Reigning World Champion Lando Norris managed to take his and McLaren’s first Grand Prix victory of 2026 in yesterday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, ahead of Max Verstappen and championship leader Kimi Antonelli following the late retirement of Oscar Piastri.
Having taken pole position in Saturday’s qualifying, Norris lost the lead at Turn 2 on the opening lap to Piastri, who managed to cling on out front for the first half of the race despite Norris asking the team to let him pass as he had the faster car. Much to his frustration his calls were resisted by McLaren.
This however, all changed halfway through the race when Piastri returned to the track following his second pit stop and encountered traffic, making contact with Carlos Sainz’s Williams which swung the race in Norris’s favour.
Piastri later retired with gearbox problems triggering a Virtual Safety Car. Verstappen and Antonelli, who just had pit stops, stayed out to take second and third respectively, ahead of the three-stopping Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
After a quick final pit stop Hamilton came out ahead of Antonelli but had to give back the position after it was shown that he had reached the relevant VSC white line at the end of the start/finish straight just behind the Mercedes rather than being ahead. Adding to Hamilton’s unlucky weekend of penalties, he was then handed a five-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane which effectively ended his hopes of finishing on the podium despite a strong drive, chasing Antonelli right to the chequered flag. And with Leclerc just under 5 seconds behind his teammate, Hamilton was demoted to P5 from a solid fourth place. Let’s hope the stewards aren’t quite so generous with dishing out penalties at the next race!
Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar had a solid drive, taking sixth place with George Russell ending up seventh after a poor start thanks to the anti-stall kicking in as the lights went green, dropping him down to 21st on the opening lap of the race.
It was anther double points race for Racing Bulls with Liam Lawson taking eighth and Arvid Lindblad finishing 10th just behind Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg.
Both Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso performed better in Hungary, managing to finish in 13th and 14th with their long awaited updated Aston Martin.
Following his victory, Norris said:
“I’m tired! What happened? I don’t know what happened, to be honest. I just kept losing the rear. I had like three or four big snaps. It felt horrible and, of course, Oscar did a good job to get the cutback and get back past, so I think I was just a bit wide in the dirt – game over for the first lap.
“But man, I was pushing like hell to try and force him into a mistake or something. My pace today was probably some of the best pace I’ve ever had. The car was beautiful to drive and I felt very confident, so a great race. To get it back in terms of going long, which is certainly not what I was expecting, but the pace was so good I could always extend the stints, and fresh tyres then always won me the race. I’m just happy to be back and see the number one again.”
The drivers and teams will be back racing at the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort over the weekend of 21st to 23rd August following a well-deserved summer break after an action packed first half of the season.
Author Bio:
Simon Burrell is a UK-based motoring and travel journalist and editor, a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers and former saloon car racing driver.
Photographs courtesy of McLaren Racing
Be the first to comment