Reigning World Champion Max Verstappen was imperious once again on Sunday, as he claimed his seventh consecutive victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Verstappen extended his winning streak to seven in a row following a confident display at the Hungaroring, which saw him clinch his ninth win of 2023 by over 30 seconds.
He was unstoppable in the Hungarian capital, with the Dutchman having led from the exit of the first corner.
Verstappen made up for not securing pole position by making a terrific start, which saw him hold the inside line on Lewis Hamilton.
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As a result, Verstappen claimed the race lead at the opening corner, where he forced his 2021 rival wide.
This allowed both McLaren drivers to overtake Hamilton, whilst Oscar Piastri in particular overtook Hamilton and Lando Norris.
Piastri ended up finishing fifth whilst Lando Norris claimed second, which led to a comical moment in the cooldown room.
Whilst in the cooldown room, Piastri’s start was shown on a screen, much to the delight of Norris.
“Look at Oscar!” shouted Norris, who was clearly in admiration of his team-mate’s start.
In response, Verstappen joked: “He’s like, ‘Thank you very much’.”
Prior to making his joke in the cooldown room, Verstappen spoke in parc fermé about how delighted he was to finally make a “really good start”, with that having played a crucial part in his 44th career victory.
“Yeah, finally we had a really good start, very happy with that, we’ve been working on that quite a bit to try and get a good bite and, yeah, I know of course when I had the inside that corner was mine,” Verstappen said in his post-race interview.
“It was just late on the brakes you are heavy car so luckily it all worked out well and from there I could do my race and today the car was really really quick.
“I think over one lap this weekend it was a bit of a struggle but maybe it was probably a good thing for today so, yeah, the car was good on any tyre and we could look after the tyre wear and basically that’s why we could create such a big gap.”
Verstappen’s win also marked 12 in a row for Red Bull, setting a new record for most consecutive wins by a team.
The Dutchman has been crucial to the Austrians achieving the huge milestone, given that he’s responsible for 10 of the victories.
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He admitted after the race that the feat is “just incredible”, and that he hopes his side can “keep this momentum going for a long time”.
“It’s just incredible, what we’ve been going through the last few years is just unbelievable and hopefully we can keep this momentum going for a long time and also just to work with the whole team is always very enjoyable,” Verstappen added.
“Of course you know it’s always good to look into it, yesterday for example to keep pushing, wanting to do better, but today is just perfect.”