Race Report: Norris wins Hungarian GP | ep 1001

Lando Norris led Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli to his first win of the 2026 season at the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix. McLaren and Hungary have a special track record of doing well but Lando made the most of the upgrades the team brought to secure the win as he was the fastest driver all weekend.

Win

A big win for Lando Norris who was clearly quicker than everyone else and the big question for me remains, is this the typical McLAren good-form in Hungary or is this McLaren excellence bubbling toward the top mid-summer? They have done it before and are they doing it now? We’ll see in Zandvort.

A real win for Max Verstappen who had a car that he was not happy with on soft tires for 28 laps and still managed to finish P2. Max said he didn’t feel they’d podium in Hungary so a bit of a gift despite the car trouble they are having. Also, Isak Hadjar in P6 was also a good points haul for the team and great job from Isak.

A win for Kimi Antonelli personally as he managed to recover from P7 to a podium and ahead of all his nearest rivals in the championship. Damage limitation that worked very well for the teenager.

A win for Nico Hulkenberg who scored his first points of the season. Despite a great battle (that we never seem to be able to see on TV) between Liam Lawson, Arvid Linblad was able to score a point while teammate, Liam, scored a P8 finish.

Fail

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton did have the pace in Hungary and it seemed the aggressive strategy would pay dividends but unfortunately a 5s penalty for speeding in pit lane left him down in P5 while Charles Leclerc struggled for pace all weekend long. A missed podium or P2 for Lewis which I believe was in the cards.

A fail for George Russell who had an anti-stall issue at the start. He had a good recovery drive from P21 but listening to Kimi in the cool-down room, it sounded like it was an error on George’s part by hitting the wrong button and if true, then that’s on George.

A fail for Alpine with Pierre Gasly in P12 and Franco Colapinto in P15 well back from their nearest rival, Racing Bulls. Let’s hope new upgrades after summer break work.

A fail for Carlos Sainz who passed three blue light signs before hitting Oscar Piastri.

It’s a fail but not on Oscar Piastri’s position, he had a great race running and that ended with Sainz and a dodgy gearbox. To be fair, Lando was quicker but Oscar had position.

WTH

Not sure what the issue was in the race with the blue light sign system but if there is an issue, why wouldn’t they simply have the marshals pull out their blue flags and signal the old way? Well, they did but there was no driver number and no warnings on their dashboards and everyone got confused. Have we forgotten that a waving blue flag as you pass a marshal means YOU?

If I am honest, Aston Martin making it into Q2 is a good sign but finishing in P14 and Q@ isn’t the result I was hoping we’d see. Time will tell.

Pirelli Report:

DARIO MARRAFUSCHI – PIRELLI MOTORSPORT DIRECTOR

“Today we witnessed a wide variety of strategies, with every team able to make use of the full range of compounds available. The impression is that each team managed to identify the most effective combination to maximise the characteristics of its own car.

These were precisely some of the objectives we had set ourselves during the development phase. To create a range capable of adapting as effectively as possible to cars that have followed different development paths, offering greater strategic variety and enabling even the softer compounds to be used effectively.

Several teams made extensive use of the C5 today, which this year has once again proved to be a genuine race tyre and not just an option for fast laps on Saturday. This is demonstrated by the Soft stints of more than 29 laps completed by as many as five drivers.

In the end, the race was contested between one-stop and three-stop strategies. Among the top teams, only Ferrari chose to start on the Soft and, by bringing Hamilton into the pits at the first available opportunity, effectively triggered the sequence of pit stops among its rivals, prompting several others to converge on a two-stop strategy.

This approach offered greater tactical flexibility and a faster ability to react in a race made particularly complex by traffic and the high number of backmarkers to manage after each pit stop.

While Ferrari demonstrated particular effectiveness in extracting performance from the red-marked tyre, Mercedes appeared to base its approach around the Hard compound, which was also selected for the final stint. It was a decision taken shortly before the Virtual Safety Car, which instead gave others the opportunity to make an additional tyre change.

Despite the high temperatures, degradation across all three compounds remained broadly in line with expectations. Drivers mainly had to manage the rear tyres, the principal limiting factor in the traction phases, without significantly compromising race pace, thanks in part to the circuit’s continuous evolution throughout the day.”

Hungarian GP Results: