Lucky Lando Norris WINS the Hungarian Grand Prix after team-mate Oscar Piastri’s spectacular capitulation – while Kimi Antonelli gains the upper hand on title rivals Lewis Hamilton and George Russell

You’re lucky, lucky Lando. World champion Norris was hardly the fastest dog in the Hungarian Grand Prix and should have won the race on his own.

But he was first helped by a strange incident that befell his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, giving him the chance of victory that pole position deserved and a poor opening lap sadly did not happen.

The first of two key moments in Norris’ victory occurred on lap 38, when Piastri, who had pitted for the second time, attempted to regain the lead. Williams’ Carlos Sainz, the villain of the game, was battling Fernando Alonso for 15th and was in his path.

Distracted by the conflict, Sainz was unaware that Piastri was ready to embrace him. It was blue flag time. The Spaniards had to surrender. He didn’t.

Piastri was furious: ‘Get out of the damn way, you idiot.’ They punctured the tires. ‘My god!’

The Briton was stunned by teammate Oscar Piastri but struggled to regain control

All this confusion was obviously delaying Piastri while Norris gathered hay where the sun shone. At the end of the next lap, after Norris was called out, the other papaya stepped in front of his car. The job is done.

Piastri was very angry. Obviously with Sainz. But it also appeared that the McLaren team had given Norris the freedom to take advantage for seven laps after his own stop.

Piastri’s race engineer, Tom Stallard, came on the radio to try to calm him down and said: ‘Oscar, it was Sainz who cost us dearly. The goal is to reach the end with these tyres.’

Piastri agreed: ‘Oh man, don’t talk to me anymore.

‘By the way, it’s nice of you to take this (traffic) into account, thank you.’

If he believed that the team preferred Norris, its self-made champion, over him, that would not comfort him.

Norris’ second and final chance came when Piastri, who looked set to finish second, ended the race on lap 56 of 70 with a gearbox problem.

Thus, without any worries, Norris took his first victory in his title defense since last November’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Now there’s more drama with the introduction of the virtual safety tool. Lewis Hamilton had replaced the troubled Piastri in what was a challenging weekend for him, given the riches it promised.

This wouldn’t last long. Norris came to buy new tyres, and so did Hamilton. Ok for Norris, let’s go back to the top row. However, Hamilton left the pits almost level with Kimi Antonelli in third place, and although the seven-time world champion got ahead of the Italian pilot at the first corner, this was not legal.

Was he speeding in the pits? The suspect was investigated for the crime and a five-second penalty was imposed a few minutes later. Hamilton said, ‘They are giving penalties like crazy,’ but later backed off his criticism of the beak.

He had already been told by the pit wall to hand over the place to Antonelli, but that didn’t exactly remain the case: yes, Norris took the first flag, Max Verstappen took second (because he didn’t stop under the VSC) and Antonelli took third. However, Hamilton’s penalty dropped him to fifth behind teammate Charles Leclerc.

What a headache for Hamilton, who started where he was destined to finish after dropping three places on Saturday after inadvertently blocking Piastri in qualifying. Instead of breaking the championship lead by six points, as the Australian was supposed to do before his retirement, Antonelli fell five points behind. He is 50 years behind Antonelli as the sport enters its summer break.

One thought: Why didn’t Ferrari slow down Leclerc? Don’t they want to win the drivers’ title?

George Russell, in seventh place on the day, is now 59 behind and nine points off the starting position. While it wasn’t great for the Briton, it wasn’t the worst result either, considering he watched him fly off the side of the field at the start when anti-stall was activated on his Mercedes. He fell to 19th place at the end of the first lap, but managed to pass the midfield with the help of the new engine installed after qualifying.

“I’m past the point of disappointment now,” Russell said with a resigned smile. ‘If I continue to be disappointed by everything that’s going on, I’ll be disappointed every day of the week.

“My pace was as strong as anyone there and I haven’t been there for the last two or three races, so I’ll take the positives there.” But the list of things that have gone wrong this season is incredible.

Norris capitalized on Oscar Piastri’s superb submission on Sunday afternoon

Lewis Hamilton trails Kimi Antonelli in title race

‘I was holding the revs on the gas and four seconds before the lights went out the engines started revving everywhere; The engine was not responding to gas. It is a brand new engine. ‘I have no idea.’

There was little overtaking to be savoured, but Verstappen made a wonderful pass to Hamilton at the first corner – named after his (Verstappen’s) de facto father-in-law, Nelson Piquet. Like a typical Max usurpation, it caught the Briton off guard.

There was no need for Piastri to display such mastery, because an old habit of Norris’s, namely his weakness in the early rounds, had repeatedly cost him wins from promising starting positions, especially in 2024, when he had a chance to clinch the title a year before that.

Norris very smartly moved away from pole and into the first corner. However, he spun at the second corner, named after Hamilton, and Piastri took the lead.

Norris was faster than his teammate and was making him uncomfortable, but Piastri held track position until he untied himself in the afternoon. Norris finally broke away quickly and clocked 15 seconds up the road and out of sight; There was a smile on the champion’s face after a pleasant victory achieved through determination and pace as well as good luck.