Hülkenberg stung too

New York Times

3 days ago

The Hungaroring one-two helped McLaren to its 200th grand prix victory ahead of the summer break Getty Images
Lando Norris held off his charging McLaren teammate and championship leader Oscar Piastri, to claim victory in a captivating Hungarian Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc had led from pole until the second round of pit stops, when Piastri found the performance required to get by the Ferrari.
From there Piastri hunted down Norris, who was attempting to get to the end of the race after just one pit stop, but Norris kept his cool to stay ahead over the final laps and take the checkered flag.
F1 now departs for its summer break, with the action resuming for the Dutch Grand Prix on the final weekend of August.
Result: 1 NOR, 2 PIA, 3 RUS, 4 LEC, 5 ALO
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Hungarian Grand Prix: Norris wins a thriller over Piastri, Leclerc's victory evaporates
LAP 8/70 — Nico Hülkenberg is facing the same investigation as Gabriel Bortoleto in the other Sauber — although now F1 has shown the start replays, the second Sauber's start looked far more blatantly ahead of the lights changing.
LAP 6/70 — Gabriel Bortoleto is shining in sixth and ahead of Max Verstappen, but he's just been pinged for allegedly moving before the lights went out at the start.
That's usually an automatic five-second penalty, but race control officials are assessing it right now. Getty Images
LAP 5/70 — Speaking of the Ferraris, Charles Lerclerc is showing promising early pace here.
His lead over Oscar Piastri is already heading towards three seconds, which compares favorably to everyone else.
LAP 3/70 — Better news for Lando Norris, who swiftly gets back past Fernando Alonso. That feels important for him, albeit with a lot of work still to do.
Max Verstappen gets by Lance Stroll to sit P7 too.
But it's looking tricky right now on the hard tire for Lewis Hamilton. He's seen Kimi Antonelli and Carlos Sainz (on the softs) fly past to leave the second Ferrari P14.
LAP 2/70 — Not a good start at all for Lando Norris. He moved to the inside at Turn 1 but boxed himself in a bit behind Oscar Piastri, allowing George Russell and then Fernando Alonso to get past him. Getty Images
LAP 1/70 — Horrible start for Lando Norris. He's down to P5 simply by losing places.
It didn't even look that untidy!
LAP 1/70 — Away we go with the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix!
All of the top 10 are starting on medium tires today. Lewis Hamilton is on hards for the first stint, meaning it will be a long run before he comes in for his first stop.
Pierre Gasly is also on hards.
Carlos Sainz, Nico Hülkenberg and Alex Albon are on softs.
Here we go. The formation lap is up and running.
Charles Leclerc flies away quick-sharp. Getty Images
Turn 1 is going to be all important today.
When Oscar Piastri was asked yesterday in the news conference after qualifying if there was anywhere else to overtake, he wryly joked:
💬 'The pit lane.'
Overtaking is very tough around here with so little grip offline.
The first lap will be crucial. Getty Images
The cars have made it round to the grid, where temperatures are several degrees cooler than they have been.
There is even the odd shower around if you look hard enough, although right now it seems unlikely they'll affect this race.
Lights out is almost with us… Getty Images
Guns N' Roses lead singer songwriter Axl Rose is here!
Don't cry if you see him first later either — he's set to wave the checkered flag at the end of the race.
And with that it will be Paradise City with top step on the podium.
(Sorry)
Williams leaning hard into the appearance of a meme legend on the Hungaroring grid.
There is a Lewis Hamilton or Alex Albon punchline to be had here involving Hide The Pain Harold following qualifying yesterday...
But I'm not going there.
This is how the Hungarian Grand Prix began four years ago.
Obviously no one wants to encourage such carnage again but… Getty Images
Contrast those emotions for Charles Leclerc, with how Lewis Hamilton was feeling in the moments after qualifying.
The seven-time world champion made his inner monologue public too, as he spoke to reporters after qualifying:
💬 'Useless… The team has no problem. You've seen the car's on pole. So they probably need to change driver.'
Madeline Coleman and Luke Smith pull apart a truly difficult day for the man who usually excels around the Hungaroring.
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Lewis Hamilton calls himself 'useless' after F1 qualifying exit ahead of Hungarian Grand Prix
Charles Leclerc has built a reputation for producing some very special qualifying laps throughout his Formula One career.
He's started more than three times as many races from pole (27) as he has won (eight), often usurping quicker cars with some one-lap brilliance at the very end of qualifying.
But yesterday at the Hungaroring, even Leclerc was baffled by what he'd just done...
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How Charles Leclerc snared shock Ferrari Hungary pole: 'Today, I don't understand F1'
When Fred Vasseur took charge of Ferrari, he became the latest in a long line of team principals tasked with ending the title drought for F1's most famous and successful team.
But he knew it would take time.
Ferrari had success through 2024 but failed to maintain that momentum going into 2025 and Lewis Hamilton's arrival, leaving it winless after the opening 13 races of the season.
When a couple of reports in the Italian media emerged ahead of last month's Canadian Grand Prix, Vasseur came out swinging — saying he always knew he'd been 'exposed' as Ferrari team principal, such is the pressure and demand for success in that role.
But he was unhappy at suggestions there could be changes within the team, saying it was 'completely disrespectful' to those working at Ferrari.
The extended contract gives Vasseur the support and stability to get his vision in place.
Two key figures, technical director Loic Serra and deputy team principal Jerome d'Ambrosio, arrived at the end of last year from Mercedes — serving as a boost to Vasseur's backroom team.
With 2026's sweeping car design rule changes on the horizon, Vasseur's Ferrari will look to benefit from the reset as it tries to catch McLaren at the front and his plans for F1's most iconic team fall further into place.
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Ferrari F1 team principal Fred Vasseur signs multi-year contract extension Luke Smith
I'm down on the grid, and it's cooler than yesterday after some overnight rain and a bit of a breeze.
Packed grandstand for the first race at the new facility here, really good atmosphere. Hungary is always a fun one!
Here is pole man Charles Leclerc coming through on the grid. Getty Images
It was August 24, 2003 that Fernando Alonso took his Renault and became the first Spaniard to win a Formula One grand prix.
Now almost 22 years on, Alonso is in an Aston Martin starting from P5 and looking for his first podium finish since São Paulo 2023 — 40 races ago.
If not better.
Good luck to you, Fernando.