A McLaren One-Two At The Hungaroring And A 200th Podium For Hamilton

A McLaren one-two in qualifying yesterday and the same again today in the race. That’s the headline from the Hungarian Grand Prix in which Oscar Piastri secured his maiden Formula 1 win, while Lando Norris started from pole and finished behind the Australian. Lewis Hamilton made it to the third step of the podium, recording his 200th top-three finish from 345 Formula 1 Grand Prix starts, a hit rate of 57.97%.

This was McLaren’s second win of the season, its 185th in total and the twelfth at the Hungaroring, while their tally of one-two finishes is now 49, the last one dating back to the 2021 Italian Grand Prix when Norris was again second behind an Australian driver, on that occasion Daniel Ricciardo.

As expected, the Medium was the preferred compound for the start: 13 drivers opted for the C4 for the first stint, while four went with the Soft and three, including Gasly who started from pit lane, chose the Hard. Almost the entire field went with a two-stop strategy, with just three drivers doing something different. While the three-stop delivered no benefit for Ocon and Sargeant, as the final pit stop for Soft tyres came when there was no longer anything to lose, it was a different matter for Tsunoda who was on a one-stop and finished ninth mainly due to his managing the tyres well in both stints, (first for 29 laps on the Medium and then 41 on the Hard). Following their choices made during free practice, the two Aston Martin drivers were locked into planning a strategy using all three compounds in the order Soft/Medium/Hard which yielded just one point courtesy of a tenth place for Stroll, who finished one place ahead of Alonso.

The longest stints (41 on the Hard) were completed by the two Racing Bulls drivers, Ricciardo and Tsunoda, while the longest Medium stint went to Stroll on 31 laps and he also did the most laps (14) on the Soft.

Oscar Piastri – 1st

“A very, very special day. This is the day I dreamed of as a kid, and to be standing on the top step of an F1 podium, with McLaren, is just incredible. While it may have been a little complicated at the end, I think we got ourselves into a good position at the start and then we were in control from there. I want to thank the entire team for an amazing effort and for giving us such a brilliant car. It’s a hell of a lot of fun racing with McLaren, so I can’t thank the team enough for giving me the opportunity to be in F1. To now be winning together 18 months in is an unbelievable feeling.”

Lando Norris – 2nd

“An amazing day for us as a team, and a huge congratulations to Oscar on his first win. I’m so happy, it’s been a long journey to get to achieving wins on merit, and that’s exactly what we did today. Oscar had a great start and controlled the race from there, so well done to him – it was only a matter of time before he finished first. I can’t thank the team enough for their work and effort to get us here. Let’s keep pushing and fighting for wins each week.”

Lewis Hamilton – 3rd

“Firstly, a huge congratulations to McLaren on the one-two and Oscar (Piastri) on his maiden victory. They were incredibly strong today and deserved the result. Oscar has been doing a fantastic job ever since he got into F1, been very consistent, and it was only a matter of time before he got a win.

“The team has done a great job to continue making progress with our car. We knew we didn’t have the speed of Oscar or Lando (Norris) today, but we were able to secure the final spot on the podium. It was a challenge at times to keep Verstappen behind whilst also making the tyres last. Our battle at the end was a little hair-raising but that’s motor racing. I’m really happy to be back on the podium and for another solid points haul. We now head to Spa looking to finish the first half of the season on a high.”

Mario Isola – Pirelli Director of Motorsport

“I think the 310,000 spectators who came to the Hungaroring this weekend and the millions watching on TV and through other channels around the world must have enjoyed themselves. The weekend began like a game of chess and then reached its peak with a very closely contested and open race in which the lead changed hands seven times.

“With temperatures pretty similar to those we had seen in Friday’s second free practice session, the Medium probably turned out to be the most efficient compound overall: if it had not been for the collision with Hamilton, Verstappen would almost certainly have finished third. But the Hard, which was definitely the most used compound, was also competitive, not just on the two Mercedes, but on other cars too. In the end, I think this race once again demonstrated how important it is for the teams to carefully work out which are the compounds best suited to their cars, as well as showing how the current range of tyres lets us see how different strategy choices work out on track. After all, that is actually the main objective set for us every year by the FIA, Formula 1 and the sport’s other stakeholders, namely to provide tyres that are first and foremost a guarantee of the maximum possible safety, while allowing the teams and drivers to exploit their potential to the full. That what we try our best to achieve, not just in Formula 1, but also in the two junior categories, for which we are the sole tyre supplier.”

Formula 2

Another spectacular race today, with an impressive win for Andrea Kimi Antonelli (PREMA Racing) who grabbed victory by making the most of the second safety car period. In fact, in the first part of the race, it was a Safety Car that benefited those who had chosen to start on the Soft, such as Victor Martins (ART Grand Prix) who finished second. Antonelli on the other hand had started on the Hard and then made the most of the extra grip from the softer compound, combined with the fact his car was now lighter, so it’s fair to say, his win was not down to luck. On the third step of the podium was Richard Verschoor (Trident), some consolation for losing first place when he was disqualified from yesterday’s Sprint race result.

On the starting grid, there was a perfect Soft-Hard split, with eleven votes each. This was Antonelli’s second Formula 2 win, after victory in the Sprint at Silverstone and it puts him sixth in the Drivers’ classification on 86 points. France’s Isack Hadjar (Campos Racing) still leads despite failing to score today on 140 points, 18 more than Estonian Paul Aron (Hitech Pulse-Eight) who today only picked up the two points that come with pole position.

Formula 3

It seemed like a perfect weekend for the ART Grand Prix team, following on from yesterday’s one-two finish in the Sprint with a repeat performance in this morning’s Feature Race, the order inverted from Saturday with Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov first past the flag ahead of team-mate Laurens Van Hoopen. However, the Dutchman was later disqualified for a technical infringement, thus promoting Mexico’s Noel Leon (Van Amersfoort Racing) to second with Leonardo Fornaroli (Trident) third. From a tyre point of view, today’s race was a carbon copy of yesterday’s, with the Hard showing little sign of degradation, allowing drivers to push to their heart’s content. Overheating was also minimal, so that drivers could race close to one another thus delivering more overtaking opportunities.

It was a tough weekend for the three championship leaders, only Luke Browning scoring points (3) while Gabriele Minì and Arvid Lindblad came away empty handed. It means the battle is still on for title honours with just two rounds remaining, at Spa next weekend and then at the season finale in Monza. Minì still leads on 119 points, Browning is second on 115, Lindblad third on 113 with Fornaroli fourth on 112.