Lando Norris cruises to Hungarian Grand Prix victory after Piastri forced to retire

Welcome to our live coverage for the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix from the Hungaroring. This is the 40th anniversary of the race at this track and the 41st edition. I think over the years this track has had a bit of an unfair reputation but we have certainly had some interesting and exciting races over the years. Even over the last few years. 

The nature of the track means it is a bit of an outlier. And that means you often get results that go away from the norm of the season. Mercedes took a couple of poles here in the ground-effect era whilst Charles Leclerc did so last year. We have had a handful of first-time winners at this track, too: Damon Hill, Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon, Jenson Button and… errr Heikki Kovalainen. 

So far that has been true this weekend. Although McLaren and Ferrari have been closing in on Mercedes, the SIlver Arrows have usually had the edge or found it when it comes to qualifying. That was not the case yesterday: Lando Norris took the first non-Mercedes grand prix pole of the season, pipping the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton by just 0.012sec. 

Hamilton, though, takes a three-place grid penalty for impeding Oscar Piastri in Q3. Kimi Antonelli, who had qualified fourth, takes the same penalty for not slowing sufficiently under yellow flags. It was Ferrari who had been expected to be the team to beat but they were the team that dropped the ball. In fairness Norris, in the upgraded McLaren had looked competitive throughout qualifying and was simply able to deliver when Ferrari could not. 

The grid is slightly mixed up because of the penalties. George Russell’s season did not get any easier after qualifying seventh but he at least moves up because of those grid drops. The Mercedes’ race pace is expected to be strong but will it be enough to put them into contention with the McLarens and the Ferraris? And let’s not forget Max Verstappen in fourth, either…

We find out at 2pm BST, when the race gets under way.