MOTORSPORT: Verstappen dominates Hungarian GP

Max Verstappen’s dominance of the 2023 Formula 1 world championship continued yesterday in the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring, where the Red Bull driver secured his ninth victory of the year.

Meanwhile from an Australian perspective, Oscar Piastri was once again in the thick of the action aboard his McLaren, running in second position in the early laps before claiming fifth in the final rundown.

Elsewhere, Daniel Ricciardo was solid in his full-time return to the F1 grid with the AlphaTauri squad, having the cover of his teammate Yuki Tsunoda during qualifying and in the race.

Despite being caught up in a first-corner melee, he recovered to finish 13th.

For the Red Bull team, their 12th consecutive win dating back to Abu Dhabi last season has set a new benchmark in the F1 record books, while Verstappen extended his championship lead to 110 points.

“For the team, 12 wins in a row is just incredible,” said Verstappen.

“What we’ve been doing for the last two years has been unbelievable, hopefully, we can keep this momentum going for a long time.

“Also, just to work with the whole team is very enjoyable.

“It’s always good to look into [what happened in qualifying] yesterday, for example, to keep pushing, always wanting to do better, but days like this are just perfect.”

From pole position, Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) was swamped on the run into the first corner, with Verstappen plus the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris forging their way into the top three positions.

Down the order at the first turn, Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo) touched Ricciardo, who came into contact with Esteban Ocon, who subsequently clattered into his Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly, forcing the latter pair out of the race for the second straight Grand Prix.

Norris pitted on the 18th circuit of 70, and with the undercut jumped past Piastri, who stopped a lap later.

Sergio Perez (Red Bull) was a star of the show, with a determined drive from ninth on the grid, with the Mexican climbing back to fifth by the mid portion of the race.

A slow stop for Piastri on lap 43 dropped him into the clutches of Perez, who swept around the outside of the McLaren at turn one on lap 47 to claim fourth after a spirited battle.

Hamilton stopped late on lap 50 and used his fresh tyres to pass Piastri on lap 57 for fourth, before he closed in on Perez.

At the chequered flag, it was Verstappen by 33sec from Norris, who claimed consecutive second place finishes for the first time in his career, with Perez holding on for third.

Behind Hamilton was Piastri with his second top-five in as many races, then George Russell (Mercedes), who passed Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) in the closing laps, with the latter having 5sec added to his race time for speeding during his last pit stop.

Rounding out the top 10 were Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

Elsewhere at the Hungaroring, Australia’s Jack Doohan broke through for his first victory of the F2 season and the fourth of his career, with a dominant performance in the Sunday feature race after scoring pole position on Friday.

The F1 season continues next weekend with the Belgium Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.

2023 Hungarian Grand Prix results:

2023 Formula 1 championship standings:

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