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Formula 1
Hungarian GP
F1 Hungarian GP Live Commentary and Updates - Race
Minute-by-minute updates for the 2023 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton starts from a record-breaking ninth pole position at the Hungarian GP, having beaten Max Verstappen by 0.003s in a dramatic qualifying on Saturday.
It is an all-McLaren second row with Lando Norris third and Oscar Piastri fourth to cement the team’s drastic improvements in recent rounds, while Zhou Guanyu recorded the best qualifying result of his F1 career in fifth.
Further back Sergio Perez will attack from ninth place, while Carlos Sainz in 11th and George Russell in 18th will also be aiming to climb the order after a disappointing qualifying.
Daniel Ricciardo makes his F1 race return starting 13th for AlphaTauri, after replacing Nyck de Vries for the rest of the season coming into this weekend.
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Pit stop
Magnussen is the latest driver from the midfield pack to bail and call for tyres. He rejoins ahead only of Sargeant.
Perez has latched on to the rear of Sainz, who becomes his own race strategist and says he will pit if the Mexican gets closer to him.
Pit stop
Sainz duly pits at the end of lap 15 to trade his softs for hards and he comes out in 11th.
Sainz timed that stop well. Had he left it too much longer he would have been at risk of dropping behind Stroll, the first of the stoppers group.
Pit stop
Next time around Hamilton pits to ditch his mediums for hards and comes out in eighth just ahead of Ricciardo.
Pit stop
McLaren responds on the next lap and pits Norris, it is a speedy stop of 2.3s, and it gets him back out ahead of Russell (yet to pit) and Hamilton.
Pit stop
Sluggish stops seem to be afflicting several teams today. Leclerc's left-rear is the latest victim. His stop is 9.4 seconds and that drops him behind Stroll.
Pit stop
The pitstop wave continues as Piastri takes his turn down the pitlane. It is a rapid 2.0s stop for the Australian but it isn't enough and Norris gets the undercut nailed to move ahead.
Ricciardo comes in for his first live pitstop for the Faenza team since 2013 and rejoins at the back. Meanwhile Leclerc deprives Stroll of ninth with a neat move into Turn 2.
All that shaking about means that, for now, it is a Red Bull 1-2 with Verstappen a comfortable 21.3s ahead of Perez. Alonso is up to third as he is also yet to serve a pitstop.
Pit stop
At the end of lap 20 Alonso pits, ditching his mediums for hards, and comes out behind Stroll and Bottas in 11th.
Alonso is doggedly pursuing Bottas. His tyres are 12 laps fresher and he easily executes a cutback move exiting Turn 1 to latch onto Stroll's tail.
Stopwatch
Norris is lighting up the times now with a fastest lap of 1m23.499s - half a second faster than Piastri - while the Australian is told to take care of his tyres.
Pit stop
Verstappen is told to pit at the end of lap 23, going from the mediums to the hards, and retains the lead. It is all going swimmingly for the world champion so far.
Another who has lost out by pitting later is Hulkenberg, who has fallen back to 14th after his stop. Alonso meanwhile is informed that Stroll will let him through when the Spaniard gets to within DRS range.
Pit stop
A lap later Perez pits, swapping hards for mediums, and the Mexican comes out between the Ferraris in seventh, behind Sainz but ahead of Leclerc.
While that was going on Russell waved by Hamilton, as the two Mercs are on different strategies, with Russell really pushing out his stint on the hards.
Perez eases Sainz aside up the inside into Turn 1 to take sixth place.
After losing that time in the pits, Leclerc has latched onto Sainz's tail now and looks a threat to the Spaniard's seventh place.
Perez, with the aid of DRS, fresher and a softer compound tyre, gets by Russell at Turn 2 to take fifth place. The Mexican isn't hanging around today.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the additional age of his tyres, Stroll isn't able to live with the Ferraris ahead on fresher boots but Alonso isn't having an easy time of getting to within DRS range of the Canadian to make that promised overtake.
Pit stop
Russell pits at the end of lap 28 as his hards cry enough. The Mercedes driver takes fresh mediums and comes out in 14th place just behind Hulkenberg.
As we typed the message about Alonso not exactly cruising up to Stroll, the Canadian does move aside. He braked a couple of hundred metres early for Turn 1 to make life rather easy for Alonso, who moves up to eighth.
Verstappen, remember him, still leads by 6.8s from Norris, who in turn has a 4.4s advantage over Piastri.
Hulkenberg is the first victim of Russell's new tyres as the Mercedes man moves into 13th at Turn 1. Meanwhile Ricciardo has made a second stop for another set of medium tyres.
Hamilton hasn't been able to live with the pace of the top three so far and is nine seconds behind Piastri. Worse news is to follow for the Brit with Perez 4.4s back having taken seven-tenths of a second out of the gap on the last lap.
Now Russell claims 12th from Tsunoda with a copy and paste move into Turn 1. Fair to say the AlphaTauri driver didn't fight that one too hard.
Pit stop
Albon had risen to 11th after making that early stop, but his hard tyres have taken enough punishment after a little over 20 laps and he comes in too for another hard set. That's another place gained for Russell, who sets the fastest lap on his medium tyres to chase down Bottas.
Verstappen is checking out at the front, as his lead grows to 9.8s over Norris on lap 34. We've seen how this one usually plays out.
Perez is still gaining on Hamilton in the fight for fourth place, with the gap down to 2.4s. But both are closing in on the McLaren pair ahead who aren't having a good stint on the hards.
Pit stop
As Stroll comes in for his second stop, Russell blasts by his one-time team-mate Bottas into Turn 1 to assume ninth place. Stroll rejoins ahead of Albon in 15th.
Quote
"Gap seven seconds. Podium is on," Perez is told over team radio. That makes his target very clear.
Magnussen's Haas is easy prey for Stroll who moves down the inside into 14th at Turn 1.
Russell is steadily chipping away the gap to Alonso in eighth. It's now 6.2s as the Mercedes driver reaps the shorter-term gains of his medium tyres.
Magnussen must feel like he's dragging an anchor behind his Haas as Albon becomes the latest driver to blast past using DRS into Turn 1. That's P15 now for the Williams driver.
Checking in on the leader, Verstappen's advantage is up to 14.4s at the end of lap 38. He is in a totally different race to the rest, really.
Perez has reeled in Hamilton and is within DRS range. This is only a matter of time, in truth.
Pit stop
Hulkenberg and Zhou pit together, rejoining either side of Sargeant in 16th and 18th. Points appear a long shot for the pair who qualified inside the top 10 yesterday.
Ricciardo is the latest to move ahead of Magnussen, who is floundering on these hard tyres. Russell meanwhile has halved the gap to Alonso, which now stands at three seconds.
The Perez vs Hamilton battle is interrupted by Leclerc having a strategy argument with his race engineer over team radio. Some light relief, unless you favour the red cars.
By: Autosport Staff
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