The British Lando Norris (McLaren) dazzled this Saturday at the Hungarian GP by recording a time 46 thousandths faster than the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and which allowed him to take pole position at the Hungaroring circuit and join the fight for the lead in the World Championship.
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Norris, who clocked a time of one minute, fifteen seconds and 227 thousandths, took advantage of the improvement of the McLaren in recent weeks to fly over the wet Hungaroring circuit, where the Spaniard Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) will start fourth this Sunday and his compatriot Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) sixth, after failing to complete a perfect lap when he came across the accident of the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda, which brought out the second red flag of the day.
Minutes earlier, in the first round of the session, it was the Mexican ‘Checo’ Pérez (Red Bull) who had crashed into the wall, so the driver from Guadalajara (Mexico) will start sixteenth in this Sunday’s race, in which the McLarens will occupy the first row of the circuit.
Opportunity for Norris
This start, with Norris first and the Australian Oscar Piastri (McLaren) second, it is a perfect time for Norris to close the gap of 84 points between him and Verstappen, the leader of the World Championship and who will start in third position.
Although there are less than half of the World Championship left to compete in, it seems clear that Verstappen’s ‘triumphal ride’ of recent times is over. The constant improvement of McLaren, which has managed to evolve its car weekend after weekend and has put both Norris and Piastri in the top positions of the classification, allows us to think of a change of trend that could end with excitement until the end of the season.
Verstappen has gone two consecutive weekends without a win and it could be three this Sunday if the McLarens manage to maintain the same positions they will start with this Saturday.
Although to race you first have to walk, Norris, who led at Silverstone despite finishing third and who was first in Austria, has the opportunity to close the gap on points in his hands. Although there are still 84 points separating them, the consistency of the car seems to help Norris’s ‘hands’, who also has a squire that Verstappen does not have: Oscar Piastri. Piastri, second just 22 thousandths of a second behind Norris this Saturday, will be able to help manage the Briton’s race, while Verstappen will not be able to count on the help of a ‘Checo’ Pérez who continues to not find the rhythm of his car and who, to top it all off, will have to start sixteenth after losing the car in the first qualifying session and causing a red flag.
Alonso improves and Sainz overtakes Leclerc again The Madrid-born driver arrived in Hungary hoping to take third place in the World Championship this weekend and is in a perfect position to do so. Although he finished almost half a second behind Norris, he once again won the game, one more classification ahead of his teammate, Monaco’s Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), and this Sunday he could reduce the four points he has over the Monaco driver, who has many problems with consistency, and even overtake him.
Leclerc has gone two consecutive weekends without scoring points, while Sainz, who completed a good lap on Saturday and was ‘the first of the mortals’ after McLaren and Verstappen, remains firm in his appointment with the points, despite missing a grand prix after undergoing appendicitis surgery, which shows the equality between the two drivers on the grid.
The Aston Martins are also equal, although Alonso’s magic was felt and he beat his teammate, the Canadian Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), in qualifying on Saturday. With almost two tenths of a second ahead of the Canadian, Alonso will be seventh this Sunday and it seems that the -almost dreamed- of improvements have worked, at least for both cars to get into Q3.
Norris thus led, as he has done all weekend, in qualifying on Saturday, which saw two red flags, one for Pérez and one for Tsunoda -with two minutes left to finish Q3-, which conditioned a day in which the rain wanted to be the protagonist.
EFE
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