Verstappen gives Honda its first pole since 2006

Honda power runs fastest lap for fifth time in 2019

Max Verstappen and the Honda-powered Aston Martin Red Bull went into the Formula 1 mid-summer break in style, earning the pole and leading 59 laps before settling for second in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Dutchman won his first career F1 pole on Saturday and put a hammerlock on the top spot from the start of Sunday's race, holding the field at bay for the majority of the event. Things looked promising when rival Lewis Hamilton pitted his Mercedes on Lap 49 for new tires and fell 20 seconds behind, but the five-time World Champion used those new shoes to come all the way back and wrest the win away from the Honda driver with three laps to run.

Verstappen's teammate Pierre Gasly rebounded from a tough start that saw him drop three spots and challenged Carlos Sainz over the final laps for a top-five spot before ending up sixth. The Toro Rosso Hondas battled each other at a couple of stages before rookie Alex Albon emerged with the 10th and final points-paying spot in the race, while Daniil Kvyat ended up 15th.

Verstappen made his first and only pit stop on Lap 26 and reclaimed the lead from Hamilton when he pitted seven laps later. The Red Bull driver fought off several challenges from Hamilton as they went nose-to-tail before Hamilton pitted on Lap 49 for a second set of tires.

With the rest of the field well behind the front-running duo, Red Bull was able to pit Verstappen on Lap 68 for soft tires without losing a position, and he used them to set a new track record of 1:17.103 to earn an extra championship point. The Honda-powered Red Bull squad scored the DHL Fastest Lap award for the fifth time in the season's 12 races, which is the most in the series this year.

The result moved Verstappen to within seven points of Valtteri Bottas for second place in the championship and it also marks his 21st consecutive top-five finish. His 12 straight top-five finishes to start the 2019 season is the most ever to start an F1 season by a Honda-powered driver, dating back to Honda's F1 debut in 1964.

Formula 1 now heads off to its customary summer break and will not compete again until the August 30 - September 1 Belgian Grand Prix at the famed Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

Toyoharu Tanabe

Technical Director, Honda F1

'Having started from pole, Max had a great race-long battle with Hamilton, but in the end he had to settle for second. The result demonstrated that the championship leading team still has the edge over us in performance terms and today, a great driver and good race management saw them take the win. Therefore we have to improve our Power Unit-chassis package if we want to win more races after the summer break. For Toro Rosso, Alex produced a strong race from 12th on the grid to get a valuable point. Given the team's performance over the whole weekend, realistically this was the best result we could expect. Although we have the summer break, we do have a few more days of work and we will be pushing as hard as ever, in order to improve over the remaining races this season.'

Max Verstappen

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing

Start 1st, Finish: 2nd (1st pole of 2019)

'We gave it our all but Lewis was clearly a bit faster than us today. It was nice to see that we had such a big gap to the others though and second is still a good result. It wasn't our day in terms of pace but overall it was a good weekend and getting pole position was a great step. Of course, when you start at the front you want to win but you also have to be realistic and to finish second with the fastest lap was the most that we could do. I tried to keep Lewis behind when we were on the same tires but because of the gap to third, he had the option to do a second stop which worked out for him. I was trying to survive out front and push on my tires but when he was closing in by one or two seconds per lap there wasn't much I could do. He closed so quickly on the fresh tires that I wasn't surprised he managed to get past. We then pitted to get the fastest lap, which is one extra point, and I'm of course happy to get that. No regrets and we tried everything we could. It was a good weekend for us and I go into the break with a good feeling as we're getting closer all the time.'

Pierre Gasly

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing

Start: 6th, Finish: 6th

'It was a difficult race right from the beginning. We had a poor start which didn't make life easy, and after that I just tried to attack as much as I could but I was sliding everywhere and struggling with grip. I was in a bit of a sandwich in Turn 1, then I was quite close with Kimi (Raikkonen) in Turn 2 so I lost a lot of time at the start which didn't help my race. The weekend started pretty well and Friday was good, we were happy with FP1 and FP2, but from Saturday I have just struggled for grip. We finished the race P6 and scored some points but for sure it was not the amount we wanted. It's good for everyone to have a break now and switch off. I will relax and review the first half of the season, I will look at what went well and what could have been better so I come back sharper and stronger for the second half and make sure we score more points.'

Daniil Kvyat

Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda

Start: 13th, Finish: 15th

'It was an interesting race and I think it could have been a good day, but unfortunately, we pitted too early and my tires hit the cliff with around 15 laps to go. It was a nice battle with Alex when we were both on the same tires, I managed to overtake him and it was very good fun, but after that in the last few laps when my tires were completely gone it wasn't enjoyable anymore. Having said that, I'm quite happy with the way I drove and I got everything I could out of the car. It's just a shame we weren't able to bring home the points.'

Alex Albon

Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda

Start: 12th, Finish: 10th

'I had quite a good race today. My first stint was average, and I didn't feel very comfortable with the Medium tires, it felt like I had almost no grip at all, but once I went onto the Hard tires the car came alive again. I had two nice fights with Dany, the first one was much closer than the second one! It was good fun and it was fair racing. I think P10 was the best we could achieve today, so we have to be pleased. Now I've got time to relax a bit, review the season so far and understand where I need to improve to be ready for the second half of the year.'

Photo credit: Honda
posted on conceptcarz.com

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