Winners and losers from the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying

Lando Norris’ first pole position as a world champion makes him an obvious Winner, but who else features on our list from qualifying in Budapest?

Here is PlanetF1.com’s full list of winners and losers from the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying.

Winners and losers from the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying

Winner: Lando Norris

I’ve made the comparison before that Lando Norris is essentially having Jacques Villeneuve’s 1998 season as a defending world champion.

In 1998, Williams lost ground to the likes of McLaren and Ferrari, and Villeneuve had to settle for fifth overall, with only a handful of podiums to his name that year.

Norris’ year has been very similar so far, to the point where he also occupies fifth place, and hasn’t really looked capable of a race victory at any point this year so far.

But, as we’ve seen from McLaren in the past few years, the Woking-based team is particularly adept at introducing devastatingly effective upgrades to its cars and, once again, appears to have done so with the revised floor this weekend.

Norris snatched pole position, his first as the reigning world champion, meaning the Villeneuve comparison can now to put to rest – the French-Canadian never achieve such highs.

What’s more, Norris felt he could have done it with a far bigger advantage than he did, but didn’t quite manage to unlock the full potential of his car during Q3.

“I knew I could do it, honestly,” said Norris, who spoke of his confidence that pole position could be his.

“My first lap was also not the best. I just had a big snap of oversteer in Turn 12, so Turn 13 I messed up, and Turn 14 I was basically drifting. So I knew I could go quite a bit better. I was surprised my last lap was not better, but again, I tried to push it more.

“That’s why I say, with a third attempt, I think I would have understood the best of both worlds. But as I sat in the garage, I knew the pace was certainly there. It has been all weekend.

“Even though these guys [Ferrari] have been insanely fast, I knew I’d been driving very well, I’d been consistent, and I knew the car had potential. We also had the upgrades this weekend, and it doesn’t feel that different, but it certainly seems to be going a little bit quicker, and that’s always a good thing.”

Andrea Stella revealed that the contribution of the new parts, together with an ironing out of the power unit inconsistencies seen at Spa, helped Norris to the pole position but said he believed Ferrari, had either driver nailed a lap, may have had pole position within reach.

With half a season to go, a championship tilt from McLaren and Norris still seems a step too far but, for the world champion, he’s taking pride in the fact he’s maximising his opportunities in a season where other drivers have apparently superior machinery.

“It’s tough because we’re never going to have an advantage over them like they’ve had over over us,” he said on Thursday, when asked by PlanetF1.com whether he can still dream of a title.

“We can maybe catch up to the level that they are, but then to get whatever it is 100 points back from where I’m now is is going to be pretty tough.

“I’m more the guy who stays in the present and looks ahead to the future. Honestly, I feel like I’ve I’ve given better in this half of the season than I probably did to this point last year, to a certain extent.”

With McLaren a step ahead on single-lap pace in Hungary, a victory heading into the summer break might just light a fire under a team that appears metronomic in upgrade efficiency.

Loser: Max Verstappen and Red Bull

The timing of McLaren’s upswing couldn’t have come at a worse time for Red Bull, whose hold on Max Verstappen is set to loosen after this weekend when the conditions of his escape clause are activated.

While Lando Norris was storming to pole position, Verstappen was trudging back to the pits after the latest moment of aerodynamic chaos struck his RB22 as he swung into the final corner.

Spinning off, Verstappen took to the team radio to swear about the handling of his car, which comes after Red Bull brought along a revised version of its rotating wing after taking it off to give it a good once-over after the offs in Austria and Britain.

Verstappen revealed that aero losses are visible in the data, when asked by PlanetF1.com about whether the issue could be linked to the wing, but explained to Dutch media that Red Bull hasn’t got a handle on what exactly the problem is.

“A continuation of the problems” was how he described it, revealing the car has become “undriveable” through the weekend, and admitted that he’s now “past the point” of hopelessness with the situation at present.

PlanetF1.com’s understanding of the situation is that the four-time F1 World Champion has worked out a broad agreement, including finances, with McLaren, and the question is down to whether or not he actually is brave enough to pull the trigger on a switch to Woking.

On a day where it became apparent that the rear wing design is not yet fixed and the engineering prowess of the team comes into question once again, McLaren’s no-nonsense delivery of a powerful upgrade package could be making the Dutch driver’s decision that much more difficult, even following his sentiment on Thursday about how his current team is a “second family” to him.

As for Isack Hadjar, in eighth, the French driver’s usually maudlin mood was even more pronounced than usual, as he lamented Red Bull’s performance as the fourth-best team, and said the situation is “very disappointing” on a weekend where his team’s performance is “nowhere”.

Winner: Charles Leclerc

Granted, Leclerc finished the day as the slower of the two Ferrari drivers but, unlike his teammate Lewis Hamilton, kept his nose clean in qualifying to finish the day in second place and only behind Norris.

While Hamilton put in the faster lap, his blocking of Oscar Piastri netted him a three-place grid drop, promoting Leclerc up to second as the Monegasque continues his recent run near the very top of the grid.

But, despite this, he wasn’t particularly happy with the handling of his Ferrari, saying he’d struggled for feel and grip.

“I got kind of the same snap as I had every lap into Turn 1, but bigger, and lost quite a lot there,” he said.

“From that moment onwards, the rears were just not in the right window anymore. But I think, Turn 1 and Turn 12, where there was new tarmac, I was really struggling to get the right feeling with the car and to anticipate what the car would do.

“I did not do a good job on that last lap in Q3. On top of that, I felt like we were a little bit down on grip, so we need to see whether we did anything different on the out-lap, because sometimes it relies on very small details.”

But, despite all of this, Leclerc starts on the front row, and spoke with optimism about the “very, very strong race pace” seen on Friday.

As for Hamilton, the British driver knew he’d likely be slapped with a penalty as he admitted his mind was elsewhere during the post-session interviews, saying he hadn’t been aware another car [Piastri] was approaching from behind him into Turn 1.

But, while Leclerc wasn’t happy with the feel of his Ferrari, Hamilton felt the opposite: the car had been strong, but he’d underdelivered.

“It was a great lap,” he said.

“We’ve been doing a great job all weekend. I felt solid throughout qualifying and, yeah, for some reason… I mean, we went out first, which I don’t think was the right call.

“But then, on top of that, the grip for some reason wasn’t there on that last lap, I think for both Charles and me. And, yeah, it’s obviously a track that I love. I think we’re obviously competitive, but I think tomorrow is going to be a hard day.”

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Loser: Kimi Antonelli

Mercedes looked curiously off the boil in Q3, with neither Antonelli nor Russell able to challenge at the very front.

The championship leader said he’d felt pole position was out of reach, even if he’d managed to do an unhindered final run, while George Russell, finishing with the seventh-best lap, felt the top three wasn’t achievable had he had a clean end to the session.

But Antonelli’s fourth-place finish became a seventh-place grid slot hours after qualifying, when he was given a three-place grid penalty for a yellow flag infringement that must have exasperated him after trying to do the opposite to what happened him in Austria.

On that occasion, Russell’s experience meant he slowed for the single yellow-flag shown for Verstappen’s crash, but not so much that he couldn’t still achieve pole position.

Antonelli opted for caution on that occasion, choosing safety over speed, and lost out as a result.

But, on this occasion as Verstappen spun off once again, Antonelli backed off – but only a little. The stewards had a look at this attempt and decided he hadn’t done enough – unlike Russell’s very obvious lift off, Antonelli’s lift was only 16 metres earlier than usual and only equated to less than one percent different through the sector.

This wasn’t enough to be a clear and evident lift, and he’s thus been given a penalty – damned if you do, damned if you don’t for poor Kimi.

What this does suggest is that the implication of that day at the Red Bull Ring has become evidence: rather than clearly backing off for the yellow flag, Antonelli barely slowed, his preference for safety having cost him dearly once already this summer.

Winner: Arvid Lindblad

We’ve become very accustomed to Racing Bulls finishing in ninth place, and Arvid Lindblad was the driver to do it once again in qualifying as the rookie driver came out on top against Liam Lawson.

Even better, Lindblad clearly had the legs on Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg, who claimed 10th as the Hinwil-based squad has emerged as Racing Bulls’ nearest challenger.

After missing almost all of FP3 as the team fitted his car with a new power unit, Lindblad made it against his own predictions to get into Q3 and deliver a lap that had Hulkenberg admitting the Racing Bulls was simply out of reach on a single lap.

“It wasn’t a time where I crossed the line and thought I’d done the perfect job,” Lindblad said afterwards.

“But I did think I did a really good job in Q1 and Q2, and really got everything out of it in Q2.

“It’s my first time having two sets in Q3, so I think maybe I could have managed it slightly better. But this is all learning, and I think there was a little bit more to come there.”

Winner: Aston Martin

Having become so accustomed to toiling around towards the back of late, Aston Martin very clearly has made a step forward in pace with the updated AMR26, helped somewhat by Budapest being less of a power-hungry circuit and masking some of the deficiencies that remain in the current-spec Honda power unit.

While Lance Stroll’s weekend has been on the back foot, starting off with his suspension failure in FP1, Fernando Alonso showed the extent of the improvement as he made it into Q2 on merit – a far cry from being a second or two off the Cadillacs.

The best news for Aston Martin is that the real-world performance appears to be matching its simulator and wind tunnel data, meaning there are no obvious concerns that the knowledge of how to improve isn’t there.

“Even if it’s what we expected, I think it was important to have it and not have a nasty surprise,” Alonso said, explaining that it’s early days in terms of unlocking the upgrade package’s potential.

Of the car’s handling, Alonso said in response to a question from PlanetF1.com that it, “more or less stays the same.

“The way the car drives, and we just gain load and overall grip on the corners, it’s maybe a little bit more consistent to drive.

“So corner by corner, an entry and exit, the car is is a little bit more forgiving. So it’s a little bit easier to drive. The previous car we had, I think it was trickier to drive.”

Loser: Williams

With Aston Martin making its jump, it’s now Williams as the established team struggling the most down the back with Cadillac, and both Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz lamented the poor handling and feel of the car when they returned to the paddock after a double elimination from Q1.

Hungary is “confirming the car’s lack of downforce and balance”, according to Sainz, while Albon spoke of the unpredictability behind the wheel as he revealed he could “only dream” of an upgrade such as Aston’s.

The “fundamental issues” inherent within the car can be tackled by way of the upgrades coming in Baku but, more importantly, the understanding of what’s going on appears to be there to dial out in next year’s design.

Sainz pointed to Aston Martin’s leap as being the “carrot” to Williams to do the same.

“If we’re not doing the same, why? Why don’t we have that capacity?” he said.

“So for me, what is important moving forward is show that we can also have the capacity to do a turnaround like another midfield team just did in front of us.

“Aston went from having a worse downforce, worse chassis than us to having the best midfield downforce right now.

“So it is there for us to go find the solution to add downforce and find the evolution. So I see it positively in a way that the team should be looking at that and saying, ‘Yeah, it is possible if you do things right’.

But there’s a long way to go before the hole Williams is in can be climbed out of, as Albon explained.

“It’s more than just setup days on the weekend,” he said.

“It’s something fundamental in terms of airflow. It’s not just aero. We think a lot of it’s even mechanical. We think it’s things are moving in the car, tolerances that create inconsistencies, basically.”

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