2026 Hungarian Grand Pri Results – By Mark Gero
Defending World Champion Lando Norris proved Sunday at the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring that the McLaren driver can finally come around to win a race, as the Briton took his first victory since last October, with a comfortable 15 second victory over the Red Bull of Max Verstappen. Mercedes Kimi Antonelli finished in third to increase his championship lead.
Lewis Hamilton took fourth ahead of his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc but was penalized for speeding in the pitlane and dropped one position.
Isack Hadjar was sixth in the second Red Bull with George Russell finishing a disappointing seventh in the Mercedes following nearly stalling his car at the start and dropping back to last place. Liam Lawson led the first of two Racing Bulls in eighth, with Nico Hulkenberg grabbing his first points of the year in his Audi in ninth. Arvid Lindblad scored double points for Racing Bulls in tenth, which now puts his team in fifth, three points ahead of Alpine in the constructor’s championship.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri took the lead and held it early in the race, before falling back and eventually retiring from the race with a gearbox issue on lap 56. The other two retirements of the day were the two Cadillacs with Valtteri Bottas having brake issues on lap 16 and Sergio Perez retiring halfway through the race with another broken suspension, his second in two weekends.
Norris ended up passing Antonelli on lap 46 after the required amount of pitstops and held the lead to increase his gap to 15 seconds, taking his first victory for his team since the Sao Paulo Grand Prix last October.
“I don’t know what happened, to be honest.” Norris said about the opening lap. “I just kept losing the rear. I had like three or four big snaps. It felt horrible and of course Oscar did a good job to get the cutback and get back past, so I think I was just a bit wide in the dirt – game over for the first lap.
But man, I was pushing like hell to try and force him into a mistake or something. My pace today was probably some of the best pace I’ve ever had. The car was beautiful to drive and I felt very confident, so a great race.
To get it back in terms of going long, which is certainly not what I was expecting, but the pace was so good I could always extend the stints, and fresh tyres then always won me the race. I’m just happy to be back and see number one again.”
Norris ended the hallway part of the season on a good note, as he and the other drivers and pit crew can take a summer break until the end of August, when the season itself resumes at the Dutch Grand Prix at the famous Zandvoort circuit.
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