Verstappen set to match Schumacher record in Hungarian GP

Heading into the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, Max Verstappen is already clear favourite to claim a seventh Formula 1 win in a row.

Victory last time out at Silverstone in the British Grand Prix was Verstappen's eighth from the opening 10 races, with his red hot form coinciding with an alarming slump for teammate Sergio Perez.

In those six races, the points lead has ballooned to 99 and made Verstappen a sure bet to become a triple World Champion by seasons end.

Six wins on the trot eclipses Verstappen own previous best from last season when he won the French, Hungarian, Belgian, Dutch and Italian races and also took him past Lewis Hamilton's best of five straight.

But now the hungry Verstappen is on the hunt for another record.

While Sebastian Vettel's tally of nine straight wins can be eclipsed at Monza in September, next on Verstappen's hit list is a record currently held by three World Champions, including Michael Schumacher.

Verstappen to match Schumacher?

While Vettel is out on his own in terms of most consecutive wins thanks to the battering he handed out after the 2013 summer break, there is a three-way tie for second place on that list.

Alberto Ascari, Schumacher and Nico Rosberg all took seven straight chequered flags but only Schumacher did so during one calendar season - in his dominant 2004 campaign where he won 12 of the first 13 races, only missing Monaco after crashing in the tunnel.

Ascari actually has nine

Although officially, two-time World Champion Ascari has seven straight wins, in reality, he actually has nine - equalling Vettel.

From the 1952 Belgian to the 1953 Belgian races, nobody in a car equipped for World Championship regulations (run to F2 rules for those two seasons) beat the Italian over the line.

The reason he is credited with seven and not nine wins is the fact that the Indianapolis 500 was on the calendar in these nascent years.

In a championship firmly dominated by European circuits in the early years, the Indy 500 was there to firmly put the 'World' in World Championship - although it rarely attracted full works attacks from Grand Prix drivers.

Ascari did actually compete at the Brickyard in 1952 but retired before heading back to Europe to begin his record-breaking run.

Officially, Bill Vukovich ended Ascari's run by winning the 1953 '500, but it was Mike Hawthorn who won the 1953 French Grand Prix for the first win by a British driver in the World Championship that ended Ascari's run.

As for Rosberg, his run of seven straight was memorably ended in the Turn 4 gravel at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix after playing teammate total wipeout with teammate Hamilton.

That race, of course, would be won by a certain M.Verstappen.