Slow to begin with, the Hungarian Grand Prix ended up delivering a nail-biting conclusion. Lando Norris held his nerve to fend off teammate Oscar Piastri and claim his fifth victory of the season by just six-tenths of a second. A momentous win for McLaren, who have become only the second team ever to claim 200 grand prix victories.
After qualifying third, Norris suffered another bad start and dropped to fifth. Fernando Alonso was dispatched, but after getting stuck behind George Russell, Norris opted for a bold one-stop strategy.
The Brit pitted on lap 31 and made his hards last to the end of the grand prix.
However, the two-stopping Piastri gave serious chase in the closing stages. The championship leader had a distinct pace advantage and entered DRS range with five laps to go, before attempting an audacious divebomb into turn one on lap 69. Contact was avoided, but the resulting lockup cost Piastri his chance at victory. Afterwards, Norris was shattered by the effort but was nevertheless pleased at having claimed his third win in four races.
In contrast to the exultation he felt on Saturday, Charles Leclerc’s race was one to forget. The Monegasque held the lead for the first 39 laps, only to suffer a dramatic drop-off in pace during his final stint. Piastri passed Leclerc on lap 51, who found himself under attack from George Russell soon after.
The Mercedes driver pulled off a late lunge on lap 62 that nearly ended in disaster as Leclerc moved under braking and attempted to reclaim the place going into turn two, much to Brit’s frustration. The five-second penalty Leclerc earned for erratic driving did not affect his result, as he limped home 42.5 seconds off the lead and did little to hide his disappointment over team radio.
After stunning the entire paddock in qualifying, Aston Martin’s race pace took something of a dive; even so, Fernando Alonso had a quiet but fruitful Sunday. The double world champion chose not to chase those ahead of him and came home a creditable fifth ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto, who survived an investigation over a potential jump start to secure his best finish in Formula One with sixth.
Behind him, Lance Stroll finished seventh, making it a double points haul for Aston Martin, while Liam Lawson fended off a disappointed Max Verstappen to come home eighth.
Having struggled throughout free practice and qualifying, Verstappen’s race followed a similar trend. The reigning world champion dropped to ninth off the start but enjoyed an initial burst of pace and passed Lawson and Stroll in quick succession. However, Verstappen was soon stuck behind Bortoleto and Alonso and attempted an undercut on lap 18. Some audacious moves, including a memorable pass on Isack Hadjar at the chicane, did little to ease the situation.
Verstappen was later placed under investigation after having a look up the inside of Lewis Hamilton at turn four, which caused the Brit to run wide and concede the place. In the end, Verstappen could only manage ninth, his worst result at the Hungaroring since 2021.
After toiling in the midfield all race long, Kimi Antonelli’s efforts were, at the very least, rewarded with tenth place, his first points finish since Canada. Behind him, Isack Hadjar secured 11th ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who was unable to make any progress in the race after his disappointing qualifying.
After starting 20th and earning a five-second penalty for moving before the lights went out, Nico Hulkenberg completed a noteworthy recovery drive to 13th, ahead of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.
Esteban Ocon capped off a disappointing weekend with 16th, while Yuki Tsunoda could only manage 17th. Alpine’s race pace was arguably weakest of all as Franco Colapinto went from 14th to 18th ahead of his teammate Pierre Gasly, with Ollie Bearman the only retirement.
With this win, Norris has cut Piastri’s championship lead to nine points. With ten races to go and little to split the McLarens, it will be all to play for in the second half of the season.
