I was better than Piastri in every sense in battle for Hungarian GP victory

Lando Norris claims he was “just better in every sense” relative to McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri on his way to a resounding victory in Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

After snatching pole position by 0.012s over Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, Norris lost the lead to Piastri on lap one as he slid on the dirty outside line in Hamilton corner.

The Briton easily kept up with the sister car’s pace, staying within two seconds in the first 33 laps of the race, albeit without being able to mount a credible challenge in terms of overtaking.

At that stage, Norris was keen to pit again in order to have free air on new tyres, but McLaren’s ‘papaya rules’ meant race leader Piastri had priority, so it was the Australian who headed to the pitlane.

However, Piastri ended up behind several backmarkers, including Carlos Sainz who collided with him, and Norris emerged ahead after his own pitstop. From then on, with his tyres six laps fresher, Norris marched on, pulling a 13-second gap to his team-mate in the next 15 laps – until Piastri was struck by a suspected gearbox failure and retired. Norris went on to win by 15 seconds from Max Verstappen.

“What pleases me the most? Just the fact we were so quick,” the Englishman commented after the race.

“I mean, the car was still horrible to drive at times, but quick, and I’d rather have a horrible but quick car than anything else. So, yeah, just the pace. The pace I had the whole race, even behind Oscar at the beginning.

“Of course, it wasn’t my finest Turn 2, but after that, seeing what my pace was like and I was just better in every sense, in terms of degradation and pace. I was convinced I could still win the race, even after that, whether I would box or force him to box and I would go long, get fresh tyres and come back through. So, I was convinced I could win the race today, and we did.

“It was unfortunate for him [Piastri] and unlucky, because I think we could have had a 1-2. But otherwise, just my pace. My pace to stay so close to him for so long. We were just on another level today, and I felt in a very good flow of things. When the car’s good and when I’m in a good flow, there’s no stopping.”

Asked about potential frustration with being restricted by the squad’s rules on strategy, Norris explained: “I just want to win the race, you know? There are certain rules we have as a team, and we can’t harm each other’s race by being overly aggressive and wanting to win. But I want to win, and I certainly had much better pace than him. We had a much better chance of winning the race, let’s say.

“When I was stuck behind Oscar, Max was three or four seconds behind, and at that point he’s still a threat. Ahead, there’s no threat, and we have a lot more of a guarantee that we’ll win as a team anyway. So, I wanted to box and undercut because my pace would have been so good, I could have pulled away a whole pitstop window, I think, on him and boxed again if I needed to. Or I get him to box early.

“I think we were on the fine line between boxing too early and harming both of our races. So, it was just in the best interests of the team, which they rightly have to say back against me. But I want to do whatever I can to try and win a race, of course.”

This was Norris’ first F1 victory since the 2025 Brazilian Grand Prix, ending his longest winless streak – 12 rounds – since the 2023 season. He still lies fifth in the drivers’ championship, 91 points adrift from leader Kimi Antonelli.

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– The Autosport.com Team