Lando Norris has won his first grand prix of 2026 at Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix as early leader Oscar Piastri lost the lead due to lapped traffic, and then retired with a gearbox failure.
Piastri passed polesitter Norris at the start with a cutback at Turn 2 controlled the first half of the race, with Norris appearing quicker but unable to find a way past on the twisty Hungaroring.
Max Verstappen moved to third ahead of Ferrari duo Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, as the latter was sandwiched by his two rivals. Meanwhile, George Russell suffered a terrible start as anti-stall kicked in on his Mercedes, dropping him as low as 19th.
Both Ferraris started on softs, as opposed to mediums for the other frontrunners, but as they were stuck behind Verstappen, Hamilton and Leclerc were unable to put their faster tyres to good use.
On lap 14 Hamilton rolled the dice with an early stop for hards. Verstappen responded on the following tour, but while he was unable to avoid the undercut from Hamilton, Verstappen lunged down the inside of Turn 1 to regain his position.
The end result of the first pit sequence was that the top five held station, with the exception of Kimi Antonelli going long to try and pull off a one-stop strategy. However, the Italian was losing too much lap time to pull it off, having to come in on lap 23 for hards; too early to make it to the end of the 70-lap contest. Russell had meanwhile clawed his way back to seventh.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
McLaren drama as Piastri loses lead
After the first round of pitstops Norris was still sticking to Piastri, though the world champion did lose adhesion through Turn 4 on lap 29, an innocent off which handed the Australian a temporary reprieve.
Norris’ off-track excursion prompted a cautionary message from his race engineer to settle down as the team suspected the Briton was trying to show off how much quicker he was than his leading team-mate. But with little pressure from Verstappen behind and Piastri having taken the lead fair and square at the start, McLaren didn’t seem particularly motivated to instigate any kind of team orders.
An impatient Norris urged his team to pit him first and gain an undercut, which the team naturally refused, but it did bring in Piastri for a second stop on lap 34. That put Piastri into lapped traffic as he was caught up in a battle between Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso in the first sector, with Sainz staying on the racing line and veering into Piastri.
“Get out of the f***ing way you idiot, oh my god”, a furious Piastri raged over team radio as he escaped damage, but lost enough time to be overcut by Norris after the Briton came in for his own pitstop. Seeing Norris emerge from the pitlane ahead, Piastri also redirected his frustration at his own team, sarcastically thanking them for putting him in that position in the first place. Sainz received a lenient five-second time penalty for ignoring the blue flags.
Norris then passed championship leader Antonelli, who was unsuccessfully trying to nurse home an ambitious one-stop strategy. Piastri was unable to follow Norris for a 1-2, though, as he dramatically retired from the race with a gearbox failure on lap 56 to cap a frustrating Hungary weekend.
The subsequent virtual safety car delivered a twist in the battle for the remaining podium places behind Norris, who had plenty of buffer to pit for used softs.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
With Antonelli having already bailed on his one-stopper, Hamilton had moved to second but also came in for fresh tyres, while Verstappen stayed out to gain track position. Hamilton also lost third to Antonelli on pit exit, with Leclerc fifth after his own third pitstop.
At the front Norris comfortably controlled his lead to take both his and McLaren’s first grand prix win of the 2026 campaign, though one that will prompt a lengthy debrief at the Woking squad.
Verstappen salvaged an unexpected second place after struggling all weekend with the behaviour of his RB22. The entertaining battle for third between Antonelli and a chasing Hamilton was defused by a five-second penalty for the Ferrari driver for speeding in the pitlane, which dropped him to fifth behind Leclerc in the final result.
Isack Hadjar was a distant sixth for Red Bull, with Russell salvaging seventh from his horror start, albeit unable to avoid losing further ground in the championship.
Liam Lawson and Racing Bulls won the midfield battle in eighth, followed by Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg and Arvid Lindblad, the end result of an enthralling four-car battle between the two teams, with Gabriel Bortoleto in 11th.
Lance Stroll took an encouraging 13th place for Aston Martin in its vastly upgraded car, while both Cadillacs of Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas joined Piastri in retirement as their brakes caught fire.
F1 now heads into its summer break, with Antonelli going into it with a 50-point lead on Hamilton and a 59-point advantage over Russell. The action resumes on 23 August with the final edition of the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.
F1 Hungarian GP – Race results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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