From Lando Norris\u2019 edge-of-your-seat victory, to heartbreaking plot twists for Ferrari, to fantastic points for the midfield teams, the on-track action at the Hungarian Grand Prix did not disappoint.<\/p>\n
But away from the battles on the circuit, there was also plenty keeping us entertained off-track too. Here\u2019s 9 things you may have missed while the drama unfolded at the Hungaroring…<\/p>\n
En garde, Alpine!<\/p>\n
Thursday’s media day saw Alpine duo Pierre Gasly<\/a> and Franco Colapinto<\/a> swap their helmets for fencing masks in the paddock when they met Hungarian Olympic champions \u2013 the Paris 2024 Men\u2019s Team \u00c9p\u00e9e gold medallists.<\/p>\n The pair even suited up and gave fencing a go, under the watchful eye of Tibor Andrasfi, Mate Tamas Koch, David Nagy, and Gergely Siklosi \u2013 testing their rapid reaction times in a high-speed sport of a different nature.<\/p>\n Bunny mode: activated<\/p>\n Approximately 5000 miles away from Budapest, Formula 1 hit the streets of Puerto Rico for the first time in the form of Mercedes<\/a>\u2019 exhibit to announce their collaboration with reggaeton superstar Bad Bunny.<\/p>\n The show was injected with even more adrenaline when Former F1 driver Esteban Gutierrez took to the streets wowing the crowd with burnouts, high-speed laps and donuts in a demo run.<\/p>\n Safe to say, this was a takeover like no other.<\/p>\n The paddock peloton<\/p>\n There\u2019s a new club rolling through the F1 paddock! Carlos Sainz<\/a>, Ollie Bearman<\/a>, and Mercedes reserve driver Valtteri Bottas have been whipping out the lycra and forming a mini peloton during race weeks, fitting in laps around the circuit outside of their busy weekends both in and out of the car.<\/p>\n Cycling is a top training tool for drivers, but these guys have taken it up a gear! Sainz and Bearman train with Tour de France icon Tadej Poga\u010dar, whilst Bottas has raced in elite cycling events alongside his pro-cyclist partner, Tiffany Cromwell.<\/p>\n This week in Hungary, Williams<\/a> boss James Vowles<\/a> hopped on the saddle and joined the fun, proving he can keep up with the sport’s fittest! At this rate, a full-on showdown at the Yas Marina Circuit before the season finale doesn\u2019t sound too far fetched…<\/p>\n Who had the F1 drivers star struck?<\/p>\n You get a lot of megastars in the F1 paddock these days \u2013 and generally the drivers play it pretty cool. Enter: Hide The Pain Harold.<\/p>\n Harold is actually 80-year-old Hungarian Andras Arato. He has one of the most famous smiles in the world thanks to a meme that plays on his facial expression apparently hiding the real pain inside.<\/p>\n When Harold visited the pit lane ahead of the race on Sunday, Isack Hadjar could not believe his eyes; while Fernando Alonso and Gabriel Bortoleto also made sure to shake his hand and get a photo with him.<\/p>\n Movie stars were Hungary for action<\/p>\n The stars were out in Hungary! The new Captain America Anthony Mackie was seen catching up with Lewis Hamilton<\/a> ahead of FP3, with Anya Taylor-Joy also enjoying her time in the Ferrari garage.<\/p>\n Jamie Dornan took delight in the McLaren<\/a> 1-2 as he spent time with the team on Sunday, whilst Guns N’ Roses rock legend Axl Rose was welcomed to the ju… Red Bull Racing<\/a> garage!<\/p>\n Lando is extra careful… this time<\/p>\n Hungary winner Lando Norris<\/a> made sure there was no repeat of a famous calamity as he celebrated his fifth victory of 2025.<\/p>\n Two years ago, he was second to Max Verstappen<\/a> at the Hungaroring, and accidentally knocked off and broke Max\u2019s porcelain trophy when he performed his famous champagne \u2018spike\u2019 celebration.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Lando signed his champagne bottle with the words \u2018don\u2019t break the trophy!\u2019, and then made sure to move his and Oscar Piastri<\/a>\u2019s trophies to a safe space before the champagne popped.<\/p>\n Axl\u2019s back!<\/p>\n Rock legend Axl Rose had the honour of waving the chequered flag on Norris’ ninth F1 win.<\/p>\n The Guns N’ Roses lead singer is a long-time F1 fan, and given his maverick reputation, it\u2019s no surprise that one of his good friends is 2007 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen<\/a>.<\/p>\n So strong is their relationship that Rose thanked Raikkonen in the sleeve notes for the Roses\u2019 2008 album Chinese Democracy.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been a fan of his for a while,\u201d Rose said in 2023. \u201cI always watched him back in the day. We get along very well.\u201d<\/p>\n Rose looked every bit the rock and roll star on Sunday, dressed in leather trousers, cowboy boots and a silk shirt unbuttoned to the chest \u2013 all in black, of course.<\/p>\n Alonso and Bortoleto\u2019s weekend to remember<\/p>\n It was a stunning weekend for Fernando Alonso<\/a> and his prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Gabriel Bortoleto<\/a> in Hungary. Bortoleto posted his best ever F1 result with sixth at the Hungaroring; while Alonso scored his best of the season one place ahead in fifth.<\/p>\n Brazil\u2019s Bortoleto owes a lot to the double World Champion, whose management team snapped him up in 2022 and helped him find a route into Formula 3. Since then, Bortoleto has become F3 and then F2 champion, before joining the F1 grid this year with Kick Sauber<\/a>.<\/p>\n The pair shared a lovely moment in parc ferme on Saturday when Bortoleto waited to congratulate his manager Alonso on his P5 in Qualifying; and there was another fun moment in the media pen after the race with the Spaniard sharing a joke at the Brazilian’s expense (see the video below).<\/p>\n It\u2019s been some week for Alonso. He celebrated his 44th birthday on Tuesday, sat out first practice on Friday with a muscular injury in his back, and then was at his brilliant best on Saturday and Sunday \u2013 not to mention the success of 20-year-old Bortoleto, who Alonso described to DAZN Spain as \u201cthe best rookie of this generation\u201d.<\/p>\n Art Attack at the Fan Stage<\/p>\n The driver appearances at the Fan Stage are always a highlight of the weekend for fans at the circuit, as things tend to get a little silly… Hungary was no different, as Williams<\/a> duo Alex Albon<\/a> and Carlos Sainz<\/a>, and Racing Bulls<\/a> pairing Isack Hadjar<\/a> and Liam Lawson<\/a>, got stuck into some arts and crafts.<\/p>\n As for Carbono\u2019s masterpiece below, well, we\u2019ll let you judge that one yourselves!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Lando Norris\u2019 edge-of-your-seat victory, to heartbreaking plot twists for Ferrari, to fantastic points for the midfield teams,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-317715","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\/114971718765303582","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317715","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=317715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}