Lando Norris described his Hungarian Grand Prix victory as a “tough” but “perfect result,” as he led McLaren to their seventh 1-2 finish of the 2025 Formula 1 season.
The British driver fended off a fierce late charge from teammate and championship leader Oscar Piastri at the Hungaroring, narrowing the gap to just nine points in the drivers’ standings heading into the summer break.
Despite starting third, Norris overcame a challenging opening lap and opted for a bold one-stop strategy to secure his ninth career victory, with George Russell rounding out the podium for Mercedes.
“I’m dead. It was tough”
The Briton made no attempt to sugarcoat the intensity of his race when speaking in parc fermé after the checkered flag.
“I’m dead. I’m dead. It was tough,” Norris admitted. “We weren’t really planning on the one-stop but after the first lap it was kind of our only option to get back into things.
“The final stint with Oscar catching, I was pushing flat out. Rewarding even more because of that. The perfect result today.”
As the race unfolded, Norris found himself in clean air while others around him committed to two-stop strategies. That advantage gave him just enough margin to nurse his tyres to the end — though not without heavy pressure from the championship leader.
“I didn’t think it would get us the win, I thought it would get us maybe into second,” he said. “I knew if I had clean air and could push I could maybe make things work and that’s what we did.”
“It always is a bit of a gamble”
The victory wasn’t simply the product of pace – it was a full-team effort underlined by perfect execution, and Norris was quick to highlight that.
“It always is a bit of a gamble these kind of things. It also requires no mistakes, good laps, good strategy and that’s what we had today,” he added.
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Piastri mounted a late assault in the closing stages, trimming a nine-second gap to under a second in the final laps, but ultimately came up just short. Despite that, he retains the championship lead – though now by a reduced nine-point margin.
“Tough but fun racing”
Heading into the summer break, the battle at McLaren has fully ignited, with Norris gaining momentum from his latest win. Still, he downplayed any talk of a psychological edge in the title fight.
“We’re so tightly fought it’s hard to say if momentum is on anyone’s side,” Norris said. “It’s tough but fun racing against Oscar. Credit to Oscar, he put up a good charge, and I just about held on.”
George Russell completed the podium for Mercedes after a composed drive to third, but the day once again belonged to McLaren – and to Norris, who demonstrated that a gamble, executed flawlessly, can still be the difference between a solid result and a spectacular win.
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