In the last race before F1 embarks on its summer break, the Hungarian Grand Prix offered up plenty of talking points to tide us over until the racing returns.
While Charles Leclerc had taken an impressive pole position, it was ultimately Lando Norris who claimed victory following an alternative strategy in Sunday’s race – though it didn’t necessarily come easily, having faced a thrilling challenge for the lead from team mate Oscar Piastri in the closing stages.
From those nail-biting battles on track through to all of the happenings off the circuit, here’s our round-up of the highlights from an eventful weekend in Budapest…
An epic battle for the win between the McLarens
At the beginning of the Hungarian Grand Prix, it appeared as if McLaren may have to settle for a 2-3 result at best; Piastri was running in second place, with polesitter Leclerc managing to hold a steady lead, while Norris had lost two positions off the line.
However, that picture would evolve dramatically as the 70-lap encounter played out. While Piastri and Leclerc opted for two-stop strategies, Norris took a gamble on a one-stop call – a decision that seemed to work out well for the Briton, who eventually found himself ahead of both of his rivals.
While Leclerc slipped backwards as the race entered its latter stages (more on which below), Piastri was looking quick on fresher rubber than his team mate – and promptly started to eat into Norris’ lead as the laps ticked down.
This led to an epic scrap for victory in the dying moments, with Piastri making more than one attempt to pass the other papaya car – with one of these seeing him lock up and only narrow miss making contact with Norris.
As it was, Norris held on to seal a fifth win of the campaign, a result that has helped him to close the gap to Piastri at the top of the Drivers’ Championship down to just nine points entering into the summer break.
The final spot on the podium was claimed by George Russell, who won out in a feisty battle with Leclerc to claim P3 and take Mercedes’ first rostrum since the Canadian Grand Prix back in June.
Leclerc misses out on a podium amid another rough weekend for Hamilton
It was certainly a case of dramatic highs and lows for Leclerc during the weekend at the Hungaroring. The Monegasque caught everyone – including himself – by surprise when he grabbed pole position in Saturday’s Qualifying session, outpacing both McLarens in the process.
With a possible first Grand Prix win of the season on the table for Ferrari, Leclerc’s chances of achieving this appeared good at the start of Sunday’s event, the eight-time race winner chalking up a decent lead from Piastri in the opening stages.
But as the race moved into its second half, that early pace looked to be dropping off for Leclerc. After being overtaken by Piastri, he lost out on the final spot on the podium to Russell – and also received a five-second time penalty for driving erratically during that battle.
Speaking afterwards, Leclerc confirmed that the issue had been down to the chassis – a cause that he admitted was different to the one he had thought it to be during his frustrated radio messages in the race.
While this was beyond his control, the 27-year-old conceded that he would enter the summer break “very disappointed” after losing out on both a rostrum and an opportunity to win. And on the other side of the garage, Lewis Hamilton seemed equally downbeat following a challenging weekend in Budapest.
Having qualified down in P12 in Saturday’s Qualifying – after which he called himself “absolutely useless” – the seven-time World Champion ended Sunday’s race in the same position, leading him to declare afterwards: “I’m glad it’s over.”
Best result of the year for Aston Martin
Aston Martin enjoyed their best race weekend of the 2025 season at the Hungaroring, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll securing fifth and seventh respectively at the chequered flag.
It marked a remarkable turnaround for the British team, having been at the back of the grid just one week ago in Belgium, with the result moving them from P8 to P6 in the Teams’ Championship ahead of Kick Sauber and Racing Bulls.
“We really needed this result. Spa last week we were at the bottom of the list and now we are P5 and P7,” said Alonso, who managed to reach the finish on a one-stop strategy after holding onto his fifth-place starting position.
“We need to learn what is the difference between the two tracks, what we did different to the car and try to apply those learnings into the next race.”
Bortoleto stars again for Sauber
Kick Sauber increased their impressive run of point-scoring finishes to six races, this time courtesy of Gabriel Bortoleto who came home sixth – his best result in Formula 1 to date.
The Brazilian rookie claimed an impressive seventh on the grid, out-qualifying four-time World Champion Max Verstappen, and ran ahead of the Dutchman and behind manager Alonso in the early stages before utilising a one-stop strategy to keep P6.
“We did an amazing job, the team gave me an amazing car for today’s race,” said Bortoleto, who has scored points three times in the last four races. “We managed to put everything in place.
“The strategy was great. I don’t see how we could finish this half of the season better.”
Camara crowned F3 champion
While the title battle in Formula 1 between Piastri and Norris will continue to rage after the summer break, the crown in Formula 3 has already been decided in favour of Rafael Camara.
The Ferrari Academy Driver claimed the accolade with a round to spare having taken an impressive victory in a wet Feature Race at the Hungaroring, his fourth win of the campaign for Trident.
“I’m very happy. All the hard work we did all season has paid off, so super happy,” said the 20-year-old Brazilian, who has taken back-to-back titles after his success in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine in 2024.
“It’s a time where we can finally relax a bit because all season, regardless of if you are losing or if you’re winning, you always keep working hard.”
The new-look Hungaroring receives rave reviews
After nearly four decades of hosting the Hungarian Grand Prix, the Hungaroring got a host of shiny new upgrades to modernise parts of the venue, from the media centre to the paddock facility.
Think 20 garages are enough to hold an F1 race? This track is now close to offering 40, with 36 available to teams and four reserved for technical services.
If that doesn’t impress, maybe the stylish rooftop terrace, sleek VIP area or updated commentary booths will!
While the building work will continue into 2026 to celebrate 40 years of Grands Prix in Budapest, the revamped 10,000 capacity grandstand helped the organisers to sell out Sunday’s race and encourage those watching at home to add the Hungaroring to their list of must-visit tracks.
Stars out in force in Hungary
Your best bet for celeb spotting in F1 would typically be in Monaco or Las Vegas, but Hungary was far from lacking when it came to star power.
Anya Taylor-Joy was seen in the Ferrari garage for the second time in three races, while fellow actor Jamie Dornan got the chance to pay McLaren a visit and watch their drivers secure a mighty 1-2 finish.
The honour of waving the chequered flag went to legendary Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose as Norris narrowly beat Piastri to the race victory, but perhaps the real winner off-track was Haas’ Esteban Ocon.
A massive Marvel fanboy (he’s previously rocked both Deadpool and Captain America helmets), he was in for a treat as he met Captain America himself, Anthony Mackie, on Saturday.
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