Seven things we learned from the Hungarian Grand Prix

Yup, no team in the history of F1 has ever won 12 races in a row…. until now. Red Bull equalled McLaren’s 1988 benchmark of 11 on the bounce two weeks ago at the British Grand Prix, but Max Verstappen’s victory at the Hungaroring has moved the team into uncharted territory. And it’s showing no signs of stopping either.

The Dutchman took the chequered flag more than half a minute ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris, setting a fastest lap that was more than a second quicker than anyone else in the process. Crikey.

That’s seven wins on the spin for Verstappen, too, and Sebastian Vettel’s outright record of nine in a row looks well within reach for the man who’s now 110 points ahead of anyone else in the championship. Is this the most dominant driver-and-car combo ever?

Mercedes hasn’t had much to cheer about lately, other than a handful of podiums. But Lewis Hamilton gave his team something to shout about on Saturday as he took a sensational pole position; his ninth in Hungary, something no one else has ever done at a single F1 venue before.

It also meant he extended his record haul of pole positions to 104, his last of course coming in Saudi Arabia in 2021 while locked in that intense title battle with Verstappen. Fitting then that it should be the Dutchman sharing the front row with him in Hungary…

Sadly for Merc that’s where the weekend peaked: Hamilton dropped to fourth on the opening lap, which is where he finished. Meanwhile George Russell was in damage limitation mode as he recovered from P18 to take sixth. 

Literally. Having started on the second row and shown immense pace throughout the grand prix to finish runner-up for the second race in succession, the British driver had an embarrassing moment on the podium as he accidentally smashed Verstappen’s winner’s trophy. Oops.

Lando’s signature move now is to drop his champagne bottle on the ground to send the liquid sky high, only he did it a bit too close to Max’s vase - reportedly worth tens of thousands of pounds - with the thud sending it tumbling and cracking it into several pieces.

Luckily Verstappen saw the funny side. Anyone got some glue?

Shoutout too to Oscar Piastri, who leapt up to second on the first lap and only fell behind Norris after his teammate was allowed to pit earlier and gain track position. Might the rookie have grabbed a podium with more backing from his team?

Okay, that’s over-egging it slightly. Daniel Ricciardo made his much talked about return to F1 in Hungary, although it briefly threatened to fall a bit flat when he finished the first practice session in P18, almost half a second down on Yuki Tsunoda.

We needn’t have worried: Ricciardo outperformed his teammate in qualifying and despite a significant shunt on the opening lap of the race, the Aussie adapted his strategy and eventually crossed the line in 13th, a couple of places ahead of Tsunoda.

No doubt Red Bull will be keeping an eye on his and Sergio Perez’s form for the rest of the season…

That’s the only rational explanation for its continually bizarre approach to racing. It started its drivers on different tyres, but when Carlos Sainz used his grippier, softer compound to close in on Charles Leclerc early on, the team declined to swap positions for no apparent reason.

Then when it was Leclerc’s turn to need a helping hand from Sainz later on, Ferrari again dithered for several laps before the Spaniard moved aside to release the faster car. And the only reason Leclerc was there was because of a nine-second pit stop which scuppered his entire race.

To cap it all off Leclerc was then handed a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, which saw him demoted to seventh place at the end of the race. It’s like watching Not Going Out, only with less plausible plotlines.

Aston Martin began the season in red hot form - well, Fernando Alonso did - as it collected half a dozen podiums in the first eight races.

But in the last couple of grands prix it seems to have fallen down the pecking order, with Mercedes and (out of nowhere) McLaren leapfrogging the team in green with their recent upgrades.

Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll brought home just three points between them in Hungary. Have they got anything in the locker to hit back with in the second half of the campaign?

Last week it was announced that Laurent Rossi had been replaced as CEO of Alpine, meaning there’d be a new boss in charge of the company and someone else taking the reins of the F1 team. That someone else is Bruno Famin.

Does Famin have the toughest gig in F1 right now? Alpine has flitted from one management structure to the next over the years (including back when it was Renault), almost always in a vain attempt to overcome the lack of investment and facilities compared to F1’s biggest teams.

This year’s car is far short of where the team hoped it would be relative to everyone else, and there was yet another double DNF in Hungary as Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu triggered a crash that took both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly out of the race at the first corner.

Quick! Someone distract us with a Dieppe Edition of the Alpine A110…