F1 Driver Form: Hungarian Grand Prix

Max Verstappen secured the first pole position of his career at the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix. Despite qualifying only tenth in 2022, Verstappen secured his first victory at the circuit. It was his third podium finish at the circuit, having also finished on the podium in Hungary in both 2019 and 2020, finishing as runner-up – doing so in 2020 despite crashing on his way to the grid.

2018 is the only time that Verstappen has failed to score at the event, retiring with power issues after just five laps.

Verstappen has never failed to reach Q3 at the Hungaroring, and 2016 is the only season that the Dutchman has been out-qualified by his team-mate at the track. In addition to his drive from tenth to the win in 2022, 2015 and 2020 are the only other years that Verstappen has finished the event in a better position than where he started.

Sergio Perez has scored only four times in eleven appearances at the Hungarian Grand Prix. He recorded his best result at the circuit so far in 2022, finishing in fifth place. In addition, Perez finished ninth with McLaren in 2013, eighth with Force India in 2017 and seventh with Racing Point in 2020.

Perez retired from the event in 2014, 2015 and 2021 and finished outside of the points on his other five appearances. His 2015 weekend at the circuit got off to a bad start, as he crashed in Friday Practice, flipping his car.

2020 marked the first time Perez reached Q3 at the Hungaroring since 2013. He lined up fourth on the grid – the first time he has started inside the top eight at this track. He equalled that result in 2021 but failed to reach Q3 in 2022. 2019 is the only season in the last nine years in which Perez has out-qualified his team-mate at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Charles Leclerc has scored only twice from five visits to the Hungarian Grand Prix. His best result here is fourth place, recorded in 2019. He finished sixth last year. Leclerc retired from the race in both 2018 and 2019, and finished 11^th in 2020.

Leclerc recorded his best qualifying result at the track in 2022 with third place. He has reached Q3 in all of the last four seasons.

Carlos Sainz was promoted onto the podium at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix following Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification. A fourth place finish last year made it the seventh consecutive season in which Sainz has scored at the Hungaroring. His first appearance here, in 2015, when he retired, is the only time that Sainz has failed to score at the event.

2015 and 2021 are the only seasons in which Sainz has failed to reach Q3 at the track. His best qualifying result here is second, recorded with Ferrari last year. 2022 was the first time Sainz out-qualified his team-mate at the Hungarian Grand Prix since 2018.

Lewis Hamilton is on the cusp of a record-breaking ninth Hungarian Grand Prix victory. He has won the race three times in the last five years and finished as runner-up in the last two seasons. The last two years were only the second and third times Hamilton finished on the podium here without winning the race, having also finished third in 2014.

Aside from his only DNF at the track in 2010, Hamilton has never finished outside of the top six at the track.

Hamilton has taken seven pole positions at the circuit, and has started from the front row on 11 occasions. He has actually started from pole eight times here, as Fernando Alonso was penalised after holding up then McLaren team-mate Hamilton in the pit-lane in 2007.

2014, when his car set alight during qualifying, is the only occasion that he has failed to reach Q3, but he made up for that by gaining 19 places from his pit-lane start. Last year, when he qualified seventh, is the only other time he has qualified outside of the top five at the track. Again, he made up for it in the race by gaining five places and finishing on the podium.

2010, 2015 and 2017 are the only seasons that Hamilton has not led a lap at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

George Russell scored points in Hungary for the first time in 2021, finishing in eighth place. In 2022, he recorded his first podium result at the track, finishing third. He holds a 100% finish record at the circuit.

Russell impressed in qualifying in both 2019 and 2020. He set the 16^th fastest time – his best qualifying result of the year – in 2019, before reaching Q2 and qualifying 12^th in 2020. He failed to make it out of Q1 here in 2021 but in 2022 took the first pole position of his Formula 1 career. Russell is yet to be out-qualified by a team-mate at this track.

Russell raced in Hungary in F3, GP3 and F2, but has never had much luck at the Hungaroring. He retired from two of the three F3 races in 2016, finishing fourth in the second race. In GP3 in 2017, he failed to start the first race and finished only eleventh in the second event. In F2 in 2018, Russell retired from the Feature Race and finished eighth in the Sprint Race.

Esteban Ocon took his maiden victory at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix. It was the first time he had scored at the event since his first appearance in 2017, when he finished in ninth place. He also finished ninth in 2022. Ocon has a 100% finish rate at the Hungaroring.

Ocon reached Q3 at the circuit for the first time in 2021, qualifying in eighth place. He bettered that result in 2022, qualifying fifth. 2020 is the only time he has been out-qualified by his team-mate at the track. Last year was the first time that Ocon has lost a position from where he has started at the Hungaroring.

Pierre Gasly has finished in the top six on three of his five appearances at the Hungarian Grand Prix. He does not have a 100% finish record at the track, having retired in 2020. He finished 12^th last year. Gasly’s best result at the Hungaroring is fifth, which is where he finished in 2021.

Gasly’s Q1 exit in 2022 was the first time that he has failed to reach Q3 here. He recorded his best qualifying result of fifth at the track in 2021. 2019 and 2022 are the only times that the Frenchman has been out-qualified by his team-mate at the track.

Lando Norris finished in ninth place on his first appearance at the Hungarian Grand Prix and finished seventh in 2022, but failed to score in both 2020 and 2021. He finished 13^th in 2020 and was taken out at the first corner in 2021.

Norris has reached Q3 on all four appearances at the Hungaroring, with a best qualifying result of fourth in 2022. Norris is yet to be out-qualified by a team-mate at the circuit. He has lost positions from where he has started on all three of his Hungarian Grands Prix finishes to date.

Norris previously competed at the Hungaroring in Formula 3 and Formula 2. In 2017, he completed all three races of the F3 meeting at the track, finishing a best of third at the final race. In F2, Norris finished as runner-up in the Feature Race and in fourth place in the Sprint Race.

Valtteri Bottas has failed to finish the Hungarian Grand Prix in each of the last two seasons. He crashed out at Turn 1 in 2021 and suffered fuel system issues in 2022. 2021 was the first time he failed to finish at the circuit since his maiden season in 2013.

Bottas is yet to finish above third place at the Hungarian Grand Prix. He has finished on the podium here twice, in 2017 and 2020. His 2018 and 2019 races at the track went off course due to errors. In 2018, he made contact with both Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo in the closing stages and ultimately finished fifth, while 2019 saw him finish eighth after picking up front wing damage on the first lap. 2015 is the only other time that he has failed to score.

Bottas is yet to take pole position at the Hungaroring, but lined up on the front row of the grid in every year between 2018 and 2021. 2013 is the only time he has failed to reach Q3 at the circuit. He qualified eighth last year.

The 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix is the only race at the track in which Bottas has finished in a better position than where he started.

Fernando Alonso recorded the first victory of his career at the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix. That’s the only time that he has won at the Hungaroring – though he has recorded a further four podium finishes at the track.

He finished fourth here in 2021 (a year in which his team-mate won the race) and finished eighth last year. Alonso has scored in every race he has taken part in at the circuit since 2010. He retired from the race in 2001, 2006 and 2009, while his 11^th place finish in 2005 is the only time he has finished a race here in a position outside of the points.

Alonso has set the fastest qualifying time on three occasions at the circuit, but started from pole only twice, in 2003 and 2009. He was penalised in 2007 for blocking McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the pit-lane. His sixth place last year was his best qualifying result at the track since 2014.

Since 2007, 2015 and 2017 are the only years in which the Spaniard has not reached Q3 at the circuit. 2006, 2011, 2021 and 2022 are the only years in which he has been out-qualified by his team-mate at the track.

Of the races he has finished here, 2005 and 2022 are the only ones in which Alonso has finished in a worse position than where he started.

Lance Stroll’s 100% finish record at the Hungarian Grand Prix came to an end in 2021, as he crashed out at the first corner. 2020 marked the first time that Stroll scored at the event, finishing in fourth place. He narrowly missed out on points last year, finishing 11^th.

Stroll qualified in third place in 2020, marking his first – and so far only – Q3 appearance at the track. 2019 and 2021 are the only occasions on which Stroll has been out-qualified by a team-mate at the track.

Kevin Magnussen has a 100% finish rate from his seven previous Hungarian Grand Prix starts. His best result here is seventh, recorded in 2018. He also scored a single point here on his last two visits, in 2020 and 2022, finishing in tenth place.

Magnussen has reached Q3 here twice, in 2014 and 2018. The latter is his best qualifying result at the track, with ninth place. That’s the only time he’s started in the top ten at the Hungaroring, having picked up a grid penalty after qualifying tenth in 2014.

2022 was the first time that Magnussen failed to gain places from where he started at the Hungarian Grand Prix outing. He made up an impressive nine places in both the 2014 and 2020 races.

Nico Hulkenberg has scored only a single point in his last eight appearances at the Hungarian Grand Prix. His best result here is sixth, recording on his first outing at the track in 2010. His only other point here was the result of a tenth place finish in 2016. He has failed to reached the chequered flag three times – in 2014, 2015 and 2017.

Hulkenberg has never been eliminated in Q1 at the Hungaroring and has reached Q3 on five of his nine Hungarian Grand Prix appearances. His best qualifying position here is seventh, which is where he qualified when he last reached Q3 at the track in 2017. However, due to a grid penalty that year, he has never started higher than ninth at the circuit. He started ninth in both 2014 and 2016.

2018 is the only season that Hulkenberg has been out-qualified by his team-mate at this venue.

Daniel Ricciardo makes his Formula 1 comeback at the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix. The Hungaroring is a track at which the Australian has won previously, taking the second victory of his career with Red Bull in 2014. Podium finishes, both third places, followed in the next two seasons. Since then, Ricciardo has scored only twice at the Hungarian Grand Prix. He finished fourth in 2018 and eighth in 2020. Ricciardo has one DNF at the Hungaroring, having been taken out by then team-mate Max Verstappen on Lap 1 in 2017. His previous best result here with the Red Bull junior team is 13^th, in 2013.

Third place in 2016 is Ricciardo’s only top three qualification at the Hungarian Grand Prix. He’s reached Q3 here on six occasions, but has only done so once since 2017 (with McLaren, in 2022). He’s also only out-qualified his team-mate here once since 2017, back in 2020.