Four-time world champion Max Verstappen delivered one of the most eye-catching overtakes of the 2026 season at the Hungaroring on Sunday.
The Red Bull driver executed a stunning late-braking move on Lewis Hamilton on lap 16, diving deep into Turn 1 to reclaim track position after Ferrari had appeared to complete a successful undercut.
Both drivers began the race in close proximity on the grid after a series of penalties shuffled the starting order significantly before the lights went out.
Hamilton had qualified second but was handed a three-place grid penalty for unnecessarily impeding McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, dropping him to fifth on the grid.
Kimi Antonelli was also penalised three places for failing to slow sufficiently under yellow flags, flags which had been triggered by a Verstappen crash in the final stages of qualifying.
Those combined penalties moved Verstappen up to fourth and Hamilton to fifth, setting the stage for an intense early battle between the two former championship rivals.
The pair made contact at the start as their wheels banged together three-wide into Turn 1, with Verstappen fighting the two Ferraris for position as Charles Leclerc fell back through the order.
Hamilton pitted on lap 14 for fresh hard tyres after his softs degraded rapidly during the opening stint, rejoining in ninth before quickly passing Arvid Lindblad to move up to eighth.
Red Bull responded by bringing Verstappen in one lap later, and when he emerged from the pits in eighth behind Hamilton in seventh, Ferrari appeared to have successfully executed the undercut.
However, Verstappen had other ideas, immediately launching a breathtaking late-braking move on Hamilton at Turn 1 on lap 16 to snatch back the position in devastating fashion.
Even his longtime race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase was taken aback, saying over the radio: “Well that was quite special.”
Race winner and reigning champion Lando Norris was equally stunned, asking Verstappen in the cooldown room: “Did you mean to do that?” after the replay was shown on the big screen.
Reflecting on his race, Verstappen acknowledged it had been far from straightforward, saying: “It was still a very tough race. Like I still saw the same things as in qualifying, where the car is really, really oversteery at times and in different phases.”
He added that strong early movement through the field made the rest of the race more manageable, saying: “I think we made a lot of good moves. So in the start, you know, to move forward, that made my first stint a little bit easier.”
Verstappen then addressed the move on Hamilton directly, saying: “Then the move on Lewis, of course, put me again in a decent spot. And then I guess the call at the end with the soft. It was a long stint, but luckily, yeah, it worked out for us.”