Although Lewis Hamilton is the most successful F1 driver of all time, he explained how attaining pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix after 595 excruciating days felt like his first. This is because the Briton, who has 103 pole positions to his name, last achieved the same during the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. And with him now back at the front, he is ready to challenge his old arch-rival Max Verstappen and his Red Bull team.
Hamilton, who has quite the history with Verstappen after their 2021 title showdown, is now keen to challenge the Red Bull driver for his first win in over a year. This is because the Briton had a disastrous 2022 season when he failed to register a single win for the whole year for the first time in his illustrious F1 career that began in 2007.
With Hamilton and Mercedes unable to challenge for wins, Verstappen and Red Bull seemingly had it easy at the front. This is because the Dutchman went on to grab a record 15 wins last year and won his second world title. However, with Hamilton now seemingly back at the front, he will do everything in his potential to stop Verstappen from continuing his domination for the rest of the 2023 season.
Lewis Hamilton expresses his delight on finally achieving another pole
Even though a pole position has been a long time coming for Lewis Hamilton, it seems that the happiness that he has is still the same. After stating that this pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix felt like his first, the Briton told Sky Sports F1 of how it felt to finally achieve the same after 595 days.
“It’s taken far longer than we all hoped it would take, but we’re starting to see those benefits slowly. And we’ve still got some big steps that we need to take to be even more comfortable in the car, to be consistently challenging the front row,” he explained.
In the same interview, Hamilton also explained how he always had the belief that the team could reach this stage once again no matter how long it took. And with Hamilton finally getting back to the front, Red Bull may not be able to break a longstanding record if the 38-year-old ends up winning the race.
Max Verstappen will hope he can help Red Bull break McLaren’s record
With Red Bull having won each of the 10 races this season and the last race of the 2022 season, they have a fantastic opportunity to break McLaren’s longstanding record of 11 consecutive wins that has stood since 1988. However, for that to happen, Max Verstappen will need to get off to a good start from second place on the grid, and will need to take the fight to his old arch-rival Lewis Hamilton.
And it is pertinent to note that this is not the only record that Red Bull can register this weekend. This is because if either Verstappen or Sergio Perez are able to finish on the podium in Hungary, then they would become only the fifth F1 team in history to achieve 250 or more podiums in the sport.
However, with Mercedes now having seemingly threatened Red Bull’s domination, the question is whether the Milton Keynes outfit are now rattled. This is because Verstappen vented out his frustrations in his post-qualifying interview (as quoted by express.co.uk), where he stated how disappointed he was to lose out on pole to Hamilton.
It is fair to say that considering the history between the two drivers and their respective teams, Hamilton will try everything in his potential to ensure that Verstappen and Red Bull do not break anymore records anytime soon by registering his 104th career win.
