Max Verstappen and the Hungaroring took a while to fall into step. Some drivers own a circuit from the first visit; Verstappen kept coming back until the tight, twisting Budapest track finally bent his way. Twelve starts, two wins and a first career pole all sit on the same sheet.
From a teenage top-five on debut in 2015 to a runner-up finish in 2026, here is what the data says about Verstappen at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen has two wins at the Hungaroring
Verstappen has taken the chequered flag first twice in Hungary, in 2022 and 2023, both with Red Bull.
2022 is the one people still talk about. He started 10th after a qualifying problem, then carved through the field, survived a spin, and won a race he was never supposed to lead. On a track where overtaking is famously hard, it was one of the great recovery drives of his title years.
2023 was the opposite kind of win. From the front row he controlled the race from the second corner onward, the version of Verstappen who removes the drama before it can start.
Two wins from twelve starts is a 17% strike rate at a circuit long seen as one of Red Bull's weaker venues, which makes both results stand out rather than blend in.
The 2019 pole that started it all
The 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix gave Verstappen the first pole position of his Formula 1 career. He led much of the afternoon before Lewis Hamilton's late second stop reeled him in, and Verstappen had to settle for second.
It remains his only Hungarian pole, but it opened the run of podiums that followed. He has finished on the rostrum here five times, in 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and again in 2026, a 42% podium rate at a track that rarely flatters his car.
Max Verstappen's Hungarian GP record year by year
The full table of Verstappen's record in Hungary tells the full story. A points finish in every appearance but one, the 2018 power-unit failure that dropped him out of the race, and a steady climb from the midfield of his Toro Rosso debut to the front of the grid.
| Year | Team | Grid | Finish | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Toro Rosso | 9th | 4th | 12 |
| 2016 | Red Bull | 4th | 5th | 10 |
| 2017 | Red Bull | 5th | 5th | 10 |
| 2018 | Red Bull | 7th | DNF (power unit) | 0 |
| 2019 | Red Bull | 1st | 2nd | 19 |
| 2020 | Red Bull | 7th | 2nd | 18 |
| 2021 | Red Bull | 3rd | 9th | 2 |
| 2022 | Red Bull | 10th | 1st | 25 |
| 2023 | Red Bull | 2nd | 1st | 26 |
| 2024 | Red Bull | 3rd | 5th | 10 |
| 2025 | Red Bull | 8th | 9th | 2 |
| 2026 | Red Bull | 6th | 2nd | 18 |
From Toro Rosso teenager to Red Bull mainstay
Verstappen arrived here in 2015 as a 17-year-old and still brought the Toro Rosso home fourth. Every visit since has been in Red Bull colours, and the graph of his results reads like his career in miniature: promising finishes, then podiums, then wins, then the routine of a four-time world champion who scores wherever he lands.
The 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix fit that pattern. Verstappen qualified sixth and finished second, the best of the rest behind race winner Lando Norris, turning a middling grid slot into another podium the way he has learned to here. The full 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix classification shows how the rest of the grid lined up.
Hungary may never have been Verstappen's happiest hunting ground on paper, but the record tells a quieter truth. Two wins, a maiden pole, five podiums, and points nearly every time out. For a track that was supposed to trouble him, the Hungaroring has been very good to Max Verstappen.
