The Hungarian Grand Prix has been known to deliver surprise results; this year, it was no different. The weekend started with Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc delivering a massive lap and putting his car on pole, with the two McLarens behind him. Four-time champion Max Verstappen only qualified 8th, and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton only 12th. This meant that Leclerc had a good chance of a win if he could keep the McLarens behind, since it is hard to overtake on the Hungaroring. For the first stint, his hopes were high; however, he had an issue with his car, and during his second pit-stop, the team changed his setup, rendering the machine significantly slower, causing him to slip back to fourth, getting overtaken by George Russell.
Lando Norris triumphed at the 40th Hungarian Grand Prix after executing a high-risk, one-stop strategy that even he initially questioned. The McLaren driver admitted post-race that he was not confident the plan would hold, but as the laps progressed, so did his belief.
‘We ran a long first stint on the medium tires, so I knew we could finish on the hards, but I wasn’t sure I could stay ahead. The end was tough, on worn rubber, even a small mistake could have been fatal, but I’m glad our strategy paid off,’ Norris said.
‘The end was tough, on worn rubber, even a small mistake could have been fatal, but I’m glad our strategy paid off’
Oscar Piastri, who chased his teammate down in the final laps but could not make a move stick, reflected on the missed opportunity. ‘I felt I could try at the end of the straight, maybe I should’ve waited a lap, but I didn’t want to regret not going for it,’ he explained. ‘Overtaking in dirty air is always tricky.’
Piastri supported the team’s strategy calls, noting that from further back on the grid, drivers often need to take more risks. As the McLaren behind, it made sense for Norris to stick to the single-stop approach.
Mercedes driver George Russell finished third, calling the weekend one of the team’s best this season. Despite losing two positions at the start, he was not disheartened, attributing the slip to bad luck rather than performance. ‘It’s been a tough season so far, and it won’t get easier after the break. The fight with Oscar will go to the wire,’ he said, hinting at the close title battle between the two.
Piastri, last year’s winner in Mogyoród, said the race brought mixed feelings. ‘It was fun, for sure. We tried to make the most of it, and maybe we could’ve done things differently in hindsight, but there’s no point dwelling on it now.’
Unusually, neither McLaren started from the front row, and Max Verstappen’s uncharacteristically poor qualifying left him deep in the pack. Piastri also weighed in on his incident with Charles Leclerc, whose defensive move resulted in a penalty. ‘After braking, he drifted across, there was contact. I think the penalty was fair.’
Fernando Alonso finished a surprising fifth, saying the team extracted everything possible from their package. ‘We couldn’t have gone any higher. It’s encouraging that we were competitive, but we don’t really know why. Maybe it’s our new front wing, but that needs looking into,’ the two-time world champion said.
Lewis Hamilton, down in 12th, looked visibly frustrated and kept his media responses brief. Meanwhile, his Ferrari rival Charles Leclerc, who had started on pole but dropped to fourth, was equally dejected. ‘Everything was fine until the second stop. Then the car just became undriveable. We have to investigate,’ the Monegasque driver said.
As the teams head into the summer break, the championship remains tight, and the pressure is only building, both on the drivers and their strategists.
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