2026 F1 Hungarian Grand Prix, Round 11: Norris takes his and McLaren's first win of the season as Piastri suffers gearbox retirement

The Hungarian Grand Prix, Round 11 of the 2026 F1 season, took place at the Hungaroring on the evening of July 26, China Standard Time (UTC+8). Lando Norris (McLaren) started from pole, regained the lead after the second round of pit stops and took victory. It was his second consecutive win at the Hungaroring, following last year’s success, and the first victory of the 2026 season for both Norris and McLaren.

Max Verstappen (Red Bull), who started fourth, finished second, 15.080 seconds behind. Drivers’ championship leader Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) secured the final podium place in third after starting seventh following a three-place grid penalty for a yellow-flag infringement.

Oscar Piastri (McLaren) took the lead early in the 70-lap race, with McLaren running first and second for a time. Norris then moved back ahead of his team-mate by delaying his second pit stop.

After losing time in contact with Carlos Sainz (Williams) while lapping him, Piastri stopped and retired on lap 56 with a gearbox failure.

Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), who qualified second but started fifth after a three-place grid penalty for impeding Piastri in Q3, finished fifth. George Russell (Mercedes), whose anti-stall system activated at the start and who dropped to 18th at one point, finished seventh.

Both Aston Martin-Honda cars finished: Lance Stroll was 13th and Fernando Alonso 14th.

A Virtual Safety Car (VSC) intervention brought a mixture of two-stop and three-stop strategies into play during the 70-lap race.

Piastri leads before the second round of stops changes the battle

Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), who started second on the front row, fell to fifth on the opening lap. Piastri passed two cars to move straight into the lead after the start. Pole-sitter Norris ran wide on the outside of Turn 2, surrendering the lead to Piastri.

With its cars running first and second from the outset, McLaren staggered their pit stops to counter the threat of an undercut from the cars behind, in which an earlier tyre change is used to gain a position.

After Piastri made his second stop, Norris continued pushing in clear air, staying out six laps longer than his team-mate. He used his pace during the extended stint to build an advantage and emerged ahead of Piastri after changing tyres, completing an overcut—gaining a position by pitting later.

Just before that, however, Piastri had lost valuable time in contact with Sainz at the exit of Turn 2 while lapping him.

Piastri angrily voiced his frustration over the radio. Formula1-Data recorded another sarcastic remark he made to the team after dropping behind Norris:

“Don’t talk to me right now. By the way, thanks for factoring in the traffic so thoroughly as well.”

Sainz was held responsible for the contact and given a five-second penalty.

Blue-flag system failure and late-race penalties

Early in the race, a GPS data communication problem led to the automatic blue-light alerts on the steering wheels being disabled, while the trackside light panels also stopped displaying the relevant car numbers. Drivers were still required to obey the blue flags shown trackside, making radio warnings from their teams about approaching cars even more important.

Speaking to a broadcaster, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff compared engineers on other teams’ pit walls to characters from a British children’s television programme, calling them “Teletubbies” and describing their failure to warn drivers promptly about the situation behind them as “shameful”.

Piastri’s misfortune did not end there: on lap 56, his car developed a gearbox failure. Having had victory in his sights at one stage, he ultimately retired.

A Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was deployed to allow the car to be recovered. Verstappen chose to stay out, while Norris ahead of him and Hamilton behind him fitted soft tyres.

Hamilton appeared to rejoin ahead of Antonelli, but Antonelli had been slightly ahead as they crossed the second safety car line (SC line), so Hamilton subsequently gave the position back.

Hamilton also breached the pit-lane speed limit during that stop. Although he crossed the line fourth, a five-second time penalty dropped him to fifth, promoting team-mate Leclerc to fourth.

Both Aston Martins finish

After Alonso reached Q2 in qualifying at this round, Aston Martin-Honda went on to finish the race ahead of both Cadillacs, both Haas cars, both Williams cars and one Alpine, with both of its cars gaining positions.

Alonso and Stroll both started on soft tyres. Alonso had qualified 16th and Stroll 20th.

Alonso extended his opening stint. The official pit-stop chart recorded his two stops on laps 34 and 55 respectively. His second tyre change came during the late VSC period, dropping him behind Stroll, who had already completed his second stop and chose to stay out at that point.

After the restart, Alonso passed several rivals to close up behind Stroll, but ultimately finished 2.24 seconds short of getting ahead. Stroll took the chequered flag in 13th and Alonso in 14th.

Double retirement for Cadillac

Neither Cadillac reached the chequered flag.

Valtteri Bottas retired after his brakes overheated and caught fire, with the official record showing 13 laps completed. Cadillac had just brought new components to the Hungaroring to address the persistent brake overheating problems it had suffered earlier in the season.

Sergio Perez, who qualified last, changed his suspension settings for the race. He started from the pit lane for breaching parc fermé rules, but eventually retired with a car problem, having officially completed 48 laps.

F1’s official post-race report mentioned a problem with the left-front area of Perez’s car, with the precise cause still requiring investigation by the team.

Oliver Bearman (Haas) received a five-second penalty for ignoring blue flags. He crossed the line 17th but was classified 19th among the 19 finishers after the penalty.

2026 F1 Hungarian Grand Prix race results