2024 F1 Hungarian Grand Prix driver ratings

An ill-tempered, tense and contradictory Hungarian Grand Prix saw Lando Norris eventually move aside to allow team-mate Oscar Piastri a well-earned first grand prix victory.

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton proved old rivalries die hard, but who acquitted themselves well in Budapest and who has left the Hungaroring with a point to prove?

Check out the full RacingNews365 driver ratings below and let us know what you think in the comments.

Top five

Oscar Piastri - 9

An impressive display throughout the weekend, claiming his first grand prix victory. He managed the opening stages of the race exceptionally well, and put himself in the position to win.

However, his off during the race allowed his team-mate to close right up, and the drama ensued from there. 

Once Norris was ahead, he could not close the gap and ultimately would not have taken victory without the British driver finally acquiescing to team orders.

Lewis Hamilton - 8.5

It was another strong weekend for the seven-time drivers' champion. He arguably should have out-qualified the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, but he made up for it in the race.

The W15 struggled in the heat, but Hamilton showed good pace and defensive driving where needed to fend off Verstappen. 

He was not on the optimal strategy, and took too much out of his tyres early in the second stint, but it is hard to argue with against a driver that took his 200th career grand prix podium.

Lando Norris - 7.5

Sublime in qualifying, sub-prime in the grand prix itself. The McLaren mess was not in any way of Norris' making, but the 24-year-old ended up in a lose-lose situation.

He made the team sweat too much to eventually give the position back to Piastri. The British driver should have either done it immediately - or at least agreed all along that he would, and that was far from certain - or he should have refused entirely.

He may or may not have been nursing throttle issues, but he failed to covert another pole position into a race win. Norris could not match Piastri until McLaren's pit stop faux pas, but from that point on, looked more than comfortable.

A difficult one to assess after an inconsistent grand prix.

Charles Leclerc - 7.5

Getting out-qualified by Carlos Sainz was not great, but drove an assured and quietly impressive grand prix to fourth place.

Handily beat his team-mate in the process and managed to insert himself into the Verstappen-Hamilton equation well. The Monegasque driver showed good pace and was there to pick up the pieces when it mattered.

Yuki Tsunoda - 7

You win some, you lose some. He was having a good qualifying session until he suddenly was not. It was a big off, and a mistake he should not have made.

However, it laid the groundwork for an a redemptive drive on Sunday. Aided by RB putting team-mate Daniel Ricciardo on a bewildering strategy, Tsunoda maximised what was available. 

What made it all the more impressive was the Japanese driver was clearly still feeling the effects of his huge qualifying shunt.

Bottom five

Logan Sargeant - 4.5

Did well to capitalise on qualifying misfortune for Sergio Perez and George Russell, but would have been eliminated alongside Kevin Magnussen in Q1 otherwise.

Performed better than the Haas driver in Q2, but could not help slide backwards during the race itself.

Max Verstappen - 4

Produced an undeniably strong qualifying lap against a McLaren with a pace advantage, but without the requisite tyres available, could not post a final lap and compete for pole position after the Tsunoda-induced red flag.

Then, there was the race itself. There will be no comment on his late-night past-times here, but he did not coat himself in glory over team radio during the grand prix.

The nature of his relationship with Gianpiero Lambiase is clearly more personal and developed than we can assess, but he was wrong about multiple situations during the race.

His frustration cost him a podium position. First, his mistake at Turn 2 handed the position back to Hamilton, then his ill-advised dive-bomb into the first corner saw him drop back to fifth - and it could have been even worse.

Zhou Guanyu - 3.5

An anonymous display from Zhou will do him no favours as he looks to sure-up a seat in F1 for 2025.

Was not even close to team-mate Valtteri Bottas during qualifying and made little to no impression on the race itself. Started P18, finished P19.

Esteban Ocon - 3.5

Ocon's future is looking considerably more certain than Zhou's but it was a poor weekend by the Frenchman's standards.

An Alpine disaster-class in qualifying left him out of Q1 and on the back row of the grid. The only car he managed to surpass during the grand prix was that of the aforementioned Stake driver.

Pierre Gasly - 3.5

He was unfortunate to retire was a suspected hydraulic leak, but it had hardly been a good weekend for the 28-year-old up to that point.

Was out-qualified by his team-mate, in admittedly silly circumstances, but that is the fairest metric to go on. He gets an equal rating to Ocon because he had no chance to prove himself during the race.