Lando Norris made an alternate one stop strategy work as he takes the chequered flag at the Hungaroring ahead of his teammate.
Lando Norris got a bit pinched heading into turn 1 at the start of the race, which allowed Russell to take third around the outside, who was closely followed by Fernando Alonso, with the Brit falling down to fifth while his teammate remained in second.
Norris was able to get back past alonso pretty quickly, and would begin to breathe down Russell’s neck by lap 10.
Charles Leclerc was able to pull away from Piastri and was maintaining a gap of roughly three seconds, showing that his Ferrari has genuine race pace.
The teams were debating over the merits between a one stop and a two stop strategy, with the former being more viable as a result of the cooler temperatures.
The first driver to pit would be Franco Colapinto, who came in at the end of lap 13, who would then be followed by Ocon and Albon one lap later.
This track has never been known to be an easy place to overtake, and Norris was finding this out as they struggled to overtake Russell, despite consistently being quite close to the Mercedes.
Oscar Piastri would pit at the end of lap 18, with the aim of overtaking Leclerc in the lead. Leclerc and Russell would respond one lap later, while Norris would stay out.
While Piastri would be closer to Leclerc after the Ferrari’s pit stop, it was not enough to gain the track position.
Norris would continue to stay out, and looking towards doing the one stop race, the only one in the top four to do so. However, between the time that Leclerc and Piastri pit and by the time he pit on lap 31, he lost over 10 seconds.
Verstappen would make an overtake on Hamilton on lap 30, doing so at the quick left hander of turn 4, with Hamilton taking to the tarmac off track to avoid any contact.
Some drivers would have an incredibly long stint on their opening set of tyres
McLaren had seemingly bluffed Ferrari into making an early stop, Leclerc looking to be protected from the undercut. With Piastri staying out, it seemed he would prefer to build a tyre delta to Norris for the final stint.
Norris was getting rather close to Russell once again, which would eventually prompt the Mercedes team into bringing Russell in at the end of lap 43.
Norris, now in second, was absolutely flying on his current set of tyres, the tyre delta he had being rather significant, forcing Piastri to come in at the end of lap 45, where he would re-emerge in third place.
Piastri was making pretty good strides into the gap to Leclerc, and when presented with an opportunity to overtake, he would take it, going round the outside of the Ferrari driver at turn 1 on lap 51. He would be 9 seconds behind Norris in the lead with just 19 laps remaining.
Lapped traffic seemed to play some effect in Piastri’s chase of Norris, with the first lap in this direct fight between the championship protagonists seeing a significant gain for Piastri.
Issues seemed to be plaguing Leclerc’s Ferrari, and he was furious with the team for how they seemingly managed these issues, declaring it would be a miracle if he got a podium. That certainly felt like a true statement after Russell began stalking Leclerc’s car closely, looking for an overtake on lap 61.
Russell would make another attempt at an overtake just one lap later, which saw some poor defence from Leclerc, who moved under braking. Despite this, Russell would make the move stick to move into the podium places.
Piastri would find himself within DRS range of Norris by lap 65, but it would be one thing to catch the car ahead, but another to actually pass him.
Traffic would play a bit of a factor, as it meant that gaps would be changing slightly as each driver had to get past the lapped cars. It would also mean that Norris would have the chance to also get DRS to aid in his defence, but he wouldn’t end up getting any of that help.
Traffic was cleared for the last four laps, providing a straight fight between the two McLarens. Piastri would have a look down the inside on lap 68, but would be unsuccessful that time around.
Piastri would make another attempt on lap 69, braking incredibly late and would lock his tyres, nearly crashing into Norris in the process.
Piastri would have hoped to have one more attempt at the start of lap 70, but he was just a bit too far behind to make an attempt at an overtake, allowing Norris to bring the win home.
Norris’ victory means that the gap between him and Piastri is now cut down to 9 points as Formula 1 heads into it’s summer break.
The next race won’t be until the end of the month, with the Dutch Grand Prix taking place on August 31.
