The historic 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix gave us the first Qualifying not topped by a Mercedes driver this season, and the first victory for our reigning champion, Lando Norris.
A hot weekend in Hungary gave us mixed strategy, tyre struggles, changes for the lead and a return of Hamilton vs Verstappen and Piastri vs Norris. We may have expected another runaway Mercedes victory, but Hungary brought twist after twist as the sessions ran on. Ferrari dominated Practice and looked to out-pace the field, but a twist in Qualifying saw Lando Norris take pole position.
The tides changed once again when Oscar Piastri took the lead from his team mate and kept it for the first half of the race. In the end, nothing could have stood in the way of the reigning champion taking his first victory of the season as he reached the chequered flag with a 15 second margin over the field.
McLaren’s Resurgence
Although McLaren brought the most updates of any team this weekend, and debuted their own ‘Macarena Wing’, Friday in Hungary was looking like any other weekend for the team. They continued to be in the mix of the top four teams, but not quite seeming the stars of the weekend.
It was a rather chaotic end of Qualifying that saw Lando Norris take a surprise pole by just a hundredth of a second. Team mate Oscar Piastri continued to play catch-up behind him, qualifying P5 after being impeded by Hamilton in Q3.
Despite a standout Qualifying, the victory was not set in stone for Norris since the Hungarian Grand Prix has one of the lowest pole-to-win conversion rates of the season. They say statistics never lie and that seemed to be the case as the lights went out on Sunday as it wasn’t the polesitter leading after Lap 1, but the other McLaren, Oscar Piastri from P3.
Despite losing the lead, Norris remained composed and continued to put pressure on the Australian. It was a surprise battle and gave us a nostalgic glimpse of last season as the two McLarens led the field in a battle for the victory.
It quickly became clear that despite his position, Piastri was not the fastest McLaren on track and couldn’t shake off his team mate. Norris’ ability to stay stuck to the rear of the race leader ended up being monumentally important for his chance at victory as it was only a bad out lap that was the difference between taking the lead and settling back in behind Piastri after the second pit stops.
Piastri was unfortunately pitted into traffic and a battle between Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso left Sainz completely oblivious to the race leader attempting to lap him in Turn 2. This resulted in a dramatic collision between the two.
Both drivers were lucky to continue in the race with little to no damage following this, but that is where Piastri’s luck ran out. The lap time he lost from this incident allowed his team mate to exit the pit lane meters ahead of him and into the race lead.
This race continued to show if Piastri didn’t have bad luck, he’d have no luck at all as his McLaren grinded to a halt on Lap 56 due to a gearbox issue, and the victory contender was out of the race.
Despite a slight stroke of luck, once Norris was in the lead he looked like the driver from last season as he ran away in the lead. It was a display of talent and composure and shows that despite not looking to have the championship winning machinery anymore, Lando Norris is a world champion for a reason.
The Championship Lead Quietly Grows
Hungary saw a relatively quiet weekend for both Mercedes drivers as for the first time this season neither of them topped a single session all weekend.
They were unable to take the fight to the leading McLarens or Ferraris in the fight for pole and despite having superior race pace over Ferrari, McLaren and Verstappen, they were out of reach on Sunday.
Qualifying didn’t go their way as George Russell suffered a water leak and had to stop the car on track before he could complete his final run of Q3 which left him in P7. He was promoted to P6 due to a penalty for his team mate.
Kimi Antonelli also suffered in the final runs of Q3 as a spin for Verstappen brought out yellow flags at the final corner. In an attempt to replicate his team mate’s heroics in Austria, Antonelli slowed for the flags but did not abandon the lap and jumped up to P4.
Unfortunately, race control deemed he didn’t slow enough under the yellow flags and he was handed a three place grid penalty for the infringement leaving him just behind his team mate in P7.
Despite the penalty, it was still a positive weekend for Antonelli as he attempted a one stop strategy. This didn’t play out how he’d hoped as he was called in for a second pit stop due to tyre concerns. He still benefitted as he jumped up the field from P7.
The race saw him finish P3 holding off his closest challenger in the championship, Lewis Hamilton and as a result he extends his championship lead by another 5 points.
It was yet another tough day in Russell’s season as he saw another tricky race start and dropped down the field to P18 due to anti stall on the grid. He was quick in making his way through the midfield and back up to P7 but similarly to his team mate, didn’t have anything to fight the front runners. In the end he finished P7 and last of the front running teams.
Mercedes have admitted there is a fundamental issue with Russell’s car which explains these constant problems, just last week at the Belgian Grand Prix he was swallowed up by the field down the Kemmel Straight.
He had no battery at the start of the lap, which ultimately resulted in his race-ending collision with Hamilton. Although Russell will be pleased the team have admitted it isn’t a concern with his driving, it does little to ease the driver’s pain until they find a definite solution for this issue as race after race he is missing out on crucial championship points.
A Podium, But Still Work to do at Red Bull?
It seemed an all round successful weekend for Red Bull. Both drivers struggled through Qualifying as both ended up spun around at different parts of the session.
Isack Hadjar was unaffected as he set a strong lap after said spin and qualified just a tenth behind his team mate in P8 while Verstappen was unable to complete a final run in Q3 which left him in P6.
Max Verstappen had a leading role in the race as he was up to P3 into Turn 1 and produced one of the more memorable moments of the weekend in his lap on lap battle with Hamilton. This ended with an impressive divebomb overtake into Turn 1.
He clearly did not have the pace of the McLarens but benefited from their reliability issues to take home P2 and another podium. Hadjar had a much quieter race but from P8, finishing P6 and 30 seconds behind his team mate.
Overall, Red Bull performed well as Verstappen beat the Ferraris, who seemed like the class of the field early in the weekend as well as the championship leading Mercedes. Despite a strong result, Verstappen still didn’t appear overly happy with the car saying he still experienced the same issues he has all year round.
Hadjar once again proved himself a perfect choice for second driver as although he couldn’t keep up with Verstappen in the race, he was there to hold up the front runners before his pit stop. He also gave Verstappen his best chance at victory.
Although the teamwork attempt was unsuccessful in the end, Hadjar proved he is the driver Red Bull need to help Verstappen to a race or championship victory should he need to in the future.
Another Disappointing Sunday for Ferrari
Ferrari looked like the top contenders for the victory throughout Practice and Qualifying and will be leaving this weekend once again thinking about what could’ve been.
Hamilton was a favourite for pole as we progressed through the Qualifying session, but without an improvement on his final lap, it was Norris who took the top spot.
A second place start would’ve given him a good chance at the victory with the Hungaroring’s history of polesitters not taking the win. However, an incident where he impeded Piastri in Q3 led to a three place grid penalty leaving him down in P4 for the race start.
Hamilton put up a good fight for P3 against Verstappen in the race as they went back and forth both on track and through the pit stops.
Although the Red Bull seemed to have better race pace, Ferrari’s strategy was able to keep Hamilton ahead for that P3 spot. A late Virtual Safety Car in which he pitted, let Verstappen back ahead and left him behind Kimi Antonelli.
The Ferrari still looked to have the pace to get past the Mercedes for the podium, but yet another penalty was handed to the British driver as he sped in the pit lane during his final stop by 0.1kph. This not only ended his battle for the podium, but left him in P5 behind his team mate.
Charles Leclerc had much quieter weekend than his team mate as he looked strong but not quite able to match Hamilton’s pace. He was two tenths behind in Qualifying leaving him in P3 and was promoted by his team mate’s penalty to P2. Victory hopes were quickly dashed as he could not keep up with the race leaders into Turn 1 leaving him in P4 just meters from the start.
From there he silently remained around that position, not overly falling back but unable to make any inroads up the field, at some points he seemed to have pace but was constricted by cars ahead because of the nature of the track and the difficulty in overtaking.
He argued he was being held up by his team mate as a bid for a swap but none was given and he eventually finished less than a second behind and was promoted to P4 after Hamilton’s penalty.
This marks two weekends in a row that victory was on the cards for Ferrari, but again they leave wondering what they should’ve done differently. In this case it seemed the strategy did work well for them as Hamilton was almost on the podium, but due to the track’s difficulty in overtaking and a lack of outright pace, they leave the Hungaroring without a trophy.
It’s not often that Mercedes struggle through a weekend the way they did at this race so when they do, Ferrari need to maximise those races to benefit in the championship which they unfortunately failed to do in this round.
Malaysia Returns
Away from the track action this weekend, we got the confirmation that Malaysia will host the Bahrain Grand Prix which had been cancelled earlier in the season. The Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia previously hosted Formula 1 from 1999 to 2017 before it was removed from the calendar.
This was due to declining ticket sales and uncertainty that the country was willing to pay the fees required to host the race. It is, however, a beloved racetrack famous for its heat, humidity and intense rain.
The Sepang International Circuit has produced some of the most dramatic F1 moments, such as the 2013 race which was the birth of the now famous “Multi-21” where the frosty relationship between the two Red Bull drivers at the time was showcased as Sebastian Vettel went against team instruction to take the win from his team mate, Mark Webber.
The Bahrain Grand Prix will be held on the 4th October and will be the second race of a triple header alongside the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and the Singapore Grand Prix.
Looking Ahead
We will see a lack of racing action in the next couple weeks as the end of this weekend takes us into the summer break. Despite three weeks of no racing there is plenty of work to be done and answers to be found going into the second half of the season.
Mercedes will be hoping to turn things around for George Russell and hopefully we can expect to see him fighting with Antonelli on track more often. This also applies to Ferrari as they strive for more consistent performances like we saw in Silverstone and Belgium to take their chance at a possible drivers’ championship with Hamilton now 50 points behind Antonelli.
Formula 1 will return for the Dutch Grand Prix on 21-23 August.
Image Credit: Formula 1 X