2023 Hungarian Grand Prix Recap
The July 20th to 23rd, 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix weekend had an exhilarating qualifying and a highly anticipated race. In Qualifying, Hamilton got his 104th career pole position, beating Verstappen by just 0.003 seconds. The McLarens continued to show their competitive pace, with Norris ending up qualifying at P3 and Piastri ending at P4. Zhou Guanyu captured the eyes of many by getting his Alfa Romeo into P5 at the end of Q3. However, some drivers were looked at as underperforming during the qualifying session. Russell was unable to get out of Q1 ending in P18 with a lap time of 1:19.027. In his first race back, Riccardo was able to out-qualify his teammate ending in P13. Sainz was eliminated in Q2 and started in P11. Perez, who has had a challenging time getting into Q3 as of late, was able to scrap by but, ended in P9.
Regardless of starting in P2 on the dirty side of the track, Max Verstappen overtook Lewis Hamilton in turn one to give Reb Bull a decisive win. Verstappen had a strong start to take the inside position on the first turn. After that, he dominated the race ending 33.731 seconds ahead of second place. Toto Wolff described the dominance of Verstappen and the Red Bull car as, “a field of Formula 2 cars against a Formula 1”. After a strong win for Verstappen and Red Bull, they further proved their dominance by breaking records.
As for Verstappen, he was awarded an extra point for coining the fast lap of the race at just 1:20.504. He did so on the medium compound tires. The Dutchman won his seventh consecutive race, making him the fifth driver in F1 history to do so.
Red Bull continued their record-breaking after tying the 1988 McLaren team for winning the first 11 races of the season. This win secured Red Bull’s 12th consecutive win, snapping the record previously awarded to McLaren. This was the team’s 250th podium. Red Bull gave Perez a lightning-fast pit stop at just 1.98 seconds, the season’s fastest.
Perez bagged a podium finish ending P3, despite starting P9. He was also awarded Driver of the Day for this strong performance.
As for the rest of the pack, turn one caused a collision for both Alpines, causing them to retire before completing a lap. Following Verstappen’s early overtake, both McLarens were able to sneak past the seven-time world champion in lap one.
The McLarens had a strong outing, with Norris ending in P2 and Piastri ending in P5. With the large difference between the Silverstone track and the Hungaroring, McLaren has proven they are contenders in the constructors for future races.
The Mercedes ended with Hamilton in P4 and Russel in P6. Hamilton was closing the gap to Perez in hopes of ending on the podium but fell 1.5 seconds short of accomplishing that. Russel had a solid outing ending that he said was “beyond expectations.”
The Ferraris had yet another frustrating race. Leclerc had a difficult first pit stop that lasted nearly 10 seconds. More trouble came for Leclerc when he was given a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lanes. This resulted in him dropping from P6 to P7 at the end of the race. Sainz had a decent recovery run, improving three places to finish in P8.
The Aston Martins both ended in the points with Alonso in P9 and Stroll in P10. The team had a strong start to the season but now seems to struggle with keeping pace. Was the beginning of the season a fluke, or has Aston Martin dropped the ball recently?
The Williams had Albon just outside the points in P11, and Sargeant was forced to retire the car after spinning late.
The Alfa Romeos finished with Bottas in P12 and Zhou in P16. Zhou had a personal best starting position in qualifying, but when it came to the race, he had a slow start and was unable to end in the points.
The AlfaTauris had Riccardo in P13 in his first race back for the season. He finished ahead of Tsunoda, who ended in P15.
The Haas’ struggled to get points, with Hulkenberg finishing in P14 and Magnussen in P17.
With the Hungarian Grand Prix completed, fans can look forward to the Belgian Grand Prix next weekend.