Norris delivers strategic masterclass to win Hungarian GP

The British driver executed a one-stop strategy to perfection after dropping down the field off the start, finishing just 0.698s ahead of Piastri for his fifth win of the season.

Piastri reeled in Norris at a rapid rate in the closing laps after opting for a two-stop strategy and emerging 12 seconds behind. He gained more than half a second per lap on his teammate across the final 20 laps.

As the Aussie got within DRS range, he had three looks into Turn 1, including a late lunge that caused him to lock up significantly with two laps to go, receiving a warning from his team to remember “how we race” in the process.

Despite the speed advantage and fresher tyres, Piastri was unable to get past, settling for second place and helping McLaren to a fourth consecutive 1–2 finish—their first such run since 1988.

 

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Norris said the win was tiring and that he was relieved to take his third in the last four races.

“I’m dead! It was tough,” he said after the race. “We weren’t planning on the one stop in the beginning but after the first lap it was our only option to get back into things.”

“It’s rewarding after that, but the perfect result today.”

Norris dropped to fifth off the line after attempting to pass Piastri into Turn 1, prompting the team to pivot to the strategy that ultimately earned him the ninth win of his career.

“I didn’t think it would get us the win, I thought it would get us into second,” Norris said. “The pace was strong. I knew if I had clean air I could make it work.”

He added that he enjoyed the late-race battle with his teammate.

“It’s tough but fun racing with Oscar,” he said. “Credit to Oscar, he put up a good charge. I just held on. I look forward to plenty more of these.”

Piastri said he tried his best to get past but just couldn’t make it work.

“I pushed as hard as I could,” he explained. “After I saw Lando go for a one [stopper] I knew I would have to overtake on track, which is much easier said than done.”

He said that he did what he could in the closing stages but wasn’t quite able to get close enough, explaining the reasoning behind his late-race lunge and lock-up.

“At that point he didn’t have much to lose so it wasn’t a huge surprise,” he said. “I needed to be a couple of tenth closer which was going to take a mistake from Lando to achieve that.

“I felt like that was going to be my best chance so I thought I would at least try. But not quite.”

The victory moves Norris to 275 points, just nine behind Piastri, who still leads the Drivers’ Championship on 284. McLaren, meanwhile, extends its Constructors’ Championship lead over Ferrari to 299 points.

George Russell surged to third with an impressive late overtake on Charles Leclerc for the final spot on the podium.

Russell had attempted the move on Lap 61 into Turn 1 but was cut off at the last moment, prompting an angry reaction from the Mercedes driver.

He tried again a lap later with similar aggression and made the pass stick—Leclerc was handed a five-second penalty for erratic driving as a result.

Russell said despite the tense battle, he was happy to return to the podium for the first time since his win in Canada.

“[I’m] really happy with the race today,” he said. “Happy to be back on the podium.

“It was a bit dicey with Charles. It’s one of those…when you commit to a dive bomb, you’re already right on the limit…I think we made contact on the second one. So I’m really happy to get through it.”

Polesitter Leclerc had initially shown strong pace, pulling away from Piastri and emerging ahead of the Aussie after McLaren had attempted to undercut Ferrari in the first pit window. His pace dropped off significantly after the second stops, with Piastri pitting six laps later and soon passing him.

A furious Leclerc complained over radio about the lack of pace, criticising the team for not listening to him regarding “issues” during the middle stint. He finished fourth even with the time penalty.

Fernando Alonso delivered Aston Martin’s best result of the season in fifth, with teammate Lance Stroll finishing seventh.

They were split by an impressive Gabriel Bortoleto, who secured his best F1 result with sixth place. The Brazilian made a great start to vault into fifth and held off Max Verstappen at stages, as well as closely battling with his manager Alonso throughout.

Verstappen climbed through the field before eventually falling back to ninth. He revived his old rivalry with Lewis Hamilton in a fierce mid-race battle for 11th, forcing Hamilton off the track at Turn 4 as he made the move. Verstappen prevailed in that exchange, though the incident will be investigated post-race.

He finished just behind his former teammate Liam Lawson, who continued his perfect record of scoring points when qualifying in the top ten.

It’s the Kiwi driver’s second consecutive points finish and his third in the last four races. His teammate Isack Hadjar finished just outside the points in 11th, marking his fifth straight race without a top-10 finish.

Kimi Antonelli secured the final point for Mercedes with a strong drive from 15th on the grid to 10th, making the most gains across the field.

Formula 1 now heads into the traditional northern hemisphere summer break, with racing resuming at Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix on August 31.