Lando Norris (P2, 18 pts): 9/10
Lando Norris may still look like the cheerful work experience boy in the paddock, and have an uncanny knack of becoming everyone's best friend, but in the cockpit and behind the wheel he's developing the admirable killer instincts and skills of a future world champion. He once again enjoyed himself playing in the wet weather on Friday, and showed off a confident, carefree style in dry conditions where he was able to use the kerbs to effectively kick the drifting McLaren out of corners around the Hungaroring which saw him second quickest in FP2. There were no dramas in qualifying and he was quickest of anyone on the medium tyres in Q2 before finishing third on the grid by just 0.085s behind Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. It says a lot for his character that he was miffed at missing out on the prize having come so close: this is a driver no longer happy with being merely second or third best. When Verstappen forced Hamilton wide at the start of the race, Norris (remember how bad he used to be with starts?) took immediate advantage - although he was one-upped by his team mate Oscar Piastri. Norris got the spot back by undercutting the rookie at the first pit stop on lap 17, and after that he was safely tucked into second place. Sergio Perez applied some pressure on the closing laps but Norris controlled the situation beautifully, and once the Red Bull's tyres started to wane there was no question that Norris was on his way to a well deserved second consecutive podium.
Max Verstappen (P1, 25 pts): 9.5/10
Although the race itself couldn't have been easier for Max Verstappen, the build-up over the rest of the weekend didn't go quite as smoothly. He and his team mate Sergio Perez struggled in Friday for grip, the latest sidepod upgrades to the RB19 proving a bit of a handful to get optimised given the lack of running time imposed by the lack of tyres under the Alternative Tyre Allocation system in play in Hungary. Even on Saturday, there was still something not quite all there as Lewis Hamilton beat both Red Bulls in final practice. It was still a surprise when Verstappen narrowly failed to take his customary pole position in the afternoon qualifying session, missing out by three thousandths of a second to Hamilton. The last time the team had failed to take pole was in Azerbaijan in April - could it possibly be that the Red Bull dominance was beginning to teeter? Not if the race is anything to go by. Whatever problems he had leading into Sunday, Verstappen's Grand Prix was perfection itself as he bullied his way past Hamilton at the first corner and left the affronted Mercedes being picked over by a brace of eager McLarens. Verstappen marched away with it from there, seemingly not even having to put any effort into it as he lapped backmarker after backmarker. At one point his race engineer gave him a call over the radio just to see if he was still awake. To be honest, it probably wouldn't have mattered either way - Verstappen really could have won this one in his sleep.
