Paddock insider spots a new low for Lewis Hamilton - and a future star for F1

Crash.net's reporter on the ground Lewis Larkam picks out the drivers who shone and those who had a shocker in the 2025 F1 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Lando Norris won a largely uneventful Hungarian Grand Prix that was sparked into life in the closing stages and decided by strategy to head into F1’s summer break on a high.

Here are our biggest winners and losers from the final race before F1 closes down for a mandatory three-week shutdown…

Winner - Lando Norris

After finding himself down in fifth after a poor opening lap, Lando Norris would have thought his chances of victory were extremely unlikely.

But capitalising on an alternative one-stop strategy offered to him by McLaren, Norris found himself in the lead, but facing a huge task to claim victory against his two-stopping rivals, including teammate Oscar Piastri.

Norris produced a brilliantly controlled and defensive drive to hold off a late attack from Piastri to score McLaren’s 200th F1 win and reduce his deficit to the Australian to nine points on a day he looked on course to haemorrhage more ground in the championship battle to his chief rival.

Loser - Lewis Hamilton

Another weekend Lewis Hamilton will want to forget.

The seven-time world champion’s struggles showed no signs of stopping at one of his favourite and strongest circuits as he was dumped out in the second part of qualifying on Saturday and finished where he started in 12th.

After his disappointing Q2 exit, Hamilton berated himself as “useless” and suggested Ferrari should “change driver”, and the Briton was not in a much better frame of mind after a difficult race on Sunday.

Hamilton delivered another downbeat interview and hinted at problems in 'the background' at Ferrari, doubling down on his comments from 24 hours ago that the team should replace him.

Hungary marked a new low point for Hamilton, who has plenty of soul-searching to do in the summer break as he looks to arrest his current woes in the second half of the season.

Winner - George Russell

Reverting to an old rear suspension specification paid dividends for Mercedes as the Silver Arrows enjoyed a much better showing in Budapest.

George Russell ended up just 0.053s slower than surprise polesitter Leclerc in qualifying, but got the better of the Monegasque in Sunday’s race, pulling off a brilliant overtake to claim the final spot on the podium behind the dominant McLarens.

Both drivers had more confidence in the W16 and Kimi Antonelli, despite being eliminated in Q2, was able to recover to the points, enabling Mercedes to head into the summer break on an encouraging note.

Loser - Charles Leclerc and Ferrari

What a difference 24 hours can make. Leclerc went from bewildered jubilation at his stunning pole, to being left extremely frustrated by Ferrari’s strange drop-off in pace during the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Leclerc looked in control as he led the opening stages but an unidentified issue with his chassis left his car “undriveable” and cost him a chance of sealing an unlikely win.

Time will tell if that ends up being Ferrari’s only shot of victory in 2025…

Winner - Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso led Aston Martin’s charge to just their second double points finish of 2025 as he converted an outstanding qualifying performance into fifth place - marking the team's best result this term.

Alonso’s drive was all the more impressive considering he has been recovering from a muscle injury in his back that saw him sit out of opening practice in Hungary.

Teammate Lance Stroll came home seventh to give Aston Martin a much-needed boost that lifts the Silverstone-based squad up to sixth in the championship. In the space of a week, Aston Martin has remarkably gone from its worst performance of the season in Belgium, to their best.

Loser - Red Bull

Red Bull are enduring a difficult 2025 but this was by far the team's worst weekend of the campaign yet from a performance point of view.

Max Verstappen could only take ninth, while Yuki Tsunoda was lapped on his way to a lowly 18th as Red Bull could not find a set-up which worked, and got their strategy horribly wrong.

In the end, Verstappen did well to score points in an RB21 which looked poor and a real handful all weekend.

Winner - Gabriel Bortoleto

F1 - and Sauber - have a real star on their hands in Gabriel Bortoleto, who proceeded to deliver a phenomenal performance across the Hungary weekend.

First, the Brazilian continued his recent trend of out-qualifying experienced teammate Nico Hulkenberg to secure an excellent seventh on the grid in his latest Q2 appearance.

Bortoleto then turned in a phenomenal drive on Sunday to convert his best ever qualifying result into a career best finish of sixth as he spent much of the race battling mentor and two-time world champion Alonso.

Loser - Williams

A nightmare weekend for Williams, whose fears about a difficult outing at the Hungaroring were realised.

Alex Albon qualified last while Carlos Sainz reached Q2 in a miserable qualifying, and points were never on the cards as they struggled to 14th and 15th in the race.

Williams’ grasp on P5 in the constructors’ championship remains healthy, but big scores for rivals Aston Martin and Sauber has reduced their advantage down to a far less comfortable 18 points.

Winner - Liam Lawson

Racing Bulls enjoyed a strong weekend in Hungary by claiming a double Q3 appearance, but only one car scored points on Sunday, courtesy of Liam Lawson, who brilliantly kept Verstappen’s Red Bull behind him to secure valuable points for the Faenza outfit in eighth.

That marks three points finishes in the last four races for the Kiwi, whose confidence appears rebuilt in a mid-season performance surge. Lawson is quickly and impressively putting his brutal Red Bull demotion behind him.

Loser - Alpine

Alpine came away from Hungary with nothing to show for their efforts with a point-less outing as team Enstone’s cars finished last and second last of the classified runners.

Franco Colapinto had a better qualifying, but slipped to 18th in the race, while Pierre Gasly’s clumsy collision with Sainz’s Williams earned him a 10-second penalty which dropped him to P19 after the chequered flag.