Norris Claims McLaren's First F1 Race Win of 2026
Despite a mistake at the start, Lando Norris came back to win the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend. The defending world champion claimed McLaren's first GP victory of the season and maybe joined the championship fight as a result. We cover Norris' victory and how all of the title contenders fared in our full, in-depth review of the action this weekend.
Video Transcript
It's strange, the Hungarian Grand Prix was almost overshadowed in a sense by Malaysia returning to the calendar, something I've covered a few times on the channel, guys.
Do give those videos some love if you haven't already.
They've already got a lot of love, to be honest with you.
They've gone down really, really well as it turns out.
But let's talk about the Formula 1 race that was on this weekend, the final round on the calendar before the summer break.
We've got a good four weeks to think about what has happened, reflect on the action so far in a new era of Formula 1.
The drivers who have been doing well can of course try and build upon that, try and keep the momentum going into the Dutch Grand Prix after the summer break, and those who have not been doing particularly well have plenty of time to reflect and think about how they can improve for the second half of the season.
But who is going into this break on a high and who was absolutely begging for this break to come?
Here are the five things that we learned from the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix.
All of the major talking points as always here on f1chronicle.com and the Formula Reports.
So we can't talk about the start of this Grand Prix without talking about George Russell.
He needed a good result this weekend.
He didn't get a particularly good result in qualifying, but he still managed to start ahead of his Mercedes teammate and championship leader, Kimi Antonelli.
However, it all went pear-shaped straight away as soon as the five red lights went out, because he did his best Mark Webber impression off the start, went into anti-stall and was pretty much last going into turn one.
Now, Russell has been complaining about the Mercedes power unit a lot.
He basically blames it for the reason why he retired from last weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, but he will not be happy with his car as well after this.
Even more unhappy, as it were, because, yeah, I mean, it went into anti-stall.
Whether it was his fault, whether it was the car's fault, whether it was c- different combination of factors, I don't know yet at the time of recording.
But the end result was that he was last going into turn one and his race was basically ruined from that point.
He did a decent job to recover.
I think he did all right to get back to P7 by the finish.
But to be honest with you, that's the minimum you expect at that point because the top four teams, the McLarens, the Mercedes, the Red Bulls and the Ferraris are so far clear of everybody else in race pace that he was always going to make up that ground and he would've been eighth place as well if it wasn't for one of his fellow top eight drivers falling out due to a mechanical issue.
We'll talk about him later in the video.
But yeah, terrible weekend for Russell.
He did all he could in that situation, but he'll be beating himself up.
I mean, I said after the Belgian Grand Prix that he was begging, he was pleading to the Formula 1 gods to be able to get this four-week break.
Now he's got it, but he goes into it on another low.
Yeah, he scored points.
It's not a pointless weekend like Belgium, but it won't feel any better.
It will not feel any better and it will not do his confidence in that Mercedes W17 any good either.
Because his two main championship rivals, they all scored big as well this weekend.
But we'll talk about them as we continue to go through this video.
It was also a pretty disappointing weekend in the end for Ferrari.
It could've and probably should've been a lot more, particularly for Sir Lewis Hamilton who just could not get a break this weekend.
I already brought you the development that he got a penalty during qualifying.
Totally deserved by the way.
That wasn't unlucky.
But no matter, Hamilton of course is an absolute whiz around this track.
He's won here eight times in his career.
He literally has a corner named after him, the second corner for reference, around the Hungaroring.
And he got an all right start overall.
He certainly got a better start than his teammate at Ferrari, Charles Leclerc.
Leclerc dropping from second place all the way down to P5.
It didn't seem like it was that bad of a start.
Wasn't a great getaway off the line, but he just seemed to fall back, especially through the corners, and he was in fifth place going round that first lap.
Great squabble from the Ferraris by the way during this period.
It looks as though Charles Leclerc was gonna try and get him back into the six-seven chicane, but it was not to be.
Hamilton was so close to getting past Verstappen into P3 off the line, but he wasn't able to get the overtake done on the Red Bull.
And if we know anything about Max Verstappen, especially when it comes to Lewis Hamilton, he knows exactly how to defend against him and defend against him he did.
Ferrari then changed the strategy up.
They tried to do something different.
They brought Lewis in, they brought him in early to try and get the undercut done, and it seemed like he managed to do that, and it seemed like he managed to do that as well.
Verstappen was behind after the first round of pit stops.
Job done, right?
Well, no.
Wrong, as it turns out.
Verstappen to his credit pulled off an absolutely unbelievable lunge.
It wasn't dangerous, it was just absolutely perfectly timed like prime Daniel Ricciardo back in the day.
But Verstappen loves a last of the late breakers move as well, and he pulled off an incredible one on Hamilton to get back past him.
Back to square one again, still behind Verstappen.
In the second round of pit stops, Hamilton did manage to get past Verstappen and make it stick, but then everything changed when the safety car came out, or should I say the virtual safety car.
One of the other front runners, I won't name who, I'll talk about him later in the video, retired due to a mechanical issue and it brought out the VSC.
Now, a lot of different drivers decided to pit during this period and Hamilton was one of them.
There was about 15 or so laps remaining in the race at this point and of course if you go and pit under the VSC, your delta, your disadvantage when it comes to your time is less than when it's green flag running.
So a lot of the different leaders decided to go in and pit for soft tires.
Hamilton was one of these, Leclerc was one of these as well.
But Max Verstappen and also Kimi Antonelli were not two of those drivers who decided to pit.
They were on old softs in the case of Max Verstappen and old hard tires in the case of Kimi Antonelli.
But they thought they could get to the end of the race and they were both correct.
Hamilton initially overtook or stayed out ahead I should say of Kimi Antonelli during the pit stop, but they both crossed the safety car detection line or on the pit straight at pretty much the exact same time.
You couldn't tell which one actually crossed first with the naked eye.
No doubt though Ferrari slowed it down and checked and it probably showed that Hamilton was behind, therefore he should have stayed behind.
Hamilton though went out ahead.
He overtook Kimi Antonelli and he looked as though he was gonna chase down Max Verstappen.
However, Ferrari came on the radio and said, "Lewis, you were behind.
You're gonna have to give that place back or you're gonna get a big penalty."
So give that place back he did.
He slowed down and he wasn't able to overtake Kimi Antonelli in the closing stages.
And just to compound the misery a little bit more for him, he got a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
Now some people have said that this is totally unfair, this is like Monaco all over again.
But according to my sources, according to everything I've seen, he did speed by .1 of a mile an hour, one tenth of a mile an hour he sped in the pit lane.
That's gotta sting.
Five-second penalty.
Even if he overtook Antonelli it wouldn't have counted And because Charles Leclerc was within five seconds of Sir Lewis, he overtook him as well in the final classification.
So fifth for Hamilton, fourth for Leclerc.
That is a big missed opportunity for Ferrari.
They look like the fastest team this weekend.
They will absolutely be ruined this.
They should have got more.
They should have got more, but they didn't.
They didn't capitalize on their pace, and the drivers ahead of them did a better job, simple as that.
So they deservedly finished fourth and fifth in the end, but it could have been so much more.
It could have been so different.
But as the great Murray Walker once said, or said many times I should say, if is Formula 1 spelled backwards.
It's not, but you get the sentiment.
Let's talk about Kimi a little bit.
I did mention him before.
He ended up getting on the podium in this Grand Prix, which I think is a fantastic result for his championship.
He started down in seventh place thanks to a grid penalty, which dropped him from fourth down to seventh.
And again, that was a justified penalty.
If you want more information on that, do go check it out in our qualifying review if you haven't seen it already.
But he basically did a bit of an alternate strategy.
He ran longer than anybody else on his initial set of medium tires, and that allowed him more options when it came to pit stops later in the Grand Prix.
He, like Max Verstappen, decided to stay out.
I mean, a lot of people were saying that Antonelli was gonna do a one-stop.
I thought that was possible, but in the end it wasn't quite to be.
But still, he made the two-stop work really well.
He defended really well from Sir Lewis Hamilton behind him in the closing stages.
I mean, in the end I don't think it would've mattered because of the penalty, but still he managed to stay ahead of him, so credit where it's due.
He managed to get up from P7 to P3 at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
That is no mean feat.
And he manages to finish ahead of his two title rivals, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Ev- you if- even if you include Charles Leclerc in that championship battle as well, he still finished ahead of the Monegasque.
So overall, I think in terms of a championship fight, I think this is a fantastic result for Kimi.
I mean, you look at the championship battle right now and Antonelli is two wins ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who is in second place.
Russell is a further nine points back, and then, you know, you're on, like, 70 odd points, 80 odd points back to the likes of Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris.
Kimi Antonelli absolutely has this championship on lockdown right now, and this is a brilliant result.
You won't win them all, but it's about capitalizing on what you can get in the races where perhaps your car is not the fastest on the grid.
I would say this Mercedes car was not the fastest car on the grid this weekend.
I think that is very, very clear.
So Kimi Antonelli is one of those drivers heading into the summer break on an absolute high.
By the way, I will be doing my mid-season grades as well during this summer break, guys.
We've completed 11 out of 23 rounds, so I will be doing that.
I'll be going team by team as always, guys.
That'll be out in a couple weeks or so.
I'll get the old, I'll get the old graduation outfit out, as it were.
But anyway, back on topic, what were the other two things we learned?
Well, the fourth thing we learned overall is that Verstappen was another driver who had an excellent weekend in my opinion.
I've already spoken about how he did really well to keep Lewis Hamilton behind, how punchy he was with his overtakes, and he finishes in second place.
And he took a set of soft tires as well during that.
I mean, it was impressive what Kimi Antonelli did, don't get me wrong, but Verstappen did nearly 30 laps, and about 25 or so racing laps if you don't clout, count the, the VSC laps.
You know, he did all of those laps on a set of soft tires.
We've seen this from Verstappen before.
He's managed to make some absolutely terrible strategies in a sense.
I mean, it was a great strategy, but to make it work you have to be an incredible driver to make those soft tires last so long.
I mean, with most drivers, albeit earlier on in the Grand Prix, so less weight and less force going through them, but still they were making those, tires last for, like, what?
15 laps or so.
That was it.
The Ferraris started on the soft tires and they couldn't make them work.
They couldn't overtake Verstappen, who was on the mediums.
So, you know, for Red Bull and for Verstappen to do that is incredibly impressive.
E-Z Tig Hadjar definitely helped out at times too, don't get me wrong.
But at the same time, you have to take your hat off to Verstappen with what he did during this Grand Prix.
I don't think that Red Bull had any right being up in second place, but in second place it was.
You could argue again that he maybe got lucky with, Hamilton not being able to overtake Antonelli and maybe Hamilton would've been up there and challenging Verstappen.
Perhaps that would've happened.
We don't know.
If, buts, and maybes again.
If in Formula 1's a very long word and maybe Antonelli would've been able to catch up if he wasn't having to fight off a much faster Lewis Hamilton behind him.
But still, you gotta play the cards that you're dealt, and Red Bull didn't have that many cards to hold this weekend.
But once again, they showed they are brilliant when it comes to strategy.
And Verstappen, you can put him on any strategy you want.
He's like Michael Schumacher back in the day.
You can put him on any strategy you want.
He will make the absolute most of it and probably end up in and around the podium in a Red Bull car that, again, is not really the best on the grid.
He was complaining a lot about it during this weekend, saying that the suspension was, suboptimal.
I won't repeat the exact word that he used 'cause we gotta keep it PG here.
So yeah, to get second place, again, Verstappen is a driver who ends this first period of the season, this first half of the season, on a high.
And the final thing, really, I should have a McLaren shirt on this morning, but I put this one instead.
You know, it is what it is.
I've already started recording.
I'm not changing shirts just for the final thing.
But of course, McLaren managed to win this Grand Prix.
Lando Norris did incredibly well to get pole position on Saturday.
I've seen some people saying that the yellow flags were not out when he set that pole time, and that might have been the case, but going off the television graphic, it was out still, the third sector yellow flag.
But anyway, he slowed down reportedly.
Still got that fastest lap, still got pole position.
But it did seem as though Lando Norris was gonna drop out of the lead, or not been able to get the win I should say, during this Grand Prix because he dropped out of the lead.
I jumped the gun on that one earlier on, but I'm keeping this in.
Don't care about that.
Oscar Piastri managed to overtake him, getting off the line.
I mean, Leclerc had his issues from P2.
Oscar Piastri was on the clean side of the grid in P3.
And Lando Norris just made a mistake going through Hamilton.
Not the driver, the corner, the second corner.
Just went wide, and Oscar Piastri down the inside.
See you later, son.
And he was gone.
He was gone.
He was doing really-- I mean, he won his first Grand Prix here in 2024.
McLaren have now won three, Hungarian Grand Prix in a row as well They're very good around here.
And again, this has kind of come out of nowhere.
I mean, there's been flashes in the pan here and there.
You know, the sprint victory in Miami.
They looked pretty quick during the Canadian Grand Prix, during the Japanese Grand Prix.
But during this European season, for the most part, they've been in and around the podium at best.
They've not looked like getting a victory at all until this weekend.
And like I said, it looked for all the world as though it was gonna be Oscar Piastri who won this race, but a bit like Hamilton and to a worse extent, as it turns out, because he retired from the Grand Prix, everything just seems to go wrong at one point for him.
He got hit while he was trying to overtake Carlos Sainz.
Sainz said, "Oh, I didn't see him, I was battling with..." I can't remember who it was now.
Hlkenberg, someone like that, not sure.
By the way, shout out to our boy Hlkenberg finally getting points.
He got ninth place.
We'll go through all the classification at the end, but I'm so happy for the Hulk with that.
So happy for Lando, too, but I am so unhappy for Oscar Piastri.
He had that contact, of course, with Carlos Sainz.
That cost him a lot of time.
Didn't send him out of the race, but then the pit strategy wasn't working too well for him.
He fell behind Lando Norris, and then he retired late on as well.
Gearbox issue.
Just a box full of neutrals coming out of the third corner.
Man, that was painful to watch.
I love O- Oscar Piastri, I really do.
I think he's a really nice guy.
I love his attitude to things.
I saw the clip, very random, saw the clip of him in Clarkson's Farm.
I still need to watch the new series of that, but I saw the clip of him in Clarkson's Farm and yeah, I mean, as a Formula One driver, a lot of them you would think have a chip on their shoulder because, you know, they're rather good drivers.
But he's very down-to-earth and humble, and I like that.
A lot of F1 drivers are down-to-earth and humble, by the way.
Some of them aren't.
Not- won't name names here.
You could probably guess who, who's who there with that one.
But yeah, Oscar Piastri's very much down-to-earth when it comes to that.
But his, his chances of getting to take a victory here, and his chances of also, you know, managing to go on into the summer break on a high were also absolutely trodden after this, too.
And Lando Norris wins by 15 seconds, and that's the fine margins that Formula One operates on.
That's the fine margins that these drivers operate on as well.
So I am devastated for Piastri.
This could've and should've been his Grand Prix victory, his first one of the season.
But instead, it's the defending champion.
People forget that Lando Norris is the defending champion, but he is.
And given the fact that Piastri retired, he deserved this, Norris.
But man, I have to tell you now, I tell you now, if things were slightly different, I mean, who knows?
Maybe that contact with Sainz did disrupt the gearbox.
It's not out of the realms of possibility.
It's unlikely, but it's definitely possible, and it would not have helped.
So yeah, Lando Norris catches up in the championship to Charles Leclerc.
I mean, are McLaren a contender?
They need to get a lot of victories in this second half of the season.
We've seen this from them before.
You know, 2024, they came on really strong in that second half of the season, albeit because Red Bull fell away spectacularly.
But they still did that.
So I'm not ruling it out.
I think it's very unlikely.
Like Charles Leclerc, you need to see a series of victories from them, and Leclerc's momentum has been stopped because of this race a little bit as well.
But they're not completely out of it, and this really strengthens their position in the championship as well.
Yeah, they didn't make big gains on Red Bull because of Hadjar and Verstappen both scoring and Piastri not scoring.
But to get a victory, something that Red Bull haven't managed to do, I'd say it's pretty good.
They're looking pretty good at the moment, are my boys.
And also, five different drivers in the last five races have won Grand Prix.
Who said that Formula One is predictable?
Who said that Kimi Antonelli's walking away with it?
Well, maybe he is a little bit at the moment, but you see my point anyway.
Those are the five things we learned from the Hungarian Grand Prix, guys.
Let me just go through the full order here when it comes to this race, just in case you lost track of where everybody was.
Lando Norris wins his first Grand Prix of the season, and McLaren's first Grand Prix of the season, finishing 15 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen.
Kimi Antonelli completed the podium in third place and extends his championship lead as a result.
Then the two Ferraris, so close yet so far.
Fourth and fifth place for them, Charles Leclerc ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Isack Hadjar picks up another top six finish by finishing in sixth.
George Russell completed his recovery drive to finish in seventh place by the end, and not that far behind Hadjar, in fairness, only a couple seconds.
It was another double point score for the Racing Bulls, Liam Lawson in eighth ahead of Arvid Lindblad in 10th and my boy Hlkenberg in P9.
The second Audi of Gabriel Bortoleto just missed out on points.
He was in 11th place.
Alpine, they did not have a good weekend.
They were in 12th and 15th, but look at the progress for Aston Martin.
Yeah, no points, but 13th and 14th place.
And Lance Stroll-ovich ahead of Fernando Alonso.
That doesn't happen very often.
That car has definitely improved a lot, but they still have a lot of work ahead of them.
Hopefully that Honda upgrade in Zandvoort will help them out some more.
Haas had a very forgettable week and two laps down.
Esteban Ocon in P16, Ollie Bearman in P19, and last of the runners.
And then Williams, I mean, they were trash this weekend.
They were terrible.
I only saw one of them when, of course, Carlos Sainz made contact with Piastri.
Apart from that, I didn't see anyone.
I didn't see Albon at all during this Grand Prix.
17th and 18th.
James Vowles will be fuming at that.
The retirees were the aforementioned Oscar Piastri and also the Cadillacs as well, Prez and Bottas, both with mechanical issues there during this race.
But yeah, really enjoyed this race, guys.
A good tactical battle.
Again, a bit like Spa, not gonna be an all-time classic by any means, but very much a good race, a good race to watch to send us into the summer break.
Kimi Antonelli is riding a wave of confidence right now, but can anybody stop him?
Can his teammates stop him?
Can the Ferraris stop him?
Can the McLarens stop him?
Can Verstappen stop him in the Red Bull?
We'll have to wait and see, guys.
We got 12 more rounds in this season.
Of course, Malaysia is back on the calendar as the Bahrain Grand Prix, of course.
If you haven't seen my video going over why that's the case, do check it out on the channel.
The initial rumor video, by the way, did so well on YouTube.
25,000 views, I think that got.
I mean, if this review gets half of that, I'll be a very happy boy, as it were.
Plenty of content, though, coming your way over on Substack, written content on there.
Plenty of video content here on the channels as well, guys.
We'll keep you updated as we go.
And of course, Jawad will be bringing you the daily Formula One news over on our Microsoft Start account as well, good old MSN.
Like, share, comment, subscribe if you wanna see more like this, guys.
Would really appreciate the support on this one, and let's hope for a great summer break.
Have great summer holidays if you're going away.
But if you're staying here like me, plenty more F1 content coming your way as always.
See you soon, guys.
Have a good one.
