Challenge for the second force
The dominance of Red Bull, which has been going on uninterrupted since the beginning of the season, is forcing insiders and enthusiasts to focus more on the race for honorable placements, which is proving to be quite interesting and balanced. At the beginning of the year, the second force on the track was clearly Aston Martin, then for a few races Ferrari tried to show itself. But now it is clear how the challenge is between Mercedes and McLarenwhich appeared very close to each other – in terms of performance – in the last Hungarian weekend. Toto Wolff, disappointed with the missed podium, stated that the W14 was the second best car on track behind Red Bull in Budapest. Others, however, believed that McLaren showed they had a few more cards to play during the race.
Fundamental departure
In reality, by questioning another of the directly interested parties, Lando Norristhe impression that emerges is that of two cars really on par. In fact, speaking at the press conference, the #4 of McLaren underlined how his place on the podium was guaranteed only by Hamilton’s bad startwho lost three positions in the opening corners. “If I hadn’t overtaken Lewis at that moment, I don’t think I would have overtaken him anymore, because their race pace was very strong. I simply believe that they didn’t have a good race and that overtaking allowed me to get on the podium“, commented the talent from the Woking team, who has now climbed to eighth place in the Drivers’ standings.
Placement issue
Norris explained in detail how the overtaking maneuver on Hamilton came about, which took place while he was in turn being passed by Oscar Piastri’s other McLaren. “I think I made a good start – analyzed the Bristol pilot – I followed Max and Lewis and couldn’t go right. I had a big slipstream, so I got to the halfway point next to Lewis. There it was difficult to understand what to do. If I had braked earlier, it would have been easier for others to pass inside. I had to brake where I wanted to brake and tried to turn, but when I tried to move inside, Lewis did too. These things happen and of course Oscar got through which was great“.
Hamilton mocked
At that point, however, Norris changed his strategy, moving to the outside and managing to catch Hamilton unprepared: “Lewis stayed up front which was frustrating, but then I was able to stay on the outside. I was a little surprised, because I would have thought he was going to push me out, but he didn’t. I’m sure he tried but it’s very easy to lock up in turn 2. On corner entry I went back a couple of clicks on the brake balance to be able to attack a bit more and it worked. I think that saved our race today“, concluded the 23-year-old Englishman.
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