Lando Norris holds off Oscar Piastri in McLaren one-two at Hungarian GP

Irish Times

3 days ago

Lando Norris won the
Hungarian Grand Prix
after taking advantage in an absolutely gripping, tense strategic battle to pull off a one-stop coup for McLaren and beat his team-mate Oscar Piastri into second by just seven-tenths of a second after an extraordinary, dramatic finale that went to the wire.
George Russell was third for Mercedes and Charles Leclerc fourth for Ferrari, with Fernando Alonso fifth for Aston Martin. Lewis Hamilton could manage only 12th for Ferrari after he endured a poor qualifying.
Norris won after a bad start saw him drop places and he was forced to take a counter one-stop strategy, where his rivals all opted for two stops. It meant he was chased down hard at the end by Piastri on fresher tyres but as the pair vied furiously in the final five laps, Norris emerged on top and has closed the gap to his title rival Piastri to just nine points.
After the huge disappointment and frustration with himself when he misjudged a move against Piastri that resulted in hitting his team-mate and was forced to retire in Canada, he followed it up with a consummate win in Austria and then Silverstone and is on something of a roll. Not only is it his first win in Hungary but now his third in four races and absolutely vital in his closely-fought title fight with Piastri.
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Heading into the F1 summer break firmly on the front foot is the perfect preparation for the holidays, but the British driver might feel he would rather race on while he is on form, with his fifth win this year.
Leclerc had held his lead from pole into turn one but Norris fell backwards, after looking to go up the inside but he had to back off and dropped to fifth, behind Russell and Alonso. It was a crucial moment.
Passing in dirty air through the relentless sequence of corners, Leclerc was able to take advantage, swiftly opening a two-second lead on Piastri. Norris did make a place back, passing Alonso on lap three, however he clearly had little chance against the other three cars in front.
McLaren's Lando Norris with Mercedes' George Russell after the race. Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP via Getty Images
Piastri pitted on lap 19 looking for an undercut on Leclerc. He charged on his out lap and Leclerc covered it off a lap later. Ferrari pulled off a superb two-second stop – the joint fastest of the season – and he emerged still just in front of Piastri, while Norris stayed out, with McLaren considering the chance of him pulling off a one-stop strategy.
Max Verstappen
meanwhile, vying for 11th place, went at Hamilton at the inside of turn four, in what was an impossibly optimistic move, forcing the British driver off the road to avoid a collision.
Norris pitted on lap 31 leaving him 39 to make it to the end on his new hard tyres and with a very quick stop he emerged in fourth, 19 seconds behind Leclerc, Piastri and Russell who all had to stop again, putting Norris very much in the mix for the win.
Norris had to manage his tyres but also maintain the pressure on the cars in front and he duly began to bring the gap down. By lap 38 the gap to Leclerc was down to 15 seconds.
Leclerc pitted on lap 41 for his second stop as Piastri switched focus to staying in front of Norris as he was now the major threat. Norris had caught Russell by lap 42 but was not held up long as Mercedes pitted their man a lap later.
The race hung in the balance when Piastri stopped on lap 45, pointedly focusing on beating his championship rival, not Leclerc. With the stops having played out Norris had track position and held the lead with 25 laps to go and a seven-second lead on Leclerc, with Piastri and Russell in third and fourth but on fresher rubber.
Piastri charged at Leclerc, who was struggling for grip and furious with his team for the setup on his car, and claimed second with an easy pass on lap 50. He was now nine seconds behind Norris with 19 laps remaining.
Lando Norris takes the chequered flag ahead of his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri. Photograph:The Australian moved up on his team-mate as Norris moved through traffic – the gap came down as did the laps in what was a tense finale – and there were less than five seconds in it with 14 laps to go.
Russell passed Leclerc for third on lap 62 despite some fierce defending for which he was later penalised. By this point Piastri had caught Norris just as he came up on more traffic. Piastri moved into DRS range as his rival struggled in the dirty air.
As the pair cleared the traffic they were line astern with four laps to go in a straight fight, Piastri hurling himself at his team-mate through turn one, including a desperate dive and lock-up, but there was no way through as Norris held his nerve under immense pressure to take a remarkable win.
Gabriel Bortoleto was sixth for Sauber, Lance Stroll seventh for Aston Martin, Liam Lawson eighth for Racing Bulls, Verstappen ninth for Red Bull and Kimi Antonelli 10th for Mercedes.
In Formula Two, Ireland's
Alex Dunne
finished ninth in Sunday's feature race, seeing him fall back to fifth in the drivers' standings.
The Rodin Motosport driver started from ninth on the grid, which he maintained by the finish despite battling up to sixth for a spell following a virtual safety car early in the race.
The result earned the 19-year-old two points towards his drivers' championship tally, adding to the eight he secured with his second-place finish in Saturday's sprint race.
Dunne, with 124 points, is just one adrift of fourth-place Luke Browning (Hitech TGR) in the drivers' title race, but 30 points back on front-runner Leonardo Fornaroli (Invicta Racing) with four rounds remaining.