Verstappen helps Red Bull break a 35-year record

Victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix on July 23 is Verstappen's seventh consecutive and ninth since the beginning of the season. That impressive performance helped Red Bull extend the unbeaten streak to 12 stages, counting from the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the end of 2022. This is a new record for the first race in F1, breaking the old record that has existed for 35 years - 11 races belonged to the McLaren team in 1988 with the legendary duo Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.

Verstappen continued to have a sublime race when he completed 70 laps at the Hungaroring in 1 hour 38 minutes 8,634 seconds - 33,731 seconds ahead of runner-up Lando Norris. The Dutch driver thus widened the gap on the individual standings to 110 points, as Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez finished third.

"It's great to work with the whole team and achieve this. People won't understand how hard it is to win 12 races in a row. Even with the fastest car, you can still make mistakes, or simply have a bad weekend. There have been a few races where we've come in a bit lower than we wanted, but there are also races where we have to be surprised. As we keep up the momentum, we can," said Verstappen.

Red Bull team leader Christian Horner honored Verstappen's ability after the victory marked a record. "There is no F1 driver like Max. He is a top athlete, but very humble and simply a very focused, motivated and determined young man. He is always hungry to compete and win," he said.

According to the manager of Red Bull, the failure to win pole in the qualifying round hurt Verstappen, and gave him greater motivation when entering the main race on Sunday.

The only ripple with Red Bull's number one driver is that he failed to achieve a record of 6 consecutive poles. Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton excelled in the qualifying round and won the right to start after nearly 2 years from the 2021 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix. However, the efforts of the seven-time world champion driver were not enough for him to go to the podium in Sunday's race.

Before the official race, despite starting, Hamilton admitted he was unlikely to challenge Verstappen at the Hungaroring, as the Dutch driver always had an extremely steady pace at Sunday afternoon races. However, the reality is even more brutal when Hamilton's hopes soon evaporated after only a few seconds.

Despite starting next to Hamilton, the first throttle gave Verstappen an advantage right at the start of Turn 1. The British driver's attempt to force the champion into the inner lane also backfired, putting Hamilton at a disadvantage when he was taken advantage of by two McLaren drivers - Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris - taking advantage of the opportunity to attack fiercely.

After only the first few corners, the situation stabilized with Verstappen comfortably leading, and Hamilton dropping to fourth. Piastri got off to a stellar start when he overcame both his teammates Norris and senior Hamilton to climb to second place.

However, the order between the two McLaren drivers soon reversed after the first pit entry. Suddenly being called by the home team to change the tire at lap 17, 1 lap earlier than his teammates, Norris quickly leapt over his teammate even though Piastri ran ahead and was replaced very quickly. For the rest of the race, despite not being able to follow Verstappen with enough speed, Norris was able to comfortably break out of the attack range of Hamilton and Piastri. It was not until the end of the race that Norris had a bit of trouble with the threat from Sergio Perez.

By using average tires after both pitfalls, Perez climbed gradually from the 9th starting position. The Mexican driver gradually moved closer to Norris in the last 10 laps, but when he was only about three seconds away from his opponent, Perez was no longer able to get any closer to his opponent. After that, the Red Bull driver was constantly closed the gap by Hamilton. However, when he reached the finish line, Perez was still 1.5 seconds faster than his opponent and successfully defended the third place.

Hamilton trailed two MCL60s in the early stages of the race. But he gradually fell behind a few laps after returning to the pit, as the tires began to overheat, preventing the veteran driver from reaching the desired speed. In the second half of the race, Hamilton began to control the tires and reached the optimal speed, then surpassed Piastri to regain fourth place. But that is all he can do when there is not enough time left to attack Perez's third place.