Since May, no one can stop Max Verstappen. The reigning double world champion won, on Sunday July 23 in Hungary, his seventh Grand Prix in a row in the space of two months, his ninth in eleven races since the start of the 2023 season. In the drivers’ classification, the Red Bull driver is now 110 points ahead of his runner-up and teammate in the Austrian team, Sergio Pérez, who finished third on Sunday behind Lando Norris (McLaren).
Imperturbable, Max Verstappen remains so in all circumstances, whether he starts the race in pole position or not. The day before the start, on the Hungaroring circuit, it was Lewis Hamilton who had set the fastest qualifying time, ahead of the Dutchman. The British Mercedes driver then signed the 104ᵉ pole position of his career, the first since the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia in December 2021.
Starting from the first position on the circuit where he won the most – eight successes, as at the British Grand Prix – Lewis Hamilton knew he could disrupt the plans of the reigning double world champion. But it is clear that the Mercedes driver has lost the habit of starting the race in the lead: in the space of three turns, Lewis Hamilton found himself fourth, overtaken by Max Verstappen and the two McLaren drivers, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
Despite the British team’s return to form in recent weeks, Piastri and Norris have never been able to compete with Verstappen. In the first lap, the Frenchmen Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were even more unfortunate than Lewis Hamilton and his failed start. The two Alpine drivers had to retire after a collision between Guanyu Zhou and Daniel Ricciardo which took away Ocon’s single-seater, the latter hitting and damaging that of his teammate.
The record of consecutive victories in sight
“Things don’t line up for us. We will have to quickly stop this series of events that are happening to us at the moment., reacted Pierre Gasly to the microphone of Canal +, while the race continued on the Hungaroring. Not spared by mechanical problems and racing events in recent weeks, the Alpine team sees McLaren, which scored 28 points on Sunday thanks to Norris (2ᵉ) and Piastri (5ᵉ), soar to fifth place in the constructors’ standings, with 40 points ahead.
At the top of this ranking sits Red Bull, which has won all eleven races this season and the last twelve Formula 1 Grand Prix, a record. All in large part thanks to Max Verstappen who is now at seven consecutive victories and can envisage, in view of his performances and those of his opponents, to equal Sebastien Vettel’s record of nine successes in a row, which dates back to the 2013 season.
The Dutchman will try to approach it next week, during the Belgian Grand Prix. A race that he masters to perfection for having won there in 2021 and 2022. In the event of success on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, the double world champion will have to let the summer break pass to try to equal the record at home, in the Netherlands at the end of August. By then, his opponents may have found solutions, or drawn from the few weeks of rest the hope of being able to compete with him again.