2023 Hungarian Grand Prix | 9 talking points

Verstappen in cruise control

He was beaten to pole position on Saturday and looked niggled by it too. Yet there was little doubt that on Sunday no one would be able to live with Verstappen. And so it proved. He led all the way, keeping hold of his lead through the pitstops to win comfortably by more than half a minute. This was his seventh win in a row, his ninth of the season, the 44^th of his career and Red Bull’s 250^th Formula 1 podium, as Verstappen strokes towards a third consecutive world title. Team-mate Sergio Perez is now 110 points behind, following a day when Verstappen expressed just how much he is enjoying driving what must already be considered safely among the greatest Formula 1 cars we’ve ever seen.

Hamilton’s poor start

Lewis Hamilton had every reason to be delighted with his 104^th pole position on Saturday, which he said felt like his first, especially after such a drought. He hadn’t started from the front since the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in 2021 and earned this one beautifully, with a lap that was just enough to knock Verstappen from the top. But Hamilton always knew he was up against it on Sunday, and was dismayed when his race immediately turned south.

Verstappen made the better start and edged down the inside into Turn One where Hamilton, in his efforts to keep the battle going, allowed both McLarens to slip past. From first to fourth? All he could do was apologise to his team for that one.

Norris gets the nod

Oscar Piastri, from an excellent fourth on the grid, emerged from Turn One in a fine second place as team-mate Lando Norris was frustrated to find himself still where he started, in third. Norris seemed tetchy on the radio, despite McLaren maintaining its astonishing upturn in form, and perhaps that’s to the credit of Piastri who is piling on pressure in his rookie season. But the Aussie seemed understandably miffed when Norris was given priority at the first pitstops, Lando coming in first and undercutting Piastri to jump to second place.

Thereafter, the Brit edged away from the second McLaren, then faced a final-stint challenge from Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull. Norris snapped at his engineer as he was told of the reducing gap and it seemed ‘Checo’ would make it a Red Bull one-two. The Mexican again qualified poorly, in ninth, but used an offset strategy to rise up the order. Starting on the hard tyre as most frontrunners chose the medium, Perez sliced his way through but ran short in the closing laps as Norris delivered a hard-earned and consecutive runner-up finish.

Hamilton off the podium

Following his poor start, Hamilton was frustrated to find his Mercedes lacking the cutting edge he needed to stay with the McLarens. His team was forced to turn down his engine because of overheating fears and suddenly the joy of Saturday was forgotten. But as the fuel burnt off, Hamilton’s pace improved and on lap 57 of 65 he was able to pick off Piastri to claim fourth place. He’d missed the podium, but still it could be considered a reasonable save from an afternoon that had threatened to become much worse.

Russell’s fine rise

The drive of the race? We’d say so. George Russell was left frustrated on Saturday when his team sent him out at the end of Q1 straight into traffic. Starting 18^th at a circuit where making progress is never easy should have been depressing. But to his credit, Russell knuckled down and, starting on the hard tyre, bided his time with a long first stint.

The strategy paid off as Russell found himself running eighth behind the Ferraris in the closing stages, but with a tyre advantage to make even more of the day. How he took a wide line through the final turn, keeping out of Carlos Sainz Jr.’s dirty air, paid off handsomely as he swept by the Ferrari with greater momentum long before Turn One. He was then elevated to sixth by a penalty for Charles Leclerc to complete a great day’s work.

More misery for Ferrari

It was another miserable Sunday for Maranello, and especially for Charles Leclerc. Starting sixth on the grid, his race was first undone by a bungled opening pitstop that dropped him behind team-mate Sainz who had started only 11^th. Leclerc at least had a tyre advantage over the other Ferrari, but the team chose not to let him past to make the most of it, and then Leclerc’s frustration was capped by his own error at the second round of stops. He braked too late and entered the pitlane just over the speed limit, earning himself a five-second penalty.

He’d undercut past Sainz for sixth in the stop and with more than five seconds in hand over the Spaniard it at least appeared the penalty might not make a difference – until Russell came charging through in the final stint to finish right on his gearbox. That left Leclerc seventh and Sainz eighth, the Ferraris 70 seconds down the road on Verstappen. There really wasn’t much for either driver to smile about.

Aston Martin’s drop-off

As seen at Silverstone, Aston Martin has lost its way in the middle of the season after such a strong start to 2023, as Mercedes and McLaren in particular have hit better strides. Fernando Alonso mustered eighth on the grid, with Lance Stroll down in a poor 14^th and neither played much of a role in a rather flat race. Alonso headed Stroll to a nine-ten finish as the final points scorers.

The team remains third in the constructors’ standings, but only because Ferrari continues to underperform and McLaren has so much ground to make up from its terrible start to the season. Aston needs to respond and fast if it is to avoid a painful slip in the second half of the season.

Highs and lows at Alfa Romeo

There was surprise on Saturday when Zhou Guanyu stuck his Alfa Romeo on the third row of the grid, with team-mate Valtteri Bottas seventh. But the Italian-badged Saubers slumped in the race, Bottas fought hard but in vain to pass Alex Albon’s Williams for 11^th.

Zhou was really out of luck after bogging down at the start, triggering a first-corner shunt for which he earned a penalty, and the Chinese driver eventually trailed home just 16^th. He was behind Daniel Ricciardo, who finished where he started in 13^th on his F1 return with Alpha Tauri, Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas and the other Alpha Tauri of Yuki Tsunoda.

First-corner misery for Alpine

In his desperation to make up for his terrible start, Zhou tapped Ricciardo who in turn tagged Esteban Ocon – whose Alpine then rode into the sister car of Pierre Gasly at Turn One. After a double retirement at Silverstone, both blue cars were out of the race, carrying too much damage to continue. In a week of more management changes at the top of the company, this remains a team in desperate need of a change in fortune.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.