Lando Norris took his and McLaren’s first grand prix victory of the year in a compelling race in Hungary.
As the world champion cruised to a comfortable victory, there was a tense fight for the remaining podium positions in the closing laps between Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.
Verstappen just managed to hold on while Antonelli took third to extend his championship lead to 50 points over Lewis Hamilton and 59 over his Mercedes team-mate George Russell, who finished seventh after a bad start.
Ferrari’s Hamilton finished the grand prix on Antonelli’s tail in fourth place but was penalised five seconds for speeding in the pit lane and dropped to fifth behind his team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris’ team-mate Oscar Piastri led for most of the first half of the race but retired from second place with a gearbox failure.
Norris said he was “happy to be back and be number one again”, adding: “My pace today was probably some of the best pace I’ve ever had. The car was beautiful to drive and I had confidence.”
Norris’ concern before the start would have been about the losing a place to Leclerc, who was starting second behind the Briton.
The McLaren driver made a good start, the challenge from Leclerc never materialised, but instead Norris lost the lead to Piastri.
