Champion Norris hands McLaren first win of 2026

Formula One champion Lando Norris celebrated McLaren’s first victory of the season in Hungary on Sunday while Mercedes’s Kimi Antonelli extended his overall lead to 50 points after a day of damage limitation. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was runner-up, 15.080 seconds behind the Briton, with Antonelli third after a likely McLaren one-two evaporated when Oscar Piastri pulled over with a gearbox failure 14 laps from the end at the Hungaroring. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, Antonelli’s closest title rival, finished a close fourth on track but dropped to fifth behind teammate Charles Leclerc after a five-second post-race penalty for speeding in the pitlane when he made a third stop under virtual safety car conditions. “My pace today was probably some of the best pace I’ve ever had,” said Norris, who goes into the August break on a high. “The car was beautiful to drive and I felt very confident, so a great race. “I’m just happy to be back and see the number one again.” RUSSELL SEVENTH AFTER START NIGHTMARE Isack Hadjar was sixth for Red Bull. Mercedes’s George Russell finished seventh, after a terrible start that dropped him to 19th, and remained third in the overall standings but 59 points behind his 19-year-old Italian teammate. “I am past the point of disappointment now. If I continue to be disappointed with everything that goes on, I will just be disappointed every day of the week,” commented Russell. Racing Bulls had Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad eighth and 10th respectively with Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg between them in ninth. In the constructors’ standings, Mercedes’ lead over Ferrari was trimmed to 72 points from 73 after 11 of a potential 23 rounds following Malaysia’s addition to the calendar, announced on Sunday. The win from pole position was Norris’s 12th victory, and second in a row in Hungary, but it could have been Piastri’s day after the Australian took the lead on the opening lap from third place on the starting grid. Piastri was ahead through the opening pitstops and made his second stop before Norris as McLaren sought to prevent Hamilton taking the lead with an undercut. His chances then took a literal blow when a collision with back-marker Carlos Sainz’s Williams while lapping the Spaniard delayed him enough to allow Norris, who had stayed out several laps longer, to pit and still come out ahead. The champion then picked up the pace and sped away. “Obviously getting taken out by a backmarker is never really one of the things you think can go wrong. But I was proven wrong. Then obviously the gearbox, so not the easiest of days,” said Piastri. EXPENSIVE PITSTOP FOR HAMILTON His retirement triggered a virtual safety car, with Norris pitting from the lead and the Ferrari drivers from second and fifth respectively, while Verstappen and Antonelli stayed out in what proved the right strategy. The cheap pitstop proved very expensive for Hamilton, the seven-time champion triggering the penalty when he went 0.1 kph over the limit. It was his second of the weekend after a three place grid drop for impeding Piastri in qualifying. “I didn’t expect to be on the podium today. But we worked hard for it,” said Verstappen, who lost out to Hamilton after the first pitstop but took the place back with a bold overtake a lap later and finished 3.6 seconds ahead of Antonelli. “I saw the opportunity. It was my only one. I just went for it. We’re good on the brakes, so that helped, but it was all under control,” said the four-time world champion. Antonelli had started seventh after a three-place grid penalty but completed a day of damage limitation better than might have been expected. “It was really hard to overtake so we had to do something with strategy,” said the Italian. “Initially we tried to go for the one stop but then they told me the tyre was too much on the limit, so we stopped. “With the Virtual Safety Car the two Ferraris boxed. I knew it would be very hard because I was on hards, they were on softs, but luckily we were able to keep them behind.”