Lando Norris has set the stage for a thrilling championship showdown with teammate Oscar Piastri after claiming victory at Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Starting third, Norris slipped to fifth following a difficult first corner at the Hungaroring. However, a strategic masterstroke—opting for one fewer pit stop than his rivals—catapulted him into the lead. In a gripping finale, he successfully fended off Piastri’s relentless charge.
The rivalry intensified dramatically on the penultimate lap when Piastri, executing a daring overtaking maneuver, nearly collided with Norris. Clinging onto control of his McLaren, the Australian came inches from contact, but Norris kept his composure and maintained the lead to secure his fifth win of the season—his third in four races. Crossing the finish line just six-tenths ahead, Norris narrowed the championship gap to nine points with ten rounds remaining. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen’s ninth-place finish left him a distant third, 97 points behind the leaders.
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“I’m exhausted,” Norris admitted. “Oscar was catching me in the final stint, and I had to push flat out. My voice is almost gone. It’s been a tough battle, and it will stay that way because the margins are razor-thin. We both have areas to improve, so it’s going to be a fierce fight right to the end.”
Norris’s win just before the summer break reignites his pursuit of a maiden world title, though it came with moments of fortune. After a strong getaway, his attempted inside pass on Piastri at the opening corner didn’t pan out, leaving him stuck behind rivals George Russell and Fernando Alonso. Norris battled his way past Alonso by the third lap but found himself trailing Russell, making little progress.
The race strategy turned in Norris’s favor when Piastri, Charles Leclerc, and Russell pitted around the 18th and 19th laps, promoting Norris to the lead. His race engineer pitched a daring one-stop plan, asking, “Lando, 40 laps on the hard tyre, you up for it?” Norris agreed, and following his sole pit stop on lap 31, he posted the fastest times on the track.
Despite a minor slip into the gravel at the chicane—prompting a reminder from his engineer to maintain focus—Norris extended his lead significantly once his rivals made their final stops. Although Piastri overtook Leclerc on lap 51 and closed in on Norris, the young Briton held firm.
With five laps remaining, Piastri was only a second behind. The Australian launched a bold attack on the penultimate lap at the first bend but Norris’s calm and precise driving preserved his slender advantage. Russell completed the podium in third, with Leclerc settling for fourth.
As the championship fight heats up, all eyes will turn to the next race in the Netherlands on August 31.