Formula 1 heads straight from Spa-Francorchamps to Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend \u2013 the final race before the sport\u2019s summer break.<\/p>\n
First and second practice will take place on Friday, August 1, followed by final practice and Qualifying on Saturday, August 2 and the Grand Prix<\/a> itself on Sunday, August 3.<\/p>\n Vital statistics<\/p>\n \u2022 First Grand Prix \u2013 1986 *From the last eight races in Hungary<\/p>\n The driver\u2019s verdict<\/p>\n Jolyon Palmer, former Renault F1 driver: Budapest feels like a small circuit when you\u2019re there but there\u2019s plenty that goes into it with 14 corners.<\/p>\n The first sector is basically two corners: a big braking zone at Turn 1, which is a relatively straightforward right-hander but quite bumpy in the braking area, so it can induce some front locking, before heading into Turn 2, which is slightly downhill.<\/p>\n The middle sector is one of those ones where you\u2019ve got to find a rhythm because out of pretty much every corner you need to be positioned for the next corner coming through it. You go from Turn 4 into 6, then you get a tiny breather, but it carries you through the next sweeping section, building speed all the way.<\/p>\n In the final sector, sometimes the tyres are starting to overheat and you start to scramble around for a little bit of grip there. In the race, you\u2019ve got to think about setting up your overtake coming out of Turn 14, the final corner, because that is your one chance to do something into Turn 1 and, if not, into Turn 2. If you don\u2019t get it done there, you\u2019re probably going to be following for the next lap.<\/p>\n I had some good battles here in GP2, and while it\u2019s not easy to overtake in Hungary, you can. The layout of the circuit lends itself to overtaking at Turn 2, particularly as you can go inside or outside, so it can be hard to defend. It\u2019s a nice one to have some battles at.<\/p>\n Last five Hungarian GP polesitters<\/p>\n \u2022 2024 \u2013 Lando Norris (McLaren) Last five Hungarian GP winners<\/p>\n \u2022 2024 \u2013 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) Tyre and strategy insight<\/p>\n \u201cThe trio of slick tyre compounds is the same as last year: C3 as hard, C4 as medium and C5 as soft,\u201d reads Pirelli\u2019s pre-weekend preview.<\/p>\n \u201cUp until last year, these would have been the softest tyres of all, but this year, the C6 was introduced. However, the new compound would be too extreme a choice for a track that exerts this level of energy density on the tyres for every lap.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough the actual loads are not that high in absolute terms, the fact that the lap is short means that it increases cumulatively and significantly with each lap.<\/p>\n \u201cAnother factor that plays its part is the high temperature that usually accompanies the Hungarian weekend, leading to predominantly thermal degradation, exacerbated by the very dark track surface. In fact, last year\u2019s race here saw the highest recorded track temperature of the season, at 58.6 Celcius.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most popular strategy [in 2024] was the two-stop, running various combinations of the C3 and C4. The medium performed best and 13 drivers chose it for the start. Of the remaining seven, four went with the soft and three with the hard.<\/p>\n \u201cYuki Tsunoda in the Racing Bulls was the only driver to get to the chequered flag having made just one stop, while some pitted three times, running a short final stint on the soft.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Aston Martin pair of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll made two stops, using all three compounds, having gone their own way in terms of tyre management in free practice. The Canadian drove the longest stint (14 laps) on the soft.\u201d<\/p>\n Current form<\/p>\n Lando Norris<\/a> ate into McLaren<\/a> team mate Oscar Piastri<\/a>\u2019s championship lead via back-to-back victories in Austria and on home soil at Silverstone, but the Australian returned to the top step with a superb display of his own in the changeable Spa-Francorchamps conditions.<\/p>\n It means Piastri sits 16 points clear of Norris heading to the Hungaroring, where the former claimed his first Grand Prix win last year \u2013 but given the fine margins involved, either one of them could enter the upcoming summer break with the advantage.<\/p>\n Although McLaren can take plenty of confidence from their performance at the track some 12 months ago, and their generally imperious pace across the 2025 season so far, several rivals will be pushing to cause an upset when the weekend gets going.<\/p>\n Ferrari<\/a>\u2019s update in Belgium last time out appeared to move their SF-25 in the right direction, with Charles Leclerc<\/a> returning to the podium, while Lewis Hamilton<\/a> can draw on his records of nine pole positions and eight race wins here.<\/p>\n Max Verstappen<\/a> and Red Bull<\/a> also have recent form in Hungary, having won the 2022 and 2023 races, but will the Dutchman and team mate Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> (who showed signs of improvement at Spa) be able to get the RB21 working around the tight, twisty Budapest venue?<\/p>\n Elsewhere, Mercedes<\/a> are looking for answers to some serious questions after a difficult run, with a tight midfield group<\/a> all ready to take advantage of any ongoing issues for the Silver Arrows and bag some more valuable points.<\/p>\n Iconic moment<\/p>\n There are so many iconic moments to choose from over the several decades of racing at the Hungaroring, but one particularly dramatic race \u2013 and landmark result \u2013 came during the 2006 season.<\/p>\n Starting back in 14th, Button excelled in the tricky wet\/dry conditions to rise up the order and bring himself into contention, meaning he could capitalise when long-time leader Fernando Alonso lost a wheel nut and spun off.<\/p>\n After a hatful of podium finishes and several near-misses, it marked the first victory of Button\u2019s F1 career, the first for Honda as a constructor since John Surtees\u2019 win in Italy in 1967 and the first for a Honda engine since Gerhard Berger\u2019s triumph in Australia in 1992.<\/p>\n Check out the action, and post-race emotions, in the video player below…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 1 heads straight from Spa-Francorchamps to Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend \u2013 the final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-306711","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114948153407784127","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u2022 Track Length \u2013 4.381km
\u2022 Lap record \u2013 1m 16.627s, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 2020
\u2022 Most pole positions \u2013 Lewis Hamilton (9)
\u2022 Most wins \u2013 Lewis Hamilton (8)
\u2022 Trivia \u2013 The event has been the scene of several drivers\u2019 first F1 victories, including Oscar Piastri in 2024, Esteban Ocon in 2021, Jenson Button in 2006 and Fernando Alonso in 2003 (more on that below)
\u2022 Pole run to Turn 1 braking point \u2013 476 metres
\u2022 Overtakes completed in 2024 \u2013 65
\u2022 Safety Car probability \u2013 25%*
\u2022 Virtual Safety Car probability \u2013 25%*
\u2022 Pit stop time loss \u2013 20.6 seconds<\/p>\n
\u2022 2023 \u2013 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
\u2022 2022 \u2013 George Russell (Mercedes)
\u2022 2021 \u2013 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
\u2022 2020 \u2013 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)<\/p>\n
\u2022 2023 \u2013 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
\u2022 2022 \u2013 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
\u2022 2021 \u2013 Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
\u2022 2020 \u2013 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)<\/p>\n