Hungarian GP: Lando Norris edges out teammate Oscar Piastri to close gap in title race

The National

18 hours ago

Lando Norris came out on top in a tense battle with his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to secure victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday.
After losing places following a poor start at the Hungaroring, a bold strategy paid dividends for Norris, who briefly dropped to fifth on the first lap, but made his tyres last to stop only once, while Piastri changed twice.
Piastri steadily cut into Norris' lead in the latter stages of the race – and nearly collided with his teammate while trying to pass on the second-to-last lap – but the British driver held on to take the win by just 0.698 seconds.
It means the Australian's lead in the drivers' championship has been cut down to nine points after Norris's fifth win of the season ahead of F1's midseason break.
What started out as a day of promise for Charles Leclerc ended up a miserable one for the Ferrari man who started from pole and held on to that lead early on.
But an increasingly exasperated Monegasque would finish the race fourth after being overtaken by the Mercedes of George Russell with eight laps to go, while Fernando Alonso took fifth – a fine result considering his back problems – and Gabriel Bortoleto secured a career-best sixth place for Sauber.
'I'm dead, it was tough, we weren't really planning on a one-stop at the beginning but after the first lap it was kind of our only option to get back into things,' said Norris after McLaren's fourth consecutive one-two finish.
'It was tough in the final stint with Oscar catching I was pushing flat out you know so my voice has gone a little bit. It feels good and rewarding a little more because of that but a good result today.
'We're so tightly fought it's hard to say that momentum is on anyone's side, but we're fighting hard both of us and it's fun, it's tough but fun racing with Oscar.
'It's great for us as a team and another one-two and our 200th win in Formula One. Credit to Oscar, he put up a good charge and I just about held on, so I look forward to many more of these.'
Piastri insisted that he 'as hard as I could' but needed a mistake from his teammate that never arrived. 'I saw Lando going for a one [stop] so I knew I was going to have to overtake on track, which is easier said then done around here,' said the Australian.
'Tried a few things; it was a gamble either way and unfortunately, we were just on the other side of it. I needed to be a couple of tenths closer, and it was going to take a mistake from Lando to achieve that.
'You never want to try to save it for the next lap and it never comes, so thought I would at least try, but not quite.'
Russell admitted his battle for third place with Leclerc ended up being 'a bit dicey at some points' but was 'happy to be back on the podium'.
'It's one of those when you sort of commit to a bit of a divebomb, if a driver in front moves, you're already right on the limit of grip and there's not much room for manoeuvre,' said the Briton.
'I think we made contact on the second time but I'm just glad to get through and a nice way to go into the break.'
Leclerc was furious after problems that left his Ferrari 'undriveable' in a race that also saw him given a five-second penalty for erratic driving during his battle with Russell.
'It was around lap 40 because as soon as I started to struggle and complain, it was basically where we started to have the issue and it then got worse and worse,' said Leclerc about the chassis problem.
'It's very frustrating to have everything under control to know that the pace is in the car to win and then you end up being nowhere. We lost a podium so I'm very disappointed.'
Reigning champion Max Verstappen finished ninth, with Lewis Hamilton fighting his way past Pierre Gasly and then Carl Sainz Jnr but finished outside of the points on a desperate weekend for the 40-year-old.
On Saturday, Hamilton had called his performance 'just useless' after qualifying down in 12th.