{"id":40795,"date":"2026-07-27T16:57:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T14:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=40795"},"modified":"2026-07-27T17:26:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T15:26:21","slug":"norris-wins-hungarian-gp-for-mclaren","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/norris-wins-hungarian-gp-for-mclaren\/","title":{"rendered":"Norris wins Hungarian GP for McLaren"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Formula One champion Lando Norris won the Hungarian Grand Prix for McLaren\u2019s first victory of the season on Sunday while Mercedes\u2019s Kimi Antonelli extended his overall lead to 50 points.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen was second with Antonelli third after a likely McLaren one-two evaporated when Oscar Piastri pulled over with a mechanical failure 14 laps from the end at the Hungaroring.<\/div>\n<div>Ferrari\u2019s Lewis Hamilton, Antonelli\u2019s closest title rival, finished fourth on track but dropped to fifth behind teammate Charles Leclerc after a five-second post-race penalty for speeding in the pitlane.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cMy pace today was probably some of the best pace I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d said Norris. \u201cThe car was beautiful to drive and I felt very confident, so a great race.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cI\u2019m just happy to be back and see the number one again.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Russell Seventh After Start Nightmare<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Mercedes\u2019s George Russell finished seventh, after a disastrous start that dropped him to 19th, and remained third in the overall standings but 59 points behind his 19-year-old Italian teammate.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The win from pole position was Norris\u2019s 12th victory, and second in a row in Hungary, but it could have been Piastri\u2019s day after the Australian took the lead on the opening lap from third place on the starting grid.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>His chances then took a literal blow when a collision with back-marker Carlos Sainz\u2019s Williams delayed him enough to allow Norris, who had stayed out longer before a second change of tyres, to pit and come out ahead.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Piastri\u2019s retirement triggered a virtual safety car, with Norris and the Ferrari drivers pitting while Verstappen and Antonelli stayed out.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cI didn\u2019t expect to be on the podium today. But we worked hard for it,\u201d said Verstappen, who lost out to Hamilton after the first pitstop but took the place back with a bold overtake a lap later.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cI saw the opportunity. It was my only one. I just went for it. We\u2019re good on the brakes, so that helped, but it was all under control,\u201d said the four-time world champion.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Antonelli had started seventh after a three-place grid penalty but completed a day of damage limitation better than might have been expected.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cIt was really hard to overtake so we had to do something with strategy,\u201d said the Italian. \u201cInitially we tried to go for the one stop but then they told me the tyre was too much on the limit, so we stopped.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWith the Virtual Safety Car the two Ferraris boxed. I knew it would be very hard because I was on hards, they were on softs, but luckily we were able to keep them behind.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13674,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-40795","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen was second with Antonelli third.","published_date":"","news_description":"Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen was second with Antonelli third.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40796,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40795\/revisions\/40796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=40795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}