The McLaren Mastercard F1 Team leaves Hungary with its first win of the year, and the knowledge that it is on the right development trajectory, as Lando Norris converted Pole position into victory at the Hungaroring - his 12th Grand Prix win, his first repeat win at a circuit, and his first with the Number 1 on the car. This is also the team's 204th victory and its third in a row in Hungary.
The team head into the summer break with the satisfaction of a win. It was, however, a bittersweet one, as the team missed out on what could have been a double podium due to a reliability issue on the gearbox of Oscar Piastri's car, which caused him to retire from the race.
It was a highly strategic race, led for most of the laps by both McLaren MCL40s. Both cars started on a Medium tyre. Lando made a good getaway from Pole position and held the lead through Turn 1, but then he went slightly wide at Turn 2 and Oscar, who had overtaken Charles Leclerc at the start, took the opportunity to pass him. They pulled out a gap in the early exchanges - while leaving open the choice of one stop or two. Ultimately the decision was made by Lewis Hamilton pitting from P4, and both drivers coming in to cover. Oscar came into box first with the strategy priority as a result of being ahead on track. A stricken Cadillac in the pit lane made Oscar do a once-past, but they had enough of a margin to maintain track position, albeit losing their four-second cushion, having both switched to a Hard tyre.
With the leading pack all pitting, attention turned to Kimi Antonelli, who stayed out, assumed the lead, and looked intent on a one-stop. He came in on Lap 22, and Oscar resumed the lead, with Lando directly in his wheel-tracks. The stint was reasonably static. Lando had more pace but didn't have a way through. Oscar, as lead driver, had first choice of pit stop, and came in on Lap 33, for another set of Hard tyres, to maintain position over Hamilton, who had stopped on Lap 30.
Oscar's stop covered Hamilton effectively, but it left both of them with backmarkers to work their way through. Oscar was hit by backmarker Carlos Sainz, which cost him some time and Sainz a five-second penalty. Lando, who stayed out until Lap 39 for his second set of Hard tyres, was able to come out ahead of the battle between his teammate and Hamilton. He passed Antonelli for the lead on Lap 46.
Oscar moved up to P2 when Antonelli called off his one-stop and pitted for a second time - but a presumed gearbox failure caused him to roll to a halt on Lap 56. The Virtual Safety Car was deployed, and Lando dived into the pits, where fast work from the crew got him out with his lead intact, and a set of used Soft tyres fitted for the final 13 laps.
Lando was joined on the podium by his Number 1 Mechanic Kyle Moreira, who collected the Constructors' trophy on behalf of the team. The weekend had been a busy one for the garage crew, from Leonardo Fornaroli sitting in for FP1, to a test of our experimental revolving wing, and the significant upgrade to the floor and corners. It sets up a compelling second half to the season - but for now, the team goes into the summer break with a victory, two beautiful trophies and excellent momentum.
It's not quite the summer holidays yet for the team. Lando, Oscar, and Leonardo head to Portimão this week as part of the team's Testing of Previous Cars programme. The team are taking advantage of the opportunity to run at a circuit that is returning to the calendar in 2027, and for Leonardo to experience a test with both of the McLaren Mastercard race drivers as part of his development and role as Reserve Driver.
Andrea Stella: "Today's result is a fantastic reward for the entire team, both at the track and back at the factory. We race as a team and today was a well-executed race from a strategic and sporting principles point of view, which wouldn't be possible without two drivers who fully support our approach. The competition between Lando and Oscar was great, fair racing, and we're very pleased with the respectful approach they showed each other. Lando's pace was simply mega, and he put himself in a position to take a victory that was won on pure speed. Oscar deserved his opportunity to fight for the win after taking the lead, and his race was unfortunately compromised by the incident with a backmarker, and then the gearbox failure. We clearly still have work to do on the reliability side, which took us out of contention for at least a double podium.
"The performance step we saw this weekend can be entirely ascribed to the upgrades, which validate the conceptual direction we have taken. It was a monumental effort from our aerodynamics, design, manufacturing and logistics departments to deliver these parts, and I want to extend my thanks to them and our partners at HPP for helping us squeeze every millisecond out of the car. While we are pleased with our performance today, back in a position to win the race, we know it's going to be a race of development until the end of the season. This result proves what we are capable of, and we will keep our focus on delivering more performance to fight for victories consistently. We go back to work for one last push before the summer break next week, where we will continue to work on reliability and future upgrades, ahead of a well-deserved rest for the entire team. As we start the second half of the season, we want to be in condition to show the same level of performance we ended the first half of the season with."
Kimi Antonelli finished third with George Russell P7 in Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix. Both drivers started on the Medium tyre with George lining up P6 and Kimi P7. George unfortunately dropped to the back of the field after suffering anti-stall off the line; the team is investigating the cause. Kimi moved up to P6 and held that in the opening laps. From there, he ran a two-stop strategy by switching to the Hard tyre at both stops and built up a tyre offset on those ahead. That enabled him to cycle through to P3 and, despite an unfortunately timed Virtual Safety Car, he held off the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton to take the final spot on the podium. George meanwhile fought back valiantly and scythed his way through the field and back into the points. He also ran a two-stop strategy and fell just short of passing the Red Bull of Isack Hadjar in the final laps, settling for P7. The team heads into the summer break leading both the Constructors' and the Drivers' World Championships and returns to action in Zandvoort next month.
Toto Wolff: Both drivers put in strong races today. Kimi did well to get onto the podium and P3 and George did brilliantly to fight back after the opening lap. His problem at the start was fully on us as a team and it isn't good enough. He has suffered too many of these problems; we are doing everything we can to get on top of them, but it is unfortunately another issue that has cost him again today.
We nearly got very unlucky with yet another ill-timed Virtual Safety Car, but Kimi defended well to hold off Lewis (Hamilton). It was good damage limitation after a difficult day yesterday.
We go into the summer shutdown with a points gap in both championships that we would have taken at the start of the season. That is good but we know we need to keep pushing after the break, keep developing and improve our reliability. That will be the key if we are to not only fight for both championships but win them.
Andrew Shovlin: Today was the first race of the season where we were starting further back with both cars and therefore was about damage limitation. Kimi delivered a very measured race, and we used the flexibility of the two-stop strategy well. By managing the first two stints carefully, we were able to build a significant tyre life advantage over the cars ahead, and that gave him the pace he needed to move into podium contention in the final part of the race. The Virtual Safety Car was not ideal as it reduced that advantage and brought Lewis onto our gearbox, but Kimi managed the situation well and defended strongly to secure P3.
On George's side, we are obviously disappointed by the issue at the start. The anti-stall activation dropped him to the back of the field and made what was always going to be a challenging race even more difficult. We need to understand exactly why that happened, but once he recovered from the opening lap, his pace was very competitive, and he fought back through the field to salvage important points.
We head into the summer break leading both championships, which is a good position to be in, but we know there are areas where we need to improve. Reliability remains a key focus, and we will use the shutdown to analyse the first half of the season and ensure we return after the break ready for a very competitive run to the end of the year.
Laurent Mekies: "Hungary was a very strong race and a mega job from Max, Isack and the whole Team. We hadn't shown that sort of pace earlier in the weekend, and both drivers had been battling with the car, but everyone here at track and back at the factory worked very hard. In the end, the underlying pace was certainly good enough to fight with everyone except for Lando. There were several key moments during the race, whether it was Max overtaking Lewis, strategy calls or pit stops, but everyone made all the right decisions. It was an incredibly strong performance from Max. Isack also delivered another very impressive race, securing his seventh consecutive top six finish. He continues to show remarkable consistency, and he fully deserves the results.
"This is a good way to go into the summer break. It gives the whole Team time to recharge ahead of the second half of the season, when we hope we can be even stronger. The first half of the season has been something of a rollercoaster, but we're clearly moving in the right direction thanks to the hard work and commitment of everyone back at the factory. Over the past 4 races, we've consistently been in the fight for podiums, and have managed to close the gap to our competitors significantly. Everyone in Milton Keynes is pushing very hard to take the next step towards fighting for wins, and we look forward to competing with our rivals in the second half of the season."
Scuderia Ferrari HP comes away from the Hungarian Grand Prix with a fourth place courtesy of Charles Leclerc and a fifth from Lewis Hamilton. The result can be put down to a less than perfect weekend that meant the team did not get a result that reflected the SF-26's true potential. At the Hungaroring, where overtaking is always extremely difficult, every element of the race execution is vitally important, and several aspects of qualifying and the race condemned Charles and Lewis to a rather frustrating Sunday stuck in traffic.
The Scuderia's race was more or less determined when the lights went out. Starting from the dirty side of the grid on used Soft tyres, Charles lost ground due to wheelspin, while Lewis, despite making a clean getaway on new Softs, was unable to get ahead of Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen, crossing the line at the end of the opening lap in fourth place, just ahead of his team-mate. From that moment on, both SF-26s found themselves trapped in traffic, never able to run in clean air and challenge the cars ahead. The team tried for a better outcome with its strategy: when Lewis made his first pit stop on lap 13, he managed to rejoin ahead of Verstappen, but the Dutchman reclaimed the position almost immediately. The order got shaken up a bit when Piastri stopped on track on lap 55. At that point the team opted to do a double stop to fit Soft tyres. Lewis lost position to Verstappen, but also to Kimi Antonelli coming out of pit lane, on top of which he was given a five second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. That dropped him behind his team-mate, although the team's overall points total remained unchanged at 22.
Formula 1 now pauses for the summer shutdown before returning to the track on 23 August at Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix. The Scuderia is still second in the Constructors' championship, as is Lewis in the Drivers'. Charles is still fourth in the standings.
Fred Vasseur: The race did not go well for us, with too many issues and mistakes, even if the first of those was made yesterday in qualifying. At the start Charles dropped from P2 to P5 after Turn 1, because he had too much wheelspin and we found ourselves with both cars not only behind (Oscar) Piastri but also behind (Max) Verstappen. We did the right thing undercutting Verstappen but we then lost the position again on track. In the end we pitted both cars for Softs as Lewis was on used Hards and would have been vulnerable. On a positive note, we have closed a bit more the gap to Mercedes. Now it's time to recharge the batteries to come back stronger in the second part of the season.
James Vowles: "A tough day. We knew coming into this event that it would highlight all our weaknesses, and with the other developments we're working on to put ourselves in a stronger position out of the winter and into Baku, we knew we'd fall behind our competitors. That doesn't make today any easier. It's deeply frustrating to see our cars out there struggling with balance and not quick enough.
"Well done to Alex and Carlos - they've been immensely strong since the difficulties earlier in the season, right through to today, so thanks to them for their commitment to our ongoing journey.
"With Carlos, we should have done a better job of warning him about Piastri; we never want to interfere with the leaders, and we need to make sure we avoid that in future. With Alex, just a solid weekend - a real step up from him over his last few races, and it's great to see him able to deliver more and more each weekend.
"On a positive note, the pit stops were good. We did our fastest one of the year, so that's progressing. And we're working on all the elements in the background: communications, aerodynamics, strategy - it's all levelling up. Now the car performance needs to match."
"It was a long tough race today, but we've been rewarded with a fantastic double celebration, finishing with two cars in the points and moving up to 5th place in the Constructor's Championship; something we've all been working so hard towards. It's a great way to finish off the first half of the season. We always aim for operational perfection and we came very close to that today. It was a good battle with Audi - very close, but we ultimately came out on top. The car was strong in both Qualifying and the race and it was executed flawlessly by the team. We're very happy with the way the race unfolded and we look forward to a very well-deserved break, before returning even stronger in Zandvoort."
Adrian Newey: "It's clear we've taken a very encouraging first step forward with the upgrade, and the progress made is a huge credit to the hard work of the entire team at Silverstone. The other positive is that performance was in line with our data predictions, showing good correlation between our updated simulation tools and the track. This is a strong indication we are on the right development path for the short and longer term. With valuable learnings gathered today, we now have a solid baseline to build on when we return from the summer break, with further upgrades planned for Zandvoort."
TGR Haas F1 Team finished with Esteban Ocon 16th and Ollie Bearman 19th at the Hungarian Grand Prix - held Sunday at the Hungaroring.
Ocon started the race from 15th place on Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires and moved up three places on the opening lap, before settling into a rhythm in 13th place, having ceded a spot to the recovering slow-starting George Russell. Ocon stopped on lap 17 for White hard tires, before coming in for a second time on lap 36, during which he took on another set of the hard compound. Ocon claimed the checkered flag in 16th spot.
Bearman took the start from 17th on the grid, also on medium tires, and gained a spot at the advantage of Russell, before swiftly being re-passed by his recovering compatriot. Bearman came into the pits on lap 23 for a set of hards, and made a second stop on lap 44 - again for hard tires, shortly after a spin through Turn 2. Bearman was issued a five-second time penalty for ignoring blue flags and finished 17th, but was demoted to 19th after the application of the sanction.
TGR Haas F1 Team enters the summer recess in seventh position in the Constructors' Championship on 21 points.
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "It was a very difficult day. Ultimately the car hasn't got the pace, we tried everything really. We know where we need to improve, and that's coming. I think this is the longest period in the last two and a half seasons that we've not had a car that we can do something with, or be challenging for the points. That's not where we want to be, everybody knows that, and everyone is working hard to find the solution. There's some solutions in the pipeline, but honestly, we will only see what they do when it comes, so up until that point we just have to do our best with what we've got. The pit stops were good, the previous few races we were a bit up and down with them on the operational side, so having clean stops was good to sign off before summer shutdown. We just have to focus on the areas that we have control of and do the best job we can, and then when we improve the car, we will make sure we turn it around."
Audi Revolut F1 Team heads into the summer break with the third points finish in a row after an intense race at the Hungaroring. Nico Hulkenberg converted a strong qualifying performance into ninth place with an assertive, confident drive, while Gabriel Bortoleto showed an impressive recovery to finish 11th, coming within seconds of securing a double points finish for the team. The result reflects the continued progress in recent races and underlines the positive trajectory built over the past rounds. Heading into the summer break, the team leaves Budapest encouraged with another step forward and determined to build on this momentum in the second half of the season.
Allan McNish, Racing Director: "Scoring points for the third race in a row is another positive step forward for us as a team. Nico delivered an excellent drive all weekend and converted a strong performance into ninth place. Gabriel fought his way back to eleventh and came very close to making it a double points finish. The pace of the car was competitive, and we executed a clean race to maximise the opportunities available to us. We leave this weekend encouraged by the progress we are making and the way the team is continuing to develop. Now we head into the summer break with positive momentum and valuable lessons from the first part of the season. We will use this period to recharge, keep building on our foundations and come back ready to continue our development in the second half of the year.
Flavio Briatore: "Coming away from a race without scoring any points is disappointing, especially since we lost fifth position in the Constructors' Championship. Racing Bulls scoring with both cars again has dropped us to sixth in the standings. We simply have to admit that they have done a better job in this phase of the year. We know that developments and upgrades are coming very soon, and we need to make big jumps that we know we're capable of. We need to use this feeling as added motivation at Enstone to turn things around. We haven't been good enough recently, but there's still half of the season left and what matters most is where we finish at the final race."
Cadillac Formula 1® Team's Hungarian Grand Prix came to an early end, with both Valtteri Bottas and Checo Perez retiring from the race.
Valtteri lined up P21 on the grid, while Checo started from the pit lane following a number of changes made to his car ahead of the Grand Prix. Despite encouraging signs of progress throughout the weekend, neither driver was able to reach the checkered flag.
The team will now head into the summer break with a clear focus on understanding the issues encountered in Budapest and building on the progress made during the first half of the season.
Formula 1 returns August 23rd for the Dutch Grand Prix at Circuit Zandvoort where the team will look to come back stronger and start the second half of the season on a positive note.
Graeme Lowdon, Team Principal: "Clearly, a double retirement is not the way we wanted to finish the first half of the season, but building something new is not without its challenges. We need to understand exactly what happened today and make sure we address the issues we have experienced. There has been great progress in many areas and the commitment and hard work across the entire team remains incredibly strong. As a team, we have achieved a lot in the first half of our debut season but of course we always want more, and I have every confidence that we will come back stronger and ready to push again in Zandvoort."
Lando Norris won the Hungarian Grand Prix. The British driver finished ahead of Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli. The victory came thanks to a three-stop strategy, making the most of a final stint on Soft tyres, while the other two drivers on the podium completed only two pit stops during the race.
Norris started on Mediums before completing two further stints on Hards. Taking advantage of a Virtual Safety Car period, the world champion made an additional pit stop and fitted Soft tyres.
Verstappen, by contrast, stayed out on a set of C5s, completing the final 29 laps on that compound. However, he was not the driver who extracted the most mileage from the red-marked tyre: that distinction went to Fernando Alonso, who completed 34 laps on the Soft compound.
Lance Stroll completed the highest number of laps on the Medium, using the same set for 29 laps, while Arvin Lindblad reached 49 laps on the Hard. All three compounds were used extensively throughout the race, providing a range of strategic options.
Twelve drivers opted for a two-stop strategy. These included both Mercedes and Red Bull pairings, who started on Medium tyres and then switched to Hards for their remaining two stints, with the exception of Verstappen, who completed his final stint on Softs.
Five drivers, meanwhile, finished the race with a three-stop strategy, including both Ferrari drivers, who started on Softs, ran the middle phases of the race on the C3, and took the chequered flag once again on the C5. Bortoleto and Lindblad were the only two drivers to make a one-stop strategy work, the former following a Soft-Hard approach and the latter a Medium-Hard strategy.
The race took place in warmer conditions than those recorded yesterday: track temperatures exceeded 49°C, while ambient temperatures peaked at 34°C. Antonelli now leads the championship with 219 points, followed by Hamilton in second on 169.
Pirelli will remain in Budapest for two days of testing on Tuesday and Wednesday, carrying out development work on next season's tyres together with Alpine, Audi and Aston Martin. The latter, unlike the other two teams, will be on track only on the opening day.
Dario Marrafuschi: "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."
