Hungarian GP 2026: Norris wins as Piastri's gearbox fails

Lando Norris won the Hungarian Grand Prix from pole position on 26 July, crossing the line 15.080 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen at the Hungaroring. It was his first Grand Prix win of 2026 and his first since São Paulo last November. Kimi Antonelli finished third from seventh on the grid, while Oscar Piastri, who led the first half of the race, retired with a gearbox failure.

How Norris took the lead back from Piastri

Norris ran wide at the start and Piastri cut back underneath him at Turn 2. For the next 30 laps Norris sat behind the other McLaren, clearly quicker and unable to pass on a track where following is hard. He even ran off at Turn 4 on lap 29, and his engineer told him to calm down. George Russell's race was compromised before it began: anti-stall kicked in on the grid and dropped him near the back.

The second stops decided it. Piastri pitted on lap 34 and rejoined in lapped traffic, caught between Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso as they fought in the first sector. Sainz moved across into the McLaren. Both carried on, Sainz later took a five-second penalty for ignoring blue flags, and Piastri lost the time that mattered. Norris used the clear air, stopped later and came out in front. He then passed Antonelli, who was on a longer strategy, for the lead.

Piastri's car stopped on lap 56 and brought out a virtual safety car. Norris had enough of a gap to pit for fresh softs and stay first. Verstappen stayed out and inherited second, a result he called unexpected after a weekend fighting the balance of his car. Ferrari stopped Lewis Hamilton, who broke the pit-lane speed limit trying to stay ahead of a fast-arriving Antonelli. The five-second penalty dropped him to fifth.

Hamilton vs Leclerc and the other teammate duels

Ferrari. Hamilton missed pole by 0.012s, then lost three grid places for impeding Piastri in Q3, his third penalty in three race weekends. He was the faster Ferrari on Saturday and still finished 0.7s behind Charles Leclerc on Sunday, because of his own pit-lane mistake. "Sometimes you just can't catch a break," he wrote afterwards. Their race tally is now 5–5 in our count; Leclerc leads 7–4 in qualifying.

McLaren. Norris took the qualifying side of his duel with Piastri by 0.477s and leads 7–4 on Saturdays this season. The race does not count on F1 Duels, because a gearbox failure is not a verdict, so Sundays stay level at 3–3. Piastri led on merit for 34 laps; Norris won it on pace once he had clean air.

Mercedes. Antonelli out-qualified Russell before his three-place penalty for a yellow-flag infringement, then turned seventh on the grid into a podium. Russell's start made the race duel one-sided, though he recovered to seventh. Antonelli vs Russell now stands at 7–4 in qualifying and 5–4 in races.

Red Bull. Verstappen beat Isack Hadjar in qualifying and finished 55 seconds ahead of him. Hadjar's sixth place was partly a team job: he spent part of the race holding up cars that threatened Verstappen. Their 2026 count reads 8–3 and 6–1 to Verstappen.

What it means for the championship

Antonelli's third place, his ninth podium in 11 races, puts him 50 points clear of Hamilton, with Russell 59 behind his teammate. Every verdict from Budapest is on our Hungarian GP duel page. Formula 1 now breaks for the summer; the next race is the final Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on 23 August.