McLaren’s Lando Norris sealed a brilliant victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix to secure their first Formula 1 win of the season, whilst championship leader Kimi Antonelli extended his advantage.
Norris started on pole and masterfully managed the race to take the 12th win of his career. He comfortably held off rival Max Verstappen of Red Bull after his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri’s race was ended by a heart-breaking mechanical failure with just 14 laps remaining, despite a strong start that had him up into P1 on lap 1 after he squeezed his way through between Carlos Sainz in the Williams to challenge for and briefly be in command.
Verstappen finished the race in second, with a determined Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli finishing in third – making it a full comeback from seventh position and overcoming a 3-position grid penalty for his issues in qualifying to leave himself a very significant 50 point cushion to Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton fell just short of a podium finish, with a 5-second time penalty dropping him to fifth place from where he originally crossed the line and was promoted into the top-3 finishing of Charles Leclerc who was P4.
George Russell faced a challenge on the afternoon, battling back after a really rough start which dropped him into 19th. However, George produced a really encouraging performance after that, fighting through the field, to salvage seventh and leaving him 59 points behind his team-mate Antonelli, heading towards the next round of the Drivers’ Championship battle.
