Lando Norris wins as World Champ in dramatic Hungarian GP as Piastri retires
Lando Norris won his first Grand Prix as reigning World Champion in Hungary after battling with teammate Oscar Piastri, as Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli joined him on the podium.
Despite starting from pole position, Norris had a tricky opening phase as he initially lost the lead to Piastri after running wide at the second corner. Piastri’s stellar start primed him to comfortably lead for the first two rounds of pit stops.
McLaren favoured leading driver Piastri to stop first despite calls from Norris with claims of quicker pace. However, the Australian’s work was undone when he was dramatically hit by Carlos Sainz who was unaware of blue flags amidst his battle with other backmarkers.
This gifted the reigning World Champion the right amount of time to make his second stop and come out ahead of Piastri. From there, Norris was unstoppable in clean air, overtook Antonelli who was running an extended stint and sprinted to victory, 15 seconds ahead of second place Verstappen.
Piastri’s woes continued as he retired due to an alleged gearbox problem with less than a quarter of the race to go.
The two Ferraris played second fiddle to the impressive, pace-plentiful Mclaren cars, but a three-stop strategy relegated them behind the other front runners. Verstappen worked his way to a second successive podium after mitigating the loses of having been undercut by Hamilton by passing the Ferrari man and a trailing RB in spectacular fashion.
Hamilton crossed paths with Antonelli after his third stop and ceded the position to the Italian after it was declared he was ahead at the white line for the restart following a Virtual Safety Car period caused by Piastri’s retirement.
Antonelli then fended off Hamilton amidst a flurry of traffic around the Hungaroring, claiming third to boost his championship hopes going into the summer break. However, a penalty for Hamilton for speeding in the pit lane dropped him to fifth behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Isack Hadjar finished sixth for Red Bull ahead of George Russell in seventh. The Mercedes man had another tough outing after a horrendous start saw him drop to 21st as anti-stall kicked into his car at the lights.
Racing Bulls had another double-points finish with Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad finishing eighth and tenth respectively. Meanwhile Nico Hulkenberg picked up his first points of the season for Audi in ninth.
His Audi teammate Gabriel Bortoleto missed out, taking the flag in P11 ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in twelfth.
The two Aston Martins finished thirteenth and fourteenth in a heavily upgraded car which lifted Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso into some contention with the lower pack.
Franco Colpainto finished in P15 ahead of Esteban Ocon and the two Williams of Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz respectively.
Haas’ Ollie Bearman rounded out the finishers in nineteenth.
Other drivers who failed to finish with Piastri were the two Cadillacs of Sergio Perez and Valterri Bottas who had another tricky weekend with car issues.
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