Max Verstappen has won his seventh race in a row as Red Bull became the first team to win 12th straight races with victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Dutchman was joined on the podium by McLaren’s Lando Norris, while Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez completed the top three.
Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton went wheel to wheel into the first corner, with the reigning champion coming out in the lead, before both McLarens found their way past the pole sitter.
There was disappointment for Alpine as both cars had the retire after coming together in turn one, when Guanyu Zhou shunted Daniel Ricciardo into the rear of Pierre Gasly’s car, launching him into him teammate and taking them both out of the race, and earning the Alfa Romeo driver a five-second time penalty.
Hamilton was the first of the front runners to stop, forcing McLaren to pit Norris to keep the Mercedes behind, which allowed him to undercut Oscar Piastri when he stopped a lap later.
Leclerc’s hopes of challenging for a podium were dealt a blow when Ferrari had difficulty attaching one of his new tyres during his pitstop, keeping him stationary in the pitlane for almost 10 seconds.
Verstappen stayed out longer than those around him, stopping on lap 24, and had a big enough lead to come back out without losing first place.
Having started in ninth, Perez made progress towards the front of the field, and came in for his second pitstop at the same time as Piastri, rejoining the track right behind the Australian as he pressed for a podium, before the Red Bull moved ahead a couple of laps later.
After a slow first pitstop, Leclerc’s struggles continued when he came into the pitlane for a second time, as he broke the speed limit, resulting in a five-second time penalty.
Having started towards the back of the field due to a poor qualifying, George Russell found himself running inside the points, and overtook Sainz to leave himself just under six seconds behind Leclerc with 4 laps to go, knowing he’d move up to sixth if he could get within five seconds of the Ferrari.
Russell comfortable closed the gap to Leclerc, while Hamilton also had strong pace late on as he closed the gap to Perez in third, but the Mexican had enough pace to keep the Mercedes behind.
Logan Sargeant finished the race in the garage after a late spin forced him into the pitlane on the penultimate lap of the race.
Provisional classification:
1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2. Lando Norris (McLaren)
3. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
4. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
5. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
6. George Russell (Mercedes)
7. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
8. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
9. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
10. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
11. Alex Albon (Williams)
12. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
13. Daniel Ricciardo (AlphaTauri)
14. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
15. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
16. Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo)
17. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
DNF:
Logan Sargeant (Williams)
Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
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