Racing
© Jonathan Borba
Andrea Kimi Antonelli arrives at the Hungarian Grand Prix with a firm hold on the 2026 Formula 1 title fight, but the Hungaroring has given Ferrari a real opening to challenge Mercedes before the summer break.
Antonelli’s win at Spa was his sixth of the season and left him 45 points clear of Lewis Hamilton and 50 ahead of Mercedes team-mate George Russell. He will still head into the break leading the championship whatever happens in Budapest, yet this weekend matters because Hungary asks a different question of the field than Spa or Silverstone.
The Hungaroring’s slow, technical 4.381km layout, with 14 corners over 70 laps, puts the emphasis on qualifying, chassis balance and tyre management far more than outright straight-line performance. Overtaking is notoriously difficult, so track position tends to decide the race long before Sunday’s final stint.
That is why Ferrari’s start to Friday stood out. Hamilton led a Ferrari one-two in second practice with a 1:18.729, Leclerc just 0.148 seconds behind, in the clearest sign yet that Mercedes may not have this weekend under control. Lando Norris was third, while Max Verstappen took fourth and Russell was fifth, almost a second off the pace.
Antonelli was only 13th in the session, 1.9 seconds down on Hamilton, although he set his best time on Medium tyres rather than the Soft compound used by most of the front-runners. That leaves Mercedes with room to argue the headline gap is misleading, but Ferrari still has the early momentum on a circuit that can reward a car that starts near the front.
Russell arrived in Hungary saying Mercedes believes it has solved the power-unit issue that compromised his Belgian Grand Prix. George Russell, the Mercedes driver, said: “We’re pretty confident we’ve got on top of the issues that we had in Spa and it should be easy to resolve.” He added: “We hope and we think we have got on top of it, so feeling more positive.”
Russell said the team believes the problem was a software bug rather than anything related to his driving style, after a difficult Spa weekend that ended with a first-lap exit following contact with Hamilton. His recovery matters to Mercedes as much as Antonelli’s title cushion, because Ferrari has also cut into the constructors’ race and now trails Mercedes by 73 points.
That gives Budapest weight beyond a single pole fight. If Ferrari can convert its practice pace into a front-row lockout or a win, it will head into the second half with its strongest evidence yet that Mercedes can be beaten on balance-heavy circuits. If Mercedes reasserts itself, Antonelli’s advantage and the team’s control of both championships will look even harder to break after the break.