Lando Norris will ask himself for his entire career whether it was right to respect the team order and give the victory in the Hungarian GP to Oscar Piastri, or whether to cynically think of himself and the championship and keep the victory. The Englishman extended his advantage over his teammate to over five seconds, while on the radio the McLaren pit wall “invited” Lando to respect the agreements. With three laps to go Norris slowed down significantly, leaving the first position to the Australian.
Norris lost the race at the start when he was unable to defend his pole position and the young 23-year-old from Melbourne built a great success in his 35th appearance in F1. He is an undisputed talent who has what it takes to become a champion. He still makes mistakes, but he has a steely, imperturbable character, essential for someone who will be called upon to fight great battles.
McLaren complicated its Sunday by calling Norris first to his second pit stop on lap 46, while Piastri was in the lead. The pit wall defended itself from Lewis Hamilton who could have been threatening, but with the undercut it brought Lando in front of Oscar, creating a very embarrassing situation that was eventually resolved with logic. Norris could have made the swap earlier and then asked the team if he could attack his teammate, knowing he had a faster MCL38.
The Woking team takes home a historic one-two (the previous one was at the 2021 Italian GP with the Ricciardo-Norris duo) with the papaya car proving to be indisputably the fastest in the Circus. Oscar Piastri, a champion with a heart of stone, is the first millennial to win a GP, aware that he will return to the top step of the podium again.
Lando closes the gap in the drivers’ championship standings with second place: the Englishman moves to 51 points from Max Verstappen, a gap that today may seem bridgeable with a Red Bull that no longer seems unassailable. Lewis Hamilton conquers the 200th podium of his career after a rough battle with Max Verstappen. On lap 63, the Dutchman tried to pass the Mercedes at the braking point of turn 1, but Max, while he was on the inside, locked the front wheels and, without directionality, went off on a tangent, while Hamilton was closing his curve. Contact was inevitable: the RB20 took off on the right front of the black-silver arrow and ended up (miraculously) undamaged in the escape road, to return to the track in fifth.
The three-time world champion was very nervous (he “caught up” with his engineers throughout the race, contesting every decision made by the team) and made a mistake that led to him being investigated, for which he could be penalised, paying for the unsuccessful gamble. Max forced the attack after Albon in the Williams had been lapped and there was little room for a safe braking. Verstappen was furious and the fact that his engineer called him a “child” will certainly have an effect within the Milton Keynes team, stirring up waters that seemed to have just calmed down.
The RB20 is no longer the fastest F1 of the lot and Max must earn the fourth title with his skills: Max finished fifth behind Charles Leclerc, ending up in the sandwich of the two Ferraris. The Scuderia seems to have woken up with the revised and corrected SF-24 in the bottom. With the hard tyres it proved to be fast and in the end Leclerc’s result is the right one, even if off the podium. The red one is still fourth force, but it is back in the leading group, excluding McLaren who overtook the red one to climb to second place in the Constructors. We await a confirmation from the Prancing Horse at Spa-Francrchamps to score a point before the summer break. Carlos Sainz compromised his race with a bad start and sixth place in the end is fine.
The Spaniard finished ahead of Sergio Perez who returned to scoring points with the second Red Bull. The Milton Keynes team had to rebuild the car after the crash in Q1: the Mexican, who started 16th, did his best to finish ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell who started behind him. His position remains very uncertain but now Red Bull’s attention will be focused on calming Verstappen’s fury.
Excellent performance by Yuki Tsunoda, ninth with the Racing Bull rebuilt from scratch after yesterday’s crash in Q3: the Japanese driver without any flaws deserved ninth place, taking home two championship points that are very precious for the Faenza team. Lance Stroll finished tenth with the Aston Martin: the revised AMR24 may not be that great but the Canadian once again finished ahead of Fernando Alonso. The little point has a psychological value. Everything else was a complement to a race that will be much discussed again…
#McLarens #Hungary #Norris #Piastri