The Hungarian Grand Prix was certainly a memorable one for McLaren. Not only did they secure a one-two victory for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, but it was the team’s 200th grand prix victory.
Norris’s victory was the ninth of his grand prix career. He has taken each of his nine wins so far at different tracks: Miami, Zandvoort, Singapore, Yas Marina, Albert Park, Monaco, the Red Bull Ring, Silverstone and the Hungaroring. He now joins Mark Webber, the manager of his team mate and championship rival, on the all-time winners list, passing Piastri, Charles Leclerc and former McLaren team mate Daniel Ricciardo. His ninth win for McLaren matches him with Kimi Raikkonen and James Hunt.
At a winning average speed of 192.942km/h, this was the second-fastest Hungarian Grand Prix in history. Norris, on a one-stop strategy, crossed the line 4.900s sooner than Michael Schumacher did in 2004, when the Ferrari driver took the chequered flag after stopping three times over the 70 laps. However, Lewis Hamilton still holds the record for the fastest ever race at the Hungaroring, completing the 2019 edition 17 seconds quicker than Norris. On Sunday, Norris would have only just beaten second-place finisher in 2019, Max Verstappen, by a matter of tenths.
Piastri’s second place ensured the seventh one-two finish of the season for McLaren and their fourth consecutive one-two victory. This is the first time McLaren have enjoyed a run of four straight one-two victories since Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost shared the top steps in 1988 in the Mexican, Canadian, Detroit and French grands prix. The last time any team achieved a run of four one-two wins was Mercedes in 2019 in the opening five races of that year’s championship.
It was the eighth time that Norris and Piastri have occupied the top two positions on the podium in any order. That means the pair have now appeared first and second together more often in F1 history than Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, or Jim Clark and Graham Hill, or Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet.
George Russell passed Leclerc in the later phase of the race to take the final spot on the podium in third. It was the fourth time that Norris, Piastri and Russell had all shared a podium – the three previous occasions all taking place in 2025, in Bahrain, China and Miami. However, this was the first time that the three had finished in this order.
Despite taking an unexpected pole position, Charles Leclerc could not convert it into victory. His 27th grand prix pole moves him ahead of Mika Hakkinen into sole ownership of 11th place in the all-time standings, two behind Juan Manuel Fangio. It was the 16th different circuit that the Ferrari driver had secured pole position at, an achievement he now shares with Jim Clark, but still behind nine other drivers in history including Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Alain Prost.
Leclerc’s failure to win from pole now means his career pole conversion rate sits at just 18.52%. While that is lower than any other driver on the current grid with multiple poles to their name, it is higher than both Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll (0%), as well as David Coulthard (16.67%), Rene Arnoux (11.11%) and even world champion Keke Rosberg, who never converted any of his five career poles into a victory.
Fernando Alonso‘s wily driving on the medium compound early on in the race helped him take fifth place. He gained one position at the start by passing Norris. He remains the only driver this season to have not lost a position on the opening lap of a grand prix.
Reigning Formula 2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto added eight further points to his tally in his rookie season with a sixth place finish behind Fernando Alonso. Bortoleto’s 14 points so far means he is guaranteed to end his rookie year as the most successful reigning F2 champion of the modern era since Charles Leclerc scored 39 points in his first F1 campaign with Sauber in 2018.
The ceremonial chequered flag was waved by Axl Rose, lead singer of rock band Guns N Roses. The band’s debut album, Appetite for Destruction was released in July 1987. At the time, only two drivers on the current F1 grid had been born: Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.
Over to you
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