(Reuters) – Team by team analysis of Sunday’s Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix at Budapest’s Hungaroring, the 11th round of the 22 race season (teams listed in championship order):
RED BULL (Max Verstappen 1, Sergio Perez 3)
Red Bull’s 12th win in a row (11 out of 11 for this season) and Verstappen’s seventh in a succession and ninth of 2023, 44th of his career. He led every lap and also took fastest lap to go 110 points clear of Perez. Verstappen qualified on the front row and seized the lead at the first corner. His winning margin of 33.731 seconds was the biggest since 2021. Perez started ninth on the grid, with the hard tyres for a long stint before mediums, and carved his way through the field.
MERCEDES (Lewis Hamilton 4, George Russell 6)
Hamilton, a record eight-time winner in Hungary, started on pole for the 104th time in his career and with medium tyres. Verstappen and the McLarens dropped him to fourth at the first corner. He pitted on lap 16 for hards and lap 49 for mediums. Russell started 18th on the hards after a qualifying error, pitting for mediums on laps 28 and 46. He was seventh at the finish, moving up when Leclerc had a five-second penalty added.
ASTON MARTIN (Fernando Alonso 9, Lance Stroll 10)
Aston Martin at least got a double points finish. Alonso dropped a place from eighth at the start. Stroll was one of only four drivers who started on the soft tyres. Both drivers made two stops — laps 20 and 43 for Alonso and nine and 34 for Stroll, who started 14th.
FERRARI (Charles Leclerc 7, Carlos Sainz 8)
Leclerc started on used mediums and passed Guanyu Zhou for fifth at the start. He lost around seven seconds at his first stop on lap 17 when a wheel gun failed. He stopped again on lap 43 for more hards but was handed a five-second penalty for pitlane speeding that dropped him a place at the end. Sainz started on new softs and passed five cars early on but lost out to Russell in the closing laps, which allowed the Briton to close on Leclerc.
MCLAREN (Lando Norris 2, Oscar Piastri 5)
Norris took his second runner-up slot in two races after starting third on new mediums. He had some concern about hitting a kerb on his way to the grid. Piastri had floor damage and struggled with tyre wear after running second early on. Norris pitted first on lap 17 and got ahead of Piastri on the undercut when the Australian came in a lap later. Perez pushed Piastri down to fifth on lap 47.
ALPINE (Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly retired)
Both cars hit each other and retired on the opening lap, the team’s second blank in two races. Alfa’s Zhou clipped AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo who then hit Ocon, with the Frenchman momentarily airborne before hitting Gasly. Gasly lost the rear right tyre, damaging the car’s floor, while Ocon’s seat was reportedly split.
WILLIAMS (Alex Albon 11, Logan Sargeant 18)
Sargeant retired a few laps from the end after a spin but was classified. Albon’s 11th place reinforced the advantage over Haas, who are level on points. The Thai did a 38 lap stint on the hard tyres, longer than anyone else.
HAAS (Nico Hulkenberg 14, Kevin Magnussen 17)
Hulkenberg started 10th on mediums and gained a position immediately. He pitted on laps 16 and 39 for hards. Magnussen started 19th, also on mediums, and pitted on laps 14 and 42.
ALFA ROMEO (Valtteri Bottas 12, Guanyu Zhou 16)
Zhou made a poor start after a brake system issue, costing 11 positions before the first corner. He was handed a five-second penalty, served during the first stop, for causing the collision with Ricciardo. Bottas lost out avoiding Zhou at the start and changed early for hards.
ALPHATAURI (Daniel Ricciardo 13, Yuki Tsunoda 15)
Ricciardo made his return after leaving McLaren last year. He started 13th on mediums, dropped back to 18th after the clash with Zhou and then found a rhythm. He did 40 laps on one set of mediums. Tsunoda started on softs.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Ken Ferris)
