Lando Norris grabbed his fifth victory of the season in the Hungarian Grand Prix and cut Oscar Piastri’s lead in the world championship.
He bounced back after a poor getaway from third dropped him to fifth at the start. Charles Leclerc led the field away pursued by Piastri while George Russell and Fernando Alonso demoted Norris.
It only took Norris a couple of laps to find a way past Alonso, who then dropped back and held up a queue of cars. However while Piastri chased Leclerc, Norris was unable to find a way around Russell.
Piastri made a bid to get ahead of Leclerc by pitting before him, to no avail. Russell also pitted early but Norris gambled on staying out and extending his opening stint on the medium tyre compound.
Norris kept his tyres alive long enough to switch to a one-stop strategy. Leclerc and Piastri couldn’t do the same and fell behind Norris when they made their second pit stops.
Piastri swiftly passed Leclerc with complete ease in the DRS zone on the pit straight. Leclerc complained bitterly to his team about his car’s set-up and made a couple of lurid defensive moves when Russell passed him for third which earned the Ferrari driver a five-second time penalty.
With four laps to go, Norris and Piastri emerged from a queue of traffic with less than a second between them. Piastri attacked twice at turn one as the laps ticked down, locking up heavily and almost hitting his team mate on the penultimate lap.
