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

Lando Norris won a slow burn at the Hungarian Grand Prix as the Briton’s one-stop strategy took on Oscar Piastri’s two-stopper to set up a late-race fight between the title protagonists.

Chasing down Norris, Piastri tried to attack but Norris defended perfectly to hold off his team-mate as the McLaren drivers claimed the team’s seventh 1-2 of F1 2025. George Russell joined the McLaren drivers on the podium.

Lando Norris wins in Hungary

Despite being the final hurrah before the summer break, the Formula 1 drivers lined up on the Hungaroring grid with the threat of rain hanging in the air, Charles Leclerc on pole position ahead of the McLaren pairing of Piastri and Norris.

Leclerc made a great start while Norris swept across the track to attack Piastri, but the Australian driver covered him off and Norris lost places, down from third to fifth as Russell and Fernando Alonso pounced. Max Verstappen lost a position to run P9 with Lewis Hamilton also down, 12th to 14th.

DRS was enabled on lap 3 and Norris immediately took advantage, blasting past Alonso to regain a position. Verstappen was also on the move, down the inside on Lance Stroll. “Nice job, Max. Let’s get through these ASAP.”

Running up in sixth place, Gabriel Bortoleto was noted for a false start. So too was Nico Hulkenberg, who was down in 20th place after an early pit stop to swap his soft tyres for mediums. Bortoleto was cleared, but Hulkenberg received a five-second penalty.

There were problems also for Isack Hadjar, who told Racing Bulls: “Mate, my hand is ****ed. I took all the gravel, all the gravel, man.” He had run wide, kicking up gravel.

10 laps in, Leclerc led by three seconds ahead of Piastri, who told McLaren it was too early to tell if the race would be a one-stopper. Russell was a further two seconds down with Norris all over his rear wing.

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Behind them, Alonso led a DRS train for fifth place with 12 drivers all running less than a second behind the car ahead. Hamilton told Ferrari: “DRS train, I can’t get close.”

15 laps in, Franco Colapinto, Alex Albon, Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz dropped out of the train as they pitted, seemingly committing to a two-stop strategy.

Back at the front, Leclerc led by 2.5s when Piastri was told to “use your pace”, which was soon followed by “box to overtake Leclerc”. He pitted on lap 19 and came out behind Alonso. Verstappen also pitted, and was back out in 16th place.

Leclerc was in the next lap and came out just ahead of Piastri. Russell also stopped, putting Norris into the lead. Leclerc and Piastri ran second and third with Norris leading by 12s, Norris’ race engineer Will Joseph talking about the option to “extend” given the traffic behind him.

One driver rueing the traffic was Verstappen, who was struggling to make progress in 12th place. After laps behind Alonso, Russell finally got rid of the Spaniard after a near collision was followed by a successful pass at Turn 1.

30 laps in, Norris’ lead was down to five seconds with the Briton committing to a one-stop strategy with a chippier “why not” when it was put to him. Verstappen overtook Hamilton at Turn 4, the Ferrari driver flying off the track. The stewards noted it.

“Box, box” came the call for Norris on lap 32, the Briton handed the challenge of 38 laps on the hard tyres. He came out behind Russell and ahead of Alonso. As Leclerc led Piastri by two seconds, Russell was third with Norris behind him laying down fastest laps to slowly close the gap.

Leclerc pitted on lap 41, the first leading two-stoppers and came out behind Norris, the two making up a place as Russell pitted. Behind him in fifth, Verstappen was told Red Bull were going to leave him out. Piastri pitted on lap 46, coming out in third place. Norris led by seven seconds ahead of Leclerc, who in turn was 12 up on Piastri.

As the leading drivers played the strategy game, behind them Stroll attacked Lawson for position, Hadjar and Ocon were fighting wheel-to-wheel, and Kimi Antonelli dived down the inside of Sainz.

Bad news for Oliver Bearman as he was told to retire the car due to rear-end damage, the first driver out.

Piastri made a crucial pass on Leclerc into Turn 1, braking later as he took second place. Within a lap, he took a second out of Norris’ lead. A further second on the next lap, the gap down to six seconds with 15 to go. Behind them, Russell was hunting down Leclerc. After 55 somewhat processional laps, the race finally heated up.

Russell overtook Leclerc on lap 62, with the Ferrari driver crowding the Mercedes. “That! That’s a penalty,” complained Russell. The stewards noted the incident.

Ahead of them, Piastri was just 1.8s down on Norris in the fight for the win, and then 0.9 with five to go as they cut their way through the backmarkers. The stewards also noted an incident between Sainz and Pierre Gasly and penalised the Alpine driver with 10 seconds.

Piastri was all over Norris’ rear wing in the fight for the victory as the Briton defended hard. Piastri lunged down into Turn 1 on the penultimate lap and locked up as he avoided a crash with his team-mate. Piastri was reminded about “how we go racing”. Closer in the final lap, Norris covered off Piastri into Turn 1 and raced to the win by less than a second ahead of his team-mate.

Russell was third with Leclerc P4 despite a five second penalty for driving erratically. They finished ahead of Alonso, Bortoleto, Stroll, Lawson, Verstappen and Antonelli.

Hungarian Grand Prix result

1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:35:21.231 70 laps
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.698
3 George Russell Mercedes +21.916
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +42.560
5 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +59.040
6 Gabriel Bortoleto Kick Sauber +66.169
7 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +68.174
8 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +69.451
9 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +72.645
10 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes + 1 lap
11 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls + 1 lap
12 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari + 1 lap
13 Nico Hulkenberg Kick Sauber + 1 lap
14 Carlos Sainz Williams + 1 lap
15 Alexander Albon Williams + 1 lap
16 Esteban Ocon Haas F1 Team + 1 lap
17 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull Racing + 1 lap
18 Franco Colapinto Alpine + 1 lap
19 Pierre Gasly Alpine + 1 lap

Did not finish

Oliver Bearman Haas – car damage

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