUR40000.

Point-scorers – Five different teams have scored points at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Red Bull have secured a double podium finish, McLaren clinched a fifth-place finish, Mercedes secured a fourth- and sixth-place finish. On the lower end of the spectrum were Ferrari and Aston Martin with their drivers occupying the last four point-scoring positions.

Growing dominance - As far as the Constructors’ Championship is concerned, Red Bull Racing managed to increase the gap from second-placed Mercedes with their advantage having grown to 229 points. Thanks to their fourth- and sixth-place finish, Mercedes are now 39 points clear of third-placed Aston Martin with Ferrari occupying P4 in the standings with 167 points.

Following a very difficult start to their season, McLaren seriously closed in on Ferrari with the difference having decreased to just 80 points. On the other hand, Alpine that have been locked in a close fight with McLaren, have endured two extremely difficult races without gaining a single point. The Anglo-French team now find themselves in P6 40 points adrift of their papaya-coloured rivals.

Williams and Haas are tied in the standings with eleven points with Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri rounding out the point table with nine and two points respectively.

Race strategy – As predicted by Pirelli ahead of the race, the two-stop strategy dominated today’s Hungarian Grand Prix as far as the tyre strategies were concerned. Following Alpine’s double retirement, eighteen drivers remained in the race with all of them opting for a two-stop strategy. Seven of them used two sets of mediums and one set of hards while eight drivers opted for two sets of hards and one set of medium. Three drivers started the race on the soft compound before switching to the mediums and the hards for the following two stints.

The Mexican - After being seriously overshadowed by team mate Max Verstappen in recent race, Sergio Perez managed to get back on to podium. In fact, it was the Mexican’s first podium finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

However, it was far from easy for the six-time F1 race winner as he only qualified ninth yesterday, and had to work his way up the order.

His comeback earned Perez the title of Driver of the Day thanks to his 20.7 per cent. McLaren’s Lando Norris only missed the title with 20.4 per cent with Oscar Piastri, George Russell and Max Verstappen completing the top five of the vote.

Disappointment – It was a tough day in the office for several drivers. Despite claiming his 104th career pole position, Lewis Hamilton missed the podium at the Hungaroring for the first time since 2017.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc came home in P6, but he was demoted to P7 due to his five-second penalty. The Monegasque finished a place lower than he did in last year’s race.

Claiming his first F1 victory exactly twenty years ago, Fernando Alonso had a quite afternoon as his car was unable to get on pair with the likes of Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren or Ferrari. With his ninth place finish, the Spaniard recorded his worst Hungaroring result since 2009.

Podium finishes – Red Bull scored their 250th podium finish today thanks to the win and the third place finish from Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. Lando Norris recorded his eighth podium finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix which became McLaren’s 496th podium finish in their illustrious history.