Winners and losers from the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix

At the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix, it looked as if it had all gone wrong for McLaren’s Lando Norris — but a bold strategy and strong execution spelled victory for the British driver.

He’s one of the clear winners from the race in Budapest; here, we have PlanetF1.com’s full list of winners and losers.

Winners and losers from the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix

Winner: Lando Norris

A stunning strategy from McLaren paired with a strong execution from the driver saw Lando Norris take a fifth victory of the F1 2025 season after starting from third on the grid — but even that brief summary doesn’t quite encapsulate the Briton’s race.

When the lights went out, both McLaren drivers wasted no time battling one another, and despite an initially strong start, Norris lost two positions, one to George Russell and another to Fernando Alonso.

McLaren suggested a potential one-stop strategy in order to recoup positions, though Norris didn’t fully seem onboard until Lap 28, when the team informed him that the one-stop was still looking good. You could practically hear the shrug in Norris’ voice when he agreed, “Yeah, why not!”

It turned out to be the better of the two McLaren strategies (and we’ll talk about Oscar Piastri below), and as Charles Leclerc’s pace fell off, Lando Norris was there to capitalise. When Piastri needed to pit a second time, Norris slipped into a lead that he never relinquished.

Norris takes a lot of criticism — and it often comes from himself – but in Hungary, we saw the Briton rally back from frustration to manage a challenging and unpreferred strategy for a strong win.

Loser: Charles Leclerc

Polesitter Charles Leclerc had an incredibly strong start to the Hungarian Grand Prix. As the McLaren drivers battled one another, the Ferrari driver was able to take a decisive lead that he held through to the first pit stop. The dominant McLarens had nothing for him.

But then… something happened. When he made his first pit stop, it seems as if Ferrari made a tweak to the SF-25 that Leclerc did not agree with, prompting him to radio the team, “I can feel what we discussed before the race. We need to discuss those things before doing them.”

Whatever it was, it was enough to leave him vulnerable to an overtake by Oscar Piastri, then George Russell.

“This is so incredibly frustrating,” Leclerc exclaimed on the radio in the closing stages of the race.

“We’ve lost all competitiveness. You just have to listen to me, I would have found a different way of managing those issues.

“Now it’s just undriveable. It’s a miracle if we finish on the podium.”

A miracle indeed. He came out on the losing end of a messy scrap with George Russell, having to content himself with fourth place in a race that promised something more.

Clearly something went wrong with Ferrari, and while Leclerc’s frustration was completely understandable, losing his cool almost certainly did not help matters, and he was slapped with a five-second penalty in the closing stages of the race.

After the race, he apologised to the team for his lengthy radio rant; it was ultimately a chassis problem that caused the issues, which was out of Leclerc’s (and the team’s) control.

However, he remained frustrated, pointing out that this could be the team’s one chance to win a race in 2025, and when those opportunities arise, it’s critical to take advantage of it.

More Hungarian Grand Prix reaction:

👉 Charles Leclerc backtracks on Ferrari radio rant as true cause of problems revealed

👉 Marko declares F1 2025 title ‘impossible’ after latest Red Bull defeat

Winner: Sauber

Sauber emerged from the Hungarian Grand Prix victorious in its own right, despite a chaotic and investigation-fuelled start to the race.

Both Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg were noted for a start infringement that saw them moving before the five lights went out. While the Bortoleto allegation was swiftly dismissed, Hulkenberg was deemed to have moved in his box before the start and was slapped with a five-second penalty just after making his first of three pit stops on Lap 6.

And despite that, Hulkenberg finished 13th. No, it wasn’t good enough for points, and yes, he was indeed a lap down — but that’s also five positions better than where he started, which is a major improvement for a driver that was in the pits more than anyone else.

For team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto, it was another stunning race. He transformed his career-best seventh-place start into a career-best sixth-place finish. Those eight points are huge for Sauber — and it’s a great performance from the rookie.

Loser: The No. 81 McLaren crew

Between a strategic misstep and a driver error, the No. 81 McLaren crew will be wondering where it all went wrong today.

Of the two McLaren drivers, Oscar Piastri came out on top when the lights went out; he held onto his second place as team-mate Norris dropped back to fifth. But it was the team’s decision to pit him despite a 2.5 second gap to leader Charles Leclerc that started to turn the tides of the race.

The goal was to undercut Leclerc, but the gap was too large to overcome in the pits — particularly thanks to Ferrari’s own impressive two-second stop.

Before the second stop, Piastri was asked if he’d like to cover off Leclerc from the lead or to stay ahead of Norris. Piastri opted for Norris… and he pitted a lap after Leclerc dipped into the lane. While the Australian was eventually able to bypass Leclerc, he had to fight hard to chop down the gap to his leading team-mate.

It looked like he could make it happen; Piastri loitered within DRS range for several laps before trying a late dive on the inside of Turn 1 on the penultimate lap. The Australian locked up and narrowly avoided a collision with Norris; from that point forward, he avoided another attack.

Second place isn’t the end of the world, of course — but for a team as strong as McLaren, and for a driver leading the World Championship, anything but a victory makes for a bad day.

Winner: George Russell

Mercedes made a major call to return to an old suspension layout at the Hungarian Grand Prix after it became clear that the W16 had taken a serious performance blow following its Barcelona upgrades — and it paid off well.

George Russell started fourth on the grid for the Hungarian Grand Prix but established himself as a potential contender from the get-go when he bypassed Lando Norris for third on the grid. Varying strategies and a struggling Ferrari again opened up the opportunity for Russell to return to a podium position — though his late-race scrap with a frustrated Leclerc got quite dicey.

Still, a podium is a massive consolation after the team looked set to fall further down the F1 2025 pecking order.

Loser: Alpine

Alpine’s race was, to put it succinctly, a disaster. The French team lacked pace all weekend. In qualifying, Franco Colapinto secured a 14th-place start on the grid while Pierre Gasly could only set a time good enough for 17th.

Colapinto took on medium tyres for the start of the race, while Gasly opted for hards — but both men lost several positions when the lights went out. They fell to 18th (Colapinto) and 19th (Gasly)… and they remained there until the chequered flag.

After the race, Gasly told media that the race was “very good” because the car is only good enough for these bottom slots on the grid thanks in part to a 10-second time penalty for the Frenchman after colliding with Carlos Sainz. It’s be another weekend to forget.

Winner: Kimi Antonelli

From 15th at the start to 10th at the finish, Kimi Antonelli may not have scooped up more than a single point, but he’s certainly earned a place on the ‘winner’ list after an extremely challenging run of European races.

Part of that likely comes down to the aforementioned set-up reversion Mercedes did this weekend, after its earlier season suspension upgrade failed to work as planned. Part of it also likely has to do with Antonelli’s growing confidence.

While conditions in Hungary were cooler than expected when compared to previous years, it was a fairly straightforward race in terms of weather, unlike Belgium and Silverstone. It did, however, force him to manage his tyres, taking his sole stop on Lap 21 before a 49-lap stint to the flag.

While Russell has shown the Mercedes is capable of finishing on the podium, Antonelli can still celebrate a 10th place.

Loser: Oliver Bearman

A frustrating weekend for Haas driver Oliver Bearman ended in the field’s only retirement after what was a promising start.

At the start, Bearman overtook Isack Hadjar and moved up into the points, but as he described to media after the race, he was just “surviving” from Lap 2 onward. He struggled with the car, and it slowly grew worse.

Later, he sustained damage; while he wasn’t sure where it came from, and it ended in another disappointment for Haas.

FULL REPORT: Hungarian GP: Norris wins as FIA launch investigation over Verstappen, Hamilton incident