F1 Hungarian GP: Norris holds on from Piastri assault after Leclerc sinks late on

Lando Norris held on from a late siege from Oscar Piastri to win the Hungarian Grand Prix, having gambled on a one-stop strategy and hunkering down in the final 10 laps to close on his team-mate's Formula 1 championship lead.

The Briton soaked up a barrage of moves from Piastri late on in the race at Turn 1, one culminating in a lock-up for the championship leader, but held on to convert a somewhat risky strategy - and one arguably made possible by a difficult opening stint.

Piastri had run to a two-stop strategy in an effort to beat polesitter Charles Leclerc, who preserved the lead off the line and maintained it through the opening stint of the race. He'd also been running to a two-stopper, with the rear-limited nature of the circuit expected to exact a heavy load on the tyres.

By comparison, Norris got a poor start to the race; although the first phase of his getaway allowed him to put team-mate Piastri under scrutiny, he was boxed in at the opening braking zone - thus, both George Russell and Fernando Alonso used the open outside line to gather more momentum and clear Norris into Turn 1.

Norris passed Alonso two laps later, but struggled to break down Russell; having been on for third at best on the same two-stop strategy, Norris opted to extend his stint and took the one-stop gamble offered to him, electing to wait it out and pitted at the end of lap 31 - with the expectation that those ahead would need to pit again.

This duly proved to be the case, as Leclerc made a second visit to the pitlane on lap 40 for another set of hards, prompting McLaren to attempt to extend for more offset with Piastri's tyres. Thus, Piastri stopped five laps later, giving the Australian the opportunity to push the Ferrari driver.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari leads at the start (Photo by: Mark Thompson / Getty Images)

But Leclerc was struggling at this stage; a race-long argument with his team over pre-race procedures eventually boiled down into the Monegasque irately dressing down his team for "losing competitiveness" through the stint. Piastri passed him for second on lap 51, and began his own charge towards Norris.

Over the next 10 laps, Piastri scythed away at Norris' lead, the two were separated by almost nine seconds when Piastri cleared Leclerc, but this quickly fell to set up a late battle between the pair.

And, with five laps to go, Piastri was within DRS range having caught up amid the late-race traffic, and filled his team-mate mirrors. He got close at the start of the 68th lap, and then went for a dive on the next tour - but locked up and had to go slightly wide into the opening corner.

Without enough momentum in the final lap, Piastri was conciliatory in defeat as Norris swept across the line with a scant 0.698s gap.

Russell took third from Leclerc as the polesitter had forecast the difficulty of hanging onto a podium place during his mid-race airing of grievances. Clearly aggrieved, Leclerc's defence was considered too robust by Russell and the Briton felt that the car ahead had moved under braking in his lap 61 overtake attempt.

Leclerc tried to chop Russell off again on the next tour, but the Mercedes stayed to the inside line and came up for air with a podium; Leclerc, meanwhile, took a five-second penalty for erratic driving.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari (Photo by: Clive Rose / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Although Leclerc dropped a long way behind Russell, his gap to Alonso was more than ample enough to soak up the hit of the penalty; the Aston Martin driver came under heavy threat from protege Gabriel Bortoleto early on, but kept the Brazilian at bay throughout the race.

Bortoleto claimed his best result in F1 to finish sixth, two seconds clear of Lance Stroll. Liam Lawson beat Max Verstappen, who attempted to go long on his hard tyres while running fifth - but eventually conceded defeat and came out behind his former team-mate.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli claimed the final point after a late challenge from Isack Hadjar, who had to drive in pain as a shower of gravel struck his hand in the early stages of the race.

F1 now enters its summer break and shutdown, before returning at the end of the month for the Dutch GP at Zandvoort over the 29-31 August.

F1 Hungarian GP results

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Chassis	Engine
1	L. Norris McLaren	4		70	-			1	25		McLaren	Mercedes
2	O. Piastri McLaren	81		70	+0.698 0.698	0.698		2	18		McLaren	Mercedes
3	G. Russell Mercedes	63		70	+21.916 21.916	21.218		2	15		Mercedes	Mercedes
4	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		70	+42.560 42.560	20.644		2	12		Ferrari	Ferrari
5	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14		70	+59.040 59.040	16.480		1	10		Aston Martin	Mercedes
6	G. Bortoleto Sauber	5		70	+1'06.169 1'06.169	7.129		1	8		Sauber	Ferrari
7	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18		70	+1'08.174 1'08.174	2.005		1	6		Aston Martin	Mercedes
8	L. Lawson RB	30		70	+1'09.451 1'09.451	1.277		1	4		RB	Honda
9	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1		70	+1'12.645 1'12.645	3.194		2	2		Red Bull	Red Bull
10	A. Antonelli Mercedes	12		69	1 lap			1	1		Mercedes	Mercedes
11	I. Hadjar RB	6		69	1 lap			1			RB	Honda
12	L. Hamilton Ferrari	44		69	1 lap			1			Ferrari	Ferrari
13	N. Hulkenberg Sauber	27		69	1 lap			2			Sauber	Ferrari
14	C. Sainz Williams	55		69	1 lap			2			Williams	Mercedes
15	A. Albon Williams	23		69	1 lap			2			Williams	Mercedes
16	E. Ocon Haas F1 Team	31		69	1 lap			1			Haas	Ferrari
17	Y. Tsunoda Red Bull Racing	22		69	1 lap			2			Red Bull	Red Bull
18	F. Colapinto Alpine	43		69	1 lap			2			Alpine	Renault
19	P. Gasly Alpine	10		69	1 lap			1			Alpine	Renault
dnf	O. Bearman Haas F1 Team	87		48	22 laps			2		Retirement	Haas	Ferrari
View full results

In this article

Jake Boxall-Legge Formula 1 Charles Leclerc Lando Norris Oscar Piastri Ferrari McLaren

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