As we go into the F1 summer break it seemed vitally important for George Russell’s championship ambitions that he close off the first half of the season with a strong result in Hungary in order to take the fight to his Mercedes team mate, the teenage sensation that is of course Kimi Antonelli.

Sadly for George that wasn’t to be, as the driver that many have regarded as ‘Mr Saturday’ since his F1 arrival in 2019, was again out qualified by Kimi (P4 vs P7) although penalties swapped the order with George a place ahead in P6 for Sunday’s start. From P6 it looked like George had a decent opportunity to score more points than Kimi but a throttle control issue resulted in the car going into anti-stall as the lights went out, dropping Russell down to 21st with everything to do to even score a single point. Although he did manage to battle his way through to P7 for 6 points it was still 9 less than his teammate and thereby extends Kimi championship lead over George to 59 points (and 50 to second place rival, Lewis Hamilton, in the drivers championship so far).

Talking of Hamilton he was another driver to suffer issues over the weekend, when it had seemed like he was gaining championship momentum over the last few races, as Ferrari appeared to be closing the gap to Mercedes. Based on initial form it looked like Ferrari arrived in Hungary with the strongest package for the weekend, with perhaps Hungary’s twisty layout again suiting their smaller turbo. But during qualifying it was Lando Norris who finally gave his fans something to cheer about again as he snatched a stunning pole for the first time in 2026, with a lap that many felt was something extra special and only 12 thousandths quicker than Hamilton.

For the start, with Charles Leclerc promoted to 2nd on the grid and Oscar Piastri to 3rd, it looked like Lando would need to worry about Leclerc’s fast starting Ferrari but in actual fact it was his McLaren teammate, Oscar, who piled on the pressure with a great start that resulted in Lando running a little wide through turn 2, allowing Piastri to snatch the lead. Meanwhile Charles struggled through the opening lap, letting Max Verstappen get through into 3rd and Lewis into 4th, putting him on the back foot in 5th.

With Hungary being a tough track to overtake at, even with a car advantage, after the first lap it was really only Russell, recovering from the back, who seemed to be making any progress reaching P7 just before he pitted. Although his stop dropped him a couple of places, he managed to retake those to ultimately finish the race P7. Red Bull’s VSC strategy call to keep Verstappen out as others pitted, combined with Oscar’s gearbox retirement on lap 56 of 70, allowed Max to to grab a strong second place while his Red Bull package still seems a handful that even Max struggles to manage.

So the final podium result was Lando with his first grand prix win of 2026 (a sprint win in Miami was his only win of any form prior to Hungary), followed by Max in 2nd, and Kimi in 3rd. For Antonelli this is another solid result that extends his championship lead over his closest rivals, Lewis and George, who both finished behind him. While last year saw a surprise championship swing after the summer break in 2025, if Kimi continues to drive with the confidence he’s demonstrated all season so far then it appears that the championship is his for the taking in 2026.