Lando Norris Wins Hungarian Grand Prix As Piastri’s Late Retirement Turns McLaren’s Day Bittersweet

• Lando Norris won the Hungarian Grand Prix from pole, his 12th career victory and McLaren’s third in a row at the Hungaroring, running a three-stop strategy that used a late Virtual Safety Car to switch onto fresh Soft tyres for the run to the flag.
• Oscar Piastri led for long stretches and looked set for a McLaren one-two before a suspected gearbox failure ended his race on lap 56, the same incident that brought out the Virtual Safety Car Norris used to seal the win.
• Max Verstappen took second on a two-stop strategy, running the final 29 laps on a single set of Soft tyres, with Kimi Antonelli completing the podium in third to extend his championship lead to 219 points, 50 clear of second-placed Lewis Hamilton.

Lando Norris converted pole position into victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix, holding off Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli in a race that turned on a three-stop tyre gamble and a late Virtual Safety Car. It was Norris’s 12th grand prix win, his first repeat win at a single circuit, and his first victory since taking the number 1 onto his car as reigning world champion. For McLaren it was the team’s 204th win in Formula 1 and a third consecutive triumph at the Hungaroring, though the celebrations were tempered by a gearbox failure that cost Oscar Piastri what could have been a McLaren one-two.

Norris made a good getaway from pole and held the lead through Turn 1, only to run slightly wide at Turn 2, where Piastri, who had already passed Charles Leclerc at the start, seized the opportunity to take the lead himself. The two McLarens pulled out a gap in the opening laps, keeping their options open between a one-stop and two-stop strategy.

That decision was made for them when Lewis Hamilton pitted from fourth, prompting both McLaren drivers to come in to cover the move. Piastri, ahead on track, had priority and boxed first, though a stricken Cadillac blocking the pit lane forced his team to send him through in a single pass rather than the usual approach. Both McLarens still had enough of a buffer to hold track position, switching onto Hard tyres, even as their four-second cushion disappeared.

With the leading pack in for its first stops, Antonelli stayed out, inherited the lead, and looked set to try a one-stop strategy of his own. He eventually pitted on lap 22, handing the lead back to Piastri with Norris close behind. The stint that followed was largely processional: Norris had the pace to challenge but no way past his teammate. As the leading driver, Piastri had first call on strategy and pitted again on lap 33 for a second set of Hards, staying ahead of Hamilton, who had made his own second stop three laps earlier.

The move covered Hamilton, but it left both drivers with traffic to clear. Piastri lost time after contact with backmarker Carlos Sainz, who was handed a five-second penalty for the incident. Norris, meanwhile, stayed out until lap 39 for his second set of Hard tyres and emerged ahead of the battle between his teammate and Hamilton, then passed Antonelli for the effective lead on lap 46.

Piastri moved up to second when Antonelli abandoned his one-stop plan and made a second pit stop, but the promotion was short-lived. A suspected gearbox failure brought Piastri to a halt on lap 56, triggering a Virtual Safety Car. Norris used the moment to dive into the pits, and quick work from his crew got him back out with his lead intact on a set of used Soft tyres for the final 13 laps, the same pit stop that Pirelli logged as the decisive move of Norris’s three-stop strategy.

How the tyre strategies played out

Norris’s win came from the only three-stop strategy on the podium. He started on Mediums, ran two further stints on Hard tyres, and then used the Virtual Safety Car window to fit Softs for the run to the flag. Verstappen took the opposite approach in second place, pitting only twice and running his final 29 laps on a single set of Soft tyres, the C5 compound, without changing again. Antonelli’s podium finish in third also came off a two-stop strategy.

Twelve drivers ran a two-stop race overall, including both the Mercedes and Red Bull pairings, all starting on Mediums before switching to Hards for their remaining stints, Verstappen the only one of the group to finish on Softs instead. Five drivers ran three stops, including both Ferrari drivers, who started on Softs, moved through the middle of the race on the C3 compound, and returned to Softs for the finish.

Only two drivers made a one-stop strategy work. Gabriel Bortoleto ran a Soft-to-Hard combination, while Arvin Lindblad went Medium-to-Hard, and Lindblad also logged the longest single stint on the Hard tyre of the race at 49 laps. Elsewhere, Fernando Alonso got more distance out of the Soft compound than anyone else in the field, 34 laps on one set, while Lance Stroll’s 29 laps was the longest stint anyone managed on the Medium. All three dry compounds saw heavy use across the grid, reflecting how open the strategic picture was all afternoon.

The track ran hotter than it had the day before, with surface temperatures above 49 degrees Celsius and the air peaking at 34 degrees, conditions that fed directly into the range of tyre strategies teams were willing to try.

A bittersweet weekend for McLaren

Norris’s win was McLaren’s first of the year and, in the team’s own words, evidence it is on the right development trajectory heading into the summer break. It came with two trophies collected on the day, with Norris’s number 1 mechanic, Kyle Moreira, joining him on the podium to accept the constructors’ trophy on the team’s behalf.

The satisfaction was mixed with disappointment over Piastri’s retirement, which cost McLaren a possible one-two finish and instead left the team reflecting on a result that could have been even better. It capped a busy weekend at the factory and track alike, with reserve driver Leonardo Fornaroli sitting in for first practice, an experimental revolving wing put through its paces, and a significant upgrade package introduced to the floor and front corners of the car. McLaren heads into the break with a race win, a compelling second half of the season ahead, and a gearbox failure to get to the bottom of first.

Pirelli remains in Budapest for two further days of tyre testing on Tuesday and Wednesday, working on 2026 development tyres alongside Alpine, Audi and Aston Martin, though Aston Martin will only be on track for the first of the two days. In the championship, Antonelli’s podium finish extends his lead at the top of the standings to 219 points, with Hamilton second on 169.

Lando Norris – 1st

“I’m very happy to be back and parking the car in front of the #1 board again. The car was beautiful to drive and I felt very confident. My pace today was probably some of the best pace I’ve ever had. The team has put in a huge amount of work to get us into a position to win again. I’m very proud of everyone, and it’s nice to do my bit and be able to reward that effort with a victory.

“This is probably the circuit that suits me, and suits the MCL40 best, but I want to believe we can continue this form after the summer break. There will be places where we struggle more, but I certainly believe we can win further races. We’re going to be bringing even more to the car – but then so are our competition, so it’s going to be tough.

“I’m proud of the whole team, Pole, fastest in FP3, and a strong win is the result of a lot of hard work. We’ll enjoy the summer break, come back to Zandvoort refreshed, and keep pushing for more wins.”

Max Verstappen – 2nd

“It was a really strong day and positive for us to finish in P2 today, although I’m quite surprised with the result given the problems we had this weekend. We really hung in there, made some good calls and brought it home in the second half of the race, especially with our older tyres. We were trying to make the best of what we had, and it was quite tough for a long period of the race, but everyone contributed to securing this podium.

“I think the start and the first stop to gain the position were really crucial, keeping the others behind for a while. Then, of course, we got undercut because the others were on the Soft tyres. We managed to jump ahead of Lewis again, which I think was very critical in that stint too. We were still struggling with the same things we had in Qualifying and there were some bright shining moments, but we need to be a bit more solid all-round in the second half of the season. Despite this, I think we performed well today and made all the right calls. The Team are all looking forward to a break so we can come back rested and refreshed for the second half of the season.”

Kimi Antonelli – 3rd

“It was not an easy race today. It was very difficult to overtake, even when we had significantly more pace than the cars ahead. We knew it might be like that today and so it proved. We did well to build a decent tyre offset to those ahead though throughout the race and that enabled us to get up into the podium positions.

I initially wanted to target a one-stop race. It seemed like it might be possible in the opening stint but then we started to suffer with the rears. We made the call to go onto the two-stop and in the final stint, had really good pace. The Virtual Safety Car made our lives a little more difficult with Lewis (Hamilton) getting fresh tyres and being right behind us, but we were able to bring home P3.

We have had a much better first half of the season than we perhaps expected at the very start. This is where we are at now though and we need to keep going, keep pushing on and doing the best job we can. It is going to be an intense second half of the year, but we are ready for it.”

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.”

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Written by

Jarrod Partridge

Jarrod Partridge is the Co-Founder of F1 Chronicle and an FIA accredited journalist with over 30 years of experience following Formula 1. A member of the AIPS International Sports Press Association, Jarrod has covered F1 races at circuits around the world, bringing first-hand insight to every race report, driver profile, and technical analysis he writes.

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