Hungarian GP awards: Wins for ‘useless’ Hamilton and invisible Max Verstappen

It was a Lando Norris victory at the Hungaroring after the McLaren driver took a strategic one-stop gamble that resulted in incredible returns — but that’s not the whole story of the weekend.

Welcome to PlanetF1.com’s Awards, our bite-size recap of the latest Formula 1 race to get you up to speed with all the latest drama and key talking points. Let’s dig into the Hungarian Grand Prix!

PlanetF1.com’s Hungarian Grand Prix Awards

Best radio message: Lando Norris shrugs into the race winning strategy

Will Joseph: “So, Lando, we’re considering the one-stop. It’d be 40 laps on the hard tyre. In for it?”
Lando Norris: “Yeah, why not!”

On Lap 28, race engineer Will Joseph asked his driver if he’d consider trying out an alternate, one-stop strategy — and Lando Norris’ game-on mentality was effectively the race-winning move.

When the lights went out for the Hungarian Grand Prix, Norris’ initially strong start fell away from him, and he dropped back to fifth on the grid. He was able to make in-roads past the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso with relative ease, but it was clear that his chance at winning the race was dashed… if he played it safe with a two-stop strategy.

Lando Norris hasn’t always seemed the most sure of himself — both behind the wheel as well as away from it — but it’s clear he trusts his race engineer to put him on the right path. And in Hungary, that mentality made for one of the best radio message of the race.

Biggest strategy blunder: McLaren’s undercut attempt

Where Norris seemingly fell into the race-winning strategy, Oscar Piastri’s side of the garage fumbled an otherwise strong race with its first pit stop.

Coming into Lap 19, Piastri was called into the pits for a swap to hard tyres, with the team committing early to a two-stop strategy. The goal was to undercut race leader Charles Leclerc, and with a 2.5-second gap separating the two drivers, it would be a close call.

Unfortunately for McLaren, Leclerc was called into the pits the following lap and had a phenomenal two-second stop that popped him back out on track well in front of Piastri.

Even though Leclerc ultimately fell off the pace due to what was later discovered to be a chassis issue, McLaren’s early pit stop committed Piastri to a two-stop strategy that never quite seemed to pay off. He had to content himself with a second-place — which, while not the end of the world, is certainly not what the championship leader would have hoped for.

Biggest topic of debate: Was McLaren’s pit stop strategy unfair?

Naturally, as the championship battle between the McLaren teammates heats up, tensions between the team’s drivers and the fans of those drivers will heat up as well — and after Hungary, some people have accused McLaren of deploying an “unfair” pit strategy designed to prioritize Lando Norris despite Oscar Piastri’s stronger track position. Naturally, it quickly became a subject of debate on social media.

Speaking to media after the race, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was asked if he also felt the strategy was unfair — and he said no.

In effect, he explained that McLaren had briefly considered a potential one-stop strategy but felt that, overall, it would be too risky. The two-stop strategy was the team’s “baseline” strategy, and that was the strategy Piastri was on from the start.

The one-stop, then, was an alternate strategy, and it was the strategy that the No. 4 McLaren crew opted to utilize when it became clear Norris needed to do something more dramatic to regain position after losing two spots at the start.

No one was expecting the one-stop strategy to work as well as it did, including Norris himself. But a blend of strong tyre management and the difficult-to-overtake nature of the Hungarian track meant that the alternate strategy ended up being the best one.

So, no conspiracy — just the strange nature of Grand Prix racing.

Meltdown of the week: “Useless” Lewis Hamilton

“I’m useless, absolutely useless. The team have no problem. You’ve seen the car’s on pole. So they probably need to change driver.”

Seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton was positively despondent after qualifying 14th for the Hungarian Grand Prix and brought all that frustration with him when he spoke to Sky Sports after the session.

Over the radio, he’d told the team, “Every time. Every time,” and in the conversation with Sky, it was clear what he’d meant: He’s been at fault, every time.

The Hamilton/Ferrari marriage has not exactly panned out as hoped, to the point that the former champion is unable to play it cool in front of media. He’ll be desperate for the arrival of summer break.

Read more: ‘Absolutely useless’ Lewis Hamilton tells Ferrari to ‘change driver’ after another poor quali

Invisible Man Award: Max Verstappen

It’s a rare day when the reigning champion becomes an almost non-factor during the race, but that was exactly the case with Max Verstappen in Hungary — barring, of course, his bold Lap 29 overtake on Lewis Hamilton that necessitated a post-race trip to the stewards.

Verstappen started eighth, finished ninth, and never really seemed to be competing for anything greater than simply finishing in the points.

After the race, he sounded dismayed at the performance but wouldn’t share any details about where the car had gone wrong, or what more was possible. He did, however, admit that Red Bull has primarily begun to look at the future, and that the most they’re hoping for in 2025 is a bit more consistency.

Read more: Marko declares F1 2025 title ‘impossible’ after latest Red Bull defeat

Unexpected hero: Kimi Antonelli

It’s been a tough rookie year for Kimi Antonelli, but he showed in Hungary that with the right car, anything is possible.

In Barcelona, Mercedes introduced a suspension upgrade that resulted in a lack of stability and a fall-off in pace for both drivers — but the issue was likely exacerbated by Antonelli’s lack of F1 experience, particularly in changeable weather conditions.

And qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix didn’t look promising; the best Antonelli could manage was 15th on the grid despite running in the top 10 in each practice session.

But when the lights went out on Sunday, Antonelli had something to prove, and he crossed the line in 10th.

George Russell proved that Mercedes has a car worthy of a podium, so a 10th-place finish is at the lower end of its performance — but for the driver, it represents a turn of fortunes after what has been an immensely challenging European stretch.

Read next: Kimi Antonelli highlights ‘different story’ after Mercedes switch to old suspension spec

Cheekiest media moment: Lando Norris’ “I just copy and paste”

In the FIA press conference after qualifying, Lando Norris was asked if his qualifying story was similar to that as his teammate, to which he replied, “I’ll just copy and paste, yeah! Exactly the same!”

Throughout the rest of the media session, Norris largely copied and pasted Piastri’s answers when questions were addressed to the group.

Asked where the best overtaking point on the track would be for him, Oscar Piastri replied, “Pit lane? That’s probably it.” Lando Norris nodded along.

And in talking about how his tyre strategy, when Piastri stated that his use of soft tyres in qualifying wasn’t impacted by the tyre allocation in the race, Norris again nodded and offered a thumbs-up.

A close second? Norris inscribing “Don’t break the trophy!” on the champagne bottle signed by the winner of each race.

FULL REPORT: Hungarian GP: Norris wins as FIA launch investigation over Verstappen, Hamilton incident