Next McLaren triumph-Verstappen powerless

Formula 1 in Hungary

Next McLaren triumph: Verstappen powerless

Lando Norris and Oscar Piatri once more dominate the Grand Prix of Hungary. You don’t get a good start. World champion Max Verstappen is beaten.

McLaren remains the measure of all things in Formula 1-and the struggle for the World Cup title is becoming increasingly clearer of the duel between the two teammates. Lando Norris won the Hungary Grand Prix on Sunday before his McLaren colleague Oscar Piatri. Third finished George Russell (Mercedes), who completed the podium with it.

There were, especially in the last round, gripping duels between Norris and Piatri, both of whom fought for first place. In the end, the Brit was just ahead. In the driver’s ranking, Norris (275 points) was able to shorten the distance to the leading Piatri (284) to nine points. For McLaren it was the 200th racing victory of its own Formula 1 history.

World champion Max Verstappen, on the other hand, once again experienced a bitter disappointment and ended up in ninth place. The title defense is becoming increasingly difficult for the Red Bull pilot, if not impossible. Verstappen is now 97 points behind Piatri.

Pole-Setter Charles Leclerc in Ferrari, who surprisingly beat the McLaren in qualifying, claimed the lead on the short way to the first curve. The loser of the starting phase was Norris, who fell back to fifth place. As a result, little happened, the cool asphalt took the dominance to the McLaren, Leclerc was able to develop a cushion quite confidently.

The cemented conditions were broken up by a number of early tire changes. Norris was the only winner of the winner to stay on his first sentence for a long time and decided on a one-time strategy. At first it seemed clear that he would ran his ninth Grand Prix victory-but Piatri was making more and more so grounds despite a pit stop in the last racing district. The last four rounds were characterized by a dogged duel of the stable colleagues. In the third last round, a hair would have been a collision.

For Sauber-Pilot Nico Hülkenberg, a lost weekend ended in 13th place. The Emmericher, four weeks ago in Silverstone for the first time on a Formula 1 podium, conceded a five-second penalty because of early start and was quickly out of the race for World Cup points.

The driver with the most World Cup titles in the field meanwhile experienced an even worse race: the seven-time champion of Lewis Hamilton, record winner on Hungaroring, stuck in his one-stop strategy in traffic and only reached the goal as twelfth. The 40-year-old had already went to court with himself after twelve in qualifying on Saturday. “It is always up to me. I’m useless,” said Hamilton at Sky Sports UK: “The team is not the problem, the other car is on pole. The team probably has to change the driver.”