Hungarian GP: ‘Relentless’ Lando Norris, Martin Brundle on Oscar Piastre-Carlos Sainz incident | F1 News

The Hungarian Grand Prix was an entertaining way to end the first part of the 2026 F1 season before the summer break. The top four or five runners were often visible in the same camera shot, and included the four front-running team drivers.

Lando Norris was in great form and took both the pole position and the win, but not without a serious fight on both counts. These were not the days where a driver led every lap from pole position and set the fastest lap. Oscar Piastri took the lead at the second corner of the race, and Charles Leclerc set the fastest lap in his Ferrari but could only finish fourth, and would have been fifth had the sister Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton not attracted another penalty, this time for 0.1kph in the pit-lane.

It turns out that Lewis gave up a fraction of the speed limit to beat the on-track Kimi Antonelli to the all-important safety car line which crosses the entire track and which decides who has the right to be in front, the driver exiting the pits or the driver on track. It was announced that Antonelli was a fraction ahead, and so Hamilton would have to yield anyway. This was a crucial moment for the final podium place and therefore the decision that speed in the pitlane was a potential competitive advantage was correct, albeit by a small margin.

The relentless Norris and the unfortunate Piastre

Norris said on the radio that he was faster than teammate Piastre in the lead, without specifically asking for permission. He then asked to pit first, but the pit wall rightly denied that as team protocol the two drivers in the lead have the first option to stop.

It started to look like Norris’ slide wide in Turn 2 and handing the lead to Piastre would cost him a win. McLaren pitted Piastre on lap 16 to cover the pit stops of Hamilton and Verstappen, and Norris lapped the following lap on lap 17.

But it was the second round stop at this high tire wear circuit that made the difference. Piastri pitted Hamilton again on lap 33 to cover him on fresh tires, and then Norris got a chance to prove he really was fast by running hard and pitting on lap 39 with a modest tire life offset to his teammate Piastri.

In the later stages of the race the drivers seemed reluctant to slow down or even clear the way for the oncoming leaders, and it appeared that there was a problem with the blue light warning system. That still doesn’t leave the mirror and team radio though.

On that same lap 39, Piastre was coming to lap the Williams of Carlos Sainz who was having his own battle with teammate Fernando Alonso, and after the infamous Turn 2 run, which gave Piastre the lead on the first lap, and which of course Piatri looked to see him, he let Saung back just like that. Lines and clashes with race leaders.

Sainz was informed by his Williams team but his position on the outside of the 180 degree turn meant he had no view of Piastre’s inside mirror, and so his penalty was reduced to five seconds, zero for an angry Piastre.

Piastri did well not to spin out but he lost crucial time and Norris would emerge from the pits with a lead he would not relinquish. Indeed, despite a third stop under the Virtual Safety Car he would relentlessly step it up to recover the new soft compound tires on lap 56, so painful, Piastre’s McLaren suffered a transmission failure.

The young Australian hasn’t caught any kind of lucky break for the better part of a year now.

Verstappen struggles against Ferraris

Max Verstappen spent most of the race complaining about aerodynamic degradation, poor handling and inconsistent gear changes with his Red Bull, but would finish in an excellent second place after some impressive overtaking of Hamilton’s Ferrari. Max thought Lewis was a little hard on him in the breaking zone, but he wasn’t.

It was explained to me that if Red Bull does any damage especially to the lower aero parts of the car, for example in an aggressive fender, it has a disproportionate effect on overall downforce and therefore grip. Hence Max’s arrow degradation comment.

Ferrari looked the team to beat throughout practice, and most people in the paddock thought they were favorites despite Norris taking them to pole. Hamilton smartly saved a brand new set of soft tires by clearing the first stage of qualifying on the medium tyre. These would have been hugely advantageous from his front-row grid slot, but he attracted a three-place grid drop from the rather brutal but unintentional blocking of another driver in his final qualifying attempt. Don’t be surprised to read Blocked Driver Piastre.

Leclerc fluffed his qualification with a deleted lap time for the track limit, and was only able to reserve a set of lightly used soft tires to start the race. You may remember that Ferrari humbled the entire pack from start to first corner in earlier races of the season, but such is the development curve in this business that, even with a tire advantage, Hamilton only made up a place on the opening lap and, starting on the right-hand and dirty side of the grid, Leclerc dropped from the front row to fifth. And now they had to manage those soft tires and follow the other cars, and so their race was immediately compromised.

Ferrari would try to help Hamilton with relatively early stops on laps 13 and 30 for fresh tire speed. But it didn’t pay dividends with Verstappen’s fighting skills. Ferrari pitted both drivers again under the lap 56 virtual safety car for new soft tires but this only allowed Antonelli to advance (as explained earlier), a position he would hold until the final podium spot.

Mercedes curiously slows down

Having dominated so far this season, Mercedes were curiously off the final pace, and a three-place grid penalty for Antonelli for failing to raise the yellow caution flag sufficiently in qualifying, as Verstappen turned the final corner, meant he was seventh, one place behind team-mate George Russell.

George also collected some engine damage with running over the carbs at Turn 4 and will need a new power unit fitted for race day. Still not sure if all this new kit was responsible for the truly awful start, but Toto Wolff clearly thought it was a car problem.

Everything in a racing car, and especially a Formula 1 car, is positioned as low as possible to lower the center of gravity, and therefore help handling through corners, and it weakens the elements.

Russell would drop back to 21st and begin a long afternoon battle back to seventh, close behind Isaac Hazard’s Red Bull in sixth.

Antonelli secured that podium to extend his championship lead to 50 points ahead of Hamilton at the break and 59 points ahead of his team-mate Russell. It is very much the definition of ‘damage limitation’ for overtaking from seventh on the grid in such a competitive field at a circuit notoriously difficult.

Liam Lawson would finish an excellent eighth and Arvid Lindblad tenth for Racing Bulls to move up to fifth in the Constructors’ Championship ahead of Alpine. What a happy and cohesive group that appears.

And Nico Hulkenberg scored two points for Audi in ninth place. As far as I’m concerned, so far this season I’m consistently thinking of Audi in the top ten for pace, but in fact they’re eighth out of 11 teams in the Championship, underlining that with improved reliability they could be strong contenders in the relentless midfield battle in the second half.

Aston Martin made a decent jump in performance with an extensive aero upgrade, and apparently leapfrogged Cadillac and Williams, and threatened Haas at once, but they still have a long way to go with Honda. Nevertheless, it was ultimately encouraging for the Silverstone team.

The championship is far away

If McLaren has made a modest upgrade move that translates well to other circuits, it was the team’s 14th hunger win, and with the top four ever closer, this championship is far from over. There are still 291 points available, assuming all the remaining races take place in the wake of the Middle East conflict.

For that matter, the Bahrain GP will now be held at the very popular Sepang circuit in Malaysia. This is the same impressive lateral thinking and flexibility that F1 and its partners showed during the pandemic, and I applaud it.

It seems that if Qatar and Abu Dhabi do not take place in late November or early December, there will surely be a competition for European replacements. We may need to fit some headlights and wipers for that race but the teams and drivers will handle it at their pace as usual.

I wish you a happy summer vacation.

MB

The Formula 1 season resumes after the summer break with the sprint weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix from August 21-23, with each session live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports now – no contract, cancel anytime