{"id":827996,"date":"2026-07-26T22:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T22:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/827996\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T22:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T22:20:11","slug":"lando-norris-wins-f1-hungarian-gp-for-first-victory-of-season-as-piastri-retires-formula-one-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/827996\/","title":{"rendered":"Lando Norris wins F1 Hungarian GP for first victory of season as Piastri retires | Formula One 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lando Norris finally had reason to celebrate after a testing opening to the season, as McLaren\u2019s defending Formula One world champion<\/a> took his first win of the year at the Hungarian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

However, while the victory was thoroughly deserved in an incident-packed race, there was an all too familiar feel to the bigger picture as Kimi Antonelli<\/a> emerged from a weekend that might have been considered damage limitation for the Mercedes driver having once more extended his advantage at the top of the drivers\u2019 championship.<\/p>\n

Norris was implacable with an assured drive from pole at the Hungaroring, achieving McLaren\u2019s record 14th win at the circuit. He maintained his cool having lost the lead to his teammate, Oscar Piastri<\/a>, in the second corner and then showed relentless pace in going on to retake it through the pit stops. The Australian was unlucky and was left fuming that he had been blocked and struck while trying to lap the backmarker Carlos Sainz in a Williams at a crucial point.<\/p>\n

Ultimately Piastri had to retire with a gearbox problem but by then Norris had the race by the scruff of the neck and, in clean air out front, had powered into a commanding lead. By the flag he led Max Verstappen<\/a> by 15 seconds, as the upgrades McLaren brought to Hungary proved to be working to great effect, especially in the British driver\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri (left) overtook Lando Norris on the first lap but lost his lead after clashing with Carlos Sainz and retired with gearbox failure. Photograph: Bernadett Szab\u00f3\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Behind him, Antonelli again put the squeeze on his title rivals by returning big points from an unlikely position. The Italian started from seventh, after a three-place grid penalty, but put in a very strong comeback drive to take third place. Moreover, Antonelli\u2019s Mercedes teammate George Russell was left once more to curse a run of ill-fortune that haunts him as a blight he seems unable to shrug off.<\/p>\n

Russell\u2019s car went into anti-stall on the grid, dropping him to 20th, a mechanical problem that led Toto Wolff, the team principal, to say Mercedes had to stop making mistakes. As Russell had applied a little throttle on the grid the power had surged, so he backed off it and the anti-stall was activated. He drove hard to come back to seventh but has dropped even more points to the Italian as the sport goes into its summer break, with Antonelli now leading Lewis Hamilton<\/a> by 50 points and Russell by 59.<\/p>\n

Like Russell, Piastri can consider himself to be on the very unlucky side of the ledger. He had been leading but was impeded and struck by Sainz as he tried to lap the Spaniard. Piastri was very nearly knocked off the track but just held control to race on.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideF1 Hungarian GP resultsShow<\/p>\n

1 Lando Norris \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 McLaren 1:39:56.180 \u2013 25pts
2 Max Verstappen \ud83c\uddf3\ud83c\uddf1 Red Bull +15.080 \u2013 18pts
3 Kimi Antonelli \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf9 Mercedes +18.728 \u2013 15pts
4 Charles Leclerc \ud83c\uddf2\ud83c\udde8 Ferrari \u00a0+23.840 \u2013 12pts
5 Lewis Hamilton \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Ferrari\u00a0 +24.540 \u2013 10pts
6 Isack Hadjar \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7 Red Bull +55.488 \u2013 8pts
7 George Russell \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Mercedes +57.503 \u2013 6pts
8 Liam Lawson \ud83c\uddf3\ud83c\uddff Racing Bulls +1 lap \u2013 4pts
9 Nico H\u00fclkenberg \ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddea Audi +1 lap \u2013 2pts
10 Arvid Lindblad \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7\u00a0Racing Bulls +1 lap \u2013 1pt
11 Gabriel Bortoleto \ud83c\udde7\ud83c\uddf7 Audi +1 lap
12 Pierre Gasly \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7 Alpine +1 lap
13 Lance Stroll \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6 Aston Martin +1 lap
14 Fernando Alonso \ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddf8 Aston Martin +1 lap
15 Franco Colapinto \ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddf7 Alpine +2 laps
16 Esteban Ocon \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7 Haas +2 laps
17 Alexander Albon \ud83c\uddf9\ud83c\udded Williams +2 laps
18 Carlos Sainz \ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddf8 Williams +2 laps
19 Oliver Bearman \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Haas +2 laps
NC Oscar Piastri \ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa McLaren DNF
NC Sergio P\u00e9rez \ud83c\uddf2\ud83c\uddfd Cadillac DNF
NC Valtteri Bottas \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddee Cadillac DNF<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs he fucking stupid or what? Get out of the fucking way, you idiot. Oh my God,\u201d a furious Piastri told his team. Blue flag markers were being shown and Williams had told Sainz, who was at fault having not spotted Piastri and simply turned into the McLaren<\/a>. He was penalised with a five-second penalty.<\/p>\n

It certainly cost Piastri the lead but that was perhaps moot, as such had been Norris\u2019s pace in clean air after the Australian\u2019s early pit stop set him free that the world champion would probably have taken to the front anyway. But that would have been of scant consolation to Piastri, who had questioned the team\u2019s strategy as well.<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen\u2019s Red Bull (left) and Lewis Hamilton\u2019s Ferrari were involved in an entertaining battle in the early stages. Photograph: Tamas Vasvari\/EPA<\/p>\n

There was frustration to for Hamilton, whose Ferrari<\/a> team ordered him to take a late third pit stop under a virtual safety car, costing him track position to Verstappen and Antonelli. He could not make up those places even on fresher rubber, which Hamilton felt had been the wrong call, with which it was hard to argue given how hard passing was in Hungary.<\/p>\n

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He crossed the line in fourth but dropped behind his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc<\/a> because of a five-second penalty for pitlane speeding. It was a shame as Hamilton had battled hard throughout, including a thrilling to and fro with Verstappen in which the Dutchman pulled off a bravura overtake diving up the inside at turn one which was worthy of the price of admission alone.<\/p>\n

Yet the afternoon had really belonged to Norris and there was a palpable sense of relief and pleasure that he finally had the monkey off his back this season and that McLaren might yet, whisper it, be players in this title fight.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideF1 standings after Hungarian GPShow<\/p>\n

Drivers’ standings<\/p>\n

1 Kimi Antonelli \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf9 Mercedes 219pts
2 Lewis Hamilton \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Ferrari 169
3 George Russell \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Mercedes 160
4 Charles Leclerc \ud83c\uddf2\ud83c\udde8 Ferrari 138
5 Lando Norris \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 McLaren 128
6 Max Verstappen \ud83c\uddf3\ud83c\uddf1 Red Bull 109
7 Oscar Piastri \ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa McLaren 92
8 Isack Hadjar \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7 Red Bull 68
9 Pierre Gasly \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7Alpine 42
10 Liam Lawson \ud83c\uddf3\ud83c\uddff Racing Bulls 43
11 Arvid Lindblad \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Racing Bulls 23
12 Franco Colapinto \ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddf7 Alpine 19
13 Oliver Bearman \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Haas 18
14 Gabriel Bortoleto \ud83c\udde7\ud83c\uddf7 Audi 10
15 Carlos Sainz \ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddf8 Williams 6
16 Alexander Albon \ud83c\uddf9\ud83c\udded Williams 5
17 Esteban Ocon \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7Haas \u00a03
18 Nico H\u00fclkenberg \ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddea Audi 2
19 Fernando Alonso \ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddf8 Aston Martin 1<\/p>\n

Constructors’ standings<\/p>\n

1 Mercedes \ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddea 379pts
2 Ferrari \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf9 307
3 McLaren \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 220
4 Red Bull \ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddf9 177
5 Racing Bulls \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf9 66
6 Alpine \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7 61
7 Haas \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 21
8 Audi \ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddea 12
9 Williams \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 11
10 Aston Martin \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 1
11 Cadillac \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 0<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

They have a long way to go, not least because Antonelli proved again that he is as indomitable in adversity as any veteran, but Norris will still believe this is far from over.<\/p>\n

Earlier, F1 confirmed the addition of a race at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia, which will take place on 4 October between the rounds in Baku and Singapore. The meeting, which is to replace the cancelled Bahrain GP, is to be branded as the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, with the Gulf state understood to be meeting much of the costs of hosting the race on the circuit near Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, also cancelled due to the war in the Middle East, will not be replaced.<\/p>\n

Sepang last held an F1 meeting in 2017, which was won by Verstappen, and the addition brings the calendar back to 23 races, if the two meetings which close the season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi are able to take place. F1 is understood to be considering adding a race at Imola as the season finale if they are called off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lando Norris finally had reason to celebrate after a testing opening to the season, as McLaren\u2019s defending Formula…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-827996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}