Oscar Piastri finishes second in the Hungarian Grand Prix
Once again, Piastri came off second best after Norris's engineers used a superior race strategy, stopping just once to change tyres while Piastri pitted twice at the Hungaroring circuit on the outskirts of Budapest.
With each pit stop taking around 20 seconds, Piastri saw his commanding eight second lead over Norris turned into a 12 second deficit when he put on a second set of hard compound tyres 24 laps from the end of the race.
ðŸ'» Piastri’s radio: “I just want the best chance to try and beat Landoâ€� #HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/JHihzC93io
— Radio Messages (@radiomessages) August 3, 2025
With fresher rubber, Piastri was able to slash the margin to Norris to less than a second with four laps to go but couldn't get past his English teammate on the tight track, despite making a late lunge on the final lap that almost brought the two cars together.
In the end, he had to settle for second spot, his 12th podium finish in 14 races this season.
'I pushed as hard as I could. I saw Lando going for a one (stop strategy) so I knew I was going to have to overtake on track, which is easier said than done around here,' Piastri said.
'Tried a few things; it was a gamble either way and unfortunately, we were just on the other side of it.
'The team did a great job, the car really came alive in the second half of the race - and the car has been great all weekend. Looking forward to taking some time off.
'I think 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 and save it for the next lap and it never comes, so I thought I would at least try, but not quite.'
Finishing second wasn't all bad news for the 24-year-old Australian because he still leads the championship standings by nine points, with Norris in second spot and looming as his only realistic rival for the crown.
Heading into the month-long break with 10 races to go when the season resumes, Piastri's 284 points tally is seven more than Max Verstappen had at the stage last year.
The Dutchman only won two of the last 10 races but still managed to win his fourth title in 2024 so Piastri remains in a strong position heading into the back end of the season.
'There's some things to analyse with the team, but overall, I thought it was a good day.' Piastri said.
'We just need to keep doing mostly what we've been doing.
'I think the pace has been very good. My execution of races has been good as well. It's going to be a tight battle all the way to the end.'
The radio silence from Piastri 🥶 #HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/cBwI5MNeVh
— Radio Messages (@radiomessages) August 3, 2025
Despite the time advantage he gained from only taking one stop, Norris was struggling to hold off the fast-finishing Piastri over the close laps because his tyres were degrading quickly so had to drive a great race to win .
'I'm dead, it was tough,' he said.
'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.
'It was tough in the final stint with Oscar catching. I was pushing flat out so my voice has gone a little bit. It feels good and rewarding a little more because of that.'
Having to nurse his tyres through the last 40 laps, Norris said he believed he'd make it to the chequered flag, which was waved by Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose.
'I didn't think it would probably get us to win, I thought it would get us into second' Norris said.
'I knew if I had some clean air and I could push, I could maybe make things work and that's what we did.
'It's always a bit of a gamble for these kinds of things but it also requires no mistakes, good laps, good strategy, all these things and that's what we had today so I'm very happy.'
On his world championship battle with his teammate, Norris said: '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.'
George Russell finished third for Mercedes to retain fourth place in the championship, albeit 112 points behind Piastri. Verstappen finished ninth, missing the podium for the fourth race in a row, the first time he's done that since 2017.
He remains third, 97 points behind the Australian, but says he had no hope of winning the title because the McLarens are just too fast.
Saturday's win in Hungary was McLaren's 200th Grand Prix victory all-time, and their seventh one-two finish in 14 races this season. The British team leads the constructors' championship by a mind-boggling 299 points.
'It's great for us as a team and another one-two and our 200th win in Formula 1,' Norris said.
'Credit to Oscar, he put up a good charge and I just about held on, so I look forward to many more of these.'
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