Lando Norris won a tense and engrossing race at the Hungarian Grand Prix, setting up the perfect 10-race championship run-in between the McLaren teammates once the season starts again after the summer break.
The McLarens looked to have the dominant package throughout practice and all but two runs of qualifying, but a change of wind conditions put the pack on their back. Charles Leclerc took a sensational pole ahead of the McLarens, with the top 5 separated by 0.1 seconds and 3 teams. The closest in years. This set up a finely poised race with the favoured McLarens unable to run and hide.
At the front, Leclerc maintained the lead from Piastri, but Norris lost 2 spots to Russell and Alonso, as he got pinched on the inside into turn 1. He took a lap or two to get past Alonso but found himself stuck behind Russell. McLaren decided to switch Norris’ strategy to a one-stop, which would be race-defining. With everyone around him opting for the theoretically quicker two-stop, this would give him track position to defend late on, which he would expertly hold on to from his teammate to take the victory. Piastri gave it a good go to overtake, nearly taking them both out on the penultimate lap, but luckily for him, narrowly avoided contact at Turn 1.
Leclerc would fall away dramatically in the 2nd half of the race and lose out on a podium to Russell. Behind the leading pack, Verstappen finished 9th in a difficult weekend for Red Bull. He was beaten by both Aston Martins, former teammate Lawson and Bortoleto in a great weekend for the midfield battle.
Right, let’s get into the driver ratings!
Lando Norris – 8.8
A disastrous start for Lando turned out to be a blessing in disguise for his race. Being stuck behind the slower Russell made McLaren rethink his strategy, swapping him to a one-stop. This would give Lando track position over the two-stoppers, but he would have to walk a fine line between tyre management and speed to give himself a chance to win. He did this expertly, pushing at the right times, conserving his tyres through the middle sector and ensuring his rivals used theirs. While his teammate was catching him quickly towards the end as Lando got through traffic, he didn’t make any mistakes and took an essential victory going into the summer break.
Oscar Piastri – 7.9
Oscar probably feels hard done by the racing gods; he didn’t do anything wrong, yet he was beaten by his teammate due to a better strategy. He stalked Leclerc for most of the race, trying the undercut and overcut to no avail, but eventually got past on lap 51 as Leclerc struggled with chassis issues. He quickly set off after his one-stopping teammate but really just ran out of laps, catching properly with 2 laps to go. One crazy divebomb that nearly took out both of them later, he settled for 2nd. He was a lucky boy, he was perilously close to ending both their races. Lando actually avoided the incident, making a small adjustment at the apex to give Oscar more room. Lucky, lucky Aussie.
George Russell – 8.3
Give the man a bloody contract already! How many times does George have to show team-leading maturity and consistency to convince Mercedes he is the future? Another podium for the Brit in what is his best season in F1. Qualified 4th, kept in touch with the leaders and then picked up the spoils of Ferrari’s woes when the opportunity arose. More points, and he deserves more money.
Charles Leclerc – 8.5
A frustrating afternoon in Budapest for Charles. He led from an incredible pole into the first corner and built a nice buffer to Piastri through the first two stints, up to around 4 seconds. However, a chassis issue from Lap 40 would derail his victory bid, losing buckets of time, eventually finishing 4th and 40 seconds back. That would be tough to take. Hard to judge as well, didn’t put a foot wrong and outperformed the car. Without the issues, I think he would have caught Norris and challenged for the win. Passing is another matter.
Fernando Alonso – 8.3
A veteran’s drive from Alonso. Temporarily up to 4th in the opening stages before Norris got past, he eked out his tyres to perform the one stop, maintaining track position and coming home a comfortable 5th. The Aston Martin was a much better car in Hungary compared to Spa, where the team brought upgrades, without the team really understanding why. Whatever the reason, give Fernando a good car and he will deliver.
Gabriel Bortoleto – 8.5
A fantastic result for Bortoleto! A fantastic weekend all around really. He started 7th, got ahead of Stroll for 6th and brought the car home in front of the Canadian. Another good utilisation of the one-stop. While Hulkenberg has had the flashy result for Sauber in 2025, this is as impressive to me. Consistent and fast, exactly what you need to have a long career in F1. Really impressive from Bortoleto.
Lance Stroll – 8.2
Lance shadowed his teammate all weekend, starting on the 3rd row with him and finishing less than 10 seconds behind at the flag. Lance, incredibly, was only 0.15 seconds off pole as well! It does show that Lance can do it; I don’t think anyone actually doubts that; it’s just so few and far between for our liking.
Liam Lawson – 8.1
The last 5 races couldn’t have gone better for Lawson to cement his place on the grid for 2026. Another top 10 qualifying and points finish for the Kiwi in Hungary. He has been the best Racing Bull coming into the summer break which has been quite the turnaround.
Max Verstappen – 6.5
It was a struggle from the off for Max as he couldn’t get on top of balance issues in pretty much every session. It looked a 50/50 chance he would make it into Q3 but was able to qualify 9th and didn’t progress from there in the race, despite a few nice overtakes into the chicane. He finished 70 seconds behind the victor, unheard of in this ground effect era. His cheeky move over Lewis Hamilton into the high-speed Turn 4 was brave so he gets a couple extra points to his score.
Kimi Antonelli – 7.5
Kimi returned to the points in Hungary with a 10th-place finish with a good recovery drive after qualifying 15th. He was one of the earliest one-stoppers to pit, took advantage of the tyres to get track position and held onto it.
Isack Hadjar – 7.1
Hadjar was hampered as he had to wait an extra lap for his pit stop when others dived in and got track position over him in the one-stop race, dropping him out of the top-10. He hunted down Antonelli for that last point in the closing stages, but couldn’t find a way around, and just missed out on points.
Lewis Hamilton – 6.1
Yet another disappointing weekend that started with promise for Lewis. He looked quick during the practise sessions but when it came to quali, the pace fell away and it was another Q2 knockout. He went with the alternate strategy for the race, starting on the hards but couldn’t make it work. Started 12th, finished 12th.
Nico Hulkenberg – 6.9
Nico was thoroughly outperformed by his teammate in Hungary. He was knocked out in Q1, starting 18th but was one of the few drivers to make the two-stop work. He pitted very early on Lap 5 and then again on Lap 40, to make his way up to 13th.
Carlos Sainz – 6.5
Struggles all round for Williams, the car didn’t look quick all weekend. Like Barcelona, the Hungaroring’s long, medium-speed corners didn’t suit the Williams. Carlos did outqualify and out-race his teammate, which is always a plus. Williams tried the two-stop and Carlos was making progress on the mediums at the end but ran out of laps to do anything significant.
Alex Albon – 6.5
A Q1 knockout for Alex, and while he did make progress up the field on Sunday, that was really the only way he could go. Another two-stopper but went medium-hard-hard compared to his teammate, which proved the difference between their finishing order, with Carlos getting past in the closing stages.
Esteban Ocon – 6.1
A very ambitious one-stop strategy from Haas for Ocon, pitting on Lap 14 and going on the Hards from there. Unfortunately for Ocon, it wasn’t able to elevate him as he was caught and passed by the two-stoppers in the final 15 laps, finishing 16th.
Yuki Tsunoda – 5.5
Getting tired of starting these with ‘another tricky weekend for Yuki but it WAS another tricky weekend for Yuki. The only silver lining for him is that now Max is really struggling, it takes an ounce of pressure off him, as he is clearly not the problem. He isn’t really helping, though. He qualified 19th, started from the pit lane after setup changes, but they didn’t seem to help and he trundled around at the back, only beating the two Alpines.
Franco Colapinto – 6.2
A rare weekend where Franco beat his teammate in both competitive sessions. He started 14th but fell back in the race as both Alpines struggled to keep up with the pack. They did have a nice battle between themselves on split strategies, with the two-stopping Franco coming out on top. Unfortunately, for both of them, this Alpine is the slowest car on the grid.
Pierre Gasly – 5.8
A poor showing from Pierre this weekend. He finished last on the road after starting 16th. He couldn’t keep up with the cars around him and was beaten by his teammate. He has been really solid this half of the season but couldn’t make up for the car’s lack of pace this time around.
Ollie Bearman – 7.2
Bearman was having a solid weekend until reliability issues scuppered his chances in the race. He was running in the top 10 until he started falling back with floor damage which would retire his car on Lap 48.
The Perfect Formula 