What the teams said – Race day in Hungary

McLaren

Piastri got a decent start and was running second behind Leclerc in the first stint. But Norris braked too early for Turn 1 and fell behind Russell and Alonso. While Piastri then tried to undercut Leclerc in the first stops, Norris was left out after he could not find a way back past the Mercedes. That translated into a one-stop strategy for Norris, the only thing he could do having lost so much time in the first few laps behind Alonso. Piastri was shadowing Leclerc on a two-stop strategy, and picked off the Ferrari man after the second stops, but Norris had track position thanks to his strategy. Despite closing the nine-second gap to his team mate and having fresher tyres, Piastri ran out of time to mount a serious challenge for the win and, one desperate lock-up later, had to trail Norris home as the Briton won for the third time in the last four races.

Lando Norris, 1st

"The perfect result today. Another 1-2 and I’m really pleased to win the 200th Grand Prix for McLaren. It means a lot to me, and it’s even more rewarding because it was a tough race. We weren’t planning on the one-stop at the beginning, but after the first lap it was the only option to challenge the cars around us. I knew our pace was good, even in the first stint behind George, so I knew I could push in clean air. It’s always a gamble, but it also requires no mistakes, good laps, good strategy and good pit stops, and that’s what we had today. Credit to Oscar who put up a good charge. I look forward to plenty more of these after the summer break."

Oscar Piastri, 2nd

"It's always frustrating to miss out on the win by such a small margin, but overall, another great result for the team. It's easy in hindsight to say the one-stopper would have been quicker, but there was only a second in it, so it's something we will review as a team. It was an entertaining and fun race all things considered, and the team executed well, especially on the pit stops. Now for a well-earned break, thanks to the team for all of their work so far this season."

Andrea Stella, Team Principal

“A superb 1-2 finish in Hungary delivered the 200th win for the McLaren Formula 1 Team this weekend, which myself as Team Principal, Zak as CEO and the entire team are proud and privileged to have delivered following in the footsteps of our founder Bruce McLaren.

“While the two-stop strategy was slightly faster in today’s race, Lando was able to deviate to a one-stop due to his track position. This allowed him to do something different to the other drivers and manage the Medium tyre in the first stint and then the Hard tyre very well until the end of the race.

“Oscar can be proud of his race weekend, he was very fast and it was close at the end in the challenge for first. Both Lando and Oscar pushed hard to make the most of their opportunities and it could have finished one way or the other.

“Overall, today’s race was firm but very fair with both drivers demonstrating the values of what it means to be a McLaren team member. We head into the summer break celebrating four consecutive 1-2 finishes which is a great achievement. Thank you to the entire team both at track and back in Woking, you all played your part in victory 200!”

Mercedes

Mercedes had a good race, their car looking much better as conditions started to cool. Russell was opportunistic at the start, picking off a sluggish Norris to run third. Like Leclerc and Piastri, he two-stopped and found himself out of the podium places as a result. But he chased down and picked off Leclerc with a late-braking move into Turn 1, the duo coming close to contact. That bagged Russell his first podium since Canada, and Antonelli made it two cars in the points for the Silver Arrows. He battled from P15 on the grid to 10th despite the Hungaroring being notoriously difficult to overtake at, making his hard tyres last a staggering 48 laps.

George Russell, 3rd

"It’s great to be back on the podium. We’ve taken a step forward with the car this weekend, so it is a deserved reward for the hard work of everyone at Brackley and Brixworth. It looked like we were on for a lonely P4, but we closed on Leclerc in the closing stages. The overtake itself was a little dicey; I committed to the corner, and he clearly moved under braking, for which he was given a penalty. Thankfully there was no harm done and we were able to take P3.

"This result gives us encouragement heading into the summer break and we can look forward to the final 10 races of the year now with more confidence. We can’t get carried away as we didn’t expect to be in the top three this weekend. We know the competitive order behind McLaren is tight and we will need to be at our best to fight for podiums consistently in the second half of the season."

Kimi Antonelli, 10th

"That final stint was a very long one. It felt never-ending! I did close to 50 laps on that Hard tyre and by the end, I was just hanging on out of the final corner each lap and defending into turn one. The cars behind had superior grip but I was able to keep them behind. It felt great to get that final point as our pace in free air was good. If I can start nearer the front after the summer break, then I know we can fight for good points each weekend.

"I am really happy that my confidence in the car has come back this weekend. I leave Budapest feeling much more comfortable after moving back to the previous rear suspension. Yesterday’s qualifying was just a shame as the pace was clearly there. We can take this feeling into the second half of the season and look forward to it with optimism now."

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

"This has been a positive weekend for the team here in Hungary. We reverted on the rear suspension specification and that helped provide a much more stable and balanced car for the drivers. They had more confidence in it and that was reflected in their pace. It was solid throughout and that helped George score a well-deserved podium and put Kimi in a position to hold off several cars for a point, despite being on nearly 50 lap old tyres.

"This result and our overall performance here at the Hungaroring give us a direction for the rest of the season. As our focus turns to 2026, we won’t have any more major aerodynamic upgrades to bring to the track. Nevertheless, there are refinements we can make as we look to optimise the car we have. That will be useful as we look to end 2025 in a positive way and fight for second in the Constructors’ Championship over these final 10 races of the year."

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

"We leave the Hungaroring pleased with a solid result and encouraged by the improvement we have seen with the W16. George, starting P4, fought hard with Norris throughout the first two stints, showing good pace throughout. The McLaren was ultimately able to make the one stop work and with it, take victory. George’s speed though helped us close down the Ferrari of Leclerc and pick him off for P3 and the podium in the closing stages.

"With Kimi, the first half of the race was frustrating as he was stuck in a train of cars all on different compounds. We opted to stop him to claim some free air, but he soon found himself back in the pack. It is to his great credit that by extending on the Hard tyre he opened the possibility of claiming the final point in P10. Some clever driving on near 50 lap old tyres held off Hadjar and Hamilton in what was an impressive final stint.

"We now head into the mandatory summer shutdown period. When we return after the break, we will be looking to optimise the W16 and build on this confidence building weekend when we return in Zandvoort. There are still 10 races to go, and we want to end the season on a high. We are also in a battle for second in the Constructors’ Championship and we will be doing everything we can to claim this by the season finale in Abu Dhabi."

Ferrari

Leclerc got away well from pole, and led throughout the first stint as the Ferrari looked to have very decent race pace. But after the second pit stops, the Monegasque driver started to complain about the car – even saying the issue would cost him a podium. He proved to be right, as first Piastri swept past and then Russell did so. Leclerc fought the Mercedes man a bit harder and was handed a five-second penalty for moving under braking, but that did not affect his finishing position. Hamilton opted for the hard tyres at the start and ran a long first stint. He was stuck in traffic so could not make much progress, and despite one-stopping, came home outside the points. He was also sent wide at one point as Verstappen tried to get past as their old rivalry resumed, but would not be drawn afterwards on the incident.

Charles Leclerc, 4th

"This is not the outcome we hoped for but there was nothing we could have done to control it considering the issue we had. I got some more insight into what was happening after getting out of the car and it turns out that we had an issue on the chassis that started just about when I began to feel a difference in how the car behaved. It’s frustrating, because I think we could have won today, but we will return after the summer break and give it our all to come back stronger."

Lewis Hamilton, 12th

"It’s been a challenging weekend and one to move on from. We weren’t able to make the progress we hoped for but I’m grateful for the effort everyone in the team put in throughout the weekend. Now we head into the break. I’ll be using the time to reset, recharge and come back stronger. I’m not where I want to be yet, but the fight’s not over - don’t count me out."

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal

"The weekend went pretty well at first, in the practice sessions and in quali. In the race, the first two stints of Charles were under control, the first especially was very good, Charles pulling out a gap over the McLarens and Russell. He came under a bit more pressure in the second stint and then in the final one, we were losing two seconds a lap. Now we need to understand what happened on the chassis that made the car so hard for Charles to drive. At least we got the points for fourth place because there was even some doubt that Charles could finish the race.

"I can understand perfectly his frustration as we were covering Piastri and he had the performance in his pocket to do it.

"As for Lewis, starting on Hards, he lost a couple of places and that put him in traffic in a very long DRS train, which is the worst possible scenario. That’s what decided us to go for a one-stop with him. Looking at the positives, of course yesterday we got our first pole position of the season and for the first part of the race we were matching McLaren in terms of pace and we had a 15 second lead over Russell. But then we lost everything and didn’t have the pace anymore so now we have to investigate why."

Aston Martin

Alonso had a great start and picked off Norris. While he didn’t fight the McLaren man too hard when Norris flew back past after a few laps, the Spaniard always looked on for a very solid fifth. With only one set of mediums and one set of hards, Aston Martin looked to be leaning towards a one-stop race and that is exactly what they did. Alonso came home where he started, while Stroll finished one place back from where he started after losing out to Bortoleto off the line.

__Fernando Alonso, 5th __

"Today's race went to plan for us and we maximised the performance of the car this weekend. It was a good job by everyone in the team and we are happy to have scored 16 points. We had some threats to deal with in the race, but we managed to keep them behind. The performance we've shown here has been a nice surprise, but we need to analyse everything from Spa and Budapest so we can better understand why we were much faster here in Hungary. I will enjoy the short break now and I look forward to racing again in Zandvoort."

Lance Stroll, 7th

"It was a great day for the team and a solid weekend from start to finish. Heading into the summer break with 16 points is a big uplift for us. But we have lots to learn from this weekend because we don't fully understand why we were more competitive here. We need to be in a place where we can put the car in that window at more tracks because ultimately, we want to be at this level of competitiveness more consistently. We'll see how we go in Zandvoort after the break because it's a very different kind of track."

Mike Krack, Chief Trackside Officer

"Fifth and seventh place in Budapest is a good way to wrap up the first half of the year. Fernando and Lance have been excellent all weekend and converted our strong qualifying result into important points. They both made the one-stop strategy work and did a great job of managing the Medium tyres during the long first stint. It has been our most competitive weekend this season so well done to the entire team for the great preparation and execution. It is always nice to start the summer break off the back of a good result and these 16 points will give everybody in the team a boost. We will take a few weeks' holiday and come back ready to build on this result in the races to come."

Kick Sauber

Both Kick Sauber drivers had their starts looked at, with Bortoleto nipping ahead of Stroll and Hulkenberg making up a place as well. In the end only the German was penalised, to the tune of five seconds. He was the first to pit too, and that did undercut him past several cars, but the advantage was lost when he pitted a second time. As for Bortoleto, he grabbed his best finish of the season after some heroic defence to keep Verstappen at bay in the early stages. That enabled the rookie to one-stop, and he came home comfortably between the two Aston Martins – who are now Kick Sauber’s closest rival in the championship.

Nico Hulkenberg, 13th

Gabriel Bortoleto, 6th

James Key, Technical Director

Beat Zehnder, Director Signature Programs & Operations

Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal

Racing Bulls

Hadjar did not get away too cleanly and dropped out of the points. To make matters worse, gravel kicked up on the first lap caught his hand in a painful-looking moment. But Lawson made a better start and, while he couldn’t keep Verstappen at bay in the early stages, he remained in the points. From there the team opted to one-stop both cars which proved the right call, Lawson finishing ahead of a two-stopping Verstappen in the end, while Hadjar’s quest for P10 was hampered by blue flags for the leaders with just a few laps to go.

Isack Hadjar, 11th

“It’s pure frustration just missing out on points. The pace was strong all weekend, and I felt confident going into the race. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a great launch at the start. I gave it everything on lap one, but got overtaken and ended up getting stuck behind other cars. On the Medium tyres, our pace was solid. It’s a good result for the team and for Liam, there are definitely plenty of positives to take away. The car has the potential, I just need to put everything together when it counts. We’ve been a bit unlucky in the last few races, but I’m optimistic about the second half of the season. I’ll stay focused on what’s ahead and come back stronger after the summer break.”

Liam Lawson, 8th

"I'm very happy with today's result. It was a tough race and trying to find a window for boxing was tricky with all the traffic. The speed was really good as well as the degradation on the tyres, so everything was well executed by the team. It's never easy keeping a driver like Max behind you, but our strategy meant that we could keep position until the end. It's obviously great to have more consistency over the most recent races, but the key thing is for us to keep the momentum going following the much-deserved summer break."

Alan Permane, Team Principal

“A very strong race from Liam, both the car and the one-stop strategy worked very well; he made the tyres last well and brings home another 8th place. It was a shame for Isack, he felt he could have qualified better yesterday and ultimately on this track, two or three places in Qualifying is ever so hard to get back in the race. We lost a place to Bearman at the start, losing a lot of time behind him, which then undid the rest of his race. Overall though, the car has been decent with both of them in Q3 in the last two races. Unfortunately, we’ve lost a position in the Championship, but it’s all very tight in the midfield and we have a good car, so we’re looking forward to the second half of the season and I’m very sure we’ll get some positions back. A massive thank you to the drivers and all our teams back in Faenza and Milton Keynes, we can have a breather as we go into the break, and we’ll come back very strong in Zandvoort."

Red Bull

Tsunoda opted for a pit lane start today, and at a track where overtaking is difficult, spent most of his afternoon caught in DRS trains. He had one close call with Hulkenberg when fighting for position before trailing home down the order. Verstappen had a more eventful day in many ways. He lost a place off the line but soon recovered, only to get stuck behind an obdurate Bortoleto. The team pitted him early for the undercut, and he debated switching to a one-stop after rising to fifth. But that early first stop made that impossible, and a late second stop dropped him down the order. He was also called to the stewards after an overtake on Hamilton midway through the race that sent the Ferrari man wide, but no further action was taken.

Max Verstappen, 9th

"Unfortunately, the whole weekend wasn’t good for us and we need to understand why that was. It has been quite tough as we got stuck in between cars during the race and struggled for grip. Although the high speed was okay, the low and medium speed wasn’t good. There are a lot of things to understand as the car has been difficult all weekend and we couldn’t turn things around unfortunately. Like we always do, we will analyse everything and take learnings from the weekend to find more performance as we go into Zandvoort. Ultimately, this weekend hasn’t gone to our liking, but it is now summer break and I can enjoy time with family and friends and not think too much about the racing side of things. There are many more races left and we can look to do better after the break. We want to aim to be more consistent and always try and even though it was a disappointing result we will keep our head up."

Yuki Tsunoda, 17th

"This weekend has been a tough one for the Team. We knew coming into today that it would be tricky to move up into the points, and once I had damage to the front wing our race was effectively over. The gurney flap fell off halfway through and that cost us a lot of pace and worsening grip, so we then lost the ability to make a positive strategy call that would benefit us. Looking back on the season so far I can feel pretty positive, we've made progress, especially since the new floor upgrades were brought to Spa. The gap with Max continues to close, it may not feel like we are getting there but on paper we are only 1/10th off his pace, I'm not sure many other drivers could get as close to him. I am heading straight to the factory tomorrow to go into the Sim, we need to investigate where we went wrong and put in some hard work over the summer break so that we don't start the next half of the season how we finished this one. It's frustrating but we will stay positive and bounce back stronger."

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal

"It has been a very tough weekend from the first lap in FP1 and the race reflected this. We have certainly missed something quite key this weekend and looked at many things with both Yuki and Max, to try to get back to the level we had and get the car in the right window. The Team have tried everything, but the underlying performance was missing to be able to fight at the top end. The truth is we didn’t have the performance so when we pitted Max wasn’t ultimately going to be defining to the race result, we just did not have the lap time we needed in the car. Yuki was in a similar situation and starting from the pitlane meant he was never able to really make an impact on the field. What is important this weekend is that we have collected enough data to get out of similar situations in the future and make a positive step forward. These weekends are the ones you learn a lot from and that is what we will do. We will spend time reflecting during the break and we don’t underestimate the work ahead of us, we have many, many talented people in the Team to overcome this and we want to come back with a different level of performance after the summer break."

Williams

Not to be for Willaims in Hungary, a venue where they seemed to lack pace all weekend long. Albon made up three places at the start after opting for the soft tyres, with Sainz also starting on the red-marked tyre. But both found themselves stuck in DRS trains, and the timing of their pit stops could not create any better opportunities. Sainz’s day was made worse when he tangled with Gasly, who was penalised for the incident. But on a day where many of their rivals scored big, Williams know they have work to do to get back to the points.

Alex Albon, 15th

"It was a very tough weekend. I came into this weekend optimistic, and I feel like we're a little bit exposed around this track and the car didn't really suit it. We struggled in the race more than I thought we would. We need to do our homework because I know we would do a better job if we had another go at it. It's going to be a dogfight for the rest of the year and it's not going to be easy. I think we favour the lower downforce circuits and others probably favour the higher downforce ones, so we'll see how it plays out. But I'm going to fight like hell to keep P5 in the Championship for us and I'm sure Carlos feels the same. It's going to be a fight to the end."

Carlos Sainz, 14th

"It was a cleaner weekend for us; it’s just a shame it’s not on a weekend where the car is strong. P13 looked like the maximum, which is where we would’ve been without the incident with Gasly. We tried to do a one-stop but that was probably too optimistic going from the Soft to the Hard, but we tried to do something different before switching to the two-stop. I’m leaving the first half of the season slightly disappointed as we didn’t maximise the weekends where we were stronger, but hopefully the second half of the season is the other way around. A big thanks to the team for their massive effort and to all our fans for their endless support. We’ll reset, recharge and come back stronger for the rest of the season!"

James Vowles, Team Principal

"A difficult weekend. We need to make sure that we learn and understand why we can be strong on one circuit and poor in others. It's a pattern that's been consistent over years, but we need to break out of it in order for us to be able to move up the grid. I'm really proud of what the team has achieved in the first half of the season. It's great to be in fifth in the Championship. However, we have to recognise it will be a close fought battle to the end of the year and we have to maximise every opportunity that comes towards us. Well done to everyone on the team, Alex and Carlos for everything we've achieved in the first half of the year. It's time for everyone to enjoy a break and come back refreshed in a few weeks."

Haas

Haas were one of three teams not to score in Hungary. Bearman started solidly in the midfield, but he ran into trouble after picking up some floor damage and wound up being the only retiree from the race. Ocon tried a very ambitious one-stop race, making his hard tyres last 55 laps. But he was picked off late on by those on fresher rubber, and dropped back through the order to finish P16.

Esteban Ocon, 16th

“It was a difficult day for sure. We struggled a little bit, especially towards the end, as I think the cars behind were a bit quicker on fresher tyres. We got ahead of them, so we gave ourselves the opportunity. It was a solid start, but we need to work on how we can get the car a little bit more under control and get more pace throughout the race. Looking at this first half of the season, there are definitely some positives – a decent amount of points – but we’re not consistent enough. If you look at Spa, we had a mega performance in the Sprint, and obviously we’re not there every single weekend, but we’re working on it and I have full trust in this team.”

Oliver Bearman, DNF

“We managed to run in P10 for the first stint, but I was really clinging on the whole way. I was really struggling with the feeling of the car, and I had massive oversteer throughout. It progressed in the second stint, picking up some damage somewhere because we saw a big drop in loads, and by that point, it was clear that we couldn’t finish the race. It’s disappointing as we had a decent qualifying and opening lap today, but from there I wasn’t looking forward, I was looking behind. We need to understand why that was the case because in the last few races I’ve been feeling really good in race trim, but this weekend it hasn’t been the case.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal

“We didn’t show what we should be showing today. With how quick the car is, where we should’ve qualified, and the race pace of Bortoleto, there’s no reason we can’t do that. I’m pretty sure Ollie’s car was overbalanced, there’s no way that degradation from Ollie was the limit of the car or driver. We retired Ollie as he damaged the floor at Turn 4 again, it’s the third time this weekend, so we need to look at that also. On Esteban’s side, we need to look at our processes as clearly we were too early with our pit stop for a one-stop strategy. The only way is up, the car is quick, and we have two drivers with potential – we’ve just struggled putting it together for the last three races. We need the summer break, refocus, look at ourselves and then think about how we can deliver.”

Alpine

Alpine had a day to forget in Hungary, with their drivers propping up the field. Nothing quite worked for them, with Colapinto pitting early in a bid to undercut some rivals. That forced him onto a two-stop strategy, and his second stop sent him backwards. Gasly was on a one-stop, but he was handed a 10-second time penalty for an incident with Sainz and that compromised his afternoon. Alpine remain rooted to the bottom of the table, with the only silver lining the fact that Haas also failed to score.

Pierre Gasly, 19th

“We cannot be pleased with the end result today, even if it felt like our execution was quite good. Ultimately, we are just too slow. The last two weekends we have been able to maximise the conditions and come away with two good results. Today was more conventional and it really highlighted our weak spots. Still, there were a lot of fun battles out there and I felt like the racing was generally very good. I am here to race, not to give up, and I just gave it my best in all the wheel-to-wheel fights. Now, the team and I are staying in Budapest for a test before the summer break. We have all been working extremely hard and I am sure everyone is looking forward to a couple of weeks off. We will continue the hard work, especially with a lot of focus on 2026, but we are still aiming to come back in good shape for the remainder of this year.”

Franco Colapinto, 18th

“It was not the best of days today and a difficult race for us as a team. The pace was good at times in clean air and I had the same feeling as yesterday, I think we have taken a good step forward with the car which has given me confidence. But with the blue flags and losing time in the pitlane, it really limited what we could achieve today. The initial start and getaway was good, but from there we fell back on the first lap and lost places. I was struggling with rear grip and sliding, which came back to us later in the race. We opted for a two-stop and unfortunately, we encountered issues on both which meant we were held longer than we expected. As a team, we've been very good recently with pitstops, but these things happen in racing. With the summer break we need to use this opportunity to rest and reset and be ready to go again in Zandvoort and try to understand where we can keep making improvements.”

Flavio Briatore, Executive Advisor

“A disappointing end result and a difficult weekend overall for the team, which has really highlighted areas of weakness in our car. It has been a tough season so far and the aim for the remainder of the year is to try and turnaround our current position. It is a big challenge as all our focus is on 2026 and capitalising on the opportunity of the new regulations. Now is a critical phase in our work for next year and I know the team at Enstone is making positive headway on that project. I expect everyone to come back from the summer break with a lot of determination and fighting spirit, giving it our all to finish the season as strongly as possible and make sure we're ready for 2026.”

Pirelli

Mario Isola, Motorsport Director

“The first part of the season came to an end with a very interesting race, with three drivers fighting for the win. In the end, victory went to Norris, beating team-mate Piastri by a whisker. The two McLaren drivers were on different strategies, the Englishman going for a one-stop, the Australian two. On paper the two-stop was quicker, but the cooler, by about ten degrees, temperatures compared to Friday free practice, slightly closed the gap between the two options, also in part because thermal degradation was reduced for all three compounds compared to what we saw two days ago. Honestly, we still felt the two-stop was best, you just need to look at the gap that Alonso built up, in fifth, compared to Russell. The exception was Norris, who opted to only stop once, after finding himself fifth after the opening lap. The small performance difference between the Medium and Hard along with the clear difficulty in overtaking with cars running pretty similar race pace, made it worth risking an unconventional strategy because at that point, he had nothing to lose.

“All things considered, today we still managed to have a race in which different strategies were in play for the win, which made the second half of the race particularly exciting from a tactical point of view, even if not that spectacular in absolute terms.

“Before we too go on the summer break following a very busy first part of the season, we still have one more task on track, here at the Hungaroring. On Tuesday 5 and Wednesday 6 August, we will run a test session aimed at 2026 tyre development. On the menu, validating constructions, as these must be homologated by 1st September and development of the softest compounds, especially from C3 to C5. Supporting us in this on the first day will be McLaren with Norris at the wheel and Racing Bulls with Lawson driving. On the second day Ferrari will run Leclerc, while Alpine is doing both days, the first with Aron at the wheel, the second with both Colapinto and Gasly.”