Verstappen wins again to break rare F1 record

Verstappen had started second on the grid after missing out on pole by just 0.003 seconds to former title foe Lewis Hamilton, but a better start and a late dive on the brakes into the first turn got him into a lead he would never relinquish.

On a warm Budapest afternoon the Dutchman’s car was suffering none of the balance problems that afflicted his qualifying run the evening before. He effortlessly opened a gap on the field from the very first lap and took the chequered flag with an imperious 33 seconds in hand, the largest victory margin in almost two years.

“The car was really, really quick,” Verstappen said. “Over one lap this weekend it was a bit of a struggle, but it was probably a good thing for today.

“The car was good on any tyre, we could look after the tyre wear, and basically that’s why we could create such a big gap.”

Red Bull Racing’s 12^th successive victory eclipses the 11 clocked up by the legendary 1988 McLaren team led by Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, albeit this record-beating streak dates back to last year’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

“For the team, 12 wins in a row is just incredible,” Verstappen said. “What we’ve been going through the last three years is just unbelievable, and hopefully we can keep this momentum going for a long time.

“Also just to work with the whole team, it’s always very enjoyable.

“A day like today is just perfect.”

For the second race in succession Verstappen’s nearest challenger was Lando Norris, whose McLaren looks increasingly like an all-rounder after its significant upgrade at the start of the month.

Norris and Australian teammate Oscar Piastri had started third and fourth but had moved past pole-getter Hamilton into third and second respectively off the line.

Piastri had looked at home leading the pack, but a strategy call got Norris ahead after the first stops, after which floor damage had his teammate fade back into the pack.

Norris’s second place came under threat from a late Sergio Pérez charge, but the Briton had built enough of a buffer in the middle stint of the race to secure second place for the second week in a row.

“Another podium for us, for McLaren, is amazing,” he said. “We’re very happy with the progress we’ve made.

“To go from where we were four or five races ago, struggling to get out of Q1 sometimes, to fighting for poles and fighting for podiums, we’ll take it for now, and our time will come later on in the year.”

Perez completed the podium, up from ninth on the grid, with an aggressive strategy and some bold overtaking moves that would appear to signal the Mexican is finally breaking the form slump that blew up his title hopes before the halfway mark of the year.

“Definitely I think this sort of performance, these sorts of days, do help,” he said. “From now on I just look forward to basically be on the podium every single weekend.”

Hamilton finished fourth after a late second pit stop got him a tyre offset advantage over Piastri, who clung on to fifth ahead of a superb George Russell in the second Mercedes, who defied team expectations by climbing from 18^th on the grid to sixth.

Charles Leclerc was dropped from sixth to seventh with a penalty for speed in the pit lane, putting him just ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz.

Both Ferrari and Aston Martin, who finished ninth and 10^th with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, lacked the pace to consider podium tilts.

Thai driver Alex Albon finished 11^th ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas.

Daniel Ricciardo came home 13^th in his first race back on the grid with AlphaTauri, but the Australian thinks he would have been quick enough to score points had Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu not rear-ended him at the start, dropping him to last with diffuser damage.

It took a gutsy strategy call from the cockpit to run the medium tyre for 40 laps at the end of the race just to recover position, but his pace was clear, finishing more than 15 seconds ahead of top-10 starter Nico Hülkenberg and AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

The same could be said for Alpine teammates Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, who were skittled into each other by the Zhou-inspired incident, forcing a costly double retirement for the French team.

Zhou served a five-second penalty for causing the crash on his way to 16^th ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant.