Chloe Reynolds
It was a thrilling Hungarian Grand Prix as Oscar Piastri won his first Grand Prix, beating McLaren teammate Lando Norris.
Practice 1
It was a hot one as the first practice session of the Hungarian Grand Prix got underway.
Oliver Bearman was out on the track competing in his fourth FP1 session for Haas, who took on the rookie as a full-time driver for the team in 2025. Oscar Piastri spent the first half of the practice in the garage as they worked on a technical issue with the car.
Max Verstappen set an early benchmark on the soft tyres, with a time of 1m 19.831s. This comes on a weekend when he is looking to return to the podium’s top step.
As the session continued, Lance Stroll reported that driving his car was “shocking”. At any point in the session, every driver had a chance to go top, as the grid’s performance was exceptional.
The virtual safety car was called out to recover a piece of debris from Alex Albon’s Williams.
Ferrari looked impressive. Carlos Sainz finished in P1, with teammate Charles Leclerc finishing practice in third. Verstappen finished the practice in P2, splitting the two Ferraris.
Practice 2
The evening session’s temperatures in Hungary were no better, with an air temperature of 31 degrees. Sergio Perez set the early benchmark during the first laps, and both Red Bulls decided to use medium tyres.
“Zhou Guanyu suffered a spin and narrowly avoided a collision with Perez”
The red flag came out early with 44 minutes left on the clock as Leclerc took on too much kerb and spun off the track into the barriers. Thankfully, the Monegasque driver emerged from the Ferrari unharmed.
With less than half an hour remaining, the action resumed. Zhou Guanyu suffered a spin and narrowly avoided a collision with Perez.
Norris finished at the top of the timesheet in P1, with Verstappen keeping his position in P2 and Sianz dropping to P3. Perez finished in fourth place, and George Russell came in fifth.
Practice 3
Verstappen was one of the first to post a time during the afternoon. During the last 40 minutes, many of the drivers headed out on the soft tyers for the flying laps.
Following yesterday’s performance, Norris remained the fastest driver and remained in P1, followed closely by teammate Piastri. Verstappen finished third, with Russell and Sainz completing the top five.
Sainz suffered a wobble through turn 4, the same place where teammate Leclerc spun off and crashed during Friday’s session. However, Sainz managed to control the car and get back on track with zero problems.
Qualifying
Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris took pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix, with the Australian finishing p2 and Verstappen P3.
“Just like in previous weeks, Perez failed to make it to Q2”
Action on track stopped when Yuki Tsunoda suffered a crash in his RB at an astonishing 68 G’s. Miraculously, he remained unharmed and left the track.
The weather changed throughout the day, making it difficult for the drivers and mechanics to choose tyres.
Just like in previous weeks, Perez failed to make it to Q2 after hitting the barriers and forcing the red flags to come out. The other shock exit came from Russell in the Mercedes, who was eliminated after putting the lap in too early. He placed P17 on the grid.
Race Day
As race day approached, Pierre Gasly started from the pit lane after Alpine decided to unplug the power unit charges before the race.
As soon as the lights went out, Norris made a strong launch off the line, but so did Piastri and Verstappen.
Piastri took the lead whilst Verstappen went wide on the outside before rejoining the track ahead of Norris.
Piastri emerged as the race leader early on and, from then on, led most of the Grand Prix. Norris managed to close the gap between himself and Piastri to just 1.5 seconds, and further back, Gasly’s car had to be retired due to a suspected hydraulic leak.
Later in the race, Verstappen flew in fifth position and was desperate to break into the top four. On lap 57, he used the DRS to surge past Leclerc, with Hamilton being the next target.
Verstappen eventually caught up with Hamilton and engaged in another duel with his former title rival. The Red Bull locked up and made contact with the Mercedes, bouncing and leaving the track.
Back at McLaren, Norris was pitted first to cover off Lewis Hamilton behind. The Brit was the one to emerge first.
“Norris seemed reluctant to follow team orders”
This prompted the McLaren pit wall to make several calls to Norris to give P1 back to Piastri. Norris seemed reluctant to follow team orders until lap 68 when he allowed the Australian to pass.
The final table was a McLaren one-two, with Piastri, Norris, and Hamilton coming third. The Ferrari of Leclerc placed fourth, with Verstappen dropping down to fifth.
After the race, the stewards also investigated Verstappen for the incident with Hamilton. The championship leader was not punished.
Russell also managed to gain some points after starting the race in p17 when he finished in P8.
Piastri crossed the line to take his first Grand Prix win with a two-second lead to finish.
READ NEXT:
-
INDYCAR RECAP: IOWA RACE WEEKEND
-
BRITISH GRAND PRIX: HAMILTON TAKE THE WIN IN FRONT OF HOME CROWD
-
GREAT BRITAIN EXCEL AT THE EUROPEAN ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Featured image courtesy of Joe McGowan on Flickr. No changes were made to this image. Image licence found here.
