Norris and McLaren aiming to head into summer 'on a high'

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It's been a breakthrough period for McLaren driver Lando Norris, who is currently third in the Formula 1drivers championship and the only man to have scored points in all ten races so far.

Heading into the Hungarian Grand Prix, which marks the end of the first half of the season before drivers and teams head off for their summer holidays, Norris is aiming to go into the break on a high.

"We’ve had a good start to the season so far, and we’ll be aiming to finish the first half of the year on a high." said the 21-year-old from Somerset who has been on the podium three times this season at Imola, Monaco and Spielberg.

And he had good reason to feel positive heading into this weekend's race, as it's the same venue he made his original F1 testing bow in 2017.

Read also: McLaren says it's 'not unrealistic' for Norris to remain P3

“I’m looking forward to heading back to Hungary, a track that has good memories for me after my official F1 test debut there," he said. "[But] the Hungaroring can be a tricky circuit to get right."

While Red Bull and Mercedes have a big lead in the standings, McLaren are currently third with 15 points in hand over Ferrari - and would very much like to remain the same if not better after Sunday's race.

"We know that it’ll be a challenge to outperform our closest rivals in the constructors championship, but we’ll be giving it everything to continue building that gap and set ourselves up for a strong second half of the season.”

"As always the aim is to score a good haul of points and keep pushing for the highest possible position in the constructors championship," confirmed McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl.

"The team will be giving it all this weekend before we have a chance to regroup and recharge over the summer break," he commented.

"We know the fight is far from over, and momentum could shift away from us with a single difficult weekend.

"Much of the fight for third this year will be decided by how well we perform at tracks that don’t naturally play to our strengths," he added - confirming that the Hungaroring may be one such venue

“The Hungaroring presents the team with an interesting challenge compared to the relatively high-speed tracks of Austria and Silverstone.

“We’ll be working hard as a team, alongside Mercedes HPP, to ensure we maximise any opportunities that present themselves over the weekend.

"With high downforce levels and a tight, twisting layout, it's no surprise many often describe the circuit as Monaco without the walls.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.