Lando Norris took his first victory since the 2025 Brazilian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring after beating Verstappen and Antonelli.
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| Photo by Alastair Staley |
The final round before the summer break was held at the newly reconstructed Hungaroring, which is situated just a few kilometers away from the Hungarian capital, Budapest.
The starting order for the race changed significantly after qualifying. Lewis Hamilton, who was due to start from second position alongside Lando Norris, was given a three-place grid penalty after ruining Oscar Piastri's final flying lap in Q3. As a result, he dropped from second to fifth on the starting grid. But he wasn't alone. The current championship leader, Kimi Antonelli, also dropped from fourth to seventh after he failed to slow down under yellow flags caused by Verstappen's spin.
So the starting order was as follows: Lando Norris on pole alongside Charles Leclerc in second. Verstappen started third, Piastri fourth, and Hamilton fifth.
The Ferrari drivers, the only ones in the top 10, chose to start on the red-marked soft tires after saving an extra set of softs during qualifying. This choice was expected to help them gain several positions at the start or perhaps even take the lead. However, it didn't work out. Norris held first place until Turn 2, where his teammate Oscar Piastri managed to get ahead of him. Leclerc lost several positions and dropped down to fifth. But the worst start belonged to George Russell, as his car switched into anti-stall. (Anti-stall is an electronic system in a Formula 1 car that prevents the engine from stalling at low RPM.) As a result, he dropped to the penultimate position.
So after the first lap, Piastri was leading ahead of Norris and Verstappen. Hamilton and Leclerc were right behind.
Hamilton was the first of the front-runners to pit on lap 13. Shortly afterwards, Red Bull called Verstappen into the pits, but he rejoined the track behind Lewis as Ferrari's undercut worked well.
It didn't take long before Verstappen managed to get ahead of Hamilton with a risky move into Turn 1. The other drivers, except Antonelli, came into the pits shortly afterwards.
On lap 30, Hamilton surprisingly came into the pits for another set of hard tires. Three laps later, Piastri also pitted and rejoined the track only three seconds ahead of Lewis. Norris then used the undercut on Piastri, which worked perfectly, and he got ahead of his teammate.
On lap 56, Piastri was forced to retire due to gearbox problems, which caused a VSC. Norris and the Ferrari drivers took advantage of it and completed their final pit stops of the race. Hamilton exceeded the 60 km/h pit lane speed limit by just 0.1 km/h and was given a five-second time penalty. As a result, he was classified fifth at the finish, behind Leclerc. Russell managed to finish seventh after his poor start.
Norris comfortably brought his car home in first place and secured his first victory since the 2025 Brazilian Grand Prix. Verstappen finished second, with Antonelli completing the podium in third.
“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," said Norris.
In the Drivers' Championship, Kimi Antonelli still leads by a significant margin. Lewis Hamilton trails him by 50 points, while George Russell is 59 points behind.
Formula 1 is now on its summer break. The next Grand Prix will take place in the Netherlands from September 21–23.