Lando Norris took McLaren's first victory of the season, and his first since becoming world champion, after an impressive drive at the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix. Norris' triumph meant that F1 has now seen five winners in the previous five rounds as the constructors tighten at the top. Indeed, the top four positions all had drivers from different teams in a sign that this year's title race is far from certain. Despite starting from pole position, Norris did not drive a straightforward race to claim his winner's trophy. It was teammate Oscar Piastri who instead led the first lap. The Australian jumped from his P3 start to pass the Soft tyre starting Charles Leclerc and claim P2 off the line. Leclerc had the red-walled Pirelli rubber's grip, but the dusty side of the lesser-used circuit did not help his getaway and the Monegasque dropped to P5 by Turn 2. Piastri wasn't done, though, and a dive to the inside of the Turn 2 left-hander as Norris went wide was enough to grab the lead. Action behind the McLarens set up the first half of the race, too, with Lewis Hamilton following Max Verstappen in passing Leclerc. The two long-time adversaries were wheel-to-wheel battling for the third podium spot into Turn 3, even banging tyres. Verstappen clung on as Hamilton slotted in behind, but with the Dutchman running Pirelli's Mediums and both Ferraris on Softs, the pace advantage would be with Hamilton.

The opening laps of the race had Hamilton on Verstappen's tail but unable to overtake at this tough-to-pass track. With tyre strategy looking key for making moves via the pit lane, Ferrari boxed the seven-time champion to seek an undercut over the Red Bull. Switching to fresh Hards certainly gave Hamilton extra grip, but his pit exit had him behind Arvid Lindblad to slow him down. A glorious pass around the outside of Turn 5 showed that the seven-time champion was in a fighting mood, though, and Verstappen's team responded immediately. A few car lengths was the slender gap when Verstappen rejoined the track, with Hamilton just ahead. That pass on Lindblad proved crucial for his advancement. That net P3 position did not last long, though. Needing to pass the still-to-stop Liam Lawson, Hamilton eased by down the pit straight. While thinking the move was complete and lining up Turn 1, the Ferrari driver failed to see Verstappen also passing Lawson and easing off the brakes to get alongside. Verstappen's excellent car placement had him with the better line for the first corner, and he snatched back a position that Hamilton would not regain.

With the race settling into a rhythm of cars following one another but not able to challenge without an offset of tyre strategy, Ferrari rolled the dice once more. Hamilton stopped again on Lap 40 for another set of Hards to trigger another round of pit stops. McLaren soon followed suit with leader Piastri, but it was Norris asking for an undercut. The reigning champion believed he was much faster, yet with the lead driver being the one to benefit from strategy calls, McLaren brought Piastri in first. That decision proved wise, too, with Hamilton filtering in only a few seconds behind the Australian. Yet Piastri's fortune did not last. Although he fared better on the fresh tyres, his lap times weren't closing the gap to Norris, who was yet to stop. With around 20 seconds lost to a pit stop, Norris was around 20 seconds ahead after going faster on his old Pirellis now that he was in clear air. That was the opposite for Piastri, who encountered Carlos Sainz battling with Fernando Alonso at the back of the field. With the Hungaroring's GPS system not working correctly, Sainz was not told by his engineer that Piastri was chasing him down. The Spaniard didn't move out of the way for the blue flags and instead hit the net race leader at Turn 3. Piastri did well not to spin out, but Sainz still did not yield despite the contact, only moving aside three corners later. Piastri's slowdown was all Norris needed. McLaren pitted the champion two laps later, and Norris reemerged with a one-second race lead.

With all of this going on, there was another element in this race for the podium that became clear only after the second stops. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli ran in P6 from the start, but Mercedes had him stay out longer on his first set of Pirellis. He was going on a long stint on his Hard tyres, too, and had become a hurdle for the leaders to pass. The team eventually stopped him with 16 laps remaining, dropping him from P2 to P6. Yet a podium was still in his future... Piastri's gearbox failed two laps after Antonelli's stop, adding the final bit of misery to the Australians' frustrating Sunday. His retirement triggered a Virtual Safety Car, and Norris, Hamilton, and Leclerc took the opportunity to equip Pirelli's Soft tyres for the final laps. Crucially, though, Antonelli already had fresh rubber on his Mercedes and leapfrogged the two Ferraris to take P3, albeit only by centimetres at the pit exit. Red Bull kept Verstappen out, too, who now had inherited P2 after the others stopped and Piastri retired, with Norris having enough of a lead to return to track in P1. The race finished with those positions, but there was still more late-race drama with Hamilton. The stewards handed down a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane on his final stop. That, ultimately, demoted the man who was once in P3 and closing in on Piastri down to P5 as Leclerc finished 4.4s behind—a day to forget for Ferrari, who went from the front row to no silverware. For Norris, though, this was a welcome reminder that the development race of F1 is just as important as the driver in the car. McLaren have delivered the 2025 champion a car capable of fighting at the front. It might be too late for Norris to defend his crown, but it's now a third constructor winning in 2026. With Verstappen and Red Bull continuing to be in the fight, too, the season might have Antonelli boasting a healthy lead for the summer break, but Mercedes' advantage has vanished. This season still has plenty of mileage left. F1 will return on August 23rd for the Dutch Grand Prix.

The cat-and-mouse 2026 Formula 1 title fight took another twist in Belgium as Kimi Antonelli found victory again while Mercedes teammate George Russell retired on Lap 1. Antonelli, the unfortunate party in the last Grand Prix, now boasts a 50-point lead over Russell, with Lewis Hamilton leapfrogging to P2 some 45 points adrift. While Russell's bad luck made an unwelcome return in Belgium, there were reasons for neutral fans to cheer as Ferrari maintained their form, showing that this title race is still not over. It proved a stop-start 44 laps around the iconic Spa-Francorchamps circuit, with an opening lap Safety Car deployment to recover Russell's car. Antonelli kept his lead from pole to Turn 1, but Max Verstappen powered by into Eau Rouge to briefly steal P1. A mixture of power deployment saw the lead six cars battling down the Kemmel Straight, with Verstappen sliding back immediately, losing places to Antonelli and Charles Leclerc. Behind that trio was the major talking point, though, as Russell stayed outside of Hamilton into Les Combes. The old teammates tangled, despite Hamilton's best efforts, sending Russell spinning into the gravel and out of the race. The contact let Oscar Piastri up to P4 as Hamilton lost ground. A contentious five-second penalty for the contact also added to Hamilton's misery on a day the seven-time champ will seek to forget.

The resulting Safety Car slowdown was cause for delight for Isack Hadjar. Red Bull's decision to change multiple components on his car had the Frenchman starting from the back of the grid on Hard Pirelli tyres. The team took the chance of two 'free' pit stops at the reduced speed. Sacrificing track position for the stop kept Hadjar behind, but without needing to stop again. Lando Norris, on the other hand, kept his hard tyres equipped from a P13 start. Like Hadjar, the reigning champion was hit with a grid penalty for exceeding his power unit allocation, but was further up the order. This alternate Pirelli strategy tyre fight proved a fascinating subplot to the main event. Busy battles followed the race resumption on Lap 4, with Hamilton and Piastri switching places out of La Source, then swapping back at Eau Rouge, and Verstappen speeding by Leclerc to take P2. Leclerc and Piastri were the next to go wheel-to-wheel fighting, and things got too close for comfort in the braking zone at the end of the Kemmel Straight.

Leclerc had covered the inside line for Les Combes to force the McLaren over to the left. The Ferrari drifted left, however, when Piastri got alongside, and the left-rear tyre of Leclerc's car hit and damaged Piastri's bodywork. Unlike Hamilton, though, the stewards handed down no penalty for this incident. Piastri's podium hopes ended with the carbon fibre over the road as his pace disappeared, and Hamilton soon passed, too. Things settled down a little after this frantic start. Norris and Hadjar continued marching up the order with a flurry of overtakes on the midfielders, but it was the pit stops that provided the next drama. While Norris reached the sister McLaren on the road, gravel at the Stavelot corner triggered two Virtual Safety Cars. While no one benefited from the first, Ferrari pulled their two drivers in for Pirelli Medium tyres at the second. With the other frontrunners having stopped, this proved critical for the race. Leclerc emerged ahead of Antonelli thanks to the significantly reduced time loss under the VSC. It wasn't so beneficial for Hamilton, though. Serving his five-second penalty in this Ferrari double-stack added complication for the pit crew. A green light after his tyre switch had the Briton pushing out of his pit box, but he hit a mechanic preparing to alter his front wing angle. The team received a penalty for the unsafe release, and the mechanic was unharmed, but the trouble summed up Hamilton's Sunday drive.

Although this shuffled the order for the race's second half, Antonelli's incredible pace kept him close. Norris, who was still to stop, could not keep Leclerc or Antonelli behind, and the Mercedes had a three-second lead to close down. The incremental gains made it seem inevitable that the positions would switch back, but Leclerc kept his lead until Lap 34. A run down the Kemmel Straight was all Antonelli needed to return to P1, with Leclerc having no answer.
Elsewhere, the Norris-Hadjar fight took a turn in Red Bull's favour. Norris' eventual Lap 30 stop for Medium Pirelli tyres was slowed by a slow left-rear wheel fitting, costing him time. Although the tyre advantage helped him in the closing laps, he ultimately finished 0.7s away from Hadjar over the line in P7. Piastri, too, lost out in the latter laps, with Hamilton passing at Les Combes for P4 on a long day for the McLaren team.
Despite it all, Antonelli kept his cool to bring home win number six of his stellar season. The Italian will head into the summer break after this weekend's Hungarian GP as the championship leader, no matter the result. It's been an electric start to the year for the Mercedes man, but spare a thought for the other side of the garage, with Russell suffering yet more bad luck. F1 returns in Budapest on Sunday.