Verstappen cruises to win as Red Bull set record

Lewis Hamilton, who was on pole, dropped to fourth at the start

Max Verstappen's dominant victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix set a wins record for his Red Bull team.

The achievement broke the record of 11 straight wins set by McLaren with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in 1988.

McLaren's Lando Norris fended off a threat from Red Bull's Sergio Perez to take second place.

Lewis Hamilton, who had started from pole position, closed on Perez in the final laps but was not able to attempt an overtake and had to settle for fourth.

Hamilton win hopes over by first corner

Verstappen's run of five consecutive pole positions was ended by Hamilton on Saturday, who took his first pole since 2021.

The seven-time champion always felt he would struggle to challenge the Red Bull given its strong race pace, but any hopes Hamilton might have had of mounting a challenge were gone within a few seconds of the start.

A better getaway by the Red Bull driver had Verstappen alongside the Mercedes on the inside on the run to the first corner.

Verstappen claimed the lead as they turned in, and motored away into a race of his own at the front. His win moves him into a 110-point championship lead over Perez.

Hamilton's attempts to hold on to the lead by squeezing Verstappen tight to the inside cost him two further positions, as the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Norris also passed him and demoted him to fourth place.

Piastri swept around the outside of the corner to take second place ahead of his team-mate, but their positions were reversed at the first pit stops when McLaren stopped Norris first and gave him the chance to use his fresh tyres to 'undercut' ahead of the Australian.

Norris was unable to challenge Verstappen, who was in another league, as he has been for most of the season. But he had the measure of Piastri and Hamilton and was left in the closing laps to fend off a charge from the second Red Bull of Perez.

The Mexican recovered from his disappointing ninth place on the grid using an off-set strategy - starting on the hard tyre rather than the medium used by all the cars ahead of him - and progressively picked off the cars ahead of him.

Perez edged closer and closer to Norris in the final 10 laps but after getting to about three seconds behind, the McLaren began to pull away again in the closing laps.

Perez began to slip back towards Hamilton, but the Mercedes was still 1.5secs behind at the flag.

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