‘The car was beautiful to drive’ – Norris delighted by ‘some of the best pace I’ve ever had’ in Hungary win

Lando Norris believes that he delivered “some of the best pace I’ve ever had” on his way to victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix, with the Briton confidently beating Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli to the top step.

The reigning World Champion started from pole position, but it certainly wasn’t a straightforward journey to the chequered flag as his team mate Oscar Piastri initially snatched the race lead on the opening lap.

Norris went wide at Turn 2 and lost the place before growing increasingly frustrated about being stuck behind the Australian, with McLaren eventually giving him the chance to race in clean air when they called Piastri into the pits for his second stop.

He immediately executed much faster laps and held the advantage over Piastri once he had boxed again, paving the way for a controlled drive to his first Grand Prix win of the season, especially as the second McLaren retired with a suspected gearbox issue.

Reflecting on the opening lap, Norris said: “I don’t know what happened, to be honest. I just kept losing the rear. I had like three or four big snaps. It felt horrible and of course Oscar did a good job to get the cutback and get back past, so I think I was just a bit wide in the dirt – game over for the first lap.

“But man, I was pushing like hell to try and force him into a mistake or something. My pace today was probably some of the best pace I’ve ever had. The car was beautiful to drive and I felt very confident, so a great race.

“To get it back in terms of going long, which is certainly not what I was expecting, but the pace was so good I could always extend the stints, and fresh tyres then always won me the race. I’m just happy to be back and see the number one again.”

Although the Woking-based outfit have a superb record at the Hungaroring, with their current line-up achieving 1-2 finishes there over the previous two seasons, Norris admitted earlier in the weekend that he was “pleasantly surprised” to qualify on pole.

He was even more pleased to maximise their significant upgrade package and put them in a strong position heading into the summer break – he now sits just 10 points behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the standings, marking a substantial turnaround from the beginning of the season.

Asked whether he can carry the momentum forward when the sport returns for the Dutch Grand Prix, Norris replied: “I want to believe so. Considering how good it felt today, I certainly want to believe that we can continue it.

“There are going to be moments where we struggle more, moments that might be even better. We know this track is a good one for us – it’s one of my best-suited tracks of the year.

“This is maybe as good as it can get for now, but I certainly believe we can still win races. I knew it was coming. Like you said, the team have put so much work in to make a car that can finally win again. It’s nice to be able to do it for them.

“If we want to come back, we need a lot more of these and we need to continue putting pressure on our competition. This weekend was a perfect weekend for us but it’s going to be tough, so we’ll keep pushing and keep working hard.

“I owe the team a lot. They’ve done an amazing job to even get back to winning races at this point, so I’m proud. We need to enjoy a good break. We’re all going to enjoy a nice break and some time off, and hopefully we come back even stronger.”