Hungarian Grand Prix 23/07/2023 – Sunday from 2:00pm
The 2023 F1 bandwagon rolls into Hungary this weekend with world championship leader Max Verstappen nearly a century clear of his nearest rival after a sizzling win at Silverstone.
We are running out of superlatives for the dominant Dutchman, who took the chequered flag at the British Grand Prix to move onto 255 points for the season, with Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez 99 behind him on 156.
There was plenty for the British fans to cheer, however, as McLaren’s Lando Norris took second place, with Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton third and George Russell fifth.
Hamilton will be pushing for another podium finish this weekend – and here are our other suggested bets for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
Fernando Alonso to claim pole position
The Hungaroring has long been described as ‘Monaco without the walls’ and that will be sweet music to the ears of Aston Martin, whose hype train has come to a shuddering halt in recent races.
Rewind to Monaco and Alonso was the nearest challenger to Max Verstappen throughout the weekend – and only a freak final sector from the reigning World Champion denied Alonso pole position.
The AMR23 should be perfectly suited to this track and Alonso’s huge price to line up P1 on Sunday’s grid is simply too good to be ignored.
Lance Stroll to finish in the points
It is well worth putting another egg in the Aston Martin basket and banking on Stroll to come home inside the top 10 on race day.
Stroll is vastly overshadowed by the far superior Alonso but he still delivers decent performances to quieten down the critics, who are always itching to tell everyone that he is only driving for the team because his father owns it.
That may be true, but that doesn’t necessarily make him a bad driver.
Lewis Hamilton to earn podium finish
He will tell you otherwise, but Lewis Hamilton is actually having a very good season even though his W14 ‘diva’ is preventing him from challenging Verstappen for race wins.
What the W14 is capable of doing now, though – compared to earlier in the season – is consistently battle for podium positions. The car is more competitive in race trim compared to qualifying, so let’s hope that is the case again this weekend and Hamilton can deliver a fifth podium finish of the season.
Read about the new Tyre Rules being tested this weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix 23/07/2023 below:
