Nico Hülkenberg scored his first points of the 2026 Formula 1 season with ninth place at the Hungarian Grand Prix, extending Audi’s run to three consecutive points-scoring races. Gabriel Bortoleto narrowly missed giving the team its first double top-10 finish of the year, crossing the line 11th and less than a second behind Arvid Lindblad.
The result provided further encouragement for Audi following a difficult start to its debut campaign. After scoring only once in the opening part of the season, through a ninth-place finish in Australia, the German team has now placed at least one car in the points at each of the past three Grands Prix.
Audi score points for third consecutive race in Hungary
Audi’s recent progress has also produced an important change in the Formula 1 constructors’ standings. The team has moved ahead of Williams into eighth place and now holds a one-point advantage over the Grove-based outfit, whose competitiveness crisis continued at the Hungaroring.
Gabriel Bortoleto had been responsible for Audi’s previous two points finishes at Silverstone and Spa. The Brazilian’s performance in Belgium gave him back-to-back top-10 results, but in Hungary it was Nico Hülkenberg’s turn to deliver.
Nico Hülkenberg celebrates first points of 2026
After reaching Q3 by maximising Audi’s qualifying potential in Hungary, Nico Hülkenberg converted that performance into a strong ninth-place finish. It was the 38-year-old German’s first top-10 result of the season and offered another indication of the progress being made by the team.
“It’s a fantastic feeling to have finally scored my first points of the season,” Nico Hülkenberg said. “There have been a few races this year where we had the pace to score points, but for various reasons things didn’t go as we had hoped.”
“We always knew the potential was there, so it’s really satisfying to have finally put everything together over the weekend and achieved this result. We made the most of what we had in qualifying yesterday and then drove an excellent race today.”
“Everyone did a great job throughout the weekend, and it is rewarding to head into the summer break with points on the board. We will take the opportunity to reset, analyse everything we have learned during the first half of the season and return ready to build on these foundations at Zandvoort.”
Formula 1 will resume after the summer break with the Dutch Grand Prix, with the complete 2026 Zandvoort schedule and session times already confirmed.
Gabriel Bortoleto misses points by less than one second
Audi nevertheless came extremely close to achieving another milestone in Budapest: its first double points finish of the season. Gabriel Bortoleto ended the race in 11th place, falling narrowly short of joining Nico Hülkenberg inside the top 10.
“I gave everything today, and it certainly wasn’t an easy race,” Gabriel Bortoleto said. “We tried to make the one-stop strategy work, and with the Hard tyres proving to be quite a difficult compound compared with the Softs, I had to manage a lot of things during the race.”
“But in the end, I finished less than a second behind Arvid Lindblad, so getting that close to the points is a very good result considering the race we had. These are very positive signs heading into the summer break.”
“The team is doing an incredible job, and I am very happy with what we have achieved so far this season. I hope we can continue to build on this momentum during the second half of the year.”
Nico Hülkenberg’s ninth place and Gabriel Bortoleto’s 11th can be seen in the complete 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix classification.
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