F1 2026: Hungarian Grand Prix Preview and Predictions

It’s back-to-back race weeks before Formula One goes for the summer break and after Kimi Antonelli’s win in Belgium, the grid is moving to the Hungaroring for the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend as teams look to head into the month-long break on a high.

Before racing gets underway later this week, here’s our preview and predictions of the Hungarian Grand Prix 2026. 

The World Champion has finally arrived

Prior to the start of the Belgian race weekend, McLaren announced that current reigning world champion Lando Norris will be taking a 10-place grid penalty for adding a new power electronics unit. The new power unit instantly showed pace as right from the Free Practice sessions, Norris showed pace, challenging the Ferraris and Mercedes.

Despite knowing that he would be taking a 10-place grid drop due to the penalty, Norris put in a stunning qualifying session, momentarily going fastest in Q3 before Antonelli and Verstappen went quicker. Norris qualified third on track and his penalty dropped him to a P13 start. On Sunday, Norris showed strong race pace right from the start. He stormed through the field and was in the fight for a potential podium had his team gone with a better strategy. McLaren left Norris out for too long, most likely hoping for a Safety Car or Red Flag, which saw Norris be the last of the front runners to pit and a horrendous pit stop meant Norris’ good work done early on and ground made up, all undone. McLaren also could’ve utilised the Virtual Safety Car but a botched strategy saw Norris have to play catch-up late on and the world champion finished P7, although his pace on track should’ve seen him finish much up ahead.

Norris’ teammate, Oscar Piastri, finished P5 ahead of one Red Bull and behind only the Ferrari duo, Antonelli and Verstappen. A decent haul of points in Belgium sees McLaren maintain a healthy gap to Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship and give the new power unit update brought in Belgium, expect McLaren to get closer to the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari and they could even sneak in an upset should the other teams suffer incidents.

Dark Horse: Lando Norris

All about momentum

Kimi Antonelli not only returned to winning ways in Belgium, but picked up his sixth win of the season, sixth career win and picked up his first win after three races without a win. Antonelli’s win also came along with his title rival, George Russell, having a horrible weekend, which saw Antonelli leave with not only the win but also increase his championship lead, and leave his teammate behind. Russell’s retirement in Belgium sees him fall 50 points behind his teammate and also drop to third place in the Drivers’ Championships standing with Lewis Hamilton moving to second place.

Antonelli desperately needed the win given his luck in the last few races where he didn’t even score points in two of the last three races. Antonelli’s ill-luck with Russell finishing runners’ up twice and taking the win in Austria had seen Russell bring the championship down to a mere 25 points behind Antonelli now extending the gap to his teammate to 50 points. The young Italian picked up some much needed momentum and with one race left before the summer break, Antonelli will hope to further extend his lead heading into the one month break.

Pole prediction: Lewis Hamilton / Kimi Antonelli

Race winners prediction: Mercedes / Ferrari

Racing Bulls leaving the rest behind

Aside from the front runners and the top four, there is one team who has slowly been making up ground and becoming the best of the rest in the midfield battle. The Racing Bulls have been making progress throughout the season and have scored points in every single race of the season so far except the Miami Grand Prix 2026. Their rookie driver, Arvid Lindblad is currently on a five race points scoring streak and only Lewis Hamilton and Isack Hadjar have a longer points scoring streak this season. 

Racing Bulls had also brought upgrades to Belgium with Lindblad getting the upgrades for Spa and Liam Lawson getting the upgrades in Hungary. The Racing Bulls have consistently run in the points scoring places throughout the races and while the likes of Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren are a bit too far away to catch on Sundays, the Italian team has shown strong pace to score points regularly, move away from the likes of Alpine and Audi whilst also getting close to McLaren in front. Lindblad out-qualified Isack Hadjar’s Red Bull and managed to leave Spa with a couple of points, finishing ahead of both Alpines. 

The Alpine team themselves admitted that they aren’t quite where they want to be yet with the pace and this will be the ideal time for Racing Bulls to move to the fifth spot in the Constructors’ standing. Lindblad’s two points in Belgium saw Racing Bulls go even with Alpine in the points tally with both teams now sitting with 61 points and should Lawson make his upgrades count in Hungary, expect Racing Bulls to pull away from Alpine in the Constructors’ battle and solidify the fifth spot in the Constructors’ championships.

F1 Belgian Grand Prix 2026: Race details

Circuit: Hungaroring
Venue: Mogyoród, Pest County, Hungary
Practice Session 1 time: 17:00 IST, July 24, 2026
Practice Session 2 time: 20:30 IST, July 24, 2026
Practice Session 3: 16:00 IST, July 25, 2026
Qualifying time: 19:30 IST, July 25, 2026
Main race time: 18:30 IST, July 26, 2026
Where to watch: F1 TV Pro / FanCode