Sky F1 pundit fires Red Bull WARNING as dominance starts to wane

F1 returns to Miami today for the 2023 Grand Prix with Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen all on the grid — Photo: © LAT Images

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Sky F1 pundit fires Red Bull WARNING as dominance starts to wane

Lewis Hamilton prevented Max Verstappen from claiming pole in Hungary

Matthew Hobkinson Lead Editor

F1 Editor & Journalist

Saturday 22 July 2023 22:12

Martin Brundle has warned Red Bull that 'the pack are homing in' after Lewis Hamilton prevented Max Verstappen from claiming pole for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Hamilton will lead the grid off the line on Sunday after he put in a stunning lap at the end of Q3 to snatch pole away from Verstappen by just three thousandths of a second.

It was Hamilton's first pole since Abu Dhabi in 2021, the infamous title-decider that saw the Dutchman win his first Formula 1 championship, a moment which kickstarted an era of dominance for Verstappen and Red Bull.

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Yet Brundle has now warned Christian Horner's team that the rest of the grid are closing in on them, after just 0.577s covered the top 10 in qualifying.

"The pack are homing in on Red Bull," he told Sky Sports. "Of that I have no doubt. We’ll see how it plays out on the longer runs, but we do know that the soft tyre has been really energising Mercedes this weekend."

Hamilton believes Red Bull are struggling

Lewis Hamilton claimed pole for the Hungarian Grand Prix in some style on Saturday afternoon

And Brundle was not the only one who thought he could see a chink in Red Bull's armour, after Hamilton admitted after qualifying that he believes Mercedes' F1 rivals have shown signs of slowing up in recent weeks.

"Honestly, I think they've slowed down quite a bit from the beginning of the year," he told Sky Sports. "I mean, just like other DRS they don't have the DRS advantage all the sudden than they used to have. Where did that go?

"So yeah, but I mean they've just had an upgrade. So with all due respect to them, for them to not have extracted that in qualifying is interesting, but I think in the race, they're still the quickest and I think it'll be very hard to beat them tomorrow.

"But yeah, we are just as surprised as everybody else. But definitely interesting to see some, you know, see some of the deficits and how it's changed from race to race and how we've all closed up."