Sport e Salute

Norris Finally Wins as Ferrari's Weekend Falls Apart

27 Luglio 2026

A cura di Andreas Grandi

McLaren's champion ends an 11-race wait for a win. Verstappen drives one of his best races of the year. Antonelli extends his championship lead just as the sport heads into its summer break

Lando Norris won the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday, his first victory of 2026, finishing 15.080 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen. Kimi Antonelli completed the podium in third. Eleven races is a long wait for a first win as reigning champion, and Norris didn’t hide how much it meant. “Beautiful. The car was unbelievable today. Flying,” he said, still catching his breath after the race. What made the win sweeter: he’d actually lost the lead at Turn 2 on the opening lap to his own teammate. Oscar Piastri got away faster at the start, and for a long stretch it looked like his race to win. He pitted early to stay ahead of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, a smart call that ended up deciding the whole race. Norris stayed out longer, found clean track in front of him, and was already closing the gap when Piastri’s gearbox failed with only a few laps left.

The Virtual Safety Car that followed bunched the field back up behind Norris, handing him a lead he never lost. It was a brutal way to lose a race you were winning, and Piastri had nothing to say about it on the radio afterward. Further back, the real fight was for third place. Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton pushed hard at each other early on, and on Lap 16 Verstappen braked late and dived past Hamilton at Turn 1, a move worth watching twice. Red Bull then made a bold call, leaving him on the same soft tires for more than thirty laps while faster cars closed in from behind. It worked. Afterward, Verstappen admitted he wasn’t even sure how he’d held on to second place, an honest answer, and not one he gives often. Antonelli’s race went the other way, starting rough and getting better. He and Hamilton had both lost three grid places for yellow-flag infringements in qualifying, so the championship leader started only seventh. He worked his way forward steadily, briefly led the race during his first tire stint, and was closing in on the Ferrari-Red Bull fight by his second stop. He never quite got there, but third place still stretched his championship lead, a solid result on a day that started with a penalty. George Russell had no such recovery: a bad start left him near the back of the field, and although he fought back to seventh, it cost Mercedes points and cost Russell ground on his own teammate. Ferrari’s result doesn’t tell the full story of its weekend. Leclerc lined up alongside Norris on the front row, and Hamilton’s own grid penalty didn’t stop him running near the front for most of the race. Then came a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, dropping him from fourth to fifth, behind his teammate. Fourth and fifth weren’t what Ferrari came to Hungary hoping for, not after starting so close to the front. Audi had a quieter weekend, in a good way, for a team still finding its footing after taking over from Sauber, the Swiss team based in Hinwil (ZH), which Audi acquired in full in January 2025, ending a takeover process that began with a 25 percent stake in 2023.

Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg finished ninth, one lap down but in the points, continuing a solid run of results. Gabriel Bortoleto had a tougher time, starting fourteenth and finishing eleventh, just outside the points. Both results came the normal way: good strategy and careful tire management. The overtaking on Sunday also owes something to this year’s new rules. The 2026 cars dropped the old push-button DRS for wings that change shape mid-lap, flat on the straights for speed, and open through corners for grip, along with an electric power boost tied to the engine instead of how close you are to the car ahead. A driver chasing gets extra punch to attack, and the car in front has its own way to defend itself. Verstappen’s move on Hamilton and Antonelli’s late charge both show how the new system rewards a driver who reads the race well. Waiting for a green light isn’t enough anymore. Tires still mattered just as much, though: track temperatures passed 50°C on Sunday, and managing that heat was as important as ever at the Hungaroring. Heading into the break, the picture looks like this: McLaren has its pace back but keeps costing itself points between its own two drivers. Ferrari had the speed to win and let it slip away. Red Bull is leaning heavily on what one driver can do in a car that isn’t always fast enough. Mercedes lost the race but still leaves Hungary with a bigger championship lead than it arrived with.