That's a wrap on the first half of the 2025 Formula 1 season, and boy did it end in style.
Watching Oscar Piastri hunt down title rival Lando Norris in the final laps of the Hungarian Grand Prix and the Brit just about manage to hold the Aussie off was one of the biggest thrills of the campaign thus far, and a fitting ending to a race weekend full of talking points.
Before I dive deeper into the three biggest, I've got to give a shout to Gabriel Bortoleto. The young Brazilian was dazzling in Budapest on his way to a P6 finish, so much so that fellow driver and manager Fernando Alonso confidently dubbed him "the best rookie of his generation" after the race.
Beyond him being pretty darn good, these are my main takeaways.
Norris claims his biggest triumph yet
What is the biggest win of Lando Norris' F1 career? Some will say his first, the 2024 Miami Grand Prix; others will say his triumph on home turf last month; for me, it might just be this one.
It really felt like the 2025 title was slipping away from him at the start of the race on Sunday when he dropped down to fifth, but he turned that narrative on its head by then executing a risky one-stop strategy flawlessly to enter the summer break just nine points behind teammate Oscar Piastri.
There's a reason none of the other leaders opted for such a strategy. Norris would have to strike a perfect balance between pace and tyre management every single lap for it to work, and then hold off at least one driver with much fresher rubber and therefore much more pace. It was the tallest of orders, but he rose to the occasion.
The fact that he'd managed to find enough pace on old tyres to stay clear of Piastri until the closing stages was an achievement in itself, but to then hold off his teammate for the final few laps was a real statement. Perfection was required, and perfection is what he delivered.
I said in my last column that he could only beat Piastri when he was at his very best, and that I doubted whether he'd be able to produce that level enough to win this title fight. I still do, but the fact that he's proved he can do so in such a high-pressure situation, after failing to in the past, is massive.
Norris heads into the second half of the season knowing that he's the stronger of the two at his best, that he can be at his best even when under immense pressure, and that whether he becomes a world champion or not is ultimately in his own hands.
The Alonso-Newey partnership awakens
It was impossible not to get excited about the prospect of Adrian Newey and Fernando Alonso working together when it was announced that the former would be joining Aston Martin. Just under a year later, the result of two of the sport's greatest talents ever joining forces is starting to show, and the signs are promising.
While Newey's focus is almost entirely on the team's 2026 challenger, he has provided some advice to those working on this year's car regarding its issues and how it can be improved, and that advice almost certainly led to the recent upgrades to the front wing and nose. The purpose of such upgrades was to improve airflow, and that's one of his specialist areas.
While such upgrades didn't have much of an impact last time out at Spa due to the nature of the track, they took Aston Martin to the top of the midfield in Hungary, and even further in the hands of Alonso.
The Spaniard was closer to the frontrunners than his midfield rivals for much of the weekend, being just 0.109s off pole in qualifying before starting and finishing the race in P5, never once looking like crossing the line any lower.
Being given a top car for the first time in a while, he showed that his pace hasn't deserted him even if he has just turned 44 (!), and neither has his racecraft, with the Spaniard passing Norris with first-lap heroics that he's become renowned for over the years.
2026 will surely be his last season on the grid, but with Newey in his camp, he could yet go out on a high.
Hamilton and Verstappen in crisis
When the TV cameras cut to Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen on the 29th lap of the race, it felt genuinely surreal to see the two greats battling hard for 11th place, not because they'd been sent to the back of the field by early pit-stops or an incident, but because they just didn't have the pace to be much higher.
That was particularly worrying for Hamilton, because teammate Charles Leclerc had managed to claim pole position and lead much of the race in the same car. The seven-time world champion was already despondent after being so far off Leclerc in qualifying, dubbing himself 'absolutely useless' and suggesting Ferrari replace him, and after an equally disappointing race, he headed off into the summer break seeming like a broken man.
Athletes always say that to be the best, you have to wholeheartedly believe that you can be, and Hamilton didn't have that belief in Budapest. He's always been self-critical, but this was a whole other level.
Verstappen's problem, on the other hand, lies solely with his car rather than his abilities, but that's still a significant issue in itself given he's now locked into staying at Red Bull for at least another season.
With the Mercedes engine expected to dominate the new era of the sport and two top teams running that engine having both of their seats filled for years to come, the Dutchman's sole hope of getting back into title contention any time soon may well be replacing Alonso at Aston Martin after next season and hoping Newey can produce some magic as he did at Red Bull.
If that doesn't look to be a possibility, I could see him leaving the grid altogether after next year - at least temporarily - given he's said he wants to spend more time with his family having just become a father and has often hinted at leaving the sport sooner than expected, while Hamilton seems closer to retirement than ever.
Could F1 soon be without its two biggest stars?
