Norris praises team for Hungary win

World champion Lando Norris heaped praise on the McLaren team on Sunday after driving his updated car to a first win this year in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The 26-year-old Briton repeated his 2025 victory at the Hungaroring, where McLaren has won for the last three years, and became the first winner there from pole position since seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton triumphed for Mercedes in 2020.

"Wooohh!" he cried on team radio.

"Beautiful. The car was unbelievable today. Well done, guys. Incredible. We're flying!

"Thank you so much for the car. So nice to be able to do it all for you again. It feels like it's been a while. Congrats! Hard work pays off!"

Norris recovered from losing his pole advantage on the opening lap, when teammate Oscar Piastri passed him.

The Briton produced impressive stunning laps of consistent pace to regain the lead and finish 15 seconds clear of Max Verstappen of Red Bull.

Piastri was forced to retire with gearbox problems after a clash with Williams' Carlos Sainz for which the Spaniard was handed a five-second penalty.

'A lot to unpack'

World championship leader Kimi Antonelli finished third for Mercedes to increase his lead in the title race to 50 points ahead of seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari, who finished fifth after taking a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

"I don't know what happened at the start," Norris said.

"I just kept losing the rear. I had two or three big snaps which felt horrible, and, of course, Oscar did a good job to get the cutback and go past me. I think I was just a bit wide in the dirt, so it was game over for the first lap.

"Then, I was pushing like hell to try and force him into a mistake. My pace was probably some of the best pace I have ever had. The car was beautiful to drive and I had confidence.

"It was a great race, and to get it back in terms of going long, which is certainly not what I was expecting, the pace was so good. I could always extend the stint and, then, my fresh tires won me the race. So, I'm just happy to be back and be No 1 again!"

Teammate Piastri said he was uncertain how his gearbox broke before his retirement on lap 56 of the 70, 17 laps after his clash with Sainz.

"When it broke, I was just taking my normal line, so I'm not sure what it was. It was the highlight of my race, when I was leading, and it went downhill from there.

"There's a lot to unpack: firstly the pace on hard tires was just nowhere, and, then, obviously, getting taken out by a backmarker is never really one of the things you think can go wrong, but I was proved wrong!

"And then, the gearbox..."

Team boss Andrea Stella said it had been a positive surprise to see McLaren's updated package win the race, and added that Piastri's clash with Sainz had "caused quite a bit of loss of time".

"We know Carlos is such a fair, correct driver, so if this is happening, then that means something was not working correctly."

Hamilton disappointed

Hamilton, though, questioned Ferrari's strategy on Sunday, after a late pitstop cost him a likely podium finish.

The Briton, second in the championship, finished fourth on track, but ended up fifth behind teammate Charles Leclerc after a five-second penalty was added to his time for speeding in the pitlane.

He had been running in second place before the pitstop, taken during a virtual safety period moments after McLaren's Piastri had pulled over and retired with a gearbox problem.

"I definitely don't think we should have taken a stop. The call came literally just before the pit lane entry and I didn't have time to debate it," Hamilton, now 50 points behind Mercedes' championship leader Antonelli, told reporters.

"You've got to trust the decision that has been taken but, in hindsight, my tires were totally fine. I was probably going to lose out to Max (Verstappen), but I think I could have kept third at least. And it just opened up the door to the penalty that I got at the end."

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur defended the strategy and said it would have been unfair to ask Leclerc to increase the gap to preserve Hamilton's position at the end.

Hamilton, a record eight-time winner in Hungary, had arrived hoping to secure his first pole position since 2023 at a circuit that looked likely to favor him and Ferrari.

Instead, he missed out on pole by 0.012 of a second to Norris and was then demoted three places — the latest of a string of penalties that has come his way in recent races — for impeding Piastri, a big blow to his hopes at a track where overtaking is tricky.