Norris sees off late Piastri attack to win in Hungary

Lando Norris won the Hungarian Grand Prix after Oscar Piastri, a McLaren teammate, came in late to fend off an early attack.

With the two title rivals using different strategies, Norris’ controlled, defensive drive in a tight race reduces his championship deficit to nine points heading into Formula 1’s summer break.

In the final stages, George Russell of Mercedes came out on top, passing Charles Leclerc, as the Ferrari slipped out of contention.

After falling in fifth place on the opening lap, Norris resurrected using a bold one-stop strategy.

With five laps left, Piastri was forced to turn around and come back to him on new tires in the closing stages, leaving him with a tail-butted.

At Turn One, Piastri made two daring dives for Norris’ interior, but the move fell too far back on a track known for being challenging to overtake.

Fernando Alonso used a one-stop approach and masterfully raced to finish fifth overall, which is his and Aston Martin’s best season result.

In his Sauber, his protégé Gabriel Bortoleto did the same and came in sixth.

After the first corner, Norris’ hopes of winning appeared to have waned when he attempted to pass Piastri into the first corner before being forced onto a tight inside line, allowing Russell and Alonso to pass him.

Norris was put on the back foot because overtaking was so challenging.

Leclerc, who had held the lead off the line, was in second place in the standings. Russell finished ahead of Norris, who had just a few seconds to go before Alonso’s Aston Martin.

Leclerc was 2.5 seconds ahead of Piastri when McLaren pitted the Australian at this point, making it seem like they were in control.

Leclerc responded on the following lap with ease and was successful in keeping the position. The idea was to “undercut” the Ferrari.

Norris made the decision at this point to extend in order to offset his own tires, and the plan expanded to include a one-stop.

Norris said, “I didn’t believe it would give us the win,” and that I was aware that it might put us in the lead. I was confident that if there was more fresh air and a little pressure, it might work.

Norris completed his stint on a set of hard tyres in 39 laps, which was extended to lap 31. Andrea Stella, the team’s principal, stated that Norris could achieve the goal because they were initially unsure whether the strategy would work.

Piastri and his engineer negotiated their position at this point, second between the two McLarens, saying he would prefer to bias his approach to give himself the best chance to defeat Norris, and that he didn’t care about the Ferrari.

Leclerc made his second stop on lap 40, while Piastri waited for his five more laps to gain the most control over Norris.

With 19 laps to go, Piastri returned to the track and swept around Leclerc’s tyres to take second place, closing the nine-second gap to Norris, while avoiding taking too much of his tire pressure.

With five laps left, he was within range of the DRS overtaking aid, but Norris managed to keep him at bay.

” I’m dead, “Norris said”. It was difficult. At first, we weren’t really planning on doing the one-stop, but after the first lap, we were kind of the only ones who could get back into things.

“I was pushing out the entire time with Oscar catching me.” Rewarding for that, and today’s ideal outcome.

Piastri remarked, “I pushed as hard as I could.” I knew I would have to overtake Lando on the track, which is much easier said than done here. Simply put, we were on the wrong side of it today.

Leclerc complained about some sort of issue and claimed that they should have listened to him before the race, and he railed at his team for how they had run the race in the final stint.

Team principal Frederic Vasseur said that made a comment about energy management in the hybrid system. Leclerc’s pace then dramatically decreased in the final two frames, giving him a greater sense of vulnerability.

After his pit stop, Vasseur claimed that he had a problem with his car, and he was unsure as to what caused it.

With ten laps left, Russell stopped for the final time and closed in on the Ferrari.

With nine laps left, Russell made a second attempt and complained that Leclerc was moving while braking. He complained about Leclerc’s driving once more and the Ferrari driver was given a five-second penalty for erratic driving.

Alonso kept his tyres in tact while the car was fueled up in the early laps, keeping up with the rest of the field.

He then increased his pace to close the gap left by Bortoleto, stopped at lap 39, and waited until the finish line.

Aston Martin moves up to sixth place in the constructors’ championship, one point ahead of Sauber, with team-mate Lance Stroll’s similarly driven drive to seventh place.