Lando Norris praised for "true world champion's" drive at F1 Hungarian GP

David Coulthard gave Lando Norris a shout-out for his dominant Hungarian Grand Prix victory

Former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard has lauded reigning champion Lando Norris following his commanding victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix, describing the McLaren driver's race as a "true world champion performance".

During a recent episode of the Up To Speed podcast alongside co-host Jolie Sharpe, Coulthard reflected on the state of the 2026 championship as it heads into its mandatory August summer break. The former Red Bull driver singled out Norris, who secured the first grand prix victory of the season for both himself and McLaren at the Hungaroring.

Norris's title defence in 2026 had been plagued by early-season reliability issues and a performance deficit to rivals Mercedes and Ferrari. But the Woking outfit has shown a jump in performance following the introduction of upgrades.

The Briton secured pole position by just 0.012 seconds over Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton. In the race, he momentarily lost the lead to his team-mate Oscar Piastri, who later had contact with Williams' Carlos Sainz while the Spaniard was being lapped. Piastri ultimately retired from the race due to a gearbox failure.

Meanwhile, Norris took the lead and controlled the race to the chequered flag.

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images

"Shout-out again to Lando for what was an amazing weekend of performance," Coulthard said. "A true world champion's performance all weekend before he heads off for [the summer break].

"I thought it was fun that when they were asking the drivers in the press conference what they're all doing in the summer break, everyone kind of looked at Lando. He's been given the reputation of being the party boy of the drivers, which I suspect's a bit unfair, but anyway, that's where he's landed."

After the first half of the season, Kimi Antonelli leads the drivers' standings with 219 points. Lewis Hamilton follows in second with 169 points and George Russell is third with 160 points. Charles Leclerc and Norris round out the top five with 138 and 128 points, respectively.