mclaren finally won a race and still made it awkward
lando norris took mclaren's first win of 2026 in hungary, 15 seconds clear, after spending half the race asking his own team to let him past.
lando norris won the hungarian grand prix on sunday. it was his first win of 2026, mclaren’s first since são paulo last november, and it only took the reigning world champion eleven rounds. he won by 15 seconds over max verstappen, too. so naturally the main topic afterwards was the mclaren pit wall.
quick recap. norris took pole by 0.012 seconds from lewis hamilton, the first pole all year that didn’t go to a mercedes. then oscar piastri, starting third, took the lead off him at turn 2 on the opening lap, and norris spent the first half of the race staring at his teammate’s gearbox (remember the gearbox).
norris told the team he was faster. then he told them again. he asked to pit first for the undercut and was told he couldn’t, because the car in front gets first call. his reply: “you mean you won’t let me? i’m miles faster.” by his own count verstappen was three or four seconds behind the pair of them at the time. papaya rules, everyone.
in the end the race sorted it out for them. mclaren pitted piastri first at the second stops to cover hamilton. he came back out and tangled with a lapped carlos sainz at the exit of turn 2 (sainz got five seconds for it), and when norris made his own stop he came out in front. piastri’s message to the team was a sarcastic “nice of you guys to factor that one in by the way, thanks”. then his gearbox failed with about 15 laps left while he was running second. he’s now 36 points behind norris and seventh in the standings.
andrea stella says it all made sense because hamilton was threatening the undercut. fine. but this is a team with one win in eleven races, sitting third in the constructors and 159 points behind mercedes. what exactly are they protecting? the days of managing a title fight between their own drivers ended last december. when one car is “miles faster” and verstappen is in the mirrors, let the faster car go.
none of this should take away from norris, who was properly quick. he said his pace was “probably some of the best pace i’ve ever had”, and for once the timing screens agreed with the driver.
elsewhere, kimi antonelli started seventh after a three-place grid penalty and still finished third, so his lead grew anyway. he has 219 points, hamilton 169, george russell 160. russell’s anti-stall kicked in at the start, dropped him to the back, and he recovered to seventh. hamilton got five seconds for speeding in the pit lane and lost fourth to charles leclerc because of it. that’s the same penalty he got at spa for taking russell out of the race. the FIA scale remains a mystery.
now we wait. the next race is the dutch grand prix on 23 august, a sprint weekend and the last time F1 goes to zandvoort. prediction: verstappen wins his home race one final time, and mclaren finds a brand new way to make a sunday complicated. enjoy the break.