By Mark Gero
In the battle for the Formula One World Championship between McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, the latter took a big step in narrowing his rival’s lead in the standings as the Briton won the last race before the summer break in Hungary. Here is how Norris won his first race at this venue….
Norris began his quest for this race by taking Friday practice ahead of Piastri. Only Ferrari led the best of the rest with Charles Leclerc at the controls. Piastri struggled with the balance of the car and would have to improve on it if he was going to beat Norris later in the week. The big surprise, although it was only practice, were the two Aston Martin’s of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso. Alonso placed fourth with his Canadian partner fifth. Earlier in the afternoon session, the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg went into the gravel and spewed out a huge amount to where the pits of it stayed on the circuit for the entire afternoon. Norris nearly went off at the final turn but managed to hold firm and continued. But the strangest incident occurred when the Red Bull of Max Verstappen tossed out a Red Bull hand towel that was accidentally placed in his car by one of his mechanics. The incident, which was while Verstappen was on the circuit, went to the stewards, who only gave him a warning for his involvement.
It seemed like both McLarens would continue to a front row start for Sunday’s grand prix, but Saturday qualifying had a new twist as Leclerc had his best lap posted just minutes from the end of the last session. The 1:15:372 best time not only shocked the grid, but Leclerc himself. More of a shock from the middle of qualifying as the second Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton was eliminated, along with the Williams of Carlos Sainz and Mercedes Kimi Antonelli, in which all three would have to start from the middle or the back of the grid.
Leclerc led at the early part of the race, and it looked like the Ferrari would get a chance to win the first race of the season for the Scuderia. But as was expected, the two McLaren’s with Piastri and Norris began to catch up with their rival as the Ferrari was absolutely losing their race pace. By lap 35, Norris had taken the lead and Piastri was beginning to close in to where the two were right next to each other with only laps to go. But Norris, who many thought would lose out due to the calmness of Piastri, kept his teammate behind and held on to win his first race at this venue after having to pull aside one year ago to let Piastri in for his first victory of his career. Now, the roles have been reversed, and Norris’s victory now has him trailing nine points behind his teammate. For the last podium spot, Leclerc got even further behind, so much that the Mercedes of George Russell passed the Monegasque with a couple of laps remaining.
With 14 races behind in the season, the teams, factories and of course, the drivers, will all begin a three-week summer break, which will have most of the fans and others wondering what to do during this period. Racing will resume by the end of the month of August at Verstappen’s back yard in the Netherlands at the legendary Zandvoort circuit, which will be the next to last race this season in Europe before the grid moves to more fly away events later in the season.
Enjoy the summer break from all of us here at Wheel2Wheel Reports.
WHEEL2WHEEL REPORTS 