F1
Ranking Lewis Hamilton’s 5 Greatest Hungarian GP Wins, and the Record He Doesn’t Hold
Lewis Hamilton has won more Hungarian Grands Prix than any driver in history, and no two fans put those wins in the same order.
Ahead of Sunday’s race at the Hungaroring, where the Ferrari driver drops to fifth on the grid, Formula 1 confirmed, for impeding Oscar Piastri in qualifying, what follows is one writer’s ranking, an argument to have rather than a finding of fact.
First, the fine print, because it gets mangled every July. Hamilton’s eight Hungarian wins, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020, are not the most any driver has managed at a single circuit. That record is also his: the nine he owns at Silverstone, per Formula 1’s own tally. The Hungaroring eight merely ties Michael Schumacher‘s eight at Magny-Cours.
No. 5 — 2020. Pole to flag in the Mercedes W11, 8.702 seconds clear of Max Verstappen. Ruthless, and roughly as suspenseful as a bank statement.
No. 4 — 2007. The rookie held off Kimi Räikkönen by 0.715 seconds in a weekend swallowed by a McLaren civil war, after stewards penalized teammate Fernando Alonso for blocking him in the pit lane.
No. 3 — 2013. Hamilton’s first win for Mercedes, 10.938 seconds up the road from Räikkönen. Nothing about it was spectacular. Everything about it said the move from McLaren would work.
No. 2 — 2009. A reigning champion dragged an uncompetitive McLaren from fourth on the grid to an 11.529-second win, and its KERS energy-recovery system made history: F1’s 30 memorable Hungarian moments calls it “the first victory for a car equipped with KERS hybrid technology.”
No. 1 — 2019. Mercedes gambled on a second stop and handed Verstappen the lead. Hamilton “faced a 15-second deficit,” per F1’s own 40-year retrospective, and “made the winning move with four laps remaining,” going round the outside at turn one to win by 17.796 seconds. Strategy and execution, both immaculate.
As of July 2026, Hamilton has not won at the Hungaroring since 2020. A ninth would match his Silverstone haul, and leave two circuits in F1 history that nobody else can touch.
