Red Bull Record
Max Verstappen may have looked off in practice and qualifying, but in race trim, he was untouchable in leading every lap and winning by 33.731-seconds. As a result, it broke the record for most consecutive wins in F1 by a team with Red Bull Racing netting their 12th straight victory.
They’re just untouchable right now.
If you go back to last season, they’ve won 21 of the last 22 races and 27 of the last 30 overall. At this point, they may win every race this season.
Next up is Spa for which Verstappen has won each of the last two races there. He’s won 7 races in-a-row himself to go along with 12 consecutive top 2 results and 21 top 2 finishes in the last 23 races.
Perez Gets Momentum Back
Sergio Perez needed a big weekend. After 5 straight times of not being in Q3, he finally made it on Saturday. Granted, he’d only start 9th, however, he’d still rebound to finish on the podium in third for his 2nd podium in the last 3 races. It was much needed with so much attention going to his future with the team past his current contract.
On a weekend that Daniel Ricciardo out qualified his teammate and still finished ahead of him despite an opening lap incident, Perez delivered.
Over these last three races too, he’s opened up his lead over the field. At one point, it was looking like he may lose out on being P2 in the drivers standings.
However, he’s finished 3rd, 6th, 3rd in the last three grand prix’ compared to Fernando Alonso being 5th, 7th, 9th. Lewis Hamilton was 8th, 3rd, 4th in the same three races to allow Perez to stay well ahead of them in leading Alonso by 32 points for second and Hamilton by 38.
It was 19 and 35 respectively entering the weekend.
McLaren Still Dazzling
McLaren warned that despite their strong pace in Austria that they’d not be as strong over the next 2 races in England and Hungary. While they had some upgrades coming, those circuits didn’t lend a helping hand to their car defencies.
The McLaren cars like faster corners and cooler temps. England was overcast on Saturday which allowed for them to start 2-3. They’d finish 2-4.
Hungary is slower turns and hotter conditions. Maybe they’d get caught up back up. Instead, they’d start 3-4 and finish 2-5.
Despite Lando Norris now having finishes of 4th, 2nd, 2nd in the last 3 races and Oscar Piastri being 16th (didn’t have upgrade yet), 4th, 5th, they’re tempering their expectations for the rest of the way.
Spa could be better in being a faster circuit, but McLaren warns also that there’s only a few corners there that are high speed. There’s some very slow corners too for which the McLaren’s feel like they aren’t quite all the way there yet.
Still, for Norris to hold off a Red Bull (Sergio Perez) and a Mercedes (Lewis Hamilton) to a runner-up finish in Hungary, that’s a huge win for them still.
Hamilton and Verstappen Can Co-Exist
It had been since that famous 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi that we’ve seen a battle between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. It was then that Hamilton scored his last front row start. It was also that season for which he last won a pole.
Until Saturday.
Hamilton narrowly beat Verstappen for the top starting spot in Sunday’s Qatar Airways Hungarian Grand Prix. Get out the popcorn and set off the fireworks for what was surely going to be a dazzling display of chaos at the start.
They finished 1-2 in 14 of the 22 races run in 2021 including 6 straight to the finish. Were we about to witness another epic battle on Sunday?
It never happened.
Verstappen easily outdrove Hamilton at the start and by Turn 2 was G-O-N-E. Hamilton dropped to 4th and never made it back up to challenge his rival.
It was all hype for really nothing.
I felt like Hamilton was going to be aggressive early because it’s been a long time since he’s been in this position. He had to do everything to keep Verstappen behind if he wanted to end his 33-race winless drought.
In Verstappen’s corner, he’s had some rough starts lately and he wanted to make up for it. Plus, he knows how strong Mercedes has been on longer run on their tires. He couldn’t let his rival get away early.
Ferrari, Alpine’s Dismal Seasons Continue
Alpine had a double DNF and further slips backwards. After being P4 in the constructors a year ago, they’re down to 6th now and sliding further back. They’ve had 3 retirements in the last 2 races.
Ferrari is also in a slide. They are 4th in the constructors but a wide margin behind the top three. Ferrari trails Red Bull by 285 points, Mercedes by 56 and Aston Martin by 17. With the way that McLaren is coming, that 80-point gap could evaporate quickly would come leave Ferrari down to 5th.
They finished 7th (Charles LeClerc) and 8th (Carlos Sainz Jr.) on Sunday. LeClerc has just two podiums and only three top fives all season. Sainz Jr. has no podiums but 7 top 6’s. They’re just an average team at best right now.
At one point, Ferrari was the class of F1, but they’ve won only 4 races in the last 100 races.
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