McLaren driver Lando Norris grabbed the victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix after starting third on the grid.
Norris lost a couple of places at the start, sliding down to fifth, but his race pace proved to be immense and he quickly made up ground.
At the front, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc started on pole position, but he suffered performance issues, which led to a drop-off in pace.
The door opened for Norris to grab the win as Leclerc slowed down, and he took the opportunity full on.
Norris stayed out longer than the leaders and opted for a one-stop strategy, a move which paid off.
He ended up fighting fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri for the win, a battle which featured the two contenders for the drivers’ title.
“I’m dead. I’m dead. It was tough,” the race winner said after the race. “We weren’t really planning on the one-stop, but after the first lap, it was kind of our only option to get back into things.
“The final stint with Oscar catching, I was pushing flat out. Rewarding even more because of that. The perfect result today.
“I didn’t think it would get us the win, I thought it would get us maybe into second. I knew if I had clean air and could push, I could maybe make things work, and that’s what we did.
“It always is a bit of a gamble these kind of things. It also requires no mistakes, good laps, good strategy, and that’s what we had today.”
Norris started second in the Drivers Championship ranking before the race, 16 points down on Piastri.
After beating Piastri in Hungary, Norris closed the gap down to nine points heading into the summer break.
“We’re so tightly fought it’s hard to say if momentum is on anyone’s side,” he added.
“It’s tough but fun racing against Oscar. Credit to Oscar he put up a good charge and I just about held on.”
Hungarian Grand Prix Race Results
- Lando Norris (McLaren)
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
- George Russell (Mercedes)
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
- Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
- Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)
- Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
- Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
- Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
- Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)
- Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
- Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)
- Carlos Sainz (Williams)
- Alex Albon (Williams)
- Esteban Ocon (Haas)
- Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls)
- Franco Colapinto (Alpine)
- Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
DNF: Ollie Bearman (Haas)
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