Red Bull achieves 12 consecutive victories following Verstappen win

Achievement unlocked for Red Bull Racing with 12 successive Formula 1 victories in this sport with Max Verstappen taking the chequered flag at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Verstappen crossed the finishing line with a massive 33.7 seconds lead over Lando Norris, who had to deal with a late drama from Sergio Perez for second before the Red Bull driver was challenged by Hamilton for third at the end.

Hamilton was slower away off the starting grid compared to Verstappen and attempted to move right along the straight to defend, but could not stop the championship leader from claiming the lead into the first corner.

As the two had taken wider lines into Turn 1, Oscar Piastri grabbed the initiative and slotted his McLaren down the inside.

Verstappen then began to stretch his lead despite tyre management being carried out against the heat, and spent the opening laps building up his advantage.

Lando Norris, who had passed Hamilton for third on a difficult opening lap for the seven-time champion, called into the pits at the end of lap 17 for a set of hard tyres, with Piastri to follow on the next lap.

But a rapid out-lap allowed Norris to blast past his McLaren teammate and claim a net second position, and Lando’s next few laps of the circuit ensured that he could build a buffer over his teammate.

Verstappen then pitted at the end of lap 23 for the hard tyre, and Norris’s collection of opening laps on that compound closed the gap between the front two to just 5.4 seconds.

Norris was unable to maintain that level of pace and, once Verstappen had got to grips with the hard tyre, once again began to crack open the gap and started to go almost a second a lap faster.

By lap 40, Verstappen was a clear 15 seconds up the road and the advantage over Norris continued to grow, until McLaren elected to pit its lead driver at the end of lap 44 for a fresh set of mediums.

Red Bull extended Verstappen’s tenure on track with the hards, and the Dutchman carried the tyres all the way to lap 51 before pitting for mediums.

The gap had reduced slightly to 10.9 seconds in Verstappen’s favour by the end of lap 53 as Norris had been able to make the most of his own middle compound tyre, but setting the fastest lap with one minute, 20.504 seconds for Verstappen to put the race beyond doubt.

Red Bull’s 12th win in a row thus beats the record of 11 set by McLaren in 1988. A new achievement in this sport.

Norris subsequently had his hands full attempting to keep Sergio Perez behind him, as Checo had undercut Hamilton during the second round of stops and then passed Piastri on lap 47 with a robust move into Turn 2.

As Perez sat behind by 6.3 seconds with 15 laps remaining. Norris hence had to pick up the pace to try and maintain second. He managed to extend the gap to 6.9 seconds after being given the hurry-up, but started to hurt as the lapped Yuki Tsunoda drew ever closer and allowed Perez to half the gap over the next two laps.

Once the two were both engulfed by traffic, Norris was able to stabilise and having cleared Nico Hulkenberg, had enough clear track to rebuild some of his advantage and had five seconds in hand with five laps to go.

Perez’s place on the podium was then threatened by Hamilton’s late fightback, as the Mercedes driver found great pace towards the close of the race and chiselled away at Perez despite his own traffic navigation.

Just 1.8 seconds split the two with two laps remaining, but Hamilton could not find enough pace in the dying stages of the race and was denied the chance of a podium.

Piastri, who had figured in second during the opening phase of the race, could not maintain the pace beyond the first round of stops and fell down to fifth having been cleared by Perez and Hamilton on track.

Although the Australian tried to keep Perez at bay, staying around the outside at Turn 2, the current championship runner-up did not wish to concede position and held Piastri off – who complained that he hadn’t been left much space.

George Russell claimed sixth after dispatching Carlos Sainz late on, and was promoted a further spot when Charles Leclerc’s five-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane kicked in.

Leclerc managed to retain seventh place at the end as Sainz was not close enough to assume a further position, as the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll completed the top ten.

Alex Albon missed out on the points and managed P11 over Valtteri Bottas, who could only collect P12 despite strong pace shown by Alfa Romeo over the weekend.

Bottas dropped spots at the start, as did team-mate Zhou Guanyu, who hit anti-stall and precipitated the first-corner accident that claimed both Alpines.

Zhou managed to get going but dropped down the order, subsequently misjudging his braking to nudge the back of the returning Daniel Ricciardo.

This pushed Ricciardo into the back of Pierre Gasly, who could not help diving into teammate Esteban Ocon and causing terminal damage for both Alpine cars.

So congratulations to Red Bull Racing in setting a new record in Formula 1 with 12 consecutive victories. That RB19 is indeed a fine racing car and to maintain an impressive winning run is just epic.

Hungarian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:38:08.634
2 Lando Norris McLaren +33.731s
3 Sergio Perez Red Bull +37.603s
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +39.134s
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren +62.572s
6 George Russell Mercedes +65.825s
7 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +70.317s
8 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +71.073s
9 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +75.709s
10 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1 lap
11 Alexander Albon Williams +1 lap
12 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +1 lap
13 Daniel Ricciardo AlphaTauri +1 lap
14 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +1 lap
15 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +1 lap
16 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +1 lap
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas +1 lap
18 Logan Sargeant Williams DNF
Esteban Ocon Alpine DNF
Pierre Gasly Alpine DNF