Hungarian Grand Prix: Verstappen, master of the Hungaroring, Norris gets a new podium finish

F1 set up its bags in Budapest for the 11th round of the season, the penultimate one before the summer break. It’s under scorching sun that the twenty drivers will compete in the race. The track temperature is over 50°, which will be challenging for both the machines and the men.

The start is turbulent! Lewis Hamilton is sandwiched between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. The latter takes the lead in the very tight first corner. Oscar Piastri succeeds in the battle and finds himself in second position. The Ferraris are doing well and are placed just behind the leading group.

Nightmare for Alpine

At the same time, Zhou, deceived by the anti-stall tape, crashes into Daniel Ricciardo, who in turn hits Esteban Ocon.

The driver crashes into his teammate, Pierre Gasly, on the straight line. Their cars are damaged, both drivers go back to the pits. They are forced to retire.

Zhou quickly receives a penalty for the collision. He enters the pit to change to hard tires and has to serve a 5-second stop. Bottas and Yuki Tsunoda follow the same strategy. The Japanese’s pit stop seems never-ending, hindered by the front left.

The stops are happening one after the other

This is followed by a series of pit stops. Ferrari is having its moments, Charles Leclerc’s pit stop takes too long, 9.4 long seconds that make the Monegasque fall back to 10th position.

A few moments later, Hamilton stops. Lando Norris reacts and also stops. Nice move by the Brit. Piastri does the same on the following lap, but comes out just as Norris is launching down the straight at full speed. He undercuts the Australian and takes back fourth place. He then sets sector records and clocks a lap time of 1:23.543 on his new hard tires. Comfortably leading the race with a significant gap over his teammate Sergio Perez, who has climbed up to second place, Verstappen also switches to hard tires on the 23rd lap. Perez follows suit and opts for medium tires. He comes out in 7th position, sandwiched between the two Ferraris. He quickly passes Perez and then, with a little less ease, overtakes George Russell as well, moving up to fifth place.

At the halfway point, Verstappen is the logical leader with over 14 seconds ahead of the McLarens. Hamilton is defending his fourth place while Pérez is right behind. The Mexican is only 3 seconds behind Piastri. The podium is still within reach. The McLaren driver makes a pit stop, Pérez follows suit to follow the strategy.

Second pit stop. Pérez comes out just behind Piastri. He wastes no time in overtaking him without hesitating to push him into the gravel. The rookie doesn’t give up, the battle is intense, the two drivers are side by side in the tight turns of the Hungaroring.

In the fight for the top 10, Charles Leclerc definitely doesn’t have luck on his side as he receives a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

The 4th place is tempting Hamilton who doesn’t waste time getting past Oscar Piastri. The British driver wants his podium.

It is finally Max Verstappen, not surprisingly, who is the first to cross the finish line after largely dominating this race. Lando Norris secures second place and his second podium in two races. Fought until the end, Sergio Perez claims the third position.

Ranking of the Hungarian Grand Prix F1 2023