2026 Hungarian Grand Prix – Race Report

Hungaroring, Sunday, 26 July

Find out what happened during the Hungarian Grand Prix, and get the thoughts of McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, as well as Team Principal, Andrea Stella.

The McLaren Mastercard F1 Team leaves Hungary with its first win of the year, and the knowledge that it is on the right development trajectory, as Lando Norris converted Pole position into victory at the Hungaroring - his 12th Grand Prix win, his first repeat win at a circuit, and his first with the Number 1 on the car. This is also the team’s 204th victory and its third in a row in Hungary.

The team head into the summer break with the satisfaction of a win. It was, however, a bittersweet one, as the team missed out on what could have been a double podium due to a reliability issue on the gearbox of Oscar Piastri’s car, which caused him to retire from the race.

It was a highly strategic race, led for most of the laps by both McLaren MCL40s. Both cars started on a Medium tyre. Lando made a good getaway from Pole position and held the lead through Turn 1, but then he went slightly wide at Turn 2 and Oscar, who had overtaken Charles Leclerc at the start, took the opportunity to pass him. They pulled out a gap in the early exchanges – while leaving open the choice of one stop or two. Ultimately the decision was made by Lewis Hamilton pitting from P4, and both drivers coming in to cover. Oscar came into box first with the strategy priority as a result of being ahead on track. A stricken Cadillac in the pit lane made Oscar do a once-past, but they had enough of a margin to maintain track position, albeit losing their four-second cushion, having both switched to a Hard tyre.

With the leading pack all pitting, attention turned to Kimi Antonelli, who stayed out, assumed the lead, and looked intent on a one-stop. He came in on Lap 22, and Oscar resumed the lead, with Lando directly in his wheel-tracks. The stint was reasonably static. Lando had more pace but didn’t have a way through. Oscar, as lead driver, had first choice of pit stop, and came in on Lap 33, for another set of Hard tyres, to maintain position over Hamilton, who had stopped on Lap 30.

Oscar’s stop covered Hamilton effectively, but it left both of them with backmarkers to work their way through. Oscar was hit by backmarker Carlos Sainz, which cost him some time and Sainz a five-second penalty. Lando, who stayed out until Lap 39 for his second set of Hard tyres, was able to come out ahead of the battle between his teammate and Hamilton. He passed Antonelli for the lead on Lap 46.

Oscar moved up to P2 when Antonelli called off his one-stop and pitted for a second time – but a presumed gearbox failure caused him to roll to a halt on Lap 56. The Virtual Safety Car was deployed, and Lando dived into the pits, where fast work from the crew got him out with his lead intact, and a set of used Soft tyres fitted for the final 13 laps.

Lando was joined on the podium by his Number 1 Mechanic Kyle Moreira, who collected the Constructors’ trophy on behalf of the team. The weekend had been a busy one for the garage crew, from Leonardo Fornaroli sitting in for FP1, to a test of our experimental revolving wing, and the significant upgrade to the floor and corners. It sets up a compelling second half to the season – but for now, the team goes into the summer break with a victory, two beautiful trophies and excellent momentum.

It’s not quite the summer holidays yet for the team. Lando, Oscar, and Leonardo head to Portimão this week as part of the team’s Testing of Previous Cars programme. The team are taking advantage of the opportunity to run at a circuit that is returning to the calendar in 2027, and for Leonardo to experience a test with both of the McLaren Mastercard race drivers as part of his development and role as Reserve Driver.

In the McLaren Driver Development Programme, Matteo De Palo finished the FIA Formula 3 Feature Race in Hungary in P21. In British F4 at Thruxton, Dries Van Langendonck was Not Classified in Race 2 and finished Race 3 on the podium in P3. At Mugello in the Italian F4 series, Christian Costoya finished P14 in the final race of the weekend.

“I’m very happy to be back and parking the car in front of the #1 board again. The car was beautiful to drive and I felt very confident. My pace today was probably some of the best pace I’ve ever had. The team has put in a huge amount of work to get us into a position to win again. I’m very proud of everyone, and it’s nice to do my bit and be able to reward that effort with a victory.

“This is probably the circuit that suits me, and suits the MCL40 best, but I want to believe we can continue this form after the summer break. There will be places where we struggle more, but I certainly believe we can win further races. We’re going to be bringing even more to the car – but then so are our competition, so it’s going to be tough.

“I’m proud of the whole team, Pole, fastest in FP3, and a strong win is the result of a lot of hard work. We’ll enjoy the summer break, come back to Zandvoort refreshed, and keep pushing for more wins.”

“A tough day to end a tricky weekend. I was really pleased with my start and Lap 1 performance, putting ourselves in a position to win at a circuit where track position is key. When we swapped to the Hard tyre, we just struggled for pace and then lost valuable time when I was hit by a lapped car. From there we continued to struggle until the gearbox failure ultimately ended our race.

“Congratulations to Lando on the win, it is a good moment for the team, and we can take positives that the car is now in a position to win races. We will keep pushing to find more and more performance into the second half of the season. Now, we take a break.”

Andrea Stella

Team Principal

“Today's result is a fantastic reward for the entire team, both at the track and back at the factory. We race as a team and today was a well-executed race from a strategic and sporting principles point of view, which wouldn't be possible without two drivers who fully support our approach. The competition between Lando and Oscar was great, fair racing, and we're very pleased with the respectful approach they showed each other. Lando's pace was simply mega, and he put himself in a position to take a victory that was won on pure speed. Oscar deserved his opportunity to fight for the win after taking the lead, and his race was unfortunately compromised by the incident with a backmarker, and then the gearbox failure. We clearly still have work to do on the reliability side, which took us out of contention for at least a double podium.

“The performance step we saw this weekend can be entirely ascribed to the upgrades, which validate the conceptual direction we have taken. It was a monumental effort from our aerodynamics, design, manufacturing and logistics departments to deliver these parts, and I want to extend my thanks to them and our partners at HPP for helping us squeeze every millisecond out of the car. While we are pleased with our performance today, back in a position to win the race, we know it's going to be a race of development until the end of the season. This result proves what we are capable of, and we will keep our focus on delivering more performance to fight for victories consistently. We go back to work for one last push before the summer break next week, where we will continue to work on reliability and future upgrades, ahead of a well-deserved rest for the entire team. As we start the second half of the season, we want to be in condition to show the same level of performance we ended the first half of the season with.”