By Mark Gero
With the disappointment of Belgium behind him, Lando Norris proved that he and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri will be in the battle for the Formula 1 World Championship as the Briton took both Friday practices for the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring with a time of 1:25:624, ahead of his Australian rival with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in third.
Norris had set the best time both in the middle of the afternoon session and regained it towards the end with Piastri struggling with balance.
Aston Martin, who had struggled most of the season, got a huge boost of adrenaline with both Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso placing fourth and fifth, respectively. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was next in sixth with George Russell seventh in the Mercedes. Despite complaining about the traffic, the Racing Bull of Isack Hadjar finished in eighth with Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda and the second Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli completing the top ten.
On a warm afternoon, there were no major incidents as Norris could have caused one of them late in the session, as he nearly lost control on the final turn, but managed to regain control of his car and continued. If there were any events that were mentioned, it began when the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg went wide towards the end of the lap and picked up some gravel, which never was cleaned up. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who ended up in a disappointing 14th, caused one of the strangest incidents as the Dutchman flung a Red Bull signed towel out of the cockpit during one of his flying laps and at the end of the session, had to be investigated by officials for his actions. Williams Carlos Sainz temporarily lost all electrical power late in the session and despite the frantic response by his engineer, managed to regain the system and continued.
Going into this weekend, Norris still trails Piastri by 16 points with nine rounds remaining in the world championship.
WHEEL2WHEEL REPORTS 