As a finale to the first half of the season, Formula One could not have asked for a better send-off than the Hungarian Grand Prix, a race which sets up the championship run-in after the forthcoming summer break to perfection. The two title protagonists and McLaren teammates, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, were wheel to wheel to the flag, with Norris emerging on top after a nerveless denouement that suggests the championship too will go down to the wire.
For all that this was a contest made by an adroit and opportune strategy call for Norris, it also delivered a fiercely competitive head to head between the British driver and Piastri. As the Australian chased down his rival at the death it was the season writ large. On the penultimate lap he threw his McLaren up the inside of turn one in a desperate bid for the lead. His wheels locked up and the Hungaroring took an enormous collective inhalation as his nose drifted almost in slow motion towards Norris’s car. They barely missed one another and were through turns two and three before breathing resumed with an appreciative roar.
