Racing
© Máté Bagi
Lando Norris said his dominant Hungarian Grand Prix victory showed he is driving at a higher level in 2026 than he did during his 2025 title-winning season, after McLaren’s upgrade package finally gave him a car he could turn into pole and a convincing win.
Norris took his first grand prix victory of the season from pole at the Hungaroring, briefly losing track position to team-mate Oscar Piastri before taking the lead back and finishing more than 15 seconds clear of second-placed Max Verstappen. Afterwards, the reigning world champion described Budapest as one of the strongest weekends of his career.
Speaking after the race, Norris said it was “up there with one of my best performances, in terms of extracting performance out of the car and being so close to the limit every single lap.” He added that he was pushing so hard that “the team had to ask me to peg it back a little bit.”
For Norris, the significance of the result went beyond finally getting back on the top step. He said he feels he is “doing a better job this year than I was last year,” despite the fact that the standings do not reflect that progress. Norris is fifth in the championship on 128 points at the halfway point of the season, 91 behind leader Kimi Antonelli.
That gap is what makes the satisfaction and frustration sit side by side. Norris said it “kind of hurts” to say he believes he is performing better than in his championship season when the results have not followed in the same way. “It just doesn’t mean you win the race,” he said, pointing to a first half of the year in which McLaren did not have a car capable of consistently taking the fight to Mercedes and Ferrari.
Hungary offered a different picture because McLaren arrived with a major update package that included a new floor and several aerodynamic changes. Norris said the breakthrough was directly linked to those developments, with the team’s improved pace immediately evident as he converted his first pole of the season with the number one on his car into victory.
He said the performance was the product of work “in many different areas,” both away from the track and across race weekends. “A lot of small differences add up, and you see the result today,” Norris said, arguing there is no single change behind the step he feels he has made.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said the win in Budapest was not an isolated flash of speed from Norris but the latest sign of a longer progression. Stella said Norris has “much more self-confidence,” is “much more aware of the tools that he has in his driving,” and showed that growth during the race itself.
Stella pointed to the way Norris handled the opening phase, when he sat behind Piastri despite believing he had pace in hand. Rather than getting “overly frustrated,” Stella said, Norris stayed controlled and used that speed at the right moment, a sign not only of stronger race management but of improved emotional control.
That is the part of the Hungarian win that may matter most for McLaren’s second half of the season. Norris believes he is driving better than ever, and Hungary was the clearest evidence yet. The question now is whether McLaren can give him enough weekends like this one to turn that level into more than a single breakthrough win.