2023 Hungarian Grand Prix

## Lap Leaders

The **2023 Hungarian Grand Prix** (officially known as the **Formula 1 Qatar Airways Hungarian Grand Prix 2023**) was the eleventh race of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship, held at Hungaroring on the weekend of July 21 to July 23, 2023.

## Background

### Championship standings before the race

Going into the weekend, Max Verstappen leads the World Drivers' Championship with 255 points, 99 points from his teammate Sergio Pérez, second, and 119 from Fernando Alonso in third. Red Bull Racing, with 411 points, lead the Constructors' Championship from Mercedes by 208 points and Aston Martin by 230 points.

### Entrants

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with the exception of Daniel Ricciardo, who will replace Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri starting from this Grand Prix.

### Tyre choices

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C3, C4, and C5 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.

### Tyre usage

A reduction in allocated tyre sets from the standard 13 to 11 is set to be trialled during this Grand Prix, with the intention of making tyre usage more sustainable. The usage of tyre compounds during qualifying will be mandated as hard in Q1, medium in Q2 and soft in Q3, assuming that the weather is dry.

## Qualifying

### Qualifying Report

Qualifying was held on 22 July 2023, at 16:00 local time (UTC+2).

The big change for qualifying were the new tyre allocations. Hards were in play for the first segment, Q1, where Zhou Guanyu topped the pace in his Alfa Romeo in front of Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez. A brief scuffle with traffic towards the end of the first session was detrimental to George Russell, who alongside Kevin Magnussen, Logan Sargeant, Yuki Tsunoda and Alexander Albon were all knocked out. Meanwhile, Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll had a moment of impeding, which was investigated after the session.

Mediums were used for the second segment, Q2. Lando Norris led the session early on with Oscar Piastri behind him. Verstappen initially topped the timesheets but his lap was deleted due to track limits. Nico Hülkenberg was sixth as Bottas returned to fourth. Tenth-placed Fernando Alonso snuck into Q3 by a gap of 0.002 seconds, which meant Carlos Sainz Jr. missed out. Sainz joined Daniel Ricciardo, Esteban Ocon, Stroll and Pierre Gasly as part of the group all knocked out. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton positioned himself in second.
Lastly, softs were used for the third and final segment, Q3, which meant this was Pérez's first time in Q3 since the Miami Grand Prix two months ago; he would qualify ninth, ahead of Hülkenberg. Verstappen put his car on provisional pole and would make it stick until Hamilton pushed through to make his first pole position since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – and breaking a streak since the Miami Grand Prix of pole positions set by Verstappen. Meanwhile, Zhou put up the highest qualifying performance of his career in fifth, with his teammate Bottas in seventh behind Charles Leclerc. Norris and Piastri continued to show the McLaren MCL60's newfound pace by qualifying third and fourth. Alonso was in eighth.

## Race

### Race Report

The race was held on 23 July 2023, at 15:00 local time (UTC+2).

The moment the race began, Max Verstappen overtook polesitter Lewis Hamilton into turn 1 and led the rest of the 70-lap race comfortably, initially with Oscar Piastri behind him.

Also in turn 1, the Alpines of Pierre Gasly and previous race winner Esteban Ocon collided and retired with terminal damage, the result of Zhou Guanyu's poor start, which led to him pushing Formula One returnee Daniel Ricciardo into Ocon, who had no defense against a fast-charging Gasly. All this meant Ricciardo was momentarily in last place. Sergio Pérez, who started in ninth, charged through the field.

Tyre changes shook up the order, with Pérez ending up second behind Verstappen, who was leading comfortably; Verstappen would come into the pits himself and retain his lead. Charles Leclerc was under attack by Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz Jr., but Stroll fell behind as Fernando Alonso moved past him. Pérez stopping meant that Lando Norris was second, but Pérez soon overtook Norris' teammate Piastri for fourth with a small push for the Australian into the grass, which stewards did not investigate. Soon, Hamilton took Piastri's spot but could not catch Pérez. Meanwhile, Leclerc sped in the pit lane and received a five-second penalty.

By the end of the race, Verstappen pulled out a 33-second gap – Verstappen's highest of the season – as Norris continued to defend against Pérez and Logan Sargeant had a retiring spin, with Red Bull breaking a new record of most wins by a constructor in a row, one-upping McLaren's record of eleven from 1988; McLaren's Norris took second place with Piastri in fifth. Alonso and Stroll were ninth and tenth, respectively. Second place for Norris marked the first time in his Formula One career that he had claimed back to back podiums and the first time McLaren as a team had achieved consecutive podiums since they achieved back to back wins with Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button at the 2012 United States Grand Prix (Hamilton) and 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix (with Button) respectively.
On the podium, Norris accidentally broke Verstappen's trophy during the celebrations.

## Notes

1. ↑ Includes one point for fastest lap.
2. ↑ Charles Leclerc finished sixth, but he received a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
3. ↑ Logan Sargeant was classified as he completed more than 90% of the race distance.