Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli enters the Formula 1 summer break with a 50-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship.
Antonelli recovered from a seventh-place start at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday to finish third, ahead of his title rivals Lewis Hamilton from Ferrari and his teammate at Mercedes George Russell.
Antonelli, who turns 20 in August, would be the youngest person to win the Drivers’ Championship.
None of the top three in the Drivers’ standings had an easy weekend. Antonelli qualified fourth, but started seventh after receiving a three-place grid penalty for failing to slow sufficiently under double yellow flags during his final Q3 lap.
Hamilton also received a three-place grid penalty after qualifying for impeding McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. Hamilton started fifth after qualifying second.
Hamilton inherited second in the Grand Prix when Piastri retired with a gearbox failure. Piastri stopped on the side of the track, bringing out the virtual safety car (VSC).
Ferrari opted to pit Hamilton under the VSC. He dropped behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Antonelli after the stop. Hamilton then received a five-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane. The penalty dropped him to fifth, behind his teammate Charles Leclerc.
Hamilton has received a five-second penalty in each of the past three races.
Russell’s title hopes took another hit in Hungary. He started sixth, but dropped to 21st at the start after his car engaged its anti-stall. Russell recovered to finish sixth, but is 59 points behind his teammate in the Drivers’ Championship.
Leclerc has beaten Hamilton and Russell in each of the past three races. He sits fourth in the Drivers’ Championship, 81 points behind Antonelli.
The FIA announced on Sunday that Malaysia will host a Grand Prix in October to replace the Bahrain Grand Prix that was cancelled earlier in the season due to the Iran War.
That leaves 12 races on the schedule when Formula 1 returns from the summer break.
McLaren’s Lando Norris took his first win since becoming a world champion in Hungary. Norris has shown strong form in 2026, but McLaren has not had the pace, nor the reliability, to keep up with Mercedes and Ferrari.
That has left Norris 91 point adrift of Antonelli in the Drivers’ Championship. His teammate, Piastri, who retired from the Hungarian Grand Prix with a gearbox problem, is seventh, 127 points behind Antonelli.
McLaren brought an upgraded floor to Hungary. They have more upgrades planned after the summer break and have proven themselves to be one of the best teams at in-season development.
In 2023, they sat sixth in the Constructors’ Championship after the eighth race in Canada with 17 points. The brought an upgrade package in Austria that pushed them to the front of the grid. They finished fourth in the Constructors’ Championship with 302 points.
In 2024, they were 99 points behind Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship entering the Miami Grand Prix. They brought an upgrade package that helped Norris take his maiden Grand Prix win. McLaren went on to win their first Constructors’ Championship in 26 years.
Even if McLaren’s upgrades help them compete for wins, it would be difficult for Norris or McLaren to defend their world titles. McLaren are 159 points behind Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship.
However, it could make it more difficult for Hamilton or Russell to close the gap to Antonelli in the second half of the season.
Four-time World Champion Max Verstappen has finished on the podium in three of the final four races leading into summer break. That has moved him into sixth in the Drivers’ standing, but 110 points behind Antonelli.
It’s the first time since Verstappen’s rookie season that he has not won a race in the first 11 Grand Prix races.
Ferrari has continued to chip away at Mercedes’ lead in the Constructors’ Championship. They have outscored Mercedes in each of the past three Grand Prix races, bringing the gap down from 98 points after the Austrian Grand Prix to 72 points after the Hungarian Grand Prix.
However, Ferrari only scored one more point than Mercedes in Hungary, a track where they were expected to have an advantage.
Ferrari has not won the Constructors’ Championship since 2007.
Formula 1 returns on Aug. 23 in Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix.
