Lando Norris scored his first race victory as a Formula 1 world champion, as he won the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix for McLaren ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

The main part of the race was a battle between Norris and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, who took the lead from Norris at Turn 2 when the pole-sitter ran wide. Norris stayed close while the McLaren pair edged away from the battling Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton during the early stages of the 70-lap contest.

It was around the second round of pitstops where the race swung back to Norris.

He had been insisting he was the quicker McLaren driver when Piastri stopped for a second time on Lap 33, after which Norris stayed out for six more laps.

During this phase, Piastri lost critical time lapping traffic and then a chunk of time after Williams driver Carlos Sainz nearly wiped him out exiting Turn 2, seemingly unaware the net race leader was so close.

When Norris did stop, he rejoined in the net lead and quickly dropped Piastri to catch Kimi Antonelli, who was running even longer for Mercedes on a off-key weekend for the season’s front-running team.

Norris soon shot by Antonelli and raced further clear of Piastri before the second McLaren retired with a suspected gearbox problem on Lap 56.

A virtual safety car was activated, during which time Hamilton pitted while Verstappen stayed out and Antonelli closed in — the race neutralization coming just after the world championship leader’s second stop.

Antonelli and Hamilton charged over the remaining 10 laps, but Verstappen easily stayed clear in second. Hamilton’s finale was made harder when he was told he had a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane at his VSC stop. This dropped him to fifth in the final order, behind Charles Leclerc in the other Ferrari.

In the other Mercedes, George Russell finished seventh after he lost 15 places with a slow start and had to battled back from 21st out of the 22 runners. The races’s other retirements were the two Cadillac drivers, Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, as they suffered separate mechanical issues.

Luke Smith, in Budapest, and Madeline Coleman analyze the action.

A deserved win for Norris despite more McLaren Hungary drama

For the third year in a row here, the battle for victory in Hungary was between the two McLaren drivers. And for the third year in a row, it descended into drama.

After the tension over Norris belatedly moving aside for Piastri in 2024, and the split strategies that left Piastri deflated and defeated last year, McLaren again had to deal with some needle between its drivers on Sunday.

Norris had been the quicker of the two McLarens across the Hungary weekend, with Piastri not helped by missing first practice and then only getting the team’s updated car parts from third practice onwards.

Yet it was Piastri who got into the lead on the opening lap, giving him the chance to dictate the race.

Norris first suggested in the opening stint where they both used medium tires that he was faster than Piastri, but couldn’t show it due to the dirty air coming off the sister McLaren causing him to lose downforce and speed.

But he kept within a second of the leader after pitting to take hard tires, and began to grow increasingly frustrated on the radio after being informed that Piastri, as the leader, would get priority in the pits for the second stops. “I’m miles faster!” Norris cried at one stage.

After Piastri pitted first, Norris had the clean air to prove his point, and duly did so by remaining among the fastest cars on the track despite his worn tires. By staying out longer and creating a tire life delta, he’d plan to carve into the gap to Piastri.

Instead it was the incident with Sainz — the backmarker being lapped, who should’ve looked closer in his mirrors at the McLaren bearing down on him — that really ended Piastri’s win hopes.

Lando Norris exits the pits to reclaim the lead of the 2026 Hungarian GP. (Peter Fox/Getty Images)

He dropped a rare curse word on the radio about Sainz, who was later penalized, and grew more frustrated after seeing Norris pit and emerge just ahead of him (above).

It got worse for Piastri, who slowed and parked up with 15 laps remaining to retire after reporting a gearbox problem. What had 20 laps earlier been a possible first victory of 2026 ended in zero points.

This was a deserved win for Norris. He was the quicker of the two McLaren drivers in Hungary, and even without the Sainz incident, he would likely have caught and passed for the lead.

That should not downplay Piastri’s rightful frustration over what happened. The Sainz incident was costly, yes, but he’ll surely also want answers from McLaren over yet more split strategies in Hungary. A year that has offered him very little good fortune has only continued in Budapest. – Luke Smith

Verstappen’s second, still furious with his car

Four-time world champion Verstappen didn’t restrain himself when voicing his frustrations with his Red Bull car over the radio throughout the Hungarian GP.
“The weekend in general has been difficult,” he said after qualifying sixth on Saturday. “But when instead of the tire degrading, the car is degrading, then you have a big problem.”

The Dutchman felt his RB22 had been getting worse with each lap during qualifying. It’s not the first time that Red Bull has endured problems with its set-up and handling this year, and in Hungarian it has gone back to the problematic rear wing concept that caused Verstappen to crash in Austria and at Silverstone.

On Saturday, Verstappen felt the “car just kept oversteering more and more… it’s not good.”

The issues persisted through Sunday’s race, and his podium finish wouldn’t reflect Verstappen’s frustration – evidenced in his regular radio messages. Verstappen, who started fourth thanks to post-qualifying penalties for Hamilton and Antonelli, was up to third by the end of the first lap, but Hamilton, in the faster Ferrari, was all over his rear.

The two world champions battled for third place early on, after they’d made light contact on Lap 1.

Max Verstappen visits his Red Bull team for a pit stop during the 2026 Hungarian GP. (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Ferrari called in Hamilton to pit and try an undercut by using the faster pace proved by fresh tires. This got him ahead of Verstappen when the Red Bull driver pitted, but it didn’t last long as Verstappen made a bold move to pass at Turn 1 to get back ahead.

Verstappen’s teammate, Isack Hadjar, played a role in keeping Verstappen back into podium contention over the subsequent laps, as he briefly slowed down the McLarens and tried the same with Hamilton before pitting for the first time.

From Lap 23, Verstappen’s race settled down. He pitted for soft tires on Lap 42 and crucially emerged ahead of Leclerc, holding off the other Ferrari. And when Red Bull did not stop him under the VSC, that meant going just 28 laps to the finish on the soft compound, a hefty stint for the most fragile tire.

But Verstappen kept his pace up impressively, even with Antonelli and Hamilton threatening behind and he brought home second place. But Red Bull faces plenty of questions around its car package heading into the summer break. — Madeline Coleman

Ferrari misses its chance, Hamilton lands another penalty

Hungary was likely to present an opportunity to Ferrari, given the strength of its chassis in corners and the reduced emphasis on engine performance around the tight, twisting circuit.

Although Hamilton had missed out on pole to Norris, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was confident Ferrari still had the quicker car and could be a serious challenge in the race, despite Hamilton’s three-place grid penalty that meant he started fifth instead of second.

Starting on soft tires, compared to the other cars on mediums, was an aggressive move but neither Leclerc nor Hamilton got the chance to make much use of them, toiling behind Verstappen’s Red Bull through much of the opening phase of the race after the Dutchman’s strong start to run behind the McLarens.

It wasn’t until his third stint that Hamilton was able to leapfrog Verstappen and get back into the podium hunt, putting a bit of pressure on the struggling Piastri. Pitting under the subsequent VSC was sensible, but it did drop Hamilton behind Verstappen and Antonelli.

Fans at the Hungaroring watch Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton at the 2026 Hungarian GP. (Peter Fox/Getty Images)

Ferrari ordered Hamilton to give the place to Antonelli after he’d overtaken him at Turn 1 one exiting the pits, but a replay revealed the Mercedes was ahead at the pit exit safety car line, after which overtaking is not subsequently allowed.

What Ferrari couldn’t get Hamilton out of trouble for was speeding in the pit lane just moments earlier. It quickly caught the attention of the stewards, who hit him with a five-second penalty. It was a second sanction in two days and fourth in the space of three race weekends for the seven-time world champion, making his late pursuit of Antonelli fruitless.

With Leclerc having a quiet race as he struggled with his car overheating, and eventually finishing in fourth only thanks to Hamilton’s penalty, Ferrari left Hungary without a podium finish, let alone having fought for race win.

If Ferrari wanted to really put some pressure on Mercedes, especially with Hamilton towards the head of the drivers’ championship, it had to capitalize on the silver team’s rare off weekend. That chance disappeared in disappointing fashion. – Luke Smith

Different Mercedes races for Russell and Antonelli

The final race before summer break showed that Mercedes’ dominance in 2026 is under threat. It took half a race before Antonelli and Russell began showing more competitive pace.

Both drivers had faced issues in qualifying on Saturday. Russell suffered a broken engine late in Q3, and the team needed to fit a replacement, his fourth of the season. But the Briton didn’t face a grid penalty for Sunday’s race as he was still within the allocation drivers get for such parts for a whole season. But Antonelli did, for a yellow flag infringement around Verstappen’s last-lap spin.

But their races really diverged come Sunday, where yet again it was Russell who endured more misfortune.

His car went into anti-stall mode at the start and he barely pulled away, plummeting from sixth to 21st. He needed to pick his way through the field and successfully cleared the midfield runners by the time he pitted on Lap 28. He rejoined ninth and behind Liam Lawson, and although he cleared the Racing Bulls car, the gap was by then so big to the leaders Russell didn’t make much further progress, finishing seventh.

Mercedes driver George Russell races in the pack after his poor start to the 2026 Hungarian GP. (Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)

Antonelli’s race came alive during the second half, finding himself in the podium battle. After he’d tailed the McLarens, Verstappen and Ferrari cars early on, Mercedes opted to extend his opening stint, leaving Antonelli out longer while those around him pitted.

He came in for hard tires on Lap 22 and rejoined in sixth place, facing the steep challenge of fighting the Ferraris ahead of him.

The championship leader found himself in the lead by Lap 43, as again he was left out longer than his rivals. But this didn’t last long with the flying McLarens behind him. Norris was right on his tail and within a second of Antonelli two laps later. He pitted on Lap 54, as Mercedes believed his tire wouldn’t last until the end.

Piastri retiring really brought Antonelli into podium contention and he drove well to hold off the surging Hamilton, to extend his points lead once again. — Madeline Coleman