MotoGP is closing on a return to Hungary for a future event, with a race at the Hungaroring being worked on for the 2025 season.

The latest update on a future Hungarian round follows the series signing a preliminary agreement with the nation back in March of 2021 to bring the back the event for the 2023 campaign, though that date has come and gone.

MotoGP released a statement on Monday ahead of the inaugural Indian Grand Prix insisting that it still had a clear intention to include a trip to Hungary as part of its calendar within the next couple of years.

Series organisers Dorna Sports are working on first adding a round to the World Superbike Championship at the recently-completed Balaton Park Circuit for 2024, before then bringing a grand prix event to current Formula 1 venue Hungaroring the year after.  

According to the statement, Dorna is working with the Hungarian Mobility Development Agency (HUMDA) to homologate both circuits for motorcycle racing competition.

“MotoGP’s return to Hungary might be closer than you think! The collaboration between Dorna Sports and the Hungarian Mobility Development Agency (HUMDA) is very much ongoing, with two venues being explored for the near future,” began MotoGP’s statement.

“Dorna and HUMDA are working together on the homologation of the Hungaroring and the new Balaton Park Circuit in order to bring both MotoGP and WorldSBK back to Hungary soon.

“The aim of an updated agreement between Dorna and HUMDA is to first include Balaton Park on the 2024 WorldSBK calendar and as a reserve venue for MotoGP next season, before the Hungaroring hosts MotoGP from 2025… so watch this space!”

A new circuit, named the Magyar Nemzetkozi Motodrome and located near the city of Debrecen in the Eastern part of the country, was originally meant to host MotoGP’s return to Hungary when the project was announced back in 2021, though construction work on the new facility is yet to break ground.

MotoGP last visited Hungary way back in 1992, when the 500cc world championship came to the nation – Cagiva’s Eddie Lawson securing victory on that occasion.   

The month is March 2023: McLaren has begun the latest Formula 1 season with zero points across the opening two races – marking its worst start to a season in six years – having already conceded over the winter it had missed development targets with its brand-new car. 

At that stage, it was hardly surprising the widespread consensus surrounding McLaren is how much more patience will Lando Norris hold before he elects to head for pastures new elsewhere. After all, this is a driver who had progressed from raw protege to established team leader at the team and raced assuredly at the front on the few occasions he has been handed a package capable of extracting such feats. 

With six podium finishes and a singular pole position to his name in predominantly midfield machinery ahead of this season, there was nothing more for Norris to prove that he was worthy of a top seat – something advocated by Red Bull’s continuously rebuffed advances. 

However, wind the clock forward only four months and the entire mood surrounding the McLaren camp is a complete contrast to the doom and gloom that engulfed the mere mention of its name as the 2023 F1 season embarked upon its infant stages.

Suddenly, the question of Norris facilitating a potential exit at the end of his current contract has been replaced by an overwhelming testament to the commitment he showed to McLaren when it would have been deemed acceptable if he had opted to look elsewhere when times were tough.

But what are the reasons behind this sudden transformation in perspective surrounding the Brit’s future prospects within the motorsport world?

Well, simply put, McLaren has finally delivered on the one wish Norris portrayed in pre-season when he declared the Woking squad must aim to repeat a similar step to the one Ferrari took from competing in the midfield in 2021 to then fighting at the front at the start of the following year.

It was a far-fetched thought at first, and one that, realistically, Norris surely wouldn’t have anticipated coming as early as this season considering McLaren’s deficit to the front-running trio last season. However, McLaren’s extensive development programme – which began with a raft of new parts in Baku and was subsequently succeeded by an extensive package split across the recent two rounds in Austria and Britain – has propelled the British side into a front-runner.

Despite Norris’ scepticism surrounding his encouraging run to fourth in Austria – a track he has traditionally fared well at, having scored his maiden F1 podium at the Red Bull Ring – McLaren went on to prove it was no flash in the pan by placing two cars inside the top three in qualifying at Silverstone. 

The high-speed spectacle of qualifying that sees the drivers equipped with brand-new Soft tyres and the lowest fuel that they’ll have onboard all weekend can certainly mask a car’s inherent weaknesses – as did happen with McLaren in Barcelona when Norris wound up third with the old-spec car.

But Norris proceeding to support his front-row starting berth by securing a maiden home podium after holding off Lewis Hamilton on Hard tyres against the Mercedes driver on Softs in the closing laps provided a statement in itself.

Yet even after a race in which both cars should have beaten the opposition except for Verstappen – a man in a different league at present – McLaren still continued to downplay the potential of its revised car ahead of a trip to the slower-speed Hungaroring circuit that the team expected to hinder its weekend chances.

The two McLaren cars, however, ended up locking out the second row – Norris even suspecting pole position was possible after coming up 0.085s short – before the papaya squad brought two cars home inside the top five for the second successive race with Norris again a feature on the podium.

After Hungary there is simply no hiding anymore: McLaren is a certified top team based on its current form and achieving regular podiums should be the altered expectation rather than a pipe dream. 

McLaren’s drastic rise has unquestionably been aided by the current regulations in place and the implementation of a cap on spending alongside restrictions on aerodynamic testing time combining to create the joint closest Q3 session in F1 history last weekend in Budapest.

However, it’s easy to forget McLaren wasn’t even a genuine Q3 contender at the start of the season, let alone possessing the underlying speed to consistently beat the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes.

To now be in a position where locking out the second row and scoring consecutive podium finishes on pure pace is extraordinary. Even a pessimistic individual such as Norris has failed to conceal his delight at the incredible progress made and the Brit has revealed he can sense his first victory is looming.

While Team Principal Andrea Stella has downplayed his overall role in McLaren’s turnaround, the ex-Ferrari race engineer deserves an abundance of praise. He had the unenviable task of replacing Alfa Romeo-bound Andreas Seidl at the helm over the winter and the side’s early-season troubles represented more than a baptism of fire embarking upon his debut team boss role.

Despite retaining inexperience in his current position, Stella had the clarity of mind to accept the advice of his technical peers that its previous philosophy had a performance ceiling and ushered in a change, even accounting for the criticism that inevitably followed amid a sluggish beginning to 2023.

He has since shown his preparedness to ruthlessly ring the changes in pursuit of bettering the chances of success, dropping former Technical Director James Key in favour of implementing a new technical structure within the team’s upper ranks.

Credit must also be tipped to CEO Zak Brown for displaying faith by prioritising an internal replacement for Seidl and not applying pressure to Stella when the results weren’t yet there. McLaren as a whole has reaped the rewards for the approach taken in all quarters by the F1 side of its operation.

From previously looking at a probable placing of sixth in the Constructors’ Championship, McLaren has the possibility to climb as high as third by the season’s end. Ferrari remains in disarray, while Aston Martin’s early-season promise has dissipated to the point where ex-McLaren racer Fernando Alonso asserts its AMR23 car is only the fifth fastest in the field.

Considering pre-season had McLaren widely ranked as either the ninth or 10th best team, it’s an astonishing reversal of fortunes – the likes mid-season that maybe only McLaren’s 2009 campaign can rival in recent memory. 

McLaren will further benefit from the addition of more wind tunnel testing time than its immediate rivals for the remainder of the season, which will undoubtedly aid its possibilities for both this year and next.

Additionally, the former World Champions can call on both drivers to deliver points, with Oscar Piastri producing an excellent rookie campaign to be in close proximity to his team-mate. It marks a big contrast to ’21 and ‘22 when Ricciardo’s underperformance ultimately cost the side prize money.

With two highly competitive drivers and a car that appears to now be strong on every configuration of circuit, the challenge for McLaren is to build upon its recent progress and ensure it starts the 2024 campaign in the same shape it has thrust itself into for the remaining races of this year.

After years spent defying its historical status in the sport, McLaren is finally back amongst the big time in F1 on a performance level, delivering results more befitting of its former status as multiple World Champions.

Amid Red Bull’s record-breaking achievement of scoring 12 consecutive race wins, Norris’ second successive second-place finish in Hungary marked McLaren’s first back-to-back podiums since 2012.

But while the reigning champion’s relentless run continues, McLaren has quietly positioned itself as the side most likely to end the Austrian outfit’s streak. Imagine uttering that at the start of 2023. 

Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has branded Daniel Ricciardo’s comeback performance at the Hungarian Grand Prix as the “perfect debut”.

Ricciardo embarked upon his return to Formula 1 in Budapest after he was brought in to replace Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri for the remainder of the 2023 season.

The race weekend at the Hungaroring marked the Australian’s first since being dropped by McLaren at the end of last season following two tumultuous years.

He immediately managed to hit the ground running with AlphaTauri, however, out-qualifying team-mate Yuki Tsunoda on Saturday and coming home a respectable 13th place in Sunday’s race.

Ricciardo believes a points finish could have been attainable if not for the unavoidable first lap collision that saw him plummet right to the back of the field, with Marko asserting the 34-year-old’s assured display has already vindicated the decision to bring him back.

“That was a perfect debut, Daniel would have been in the point range,” he told Austrian outlet OE24. “It was absolutely right to get him. He brings a positive vibe and energy.”

Meanwhile, Red Bull’s dominance continued with another victory on Sunday as the Austrian outfit set a new record for the most consecutive wins by a team in F1 history.

But with Max Verstappen being pipped to pole position by Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton by only 0.003s in qualifying, Marko believes the chasing pack are now within range to take advantage if Red Bull falters.

“Well, if the car isn’t in the best position, like in Budapest qualifying, we feel that the others are getting closer,” he acknowledged.

However, Verstappen seized the lead at the start and progressed untroubled to take a seventh win in succession by a crushing 33.7s over the McLaren of Lando Norris.

The reigning World Champion’s winning margin was the biggest of the season to this point and Marko claims Verstappen could have gone even quicker.

“That’s true, we’re way ahead in race trim,” he added. “Max actually could have driven even faster, he wasn’t at the limit by a long shot.”

The only flaw in Verstappen’s afternoon came on the podium when Norris’ trademark champagne celebration witnessed the winners’ trophy get smashed.

While both drivers saw the funny side of the incident in the post-race press conference, Marko admits he was less than impressed.

“The Hungarians are famous for their love for valuable porcelain,” he said. “Even when we were there, there were beautiful bowls and vases. 

“The copy of the trophy comes to us at the factory and I’ll teach Max to appreciate the original that he’s getting replaced. That’s Hungarian tradition, the young people have to understand that first.”

Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez ensured both of the side’s drivers stood on the podium rostrum as the Mexican recovered from ninth on the grid to come home third.

It marked only the second time in the previous six races that Perez has collected a trophy, having managed to avoid missing out on a place in Q3 for the sixth weekend in a row the previous day.

Marko now believes Perez has overcome his recent struggles and is finally heading back on an “upward trend”.

“He’s already a lot better, fighting his way up from 9th place on the grid to 3rd place,” he commented. “He finally made it back into Q3. An upward trend can be seen.”

Ex-Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle says Sergio Perez’s run to the podium at the Hungarian Grand Prix was a “statement drive” amid questions over his future.

Prior to the race weekend in Budapest, Perez endured a difficult number of events, failing to progress into Q3 on five consecutive occasions.

However, the Mexican driver broke the streak in Budapest and lined up in ninth place for the start of the grand prix.

Perez progressed forward throughout the 70 laps and crossed the line in third place, securing his sixth podium of the 2023 campaign.

Across the last several weeks, questions have been raised regarding his future with Red Bull – a situation that was amplified by Daniel Ricciardo’s return to the grid with AlphaTauri.

But writing in his column for Sky Sports, Brundle commended Perez’s drive from Hungary: 

“Perez from a disappointing ninth on the grid would have an impressive drive to the podium which was determined and aggressive in equal measure,” he said.

“It was just the performance he needed for his own confidence as well as his reputation. His overtakes were tough, not with desperation but with total steeliness, and his speed was good. 

“I described it in commentary as a statement drive. 

“He showed that he can just about keep his head in the shadow of Verstappen’s speed and results, which few others could do, but he still needs to be bothering the Dutchman’s mirrors at the end of the races. 

“But let’s not forget his brilliant victories just a few months ago in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan.”

Perez’s team-mate Max Verstappen dominated the race, winning by over half a minute.

As the Dutchman continues to streak towards his third F1 title, Brundle likened his form to other dominant campaigns in the past.

“Max Verstappen and Red Bull continue to control this season in dominant fashion, to my mind reminiscent of Nigel Mansell in a 1992 Williams and Michael Schumacher in a 2002 Ferrari,” he said.

“At least the championship will not be won in July or August as we witnessed back then, of course with many fewer races in the season and a different points system.”

Carlos Sainz says the new tyre regulations that were in place at the Hungarian Grand Prix made the weekend “very dull and very boring”.

As part of Pirelli’s Alternative Tyre Allocation, all Formula 1 drivers had just 11 sets of dry weather tyres at their disposal, instead of the 13 that are usually delivered for each race weekend.

In addition, during qualifying only the Hard tyre could be used for Q1, the Medium was mandated for Q2 while the Soft compound was in play for the final Q3 segment.

However, drivers complained about a lack of on-track time during Friday practice due to having fewer tyres.

“I find it [the tyre rules] interesting for qualifying,” Sainz said. “For the rest of the weekend, very dull and very boring. 

“We arrive here on a Wednesday to prepare everything and then on Friday you spend more time in the garage than running because we have no tyres. 

“So why even bother doing two one hour practice sessions if you don’t have tyres to run? 

“Or why even having Friday, if you have no tyres to run on them, to learn from the car, the track and put on a show for the fans. 

“So definitely something needs reviewing, either the format or the tyre allocation. The two at the same time, it’s like you’re not doing one thing or the other.”

It was highlighted to Sainz that Pirelli introduced the regulation to improve sustainability measures.

“It could be for sustainability,” he replied. “But at the same time, there are four sets of inters, three sets of wets that we don’t even touch in the whole weekend sometimes. 

“Those are seven tyres times 20 teams. There’s other things also to look at. Also, if you want cars to run for the fans, I think it’s something you need to put into consideration.”

However, this point was dismissed by Pirelli’s Head of F1, Mario Isola.

“For the European events, we keep the tyres fitted on rims, and we carry over the tyres that are new,” he told Autosport. 

“So we supply the teams with the same sets [as previous races].

“For overseas events, it is more complicated because the rims have to travel with the teams, while the tyres have to go with us for customs reasons.”

McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella has denied that the side favoured Lando Norris to manoeuvre him ahead of Oscar Piastri in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The two McLaren cars were running second and third in the opening stint on Sunday, with Piastri ahead of Norris after both had got past Lewis Hamilton on the first lap.

However, Norris was called in for his opening pit stop first and nudged ahead of his team-mate into Turn 1 once Piastri boxed to change tyres the next time around.

Stella, though, has downplayed any suggestions the team intentionally manufactured Norris ahead, citing that the strategy was deployed to protect from a potential undercut by Mercedes.

“In terms of the undercut that we had at the first stop, you just go with the sequence that is natural as you cover with the car that is more at risk, you cover with the other car, Lando’s out lap was just super, super quick, which meant Oscar lost the position,” Stella explained.

“To be honest our approach to this situation is to think about the team first, we think as a team, then we deal with the internal situation.

“I think when you are fighting against other competitors outside your team you need to be very careful that you don’t engage an internal battle that will cost the team.

“I think I mentioned already if we see last year’s race maybe that’s what happened with the red car [Ferrari] and it was very expensive, so we want to stay away from that.”

While Norris advanced on to build a solid gap that maintained his second place to the chequered flag, Piastri struggled for speed beyond the first stint and was overtaken by Hamilton and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

But Stella has confirmed that Piastri picked up damage at some stage in the race, which contributed to increased tyre degradation on the rear and his sudden decline in pace.

“In the second stint we saw Lando had a bit more pace but in fairness, we have to mention that Oscar had the damage on his car, and this meant that he lost a few tenths from a performance point of view, but because this was rear downforce this caused extra degradation on the rear tyres, part of the reason he struggled to keep up with Lando but also with the other cars coming behind him,” he revealed.

Stella, who took over the helm at McLaren over the winter, says Piastri was informed about the damage, but it wasn’t acknowledged to viewers during the grand prix because he tries to avoid excuses.

With Norris also encountering excessive tyre degradation issues in the closing laps compared to Hamilton behind, however, Stella contends McLaren must use this race to understand how to manage the rubber more optimally in future rounds.

“Pretty much think that yes we did inform him [Piastri], was busy on the pit wall so maybe I’m confusing what I thought we should say and what we should say, and I think we informed him, in fairness Oscar is a guy that doesn’t look for excuses, not surprised that he might not even mention.

“But it’s there, we think the damage happened actually running wide on a kerb, not necessarily and only when he went wide while battling Perez, so there may be both times that this damage to the car happened, at the same time yes, we also need to look at how the tyres were used, how much of a price did we pay by pushing at the start of the stint in terms of overall degradation throughout the stint.

“If you look at Hamilton approaches he just goes very, very slow at the start and then there is a premium coming back at the end of the stint.

“It’s always difficult from inside the cockpit to understand what impact the early laps of the stint will have towards the end of the stint, so yeah, I think that’s the situation with Oscar.”

Fernando Alonso says Aston Martin extracted the “maximum” result possible with the fifth fastest car in the field across the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend.

The Silverstone squad struggled for speed throughout at the Hungaroring circuit, with Alonso enduring a lonely race to lead team-mate Lance Stroll home in ninth and 10th.

It marked a continuation of Aston Martin’s recent regression down the order that has witnessed it increasingly lose touch with Mercedes in the battle for second place in the Constructors’ Championship.

When asked if rounding out the points positions was the best Aston Martin could have hoped for in Budapest, Alonso said: “Yeah, yeah I think so.

“Yeah we were not quick enough to challenge anyone in front and we did not have anyone behind, three points, nine and tenth, maximum today, so let’s see next week.”

Aston Martin’s AMR23 car has typically performed stronger in race trim than during a single lap over the course of 2023.

However, when questioned on whether the competitiveness of his package was better on Sunday than in qualifying, Alonso, who qualified eighth, stated “It was similar”.

The two-time World Champion expanded by underlining that Aston Martin currently possesses the fifth-fastest car on the grid on the evidence of the past two rounds.

“I think the last two races we struggle a bit, at Silverstone the Safety Car helped a bit to finish seventh, which was better than our pace, in Silverstone and today ninth is probably our pace, yep, behind the Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, which is more or less what we saw in qualifying and the race,” he acknowledged.

After scoring six top-three finishes in the first eight races following his winter switch from Alpine, Alonso hasn’t visited the podium rostrum once in the three rounds since.

Although the Spaniard accepts that the compact field spread is prompting unlikely surprises each weekend, he asserts that a representative order materialises in the race.

Therefore, Alonso has challenged the British marque to haul itself back to the front of the top teams chasing Red Bull, having now dropped to the back of that quartet.

“I mean every race we will love to understand and we will have many questions and we never know exactly what is the cause of it,” he said concerning Aston Martin being out-developed.

“Austria Hulkenberg were fourth after qualifying, so we were all surprise, Silverstone Williams were very fast and we were surprised, here Alfa Romeo was very fast, we were all surprised, then normally in the race everything balances out and the big team they finish in front, yeah, we are just in the back end of those top teams so we need to get back to the front end of that group.”

Another top-four result for Lewis Hamilton has seen Alonso’s advantage in third in the Drivers’ Championship cut to only six points ahead of this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.

Meanwhile, Aston Martin is now a lengthy 39 points adrift of Mercedes and only 17 points ahead of Ferrari, who have also been caught out by McLaren’s recent resurgence.

Frederic Vasseur believes Charles Leclerc lost 20 seconds of race time during the Hungarian Grand Prix due to “too many mistakes” being made.

Vasseur highlighted that the mistakes were shared between both Leclerc and the team.

Leclerc started the race from sixth on the grid, but progressed up to fifth place on the opening lap.

However, the Monegasque’s race was unravelled when he had a slow pit stop on his first trip to swap tyres, with the sequence taking almost 10 seconds.

Leclerc was later issued a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane, which dropped him behind George Russell for sixth in the final classification.

Ferrari, who was expecting to be more competitive at this round compared to Silverstone, was left disappointed as it was out-scored by Red Bull, Mercedes and McLaren.

“First of all, we need time to understand what we did right and wrong because the [qualifying] format was different,” Vasseur said. 

“And it’s not so easy to analyse the perfect weekend. You need to get all the results to be able to do a retro engineering on this. 

“But it’s much more the fact that we made too many mistakes from the beginning to the end. 

“It’s not just about the pitstop, or the pit entry or the quali yesterday or the management of the tyres and so, but at the end, the potential was probably better than what we showed yesterday. 

“And then today, at least with Charles, we lost 20 seconds in the race.”

However, Vasseur defended Ferrari’s unaspiring day, stating that finding mistakes to irradicate is commonplace across the grid.

“I spent the last 35 years or something like this of my life on the pitwall and every single Monday of my career you have to do the list and you have a long list of mistakes, sometimes you can see it sometimes not,” he said. 

“But the job of the team principal is to do the list with the team members and to fix it. 

“And I’m very open with you to say that we are doing too many mistakes, but I think it’s true for if you ask the question to Toto, it will be approximately on the same line as me.”

Sergio Perez says he needs to unearth consistency over the coming events after recovering from another subdued grid position to make the podium in Hungary.

Perez ended his dire run of five successive failures to make Q3 in Hungary but went on to take only ninth place in the final shootout session.

Perez ran a lengthy first stint on Hard tyres before switching to Mediums, moving back into the podium places, and attempted to chase down McLaren’s Lando Norris for second.

Norris held a comfortable buffer throughout and Perez went on to take third place.

It marked only Perez’s second podium finish since Miami.

“It was a good one and it was great to get to the podium,” said Perez.

“We raced initially on the hard compound, which was quite tricky, especially on lap one, but it ended up going well for a long time and we got some good pace before going on the Mediums.

“The race was not only very demanding physically, but also mentally, I had to focus on looking after the tyres. It was really hot and I ended up actually losing 3kg in weight.

“It was a good result and now I just need to find consistency. When the pressure is on you and you are able to deliver, it makes you feel proud of what you are doing so we just need to keep going forward and keep pushing.

“I am focusing on myself and making sure I deliver to the maximum.”

Perez now trails Max Verstappen – who racked up his seventh successive victory – by 110 points.

Max Verstappen stormed to victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix to seal a slice of history for Red Bull as the new all-time record holder for the most consecutive wins by a constructor in Formula 1.

But who had reason to join the reigning World Champions in celebrating a well-executed weekend in Budapest?

Max Verstappen – 9

Qualified: P2, Race: P1

Verstappen was searching for a sixth consecutive pole position and looked on course to achieve that when he stuck it on provisional pole in Q3. However, a scruffy final sector on his final run meant he didn’t improve, opening the door for Hamilton.

Nevertheless, he parked that to the back of his mind and nailed the start to immediately jump into a lead he wouldn’t relinquish. Amid doubts from Mercedes about Red Bull’s speed, his winning margin of 33.7s was the biggest the 2023 season has seen to this point to cap an emphatic display.

Sergio Perez – 7

Qualified: P9, Race: P3

While Perez was able to avoid being absent from Q3 for the sixth consecutive race weekend, wounding up ninth was hardly demonstrative of a job well done. The Mexican admitted after qualifying that a mistake in the first sector had cost him.

Starting on the Hard tyre, Perez made solid progress throughout the 70-lap race. He overcut Leclerc after a slow stop, sliced by the sister Ferrari of Sainz and then pulled moves on the Mercedes pair plus Piastri to recover to third place by the chequered flag.

A welcome return to the podium for the 33-year-old – but one he’ll need to use as a springboard to alleviate the recent building pressure surrounding his seat.

Lando Norris – 9

Qualified: P3, Race: P2

It speaks volumes of McLaren’s remarkable recovery of late that Norris was somewhat disappointed to end up 0.085s away from claiming his second career pole position.

With McLaren and Mercedes appearing evenly matched in race trim, both McLarens getting ahead of Lewis Hamilton at the start proved pivotal to Norris landing a podium.

The Brit was fortuitous that the priority on pit stops fell his way to undercut his way past his team-mate. But Norris showed he had the speed by extending the margin greatly to Piastri behind, which would prove essential when Perez and Hamilton began to close him down in the dying embers.

Oscar Piastri – 7

Qualified: P4, Race: P5

For the second consecutive weekend, Piastri was near enough matching Norris throughout the weekend and looked like a good bet for a maiden podium at one stage.

However, apparent damage saw him struggle for speed past the first round of pit stops and he dropped behind Hamilton and Perez to finish three places shy of Norris.

Lewis Hamilton – 8.5

Qualified: P1, Race: P4

Hamilton stunned everybody when he pinched pole position – his first since December 2021 – by 0.003s at the death in Q3 to bring an end to Verstappen’s recent qualifying superiority.

But his stellar work in qualifying was instantly undone by a poor getaway that eventually saw him get shuffled down to fourth by the end of the opening lap.

Whilst he was able to use superior tyre management to regain the place he had lost at the start to Piastri, Hamilton ran out of laps to close down either Perez or Norris.

George Russell – 7

Qualified: P18, Race: P6

Last year’s Hungarian GP pole sitter was made to rue traffic on the build-up to his final run in Q1 that witnessed him become a shock casualty from the first segment.

Despite Mercedes’ pre-race simulations anticipating Russell could manage a best of seventh, the ex-Williams driver went one better to eclipse both Ferraris for sixth. A strong 28-lap run on the Hard tyre at the start of the race proved crucial to opening up overtaking opportunities later on.

Charles Leclerc – 7

Qualified: P6, Race: P7

Leclerc appears to have reasserted his superiority over Sainz in qualifying recently and maximised the machinery at his disposal to start sixth following a challenging Saturday for Ferrari.

He was then running a promising opening stint on the Medium when a 9s pit stop cost him a place to his team-mate. While Leclerc would recover that particular place, the Monegasque racer was to blame for speeding in the pits and earning a five-second time penalty that ultimately cost him a position and two points to Russell.

Carlos Sainz – 6.5

Qualified: P11, Race: P8

The debut of the Alternative Tyre Allocation (ATA) format couldn’t have come at a worse time for Sainz, who succumbed to a Q2 exit after encountering struggles with the Medium compound tyre all weekend.

However, a lightning start on Softs gained him a plethora of places to leave the Spaniard running sixth behind Leclerc. He would get ahead through his team-mate’s hindered pit stop, but Sainz would drop back behind both Leclerc and Russell.

Fernando Alonso – 7.5

Qualified: P8, Race: P9

Alonso’s weekend was spent creating more headlines away from the track than on it as Aston Martin’s recent performance regression continued in Budapest.

On a circuit expected to suit its AMR23 car, Alonso could only manage eighth in qualifying before dropping one place to a lonely ninth in the race. 

Lance Stroll – 6.5

Qualified: P14, Race: P10

Aston Martin’s sudden dip in competitiveness has witnessed Stroll’s core qualifying weakness come to the fore and he failed to make Q3 for the fifth time in 2023.

A surging start on the Soft compound, however, brought him into play and the Canadian did well to manage his rubber when he reverted to a two-stop strategy.  

Alex Albon – 7

Qualified: P16, Race: P11

Unsurprisingly, it was once again Albon leading the charge for Williams – but on this occasion, the less competitive state of the FW45 meant it didn’t yield a top-10 return.

Nevertheless, the ex-Red Bull affiliate battled hard and defended well from Bottas at the end to only miss out on scoring points for the third time in four races by one position.

Logan Sargeant – 4

Qualified: P20, Race: DNF

Following two promising displays in Austria and Britain, Sargeant was back to encountering familiar territory as he wound up last of all the runners in qualifying.

His race was going reasonably until a spin in the closing stages dropped him down the order, with Williams then swiftly electing to retire his car on the penultimate lap.

Zhou Guanyu – 4.5

Qualified: P5, Race: P16

The entire Alfa Romeo camp would have been rubbing its hands at the prospect of accumulating a vital points haul when both cars qualified inside the top seven.

But the Italian marque’s race came undone almost immediately when Zhou, starting a career-best fifth after an exceptional final run in qualifying, suffered a bizarre fault that saw him immediately get swarmed on both sides.

Despite that hiccup, there was nobody to blame but Zhou when it came to the braking mishap at Turn 1 that saw him nudge the rear of Daniel Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri, putting both Alpines out of the race.

Valtteri Bottas – 6

Qualified: P7, Race: P12

A case of what could have been: even accounting for Zhou’s horror launch, Bottas would surely have challenged for a point’s position if he had been able to maintain position over the fast-starting Soft runners in the opening exchanges.

Sitting ninth in the Constructors’ Championship, Alfa Romeo will surely come to rue not maximising a weekend where its car was inherently extremely quick.

Daniel Ricciardo – 7

Qualified: P15, Race: P13

Ricciardo revelled in being able to push on low fuel in qualifying for the first time in two years as he booked his passage into Q2 by 0.013s and beat Yuki Tsunoda.

Unfortunately for the Australian, he was also caught up in the contact that ensued at Turn 1 on the first lap, dropping him right to the back of the classified runners.

A lengthy 40-lap stint on the Medium compound at the end brought him back to a respectable 13th place, offering plenty of encouragement upon his F1 return.

Yuki Tsunoda – 5

Qualified: P17, Race: P15

Having destroyed de Vries, Tsunoda failed his first serious test of the year as he was out-qualified by Ricciardo in their first weekend together as team-mates.

Nonetheless, he was stringing together a tidy race before an agonisingly slow stop undid all his early progress. 

Nico Hulkenberg – 6.5

Qualified: P10, Race: P14

Haas team boss Guenther Steiner hailed Hulkenberg the best qualifier he’s ever worked with ahead of the weekend and it was easy to see why at the Hungaroring.

As Magnussen was all at sea, Hulkenberg registered his sixth Q3 appearance. The experienced German was maintaining a strong position behind Alonso but lost out through the pit stop phase and eventually got shuffled down to 14th by the close.

Kevin Magnussen – 3.5

Qualified: P19, Race: P17

Magnussen’s qualifying struggles up against Hulkenberg continued as his team-mate inflicted yet another comprehensive defeat.

The ex-McLaren debutant could only manage a place on the back row of the grid in machinery that Hulkenberg illustrated was up to the pace of a Q3 contender.

With Haas’ race pace woes continuing to hamper its Sunday prospects, Magnussen must get a handle on his one-lap troubles in order to start higher up the grid.

Esteban Ocon – 6

Qualified: P12, Race: DNF

It’s hard to give an accurate rating to either Alpine driver when their races were curtailed inside only one corner by Zhou tagging the rear of Ricciardo, which pushed him into Ocon and onto Pierre Gasly.

But Ocon did have the measure of Gasly in qualifying, at least, during a weekend in which Alpine’s prospects were bleak.

Pierre Gasly – 5

Qualified: P15, Race: DNF

Gasly came up short in the battle of the Alpines in qualifying, having his final lap in Q2 deleted for track limits to relegate him to being the slowest of all in the second stage.

The one-time F1 race winner looked set to pick up a handsome number of places when he ventured around the outside of Turn 1 – but it proved to be a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time as his team-mate got pushed into his path.