The winners and losers of the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix in 2025

The Formula 1 circus goes to a well -deserved summer break after an exhausting section of 14 races. And if the confusing weekend of Budapest is something, some drivers and teams will need more time than others to decompress.

Winner: Lando Norris

From the best side of the grid, almost marked Lando Norris second above Piastri at the start, but instead, the Briton was put in boxing and went through George Russell and Fernando Alonso. Curiously, this bad start seemed to trigger a series of events that landed in Norris a ninth victory in a grand prize, while the land he had lost against Piastri led him to prolong his first pass and to resort to one – at the time – ambitious.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Loser: Charles Leclerc

While McLaren lost the performance during a windy Q3 session, Leclerc delivered a brilliant qualification lap to take an unexpected post. And the Mongasque quickly looked in the race too, until its pace suddenly collapsed after a second stop for Hards.

Leclerc had already been frustrated earlier in the race with some of the choices that his engineers had made, which the boss of the Vasseur team explained was linked to the deployment of energy. But with a much slower Ferrari, his race collapsed from there, and Leclerc was powerless to stay outside the claws of George Russell.

His frustration seemed to be transformed into a rage of the road as he moved twice under the end of Russell, the Briton having to react quickly to avoid an accident. Given the chasm behind the pair, the penalty of five seconds of Leclerc for erratic driving was indulgent. Very forgiving.

George Russell, Mercedes

Winner: George Russell

Leaving a difficult spell, Mercedes is back on the podium after making his car back down to his pre-imola specifications and returns to the old rear suspension. With this upgrade (reading: demotion) of the car, the rhythm and the stability of Mercedes returned, and Russell could also have torn the post on Saturday if he had not been for a last delicate corner in gusty conditions.

The cooler conditions clearly helped the W15 because it canceled Mercedes’ well documented vulnerability in the heat on what could have been a delicate circuit. And that allowed Russell to resume where he stopped as one of the artists outside the competition of F1 2025, jumping Norris at the start before finishing as a higher driver, which is a victory in itself.

Russell, who said he would disappear immediately for the holidays on Sunday evening, will be able to enjoy his leave in peace. This new Mercedes contract will soon be by post, and it will be well won.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team

Loser: Lewis Hamilton

The former Russell teammate, Lewis Hamilton, also seems ready for a vacation after a brutal first chapter in his long -awaited Ferrari. Just when he began to get closer to Leclerc and seemed to have overcome his adaptation period, Hamilton suffered two disappointing qualification sessions in quick succession to eliminate the wind from his sails.

A valiant return to Spa was never going to repeat itself on the narrow limits of Hungaroring, and although Hamilton had its ups and down before it is quite revealing to suggest that Ferrari should simply obtain another driver – one of the rare calm sentences that he lets the media slide through two dark days.

The break comes at the right time for Hamilton when he resets for the second half. And to end on a positive note, the reality is that its last two weekends have not been as bad as the mood and the results of Hamilton suggest it, after having been returned by a tight trace call, the SPA qualification call and an even narrower outing in Budapest. But it is not the entry of Grand Ferrari that he and the tifosi imagined, far from it.

Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber

Winner: Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber

Bortoleto sparkling was the antidote of Hamilton’s misery after the Brazilian crowned another exceptional weekend with his best F1 result, qualifying seventh and finished sixth.

Gabriel Bortoleto admitted that it was quite surreal to be sandwiched between his winning friends from the Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen world championship in the opening passage, but he did not look in his place when he took advantage of the recent improvements of Sauber, rewarding him for his patience for a difficult season for the team.

With teammate Nico Hulkenberg on the back after the qualifications, Sauber could count on his other driver to support the aspirations of the championship of his manufacturers. The only drawback is that his Aston Martin rival obtained the two cars in the points.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Losers: Red Bull

Red Bull exceeded Monza 2024 with what was probably his worst performance weekend in recent years, and it was rare to see even Max Verstappen to fight to go to Q3.

Many have been made of the delicate balance of the RB21, which has actually improved in recent months, but on the Hungaroring, the car seemed not to lack global grip and therefore a laptop. Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda, who quietly did a relatively good job this weekend despite his release from T2, then slipped so much into the race that a one-looking strategy was out of the question.

Red Bull was so poor this weekend on a medium-speed low-speed circuit that most of the clues indicate an inability to light the tires and enter the narrow operating window of the car. This is why the boss of the Laurent Mekies team and advisor Helmut Marko were convinced that Budapest was only one-off. If you are a Dutch fan with zandvoort tickets hard won in the pocket, you will have to hope that they are right.

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing

Winner: Aston Martin

If someone knows what’s going on with the recent performance of Aston Martin, then a certain Lawrence S. has a job offer on their Silverstone desktop with your name on it. To be absolutely nowhere at Spa, Aston suddenly jumped forward from the midfielder in Hungary and collected 16 points to switch to sixth in the standings.

This suggests a specific problem on the track on high speed circuits where aerodynamic efficiency is a key requirement, while Hungaroring consists more in stacking the load on cars with fewer straight lines to worry. But the truth seems more complicated than that, while Fernando Alonso, the fifth, and launches, the seventh, were walking in ignorance of what really happened.

Alonso, who opposed an opportunistic way to the fourth at the beginning before inevitably losing the place against Norris again, has summarized it better: “The right thing is that we were quick. What is that we do not know why.”

Alexander Albon, Williams

Losers: Williams, Alpine

Williams, Alpine and Haas all left Budapest without points in their bags, so make your choice. Perhaps Williams will be the most disappointed given the recent upgrade package that sought to give it a chance to regain control of the battle for the fifth.

The fact that he obtained these upgrades on the car at Spa, when they were originally planned for Zandvoort, talks about the more efficient development process of Williams behind the scenes of Grove. But although he made his car much more a versatile compared to the infamous famous rockets in a straight line of old ones, circuits with long and medium -speed corners like Hungaroring seem to be his kryptonite.

The Big Points Haul d’Aston has now canceled the excellent result of Albon Belgium, setting up an intriguing midfielder battle for the rest of 2025 which also involves Sauber, Racing Bulls and Haas.

Alpine simply does not seem to be in the conversation at the moment, and it seems that it will need more more opportunistic stone gas heroists in changing conditions.

The winners and losers of the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix in 2025