Formula One fans have grown accustomed to seeing Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in first place. In 2023, the Dutchman spent 248 consecutive laps leading Grands Prix: the third-longest stint in first in the history of the sport.
But at the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend, everything looked set to change. Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes outqualified Verstappen by three thousandths of a second to snatch first place on the Hungarian starting grid. Verstappen, for the first time in a long time, would have to come from behind to win.
We shouldn’t have doubted him. Verstappen got a strong start off the line and passed Hamilton in Turn 1 of the Grand Prix. It was enough to set Red Bull up for a record-breaking 12th victory in this Formula One season. And it wasn’t particularly close. Verstappen finished a full 33 seconds clear of his closest competitor.
“I knew, of course, when I had the inside, that corner was mine,” Verstappen said after the race, via The Guardian. “Today the car was really, really quick.”
While Verstappen’s strong start set him up for victory, Zhou Guanyu’s poor start destroyed the races of several other cars. The Alfa Romeo driver began the race in fifth place, but an anti-stall lockup kept him from moving as the lights went out–and led to him hitting Alpha Tauri’s Daniel Ricciardo in 12th. Ricciardo, racing in his first Grand Prix since returning to F1, spun out into Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, who then spun into his teammate Pierre Gasly. While Zhou and Ricciardo were able to recover, Ocon and Gasly never made it past Turn 1. It’s Alpine’s second double DNF in a row, but there was nothing Ocon or Gasly could’ve done to escape the carnage.
Behind Max Verstappen on the podium was McLaren’s Lando Norris, clinching his second straight podium finish. It’s a positive sign for McLaren, who started the 2023 season at the back of the Formula One field. With Norris in second–and his rookie teammate Oscar Piastri in fifth–things seem to be moving in a good direction for the British team.
Sliding home in third was Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez, who crashed his Red Bull in practice on Friday but held his nerve when it counted in the race.
Formula One returns next weekend for the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa, one of the most famous–and dangerous–tracks on the calendar.
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