Happiness In Hungary: Norris Claims His First Win As World Champion!

McLaren’s Lando Norris claimed his first win as a World Champion ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli at the Hungarian Grand Prix. 

Feature image credit: Pirelli

Qualifying Recap

During Saturday’s one-hour qualifying session, it was McLaren’s Lando Norris who claimed pole position, making it the first non-Mercedes driver to take the number 1 grid slot for Grand Prix Sunday this season.

While Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli initially qualified second and fourth, the pair lined up on the grid in fifth and seventh after receiving three-place grid penalties. For Hamilton, he impeded McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, and Antonelli failed to slow down enough under single yellow flags after Red Bull’s Max Verstappen spun out during the final moments of Q3.

Lights Out

Fast forward to Sunday afternoon, the top three on the grid after penalties applied were Norris, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, and Piastri. While Leclerc dropped down a few places during the opening laps, it was Piastri who stormed into the lead on lap 1 after battling for the position with his teammate Norris.

For Mercedes’ George Russell, who has suffered bad luck throughout the first half of the season, he unfortunately suffered more bad luck as his Mercedes car went into anti-stall when the five red lights went out, resulting in the Brit falling to the rear end of the field. If Russell was not having bad luck, he would be having no luck at all.

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McLaren’s Fight for First and Blue Flag Drama

As more and more laps went by, the two McLaren drivers started to check out ahead, with Norris still behind Piastri. By the time of the second pit stops, Piastri peeled into the pit lane as Norris stayed out and inherited the lead.

While Norris was finally in clean air and releasing his pace, Piastri needed to clear some back markers after his second and final pit stop. One of these back markers was the Williams of Carlos Sainz, who was battling on track with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso at the time. Sainz was so focused on the fight with Alonso that, when he cut back across the track, he clipped the front of Piastri’s car.

With all this drama going on, it helped Norris pull a bigger gap on his teammate, and with a decent second pit stop, Norris came back out of the pit lane ahead of Piastri. Piastri’s day went from bad to worse as he was forced to pull over and retire his McLaren with gearbox issues.

The Chequered Flag and the Midfield

By the end of 70 laps around the Hungaroring, Norris clinched his first back-to-back victory at the same circuit with a dominant drive as he finished 15.080 seconds ahead of Verstappen in second.

It was Antonelli who claimed the final spot on the podium after starting seventh. Hamilton finished fourth on the road but dropped down to fifth after receiving a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, promoting his teammate Leclerc up to fourth.

Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar finished sixth ahead of Russell, who bounced back into the points in seventh after his disaster at the start of the race.

The Racing Bulls duo of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad finished in eighth and tenth, making it another double-points for the Faenza-based team. This result moves them up into fifth in the constructors’ championship on 66 points, ahead of Alpine, who are on 61 points. And Nico Hulkenberg claimed ninth place in his Audi, securing his first points this season.

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Aston Martin’s Step Forward

All eyes were on Aston Martin this weekend as they brought significant upgrades to the track. Throughout the season, both Alonso and Lance Stroll were constantly occupying the back of the grid as the Aston Martin car was, without doubt, the slowest on the grid.

Now, after upgrades were introduced, Alonso reached Q2 during Qualifying for the first time this season, and by the Hungarian Grand Prix, Stroll finished thirteenth just ahead of Alonso in fourteenth.

With both cars finishing ahead of both Haas drivers, both Williams drivers, both Cadillacs (who failed to finish), and Franco Colapinto’s Alpine, while Alonso also ran in the top 10 at one stage of the race, the upgrades appear to have been a success.

The Championship Standings and What’s Next

With the first half of the season complete, Antonelli still sits in the lead of the drivers’ championship with 219 points ahead of Hamilton on 169 and Russell on 160 points in third. With Russell behind his teammate by 59 points, can he pull back the gap, or can Hamilton upset the Mercedes pair and claim his eighth title?

We look forward to finding out when we kick off the second half of the season in the Netherlands when the five red lights go out on Sunday, August 23rd.

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Millie Clark

Millie Clark