Lando Norris, starting on the pole at July 26’s AWS Hungarian Grand Prix, lost the lead on the first lap to teammate Oscar Piastri but recovered to assume the race lead midway through the race and held on to win the grand prix in windy and dusty conditions.
Norris was the fastest car early in the race but was trapped in dirty air behind Piastri. Once the reigning champion utilized that speed in conjunction with pit strategy, it was smooth sailing for the Brit, who took the checkered flag 15 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen.
Piastri’s hopes for victory collapsed on lap 39, when he nearly wrecked trying to pass Carlos Sainz, who was oblivious to the blue flags clearly visible all around him.
Piastri had pitted earlier and seemed well on his way to covering Norris and maintaining the lead before the Sainz incident swayed the outcome. His luck worsened later when a potential podium finish evaporated when a gearbox failure ended his day on lap 55.
Kimi Antonelli finished third to join Norris and Verstappen on the podium..
Lewis Hamilton finished fourth on the track, but a five-second penalty knocked him down to fifth, with teammate Charles Leclerc assuming the position. It was Hamilton’s second penalty of the weekend; he was docked three grid positions after qualifying.
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Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar was sixth after starting eighth on the grid.
George Russell‘s downward spiral continued when he stalled at the start and fell to 19th, Russell recovered and stormed back to finish seventh but still lost points to Antonelli and Hamilton, who are ahead of him in the standings.
Liam Lawson, Nico Hulkenberg and Arvid Lindblad rounded out the top 10.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso came home 13th and 14th as the team instituted significant upgrades for Hungary.
High track temperatures and tire degradation mandated two or more pit stops for most teams, with most drivers opting for the hard or soft compounds.
An eventful start saw Norris get off well while Piastri and Verstappen slipped by the slow-starting Leclerc into turn 1. Norris’s lead was short lived as Piastri overtook his teammate at turn 4, and old rivals Hamilton and Verstappen made contact.
What looked like a possible McLaren 1-2 turned into a Norris cakewalk.
Hungarian Grand Prix Results
After a month-long summer break, the F1 calendar resumes with the Heineken Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on Aug. 23.
Entertaining race. Felt bad for Piastri. As noted in the article, though Norris was clearly faster, Piastri had remarkably bad luck all day. Sainz forgot what mirrors are used for, unlucky timing of the VSC, then a transmission failure, just for good measure.
Verstappen showed yet again he’s one of the all time greats, taking what was a 7th place car on pace, and wrestling it to 2nd. Was fun seeing he and Hamilton mix it up yet again, with Verstappen clearly getting the best of this week’s tangle.
Also nice seeing Aston Martin finally give Alonso at least a little bit to work with. After the summer break, will be curious to see if Honda’s engine upgrade for Aston brings them to challenging for points, or if the competition comes back and buries Aston all over again.
The competition better watch out for Audi in the years to come. That they’re already in contention for “best of the rest” behind the big four, in their first year in F1, sure seems to indicate they’re in it to win it. Given their history of dominating many forms of auto racing they’ve opted to participate in, I would be at all surprised to see them leaping into fray at the top of the field, possibly as early as next year.