Lewis Hamilton blows his shot at a first victory of the season at the Hungarian Grand Prix… as Max Verstappen romps home to make it 12 straight wins for Red Bull, with Lando Norris second

Just one sticky start and a demoralising first corner, and that was the end to Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

In those demoralising few seconds, all our fragile longings for a reprieve, however short-lived it might prove to be, from the monotony of Max Verstappen dominance this season were cast aside. The Dutchman waltzed off to claim his ninth win in 11 races and seventh in succession.

Across the world, millions went out into the garden to mow their lawns.

McLaren’s Lando Norris finished second, as he did at Silverstone a fortnight ago. He is exciting and maturing and smiling. The other Red Bull of Sergio Perez finished third with Hamilton fourth.

Hamilton’s disappointing start represented a devastating turnaround from the previous evening, when he had raided some of the best of his enduring class with a scintillating pole lap after a wait of 595 days. It put him on the front row with Verstappen for the first time since the night of insanity in Abu Dhabi, 2021.

Max Verstappen overtook Lewis Hamilton at the first corner to win the Hungarian Grand Prix

The British driver started on pole but immediately dropped to fourth in the first few corners

Lando Norris (left) finished second for McLaren, and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez (right) came third 

Going into Sunday’s race, excitement rose. Could Hamilton hold Verstappen off at the start and make a fist of the race, at a venue where he had won a record eight times?

Would they play dirty? Neither had anything much to lose, so perhaps.

As we now know, neither scenario transpired. The first phase of Hamilton’s getaway was brisk, the second one slower relative to the charging Red Bull. The old rivals came close together in the run into the first, tight right-hander. Verstappen pressed his case on the inside, and manoeuvred Hamilton’s Mercedes wide in the act, not unfairly.

‘Sorry about that guys,’ said Hamilton.

His pain was only just beginning. Calculating that Hamilton was going to be pushed out at that first fateful bend, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri ducked down the inside. It was a well-executed strike.

Next, Piastri’s team-mate Lando Norris went on the outside of Hamilton at Turn 2 and through him on the inside of him at 3. Hamilton had a nibble back. But that was it: in a few seconds the superman of Saturday was the kryptonite victim of Sunday, lying fourth.

Later in the race, struggling for speed and composure, Hamilton asked if his engine had been turned down. He was informed it hadn’t. He was actually running at full pelt, but it wasn’t enough.

His exasperation continued to express itself over the radio. ‘Why am I losing time?’ he asked before providing his own answer. ‘It’s just the car is slow.’ Later urged by race engineer Peter Bonnington to put his foot down, he responded: ’This is as fast as it goes, mate.’

Yet, yet, there was a silver lining to come on this sweltering day. After stopping on lap 49 of 70, he came out placed fifth. He was six seconds behind Piastri. But eight laps later, he passed the Australian for fourth, where he remained.

By this point, Perez had scythed his way from ninth position to third – a tonic to his confidence after a dismal run of form.

In the end, Norris was 33 seconds behind Verstappen, who increased his championship lead to 110 points. ‘The car is unbelievable,’ rhapsodised Verstappen afterwards. ‘Unbelievable. I was really enjoying driving it.’

George Russell atoned for a poor qualifying session to rise from 18th place up to sixth

Daniel Ricciardo got caught up in an incident involving the two Alpines on the first corner

What else? Some drama further down the field at the first corner. Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu fell like a stone from a surprise fifth on the grid before running into Daniel Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri. Both Alpines were ensnared, and they retired – their second double DNF in successive races. Zhou was handed a five-second penalty for his recklessness.

Ricciardo, back in the cockpit after eight months out, recovered to finish a creditable 13th, three places ahead of team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, whose race was incident-free.

George Russell atoned for his and the team’s muddled qualifying performance to rise from 18th to sixth, even passing Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz five laps from the close. ‘Yeah, baby,’ he exclaimed.

As for Verstappen, the Red Bull camp were super-confident pre-race that they possessed superior race pace to Hamilton et al. In the double world champion’s hands any advantage is a dangerous weapon. It blows a sniper-rifle hole in hope every weekend, and it only took a few yards at the start to remind us of the fact.