Lando Norris takes victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix beating his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri thanks to a single pitstop strategy.
The McLaren driver absorbed the big pressure and attacks from Piastri late in the race at Turn 1, one featuring a lock-up for the championship leader, but held on to convert a somewhat risky strategy – one arguably made possible by a difficult opening stint.
Piastri had run to a two-stop strategy in an effort to beat polesitter Charles Leclerc, who preserved the lead off the starting line and maintained it through the opening stint of the race. The Ferrari driver also been running to a two-stopper, with the rear-limited nature of the circuit expected to impose a heavy load on the tyres.
By comparison, Norris got a poor start to the race. Although the first stage of his getaway allowed him to gain on teammate Piastri, he was boxed in at the opening braking zone – thus, both George Russell and Fernando Alonso used the open outside line to gather more momentum and clear Norris into Turn 1.
Norris passed Alonso two laps later, but struggled to break down Russell. Having been on for third at best on the same two-stop strategy, Norris extended his stint and took the one-stop offered to him, pitting at the end of lap 31 – with the expectation that those ahead would need to pit again.
This proved to be the case, as Leclerc made a second visit to the pitlane on lap 40 for another set of hards, prompting McLaren to attempt to extend for more offset with Piastri’s tyres. Thus, Piastri stopped five laps later, giving the championship leader the opportunity to push the Ferrari driver.
But Leclerc was struggling at this stage. A race-long argument with his team over pre-race procedures eventually boiled down to Charles been angry and blaming his team for “losing competitiveness” through the stint. Piastri passed him for second on lap 51, and began his own chase towards Norris.
Over the next ten laps, Piastri reduced away at his teammate’s lead. The two were separated by almost nine seconds when Piastri cleared Leclerc, but this quickly fell to set up a late battle between the pair.
And, with five laps to go, Piastri was within DRS range, having caught up during the late-race traffic, and filled his teammate’s mirrors. He got close at the start on lap 68, and then went for a dive on the next lap – but locked up and had to go slightly wide into the opening corner.
Without enough momentum in the final lap, Piastri had to settle for second as Norris went across the finishing line with a margin of 0.698 seconds gap.
Behind the McLarens was George Russell, who managed to get by an aggressive Charles Leclerc. The Mercerces driver finished over 21 seconds behind the Papaya, underlining the competitive order between the McLarens and the other race cars.
Charles Leclerc received a five-second time penalty for moving under braking in his attempt to stop Russell getting by. To finish fourth is a disappointment after starting on pole.
Taking fifth is Fernando Alonso, finishing ahead of his protege Gabriel Bortoleto. The remaining points scorers are Lance Stroll, Liam Lawson, Max Verstappen and Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
So a tense finish to the race between the Papayas and yet Lando Norris did a solid job in managing his tyres after going with a single stop. More points in the constructors’ championship with McLaren scoring a 1-2 result.
The 2025 Formula 1 season now takes a summer break so the next racing action will be the Dutch Grand Prix in three weeks time.
Hungarian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:35:21.231
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.698s
3 George Russell Mercedes +21.916s
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +42.560s
5 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +59.040s
6 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber +66.169s
7 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +68.174s
8 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +69.451s
9 Max Verstappen Red Bull +72.645s
10 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +1 lap
11 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +1 lap
12 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +1 lap
13 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +1 lap
14 Carlos Sainz Williams +1 lap
15 Alexander Albon Williams +1 lap
16 Esteban Ocon Haas +1 lap
17 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +1 lap
18 Franco Colapinto Alpine +1 lap
19 Pierre Gasly Alpine +1 lap
Oliver Bearman Haas DNF
Lando Norris has won the Hungarian Grand Prix after holding off a thrilling late-race challenge for the lead from McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri, the Briton having made an alternative strategy work in his favour to take victory.
Polesitter Charles Leclerc had made a strong start to hold P1 when the race got underway, allowing the Ferrari driver to build up a steady lead over Piastri in P2 during the opening stages of the race – a position he maintained amid the first round of pit stops, despite Piastri’s attempt to undercut his rival.
However, the picture started to evolve as different strategies played out amongst the frontrunners, with Leclerc and Piastri – both on two-stop plans – finding themselves behind the one-stopping Norris in the final phase of the race.
While Leclerc’s pace fell away in the latter stages, a fast Piastri set about chasing down Norris for the lead – leading to a gripping conclusion as the Australian was hot on the tail of his team mate in the final laps.
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Despite a couple of attempts, Piastri could not find a way past the other McLaren, with Norris crossing the line just 0.698s ahead to seal his fifth win of the season. This has cut Piastri’s lead in the Drivers’ Championship down to nine points entering into the summer break.
George Russell took third for Mercedes, having overtaken a struggling Leclerc to claim the final spot on the podium. Leclerc had to settle for fourth on a disappointing day for the Monegasque, who also received a five-second time penalty for driving erratically during his battle with Russell.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/norris-holds-of-piastri-in-thrilling-battle-to-win-hungarian-grand-prix.3nguaFMU2JVNsT9QWopwzK
Lando Norris branded his surprise Hungarian Grand Prix victory as “tough” but “the perfect result,” after fending off his team-mate Oscar Piastri during a tense battle in the latter stages of the race.
The British driver started the race from third, but a messy start saw him drop back behind Mercedes’s George Russell and fighting against Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
A one-stop strategy for Norris saw the battle with his team-mate come to a head in the closing laps of the race, but he managed to hold off the championship leader to take his ninth Formula 1 victory.
“I’m dead. I’m dead. It was tough,” he explained in a post-race interview.
“We weren’t really planning on the one-stop but after the first lap it was kind of our only option to get back into things. The final stint with Oscar catching, I was pushing flat out. Rewarding even more because of that. The perfect result today.
“I didn’t think it would get us the win, I thought it would get us maybe into second. I knew if I had clean air and could push I could maybe make things work and that’s what we did.
“It always is a bit of a gamble these kind of things. It also requires no mistakes, good laps, good strategy and that’s what we had today.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/lando-norris-reacts-to-unexpected-hungarian-gp-win-im-dead-it-was-tough/10748149/
Oscar Piastri admits that overtaking Lando Norris was always going to be “much easier said than done” as he had to settle for second in the Hungarian Grand Prix, with his Drivers’ Championship lead trimmed to just nine points.
The Australian came just fractions away from adding another victory to his tally for the 2025 campaign ahead of the summer break, having closed a 12s gap to leader Norris in the closing stages.
With fresher hard tyres courtesy of a two-stop strategy as opposed to Norris’ one-stop, Piastri directly challenged his team mate in the final three laps but had to settle for second.
“I pushed as hard as I could. I think after I saw Lando going for a one [stop], I knew I was going to have overtake on track, which is much easier said than done around here,” said Piastri.
“I tried a few things, it was a gamble either way, and today unfortunately we were just on the wrong side of it. The team did a great job, the car really came alive in the second half of the race, and the car’s been great all weekend – thank you to the team. I’m looking forward to a couple of weeks off.”
Piastri looked to move into the lead over the final laps primarily at Turn 1 and came just inches away from hitting his team mate having locked-up on the penultimate lap.
But the Australian admitted that he was never realistically close enough to pass around a circuit where overtaking proved difficult all day.
“I think I needed to be at least a couple of tenths closer, which was going to take a mistake from Lando to achieve that,” said Piastri.
“I felt like that was going to be my best chance. You never want to try and save it for the next lap and then it never comes, so I thought I would at least try. Not quite.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/i-pushed-as-hard-as-i-could-piastri-concedes-overtaking-norris-easier-said.5QXHYQIzimo8VyX0wEW7aN
Mercedes driver George Russell finished the Hungarian Grand Prix with an impressive third place after a fierce battle with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. With potential contact between the two drivers, the Briton eventually managed to overtake the Monegasque, finishing the race with a surprising podium.
Starting fourth, the driver benefited from the team’s decision to revert back to an older rear suspension specification as he managed to maintain position ahead of Lando Norris for a portion of the race. In the latter stages, Russell battled with a frustrated Leclerc and complained that the Ferrari driver was moving under braking. Despite this, Russell overtook Leclerc, confirming his fifth podium of the season.
“Really happy with the race today,” he said following the race. “Qualifying was a bit of a surprise, this whole weekend has been a bit surprising for everyone.
“So happy to be back on the podium.”
Discussing his duel with Leclerc, he admitted he was “glad to get through it.”
“It was a bit dicey with Charles at some points,” he explained.
“When you commit to a bit of a divebomb, if the driver in front moves, you are already right on the limit of grip and there’s not much room to manoeuvre.
“I think we made contact the second time. Just glad to get through it and a nice way to go into the break.
“It’s certainly better than the races we’ve recently had.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/george-russell-glad-to-get-through-dicey-charles-leclerc-fight-at-hungarian-gp/10748161/
Charles Leclerc has lamented an issue which may have cost him Ferrari’s only shot at victory in the 2025 Formula 1 season.
Leclerc had narrowly edged out McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris as well as Mercedes’ George Russell for pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix; he led 28 of the opening 39 laps of the race at the Hungaroring, only temporarily ceding first place to one-stopping, eventual winner Norris.
However, as he came under pressure from Piastri on lap 40, the Ferrari driver suddenly lost pace – to the point that he lost 37 seconds to the Australian over the last 30 laps of the contest.
“This is so incredibly frustrating,” Leclerc fulminated over team radio. “We have lost all competitiveness. You just had to listen to me. I would have found a different way of managing these issues. Now it’s just undriveable. Undriveable. It will be a miracle if we finish on the podium.”
The Monegasque repeatedly and carefully steered clear of giving any meaningful information about his technical issues on the radio, attempting to preserve the team’s secrets, even as he somewhat lost his temper.
However, speaking after the race, he owned up to misinterpreting the situation and admitted there was no need to berate the Scuderia’s engineers.
“I need to take back the words I said in the radio, because I thought it was coming from one thing, but then I got a lot more detail since I got out of the car,” Leclerc said. “It was actually an issue coming from the chassis, and nothing that we could have done differently.
“I started to feel the issue in lap 40 or something like that, and then it got worse, lap after lap after lap, and towards the end we were two seconds off the pace. And the car was just undriveable.
“It’s an outlier. It shouldn’t ever happen again, but I’m still very disappointed. We had one opportunity this year to win a race, which I think was this weekend.
“The first stint was perfect, the first laps of the second stint were really good as well, and I think we were on pace to try and win that race. The last stint was a disaster when I started to have that issue on the chassis.”
Leclerc went on to explain: “It wasn’t very consistent, but basically every corner it was doing something different.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/charles-leclerc-explains-how-undriveable-ferrari-cost-him-hungary-f1-win/10748212/