BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Mercedes will be chasing a hat-trick in the heat of the Hungaroring on Sunday as Lewis Hamilton returns to a track where he has won a record eight times and last year secured his most recent pole position.
The idea of Mercedes being in a position to win anything, let alone three races in a row, after a 2023 season dominated by Red Bull and Max Verstappen had looked like wishful thinking back in March.
It is real enough now, though, after victory fell into George Russell’s lap in Austria and seven times champion team mate Hamilton won the British Grand Prix at Silverstone for a record ninth time.
“I love Hungary,” said Hamilton after his emotional home victory left him in tears.
“So, yeah, I definitely am really looking forward to that, to go in there, but just also the trajectory we’re on and the fact, you know, the car is starting to really, really come alive and feel great.”
Hamilton won in Hungary with McLaren in his 2007 debut season and did it again in 2009 and 2012 before switching to Mercedes, where he continued to win in 2013, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020.
A top three finish this weekend would be his 200th podium while another pole would be a record-extending 10th at the circuit.
Russell took the first F1 pole of his career in Hungary in 2022, finishing third with Hamilton second and Verstappen winning.
Mercedes have taken the last four poles in Hungary, a slow track sometimes referred to as ‘Monaco without the walls’ and where overtaking can be tricky and qualifying carries a real premium.
The fact remains that triple champion Verstappen has won the last two editions and is chasing his own Hungarian hat-trick to avoid Red Bull’s longest gap without a win since 2021, when he was fighting Hamilton for the title.
Mercedes are already the first team since Ferrari in 2022 to beat Red Bull twice in a row.
“We had a brilliant race in Hungary last year and have good memories here as we achieved (a record) 12 wins in a row,” said Verstappen, who is now 84 points clear of McLaren’s Lando Norris after 12 of 24 races.
“Hopefully, we can have a great race again this year and achieve another good team result.”
Verstappen beat second placed Norris by a whopping 33.7 seconds in Hungary last year, with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez third, as the champions set a record for most successive F1 wins.
That gulf is unlikely to be repeated with McLaren, who also have Australian Oscar Piastri bringing in solid points, now having one of the fastest cars on track and needing only to avoid making mistakes.
Perez desperately needs a strong and clean weekend after scoring just 15 points from the last six races with his future at the team increasingly called into question despite securing a new contract only last month.
Ferrari will also be looking to take some momentum into the August break, and avoid being overtaken in the standings by McLaren, now just seven points behind.
With Belgium following on from Hungary and concluding the first part of the season before the shutdown, Ferrari are fighting to catch up after an upgrade package proved problematic and the team were forced to return to an older specification.
“We will bounce in turns 4 and 11 (at the Hungaroring) but until something better comes we may have to live with bouncing for a while,” said Spaniard Carlos Sainz.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis)
