Max Verstappen cruised to victory on Sunday in the Hungarian Grand Prix, and in the process helped Red Bull break a long-standing record in the sport.
Today's win was the 12th in a row for the team, toppling the previous record previously set by McLaren in 1988. It's also Verstappen's seventh win on the trot, and overall his 44th F1 career victory.
"Twelve wins in a row is just incredible," he told interviewer Nico Rosberg in parc ferme after the end of the 70-lap race. What we’ve been doing for the last two years has been unbelievable.
"Hopefully we can keep this momentum going for a long time," he added, with many pundits expecting Red Bull to achieve a clean sweep of the entire season.
"To think we've now bettered that," marvelled Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. "As a young kid I remember watching the McLarens of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna achieving that. They were an incredible team.
"Ron Dennis was an incredible team principal," he told Sky Sports F1. "And to think that we've now bettered that is something the whole team here in Budapest, in Milton Keynes, everybody behind the scenes has worked so hard for and will mean so, so much."
Verstappen was also keen to laud the efforts of his squad. "Just to work with the whole team is very enjoyable," he said, adding that setbacks such as missing pole in yesterday's qualifying session was just another opportunity to find ways to improve.
“I think over one lap this weekend it was a bit of struggle," he mused. "But maybe it was probably a good thing for today. The car was good on any tyre. We could look after the tyre wear, and that’s why we could create such a gap.
"It’s always good to look into yesterday, for example, to keep pushing, always wanting to do better," he said. "But days like this are just perfect.”
That unexpected glitch on Saturday left him three thousandths of a second short of pole position, which went instead to his old rival Lewis Hamilton. But Verstappen quickly jot the jump on the Mercedes in the race.
"We had a really good start, so I’m very happy with that," he explained about the start which saw him pass Hamilton down the inside of turn 1. We’ve been working on that quite a bit, to really get the good bite.
“I knew of course when I had the inside that the corner was mine," he said, adding "late on the brakes, heavy car".
"Luckily it all worked out well," he summed up. "From there onwards I could do my race and today the car was really, really very quick."
Verstappen crossed the line with a huge 33s lead over second-place Lando Norris in the McLaren, and he had lapped eight of the 17 cars still running at the chequered flag.
"It’s like a field of Formula 2 cars against a Formula 1," sighed Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff. "They’ve done the best job. As long as you’re within the regulations you’ve done the best job.
"You see where Verstappen is doing his laps - tranquil and that needs to be the target [for Mercedes to match]," he said. "And that’s far off at the moment."
Verstappen now holds a 110 point advantage in the drivers’ standings over Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez, who rose from ninth on the grid to join Verstappen on the podium with another strong recovery drive to third.
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