STAR FORMULA 1 PREVIEW: Hungarian Grand Prix 2025

The F1 bandwagon has one last stop before the summer break with a Championship title battle still raging between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, writes WILLIAM KEDJANYI.

Alongside that plenty of drivers will be looking to end the first part of the season on a high, with Lewis Hamilton searching for a first Ferrari podium, Max Verstappen looking to rubber stamp his announcement that he’s staying at Red Bull for now and Mercedes also hoping to get a more positive result with Kimi Antonelli. In the midfield, Williams will be hoping to get a clean weekend with both cars in the hotly contested battle with Sauber and Haas, and Aston Martin will be desperate to find the pace that deserted them in Spa. The Racing Bulls will also hope that Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson’s cars stay in working order – both should have scored points in Spa but Hadjar endured technical troubles.

---

2025 Lenovo Hungarian Grand Prix 
Mogyoród, Hungaroring utca 10, 2146 Hungary
All coverage live on Sky Sports F1, Sky Sports Go & Now TV – times in BST
1️⃣ Free Practice one: 12.30pm Friday
1️⃣ Free Practice two: 4pm Friday
⏰ Qualifying: 3pm Saturday
🏆 Race: 2pm, Sunday

⭐️ STARSPORTS.BET HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX MARKETS ⭐️

---

Pre-Weekend Prediction 🗣️

Oscar Piastri made two crucial gains in the title battle with Lando Norris at Spa and is an appealing early choice for victory at Hungary, where he took his maiden victory last year in awkward and controversial circumstances. Piastri, immensely improved since then, was a deserving winner at Belgium when he had pace in reserve even before Lando Norris’s errors, and having leapfrogged Norris here last year from P2, gets the vote to do so once again. Not much separates the Aussie and the Briton on pace, but Piastri would likely have won the British Grand Prix if not for his safety car infringement and was once again nerveless in Spa on raceday. The market has adjusted for this now but 11/8 with starsports.bet at a track which suits the already dominant MCL-39 to the ground is more than worth taking.

---

📊 Post Qualifying Analysis

A magnificent lap from Charles Leclerc has put a cat amongst the pigeons, with his Ferrari on pole ahead of the two McLaren drivers of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in second and third respectively. This sets up a fascinating race given the tightness of Hungary as a track for this size of car, and the run down to turn one ought to be crucial.

A week on from suffering the worst F1 qualifying result in the team’s history at the Belgian Grand Prix, Aston Martin enjoyed its best qualifying of the season and is best result since Imola, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll both making Q3 and qualifying fifth and sixth, confirming the pace they’d shown through practice. There was a strong lap from George Russell to take fourth and Gabriel Bortoleto was a super seventh, but Red Bull had it’s worth qualifying session of the season so far, with Max Verstappen only eighth and Yuki Tusonda only 16th. The Racing Bulls round out the Top 10.

Meanwhile, a dejected Lewis Hamilton described himself as ‘useless’ after qualifying 13th, but gained a place when Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli’s best lap was deleted for exceeding track limits.

Grid Order:

1. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
2. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
3. Lando Norris (McLaren)
4. George Russell (Mercedes)
5. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
6. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
7. Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)
8. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
9. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)
10. Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)
11. Ollie Bearman (Haas)
12. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
13. Carlos Sainz (Williams)
14. Franco Colapinto (Alpine)
15. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
16. Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull)
17. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
18. Esteban Ocon (Haas)
19. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)
20. Alex Albon (Williams)

Charles Leclerc’s brilliance has thrown a spanner in the works, but in the main, I’d be pretty happy with our pre-weekend position on Oscar Piastri, who has won three times from outside pole on the grid and who also took the win last year – albeit in controversial circumstances. Overtaking is tough around here and is likely to be again, but Piastri is more than capable of making an early overtake as he did on Lando Norris last year and his race pace and likely tyre delta can turn tomorrow’s race in his favour. If anyone here who has followed the pre-weekend advice on Oscar Piastri wants a cover, then the 4/1 with starsports.bet about Leclerc as a boosted special is worth a small play.

Star have four special betting groups for the race, and Lance Stroll makes big appeal at 5/6 to win Group C, against Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Antonelli and Gabriel Bortoleto. Stroll needs to get the jump on Bortoleto, just a place behind him on the grid, but has a handy gap to Hamilton and Antonelli and also has a genuinely quick car in these conditions, as free practice showed before qualifying. Stroll showed enough to take seventh at Silverstone, albeit with the benefit of changeable conditions and wise strategy, and can keep his rivals behind him at the Hungaroring.

---

📊 Free Practice Reflections

Three practice sessions appear to have confirmed that McLaren are once again the team to beat, with a Papaya 1-2 in FP1, 2 and 3. Lando Norris just had the edge yesterday but Oscar Piastri shaded FP3. There’s positive hope for Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc third in all three sessions and also the best of the rest on race simulation pace on Friday.

Elsewhere, it has been a very unhappy weekend for Red Bull, with none of the expected improvement they’ve made on other race weekends from Friday to Saturday at the time of writing.

If this was qualifying proper, Yuki Tsunoda (19th) would not have escaped Q1 and Max Verstappen would have been eliminated in Q2 – so there’s a lot of improvement for them to find, even if their earlier runs appeared to be more competitive – Verstappen was fifth after those.

Kimi Antonelli looked much happier in a Mercedes that has returned to an earlier suspension, and his fifth place was promising. Perhaps the most eye-catching result of the session came from Aston Martin once again, who backed up an incredibly strong showing in FP2 (albeit with less long run pace, and few medium compound laps for Fernando) with sixth and seventh for Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

In terms of race pace, there doesn’t appear to be much between the Williams – with Alex Albon looking much more at home, as has been the case for the majority of the season – and the Racing Bulls, and both are Q3 contenders.

⏱️ FP3 times:
1 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) 1m14.916s
2 Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.032s
3 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.399s
4 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.768s
5 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.829s
6 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +0.878s
7 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +0.912s
8 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.924s
9 Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) +1.062s
10 Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) +1.109s
11 Ollie Bearman (Haas) +1.211s
12 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +1.246s
13 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +1.331s
14 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +1.455s
15 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +1.526s
16 Alex Albon (Williams) +1.614s
17 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1.615s
18 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +1.654s
19 Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) +1.962s
20 Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +2.040s

Based on that evidence, the 7/4 with starsports.bet on both Aston Martins reaching Q3 and the 5/6 on Fernando Alonso making it as a driver are worth an interest for those who want a qualifying interest.

Race winners/Pole Sitters:

🇦🇺 Australia — Norris (Win & Pole)
🇨🇳 China — Piastri (Win & Pole)
🇯🇵 Japan — Verstappen (Win & Pole)
🇧🇭 Bahrain — Piastri (Win & Pole)
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia — Piastri Win (Verstappen Pole)
🇺🇸 Miami — Piastri Win (Verstappen Pole)
🇮🇹 Emilia-Romagna — Verstappen Win (Piastri Pole)
🇲🇨 Monaco — Norris (Win & Pole)
🇪🇸 Spain — Piastri (Win & Pole)
🇨🇦 Canada — Russell (Win & Pole)
🇦🇹 Austria — Norris (Win & Pole)
🇬🇧 Britain – Norris Win (Verstappen Pole)
🇧🇪 Begium – Piastri Win (Norris Pole)

Standings 📊

Driver / Car / Points:
Oscar Piastri 🇦🇺 (McLaren) – 11 podiums, 6 wins, 266 points
Lando Norris 🇬🇧 (McLaren) – 11 podiums, 4 wins, 250 points
Max Verstappen 🇳🇱 (Red Bull) – 5 podiums, 2 wins, 185 points
George Russell 🇬🇧 (Mercedes) – 5 podiums, 1 win, 157 points
Charles Leclerc 🇲🇨 (Ferrari) – 5 podiums, 0 wins, 139 points
Lewis Hamilton 🇬🇧 (Ferrari) – 0 podiums, 0 wins, 109 points
Kimi Antonelli 🇮🇹 (Mercedes) – 1 podium, 0 wins, 63 points
Alexander Albon 🇹🇭 (Williams) – 0 podiums, 0 wins, 54 points
Nico Hülkenberg 🇩🇪 (Sauber) – 1 podium, 0 wins, 37 points
Esteban Ocon 🇫🇷 (Haas) – 0 podiums, 0 wins, 27 points

🏎️ Constructors:
McLaren – 22 podiums, 10 wins, 516 points
Ferrari – 5 podiums, 0 wins, 248 points
Mercedes – 6 podiums, 1 win, 220 points
Red Bull – 5 podiums, 2 wins, 192 points
Williams – 0 podiums, 0 wins, 70 points
Sauber – 1 podium, 0 wins, 43 points
RB – 0 podiums, 0 wins, 41 points
Aston Martin – 0 podiums, 0 wins, 36 points
Haas – 0 podiums, 0 wins, 35 points
Alpine – 0 podiums, 0 wins, 20 points

Track Guide 🚦

The Hungaroring is a twisty, technical track with many 180-degree corners and few overtaking zones, so qualification – as has been the case all season – is absolutely crucial. Cars that perform across low (five) and medium speed (five) corners will thrive. Track evolution is often high here, tyre management is crucial, and clear air is particularly important for strategy. Here’s a guide from Scott Mansell of Driver 61, filmed in 2019:

Weather 🌥️

Sunday – Grand Prix
Conditions: High chance of rain the night before. Mostly cloudy day with a moderate to high chance of rain in the morning decreasing a bit for the race (30%). At this range, the confidence in the forecast is low. Light northwesterly wind. Race start: 27°C
Maximum temperature expected: 27 Celsius
Minimum temperature expected: 17 Celsius
Chance of rain: 60%

RECOMMENDED BETS – Pre Race Weekend
BACK Oscar Piastri 3 pts at 11/8 (⭐ ? CLICK TO BET NOW)

RECOMMENDED BETS – Post Qualifying
BACK Charles Leclerc to win 1 pt at 4/1 (⭐ ? CLICK TO BET NOW)
BACK Lance Stroll to win Group B 2 pts at 20/21 (⭐ ? CLICK TO BET NOW)

---

PROFIT/LOSS (AUG 2025): PROFIT 0.00 points

---

STAR PROMOTIONS