Lando Norris took McLaren’s 200th Grand Prix win holding off his team mate and Championship rival in a mouth watering battle. Talking of hungry our 2025 Hungarian F1 Grand Prix Result Summary should leave you as full and satisfied as after an eating competition.
This 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix Result, Laps that Matter summary, Review & Ratings gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
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2025 Hungarian F1 Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – A boilover in qualifying as Charles Leclerc takes pole position. McLaren had dominated everything up until Q3 and it looked just a matter of which Championship contender would be first and which one second. Conditions including temperature and win changed in Q3, handing an opportunity that Leclerc took. Meanwhile the Aston Martin are having a rare good weekend with 5th and 6th on the grid, and equally impressive is Gabriel Bortoleto 7th who outqualified the two most recent World Champions. At least Max Verstappen made Q3 (8th). Lewis Hamilton (13th) did not.
Conditions are colder, which may suit the Mercedes of George Russell. It’s a tight track which should suit the pole sitter Leclerc. It’s windy with a head wind down the main straight which should boost overtaking. Plus there could be rain on the way. Plenty of box tickers.
GRID (Starting Order) – LEC PIA NOR RUS ALO STR BOR VER LAW HAD
Lap 1 – Leclerc makes a good start, as does Oscar Piastri and it’s Ferrari-McLaren 1-2 into turn one. Lando Norris makes a less good start and is beaten by George Russell and then Fernando Alonso by turn five. Bortoleto gains one spot to sixth, Max Verstappen loses one. Lewis Hamilton two places, compounding their underwhelming qualifying. The Alpines lose three and four places. Advantage Piastri for Championship right now.
ORDER – LEC PIA RUS ALO NOR BOR STR LAW VER BEA
Lap 3 – Lando Norris overtakes Fernando Alonso in turn one at the beginning of lap three. Further back Max Verstappen gains a place or two over Stroll into the chicane this lap and Liam Lawson a lap ago. Meanwhile Charles Leclerc is doing it easy in front, leading by over a second and setting a few fastest laps in a row.
ORDER – LEC PIA RUS NOR ALO BOR VER STR LAW BEA
Lap 5 – Poor Gabriel Bortoleto, he is under investigation for a jumped start, which is usually black and white and means he’ll cop a penalty. Shame, he’s strong in sixth and annoying Fernando Alonso in fifth. The Hulk is under investigation too. Maybe it’s a flaw with the car or coincidence. Or the FIA don’t like Sauber. Which seems petty. But the FIA can be petty. People like The Hulk. FIA rule out punishing Bortoleto. That may be a case of missing identity with the other Sauber. Which is pretty hopeless if you think about it.
Lap 6 – Lando Norris sets fastest lap. We hope the Sky F1 commentary team don’t need fresh linen. He is fourth and just over a second behind George Russell. Meanwhile at the front Leclerc is over 2.5 seconds in front of Piastri and looking the goods.
Lap 9 – Tactics time – Oscar Piastri’s team radio suggest that the weather conditions means that some drivers are considering just one stop. Piastri says wait and see, so we will. No change in the top ten order except for Norris closing in on Russell. Leclerc is over five seconds in front of Norris.
Lap 10 – Checking in with Lewis Hamilton and after dropping from 12th to 14th on the first lap he remains 14th and behind his replacement Kimi Antonelli. A sad weekend for Lewis Hamilton.
Lap 11 – Charles Leclerc on the radio about cuts, so hopefully for his sake there isn’t a gremlin waiting in the Ferrari to ruin his day.
Lap 16 – Top five update – the gap between Leclerc at Piastri is maintaining at around 2.5 seconds like Piastri knows what he’s doing the whole time. George Russell is four seconds-ish behind Piastri and Norris can smell which oil Russell’s Mercedes uses. He’s getting as frustrated as the Sky F1 commentary team that he’s being stuck behind Russell. Despite Russell also being British. Alonso is 12 seconds behind Norris, but is going faster than the leaders apparently. More tactics talk with undercuts and overcuts of tyre stops.
ORDER – LEC PIA RUS NOR ALO BOR VER STR LAW BEA
Lap 18 – Max Verstappen pits for new tyres, the first major runner to do so.
Lap 19 – Oscar Piastri dives into the pits for new tyres, just as McLaren discuss the same for Lando Norris. Piastri, who comes out behind Alonso is trying to undercut Charles Leclerc.
Lap 20 – Leclerc and Russell pit. Can Leclerc hold his lead? The answer is yes. But the gap has closed to around a second. Meanwhile, Lando Norris is out in the lead, but did say two laps ago his tyres were finished. Replay of Leclerc locking up on those new tyres won’t help. But he does overtake Alonso a lap later. Piastri also gets past Alonso a couple of laps later, but is now two seconds behind Leclerc.
Lap 21 – George Russell setting fast sectors times, so Lando Norris is losing time out in front, which is good news for Oscar Piastri. Unless Norris and McLaren are secretly working on a one stop strategy. That’s tough going, but Norris is capable.
Lap 23 – Lando Norris still leads and looks like he could be hanging on for a one stop strategy, which will make it rather interesting later. Alonso and Bortoleto have yet to stop in the top six, but they won’t win. Unless it rains.
Lap 25 – Oscar Piastri asks whether the one stop strategy will work. His team say difficult. Meanwhile, Norris’ lead over Leclerc is reducing as is the gap from the Ferrari to Piastri
Lap 27 – Blast from the past in the midfield as Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen fight for 11th. Now they aren’t fighting for a championship maybe they can avoid running into each other now. The answer is not really as a few laps later it looks like one pushes the other wide off the road.
Lap 28 – McLaren ask Lando Norris if he can do 40 laps on a hard tyre for a one-stop strategy, and Norris replies with “why not”. Why not indeed, gives a point of difference.
ORDER – NOR LEC PIA RUS ALO BOR STR LAW BEA HAD
Lap 31 – Lando Norris’ lead is down to under three seconds as he dives into the pits for his one pit stop. He rejoins in front of Fernando Alonso which is helpful and fourth. About nine second behind George Russell.
ORDER – LEC PIA RUS NOR ALO BOR STR LAW VER HAD
Lap 37 – Top ten has settled down a bit now, and Charles Leclerc has edged further ahead Oscar Piastri from 1.5 seconds to over two seconds. Replays show Lando Norris running wide, and we await the excuse from Sky F1 to why that’s all good. Norris is going quickly to be fair but has a long time to go on those tyres.
Lap 40 – Fernando Alonso finally pits for tyres. He rejoins in 8th position. Bortoleto does his first pit stop and rejoins in 8th too. Alonso is 6th
Lap 41 – McLaren pit crew come out into the pitlane, but only Charles Leclerc pits for tyres, He rejoins in 4th. Perhaps a nice piece of mind games from McLaren. Can Piastri build a big enough gap?
Lap 43 – Lando Norris is right on George Russell’s tail as they battle for second on track. If Norris gets past it will give him a good chance to make the most of the one stop. The longer he stays behind the Mercedes the worse his finishing position will be. Doing Norris a favour, George Russell pits at the end of the lap. Norris is just under ten seconds behind Piastri, with Piastri surely due to pit soon.
Lap 46 – Oscar Piastri pits for new tyres. He rejoins behind Charles Leclerc. So to win this race the Australian needs to overtake both Leclerc and Norris. Lando Norris is looking rather strong out in the front right now, but those tyres have another 20+ laps to go. Tough gig, but Norris is capable. Should be an exciting finish.
Lap 50 – Oscar Piastri is catching Leclerc quickly but he needs to do so if he wants to win this race. The gap between the Ferrari and the Mclaren is close enough for DRS as they head into Lap 51 and Piastri takes his first chance. Around the outside of turn one no less. Lando Norris is 8.5 seconds ahead. The race is on for the lead.
ORDER – NOR PIA LEC RUS ALO BOR STR LAW VER ANT
Lap 53 – All of a sudden Leclerc’s Ferrari is undriveable, and the driver is pissed at his team. He has every right given his form. He recently lost a place to Piastri and looks like Russell is now a threat too.
Lap 54 – Oscar Piastri is just over five seconds behind Lando Norris and should be battling within three laps.
Lap 57 – The Mclaren drivers trade fast times, and the gap between them is 4.6 seconds after being less not long ago. Norris is holding on well for now, and Piastri have now find it as easy as it first seemed after passing Leclerc not long ago.
Lap 59 – The gap is 3.6 seconds between Norris and Piastri as the McLarens hit backmarkers to lap them. Adding an extra element to the already tense battle.
Lap 61 – The gap is down to 2.4 seconds, but it must be said that Piastri isn’t catching him with any authority. Meanwhile George Russell overtakes Charles Leclerc a lap after being grumpy at Leclerc’s attempts to stop him from doing so. It didn’t stop Leclerc doing exactly the same for this overtake too.
ORDER – NOR PIA RUS LEC ALO BOR STR LAW VER ANT
Lap 63 – The gap is now down to 1.2 seconds but the McLarens are approaching cars fighting for 10th, which won’t be easy. Just seven laps to go and it’s getting tight for Piastri to make the move.
Lap 65 – The gap is under a second now, so DRS is available for Piastri. Will Norris make it easy? You’d think not. But backmarkers might also decide the fate of this race. They are just in front of Norris.
Lap 66 – Six tenths covers the McLarens now, and Piastri had the DRS down the straight this time. Piastri doesn’t quite seems as fast as you’d think he’d be at this stage.
Lap 67 – Piastri isn’t quite close enough as they dive into the first corner. The gap is half a second but there’s no backmarkers in the way now. A straight fight, which will play down the pit straight the next few laps. Four left in fact.
Lap 68 – Piastri wobbles out of the last corner and gets almost close enough in to turn one. Norris doing so well on older tyres. Piastri is closer throughout the rest of the lap this time around, but he needs to be. There’s just two more chances left to win this race.
Lap 69 – Piastri lunges and locks up and Norris keeps the lead. Piastri is not close enough it seems as they approach the final lap. It’s going to take a huge dive for Piastri which hopefully doesn’t end in tears.
FINAL LAP – Piastri is not close enough down the pit straight and doesn’t make a move into turn one. Norris is doing enough, and there’s nowhere left really to pass. Norris is almost home and does win as Piastri can’t get close enough or pass around the tight remainder of the lap.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – NOR PIAS RUS LEC ALO BOR STR LAW VER ANT
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. 5 points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – LANDO NORRIS
It looked like a Lando Norris kind of weekend through most of the early days, but he qualified third and lost two places at the start. That disappointment was put aside, and he was put on a different one stop strategy and it worked a treat. His drive to the slower one stop strategy was quite impressive and hung on for a deserved win.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
CHARLES LECLERC – Took a pole position that looked unlikely given the McLarens pace up to that point in the weekend. Led the race convincingly too early, but his race died in the arse in the last stint. Disappointing not to make the podium, but his continued success piles on more misery to his World Champion team mate.
OSCAR PIASTRI – Probably should have taken pole position and won by a mile, probably should have won the race. Second will do, but there will be regrets.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Continues in his fight to be best of the rest, qualifying fourth and running third after a great start. Extracting maximum out of his Mercedes while extracting minimal contract movement with his Mercedes team. Takes the final podium after a robust fight with Charles Leclerc.
GABRIEL BORTOLETO – Qualified 7th, outqualifying Max Verstappen. Gained a spot at the start and stayed in 6th for most of the race. Impressive stuff from the rookie as the Sauber keeps getting better.
FERNANDO ALONSO – Took advantage of a decent Aston Martin for a change and qualified fifth. Made a good start and overtook Lando Norris and stayed in front for a lap or two. Ran in the top six for most of the race. Finished 5th is some result.
LANCE STROLL – This website is traditionally harsh of Lance Stroll and we should acknowledge when he is isn’t hopeless.
THE GRAPE-EST – LEWIS HAMILTON
Another missed Q1 session, and your team mate takes a surprise pole position. Not great. Then drops two places at the start to fall to 14th, making point scoring difficult. He seemed pretty down after qualifying, and presume he’ll add to that after the race. 12th place is ordinary.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
RED BULL – If Max Verstappen is outqualified by a Sauber and two Aston Martins, then there’s something wrong. Not even a Horner-sacking can help it seems. The ultimate benchmark on car Yuki Tsunoda was knocked out in Q1, started from pitlane and ran towards the back to the whole race.
CARLOS SAINZ – It isn’t if Sainz regrets his WIlliams move, but how much. And looking at Red Bull, they really did drop the ball but now signing Sainz.
ALPINE – Second last and last at the end. Cemented to bottom of Championship.
Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
PRE RACE ACTION (FP, QUAL, SPRINT, OFF TRACK etc) – 3 / 5
When you hear changes and massive spend at the Hungaroring you get excited. Then it’s only a grandstand and F1 paddock. Qualifying was super interesting when the Ferrari all of a sudden went quicker than the dominant McLarens to that point.
ON TRACK ACTION (RACE) – 5/ 10
Enough action during the race with an interesting start and a few cars out of regular order. Extra strategies than usual added an extra element for the race as well.
ANY SURPRISES? – 4 / 5
Leclerc taking pole position was quite the surprise. As was Aston Martin qualifying 5th and 6th. Lewis Hamilton’s decline is still surprising. Same with the depth of Red Bull’s fall.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 5 / 5
Every race is important right now with the McLarens one-two and fighting for the Championship. Going into the Summer Break, you’d say that is a slight advantage to Norris for momentum despite the Championship deficit.
ENDING – 5/ 5
A tense finish as Piastri hunted Lando Norris and Norris hangs on with the one stop strategy. Norris hung on, but how good to have racing between Championship chasing team mates without incident.
OVERALL RATING – 22 / 30
A decent race at a track which usually provides not much in terms of dry racing. Championship defining, tense, surprise results. Worth the late night.
2025 F1 Season Race Ratings
R1 – Australian Grand Prix – 27/30
R2 – Chinese Grand Prix – 11/30
R3 – Japanese Grand Prix – 18/30
R4 – Bahrain Grand Prix – 19/30
R5 – Saudi Arabia Grand Prix – 17/30
R6 – Miami Grand Prix – 17/30
R7 – Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix – 20/30
R8 – Monaco Grand Prix – 21/30
R9 – Spanish Grand Prix – 15/30
R10 – Canadian Grand Prix – 18/30
R11 – Austrian Grand Prix – 20/30
R12 – British Grand Prix – N/A but was great
R13 – Belgian Grand Prix – 13/30
2025 F1 Season Preview Gear
F1 2025 SEASON – THINGS TO LOOK FOR AND AVOID
F1 DONKEY AUSTRALIAN GP BOLD PREDICTIONS
2024 F1 Season Review Gear
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated and will be ready on Monday.
2024 F1 SEASON FULL RACE REPORT HISTORY
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