Key events
Giles Richards
Success breeds expectation as Lewis Hamilton, who has enjoyed both like few other drivers in Formula One, knows only too well. Having set himself the task of returning a title for Ferrari, anticipation for his first season with the team was off the scale but success has been far from forthcoming. As the Scuderia have struggled the seven-time champion has been drawing on every bit of experience in what may be the defining challenge of his storied career.
At the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend Ferrari announced they were extending their contract with team principal, Fred Vasseur, backing the Frenchman who was instrumental in bringing Hamilton on board to complete his mission of reforging Ferrari into a championship-winning outfit after underachieving for so long. However as the season approaches its summer break, with 10 races to come after Budapest and Ferrari winless, Vasseur still has much to achieve.
Read Giles’ latest from the Hungarian Grand Prix in full:
Lando Norris is a bit of a different character to those you usually see at the top of end elite sport. You only have to look at the Red Bull and Ferrari garages to see sportsmen cast in the traditional mould, but Norris does not seem to enjoy needle. It was suggested to the McLaren driver yesterday that he needed to try and get in the head teammate Oscar Piastri if the Briton is to ultimately win the drivers’ championship this season.
“I don’t enjoy that. In 200 years no one is going to care. We’ll all be dead,” replied Norris.
“I am trying to have a good time. I still care about it, and that’s why I get upset sometimes and I get disappointed and I get angry at myself. And I think that shows just how much I care about winning and losing.
“But that doesn’t mean I need to take it out on Oscar. I just don’t get into those kind of things.”
Top ten from FP3 this morning
1. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) – 1min 14.916secs
2. Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.032secs
3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.399secs
4. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.768secs
5. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.829secs
6. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +0.878secs
7. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +0.912secs
8. George Russell (Mercedes) +0.924secs
10. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) +1.109secs
Preamble
In a rare twist, last week’s qualifying at Spa did not decide the race, but it did offer plenty of drama. Lewis Hamilton fell foul of track limits to go out in Q1 and Oscar Piastri was pipped to pole by McLaren teammate Lando Norris. More of the same today, please.
Placing qualification at the Hungaroring in the 2025 season’s broader context, Norris said earlier this week that title will come down to “who qualifies first and second more often” while making the “least mistakes when they qualify first”. He noted that there have not been a lot of races where the lead has changed hands after turn one. This analysis is both correct and, therefore, a strong self-critique of his performance in the race at the Belgian Grand Prix, where he won the qualifying battle but lost the lead to Piastri on the first lap.
As we prepare to enter the summer break, Piastri has won three times in races where he hasn’t qualified on pole, Norris has only managed this once, that coming at Silverstone. These are the fine margins that Norris will need to turn in his favour in Hungary and for the remainder of the season.
It is foolish to read too much into practice but Norris was quicker than Piastri on Friday, albeit neither of those were under optimum conditions, but then the Australian clocked a 1min 14.916secs lap this morning to go 0.032secs quicker than his teammate.
Elsewhere eyes in the Ferrari garage will be on Lewis Hamilton after he failed to get out of Q1 in both the sprint and main race last weekend. Late-stage Hamilton at Ferrari has become a curious entity, he is rarely troubling the podium places and also seems much more willing to admit mistakes. He described his qualifying performance as “unacceptable” and said he would be apologising to his team. Even though it is obvious that the Ferrari is not currenty fast enough to be winning races, Hamilton’s actions smack of a new hire who wants to ingratiate themselves with their colleagues.
Undoubtedly the Briton is hopeful that it will payoff somewhere down the line when the team produce a competitve vehicle. It is now some time since the seven-time world champion had one of those. However, Fred Vasseur has signed a new deal with the Italian team, so the higher-ups clearly think the direction of travel is good. The Ferraris performed well this morning with Charles Leclerc notching the third quickest lap and Hamilton the fourth.
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