A difficult opening lap may have been the best thing to happen to Lando Norris.
The McLaren driver dropped two spots to fifth place after the start of Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix and led to the team calling an audible.
When asked on the radio about shifting to a one-stop pit strategy, Norris replied: "Yeah, why not?"
While others opted to make two stops, Norris held on to his hard tires until the end and fended off McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to the finish line to win the race.
The milestone 200th victory for McLaren was also its fourth consecutive 1-2 finish — something the team hasn't pulled off since 1988 with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in the iconic MP4/4 car that won all but one race that year.
Senna and Prost's rivalry is legendary and while Norris and Piastri's battle for the world championship hasn't reached that level (yet), it sure is heating up heading into the summer break.
Norris earned his fifth win of the season and third in four races to close within nine points of Piastri for the championship lead.
Piastri's best chance at overtaking Norris came on the penultimate lap of the 70-lap race. The Australian driver surged with the drag reduction system (DRS) active down the front straight and lunged into the first corner. However, Piastri's wheels locked up, and his car almost barrelled right into Norris.
Piastri avoided colliding with his teammate, but that was as close as he'd get. Norris held off Piastri to the finish line by the closest of margins: .698 seconds.
Kudos to McLaren for letting its drivers duke it out, as it's a two-car fight for the title with 10 races to go after the break. Four-time reigning world champion Max Verstappen is a distant third in the standings, 88 points behind Norris. Already the reigning constructors' champion, McLaren (559 points) has more than double the points of second-place Ferrari (260). With shades of 1988 already, just how intense will it get between Piastri and Norris down the stretch?
'Don't break the trophy'
Norris has learned from his mistakes — and not just on the track.
Flashback to two years ago in Hungary when Norris broke Verstappen's winning trophy during his champagne smash celly.
Norris not only wrote a reminder on the bottle this time, but he also wisely moved his trophy aside before taking part in the celebrations.
Ferrari's fumble
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was a surprise on pole, considering the McLarens dominated the first two stages of Saturday's qualifying. Gloomy and windy conditions during the final stage caught the McLarens off guard, allowing Leclerc to pip Piastri and Norris for pole.
Piastri and Norris were roughly half a second slower in that last stint and it could have been costly given the Hungaroring track has been dubbed "Monaco without walls" with few passing opportunities.
Hungary hasn't been kind to pole-sitters, though. Leclerc became the fifth consecutive pole-sitter not to win at the track. Starting on pole hasn't been kind to Leclerc either. He's converted only five of his 27 poles into victories (18.5 per cent success rate).
You thought it would be different this time, didn't you?
Leclerc maintained the lead through a strong first stint — even thwarting Piastri's undercut attempt in the pits — but he told Sky Sports F1 that he started experiencing chassis issues around Lap 40 that got "worse and worse."
Piastri breezed by Leclerc for second place on Lap 51, and the Monegasque driver had to pull every trick out of the bag to defend George Russell for the final spot on the podium. It still wasn't enough as the Mercedes driver made the move on Lap 63. Even then, Leclerc was a tad too aggressive trying to box out Russell and received a five-second time penalty for erratic driving.
It seems there are bigger issues at Ferrari as Leclerc vented his frustrations on the team radio.
As bad as things unravelled for Leclerc from first to fourth, it was still better than teammate Lewis Hamilton's weekend. Hamilton qualified and finished in 12th place, one lap down from the leaders.
The seven-time world champion and winner of a record 105 GPs was deflated after qualifying, telling Sky Sports F1: "I’m useless, absolutely useless. The team have no problem. You’ve seen the car’s on pole. So they probably need to change driver.”
Ouch.
Hamilton's season hasn't been a complete disaster. This was the first weekend the 40-year-old British driver didn't score points with his new team and he's still sixth in the championship, 42 points behind Leclerc. But with zero GP podiums, it's certainly been underwhelming.
What about George?
It's been a meme that Russell "does nothing" and ends up on the podium, but the British driver made a mega move to get by Leclerc (and avoid making contact) to finish third.
Russell scored his sixth podium of the season and the first since he won the Canadian Grand Prix in June.
"The overtake itself was a little dicey; I committed to the corner, and he clearly moved under braking, for which he was given a penalty," Russell said in a team release. "Thankfully there was no harm done and we were able to take P3."
Teammate Kimi Antonelli picked up his first point since Montreal as he squeezed into the top 10 after starting 15th on the grid and made his hard tires last for nearly 50 laps. Not bad for a rookie.
While the summer break means rest for some, it also typically means signing season for pending free agents or those looking for a change of scenery. However, with Verstappen saying he's staying put at Red Bull, both Russell and Antonelli should be safe at Mercedes, and the pressure is off to get a deal done ASAP.
Top 10 surprises
Aston Martin's upgrades over the past few weeks paid off big time in Hungary. Fernando Alonso finished a season-high fifth place and teammate Lance Stroll came in seventh.
Sandwiched between them was Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto. It was a career-best sixth for the Brazilian rookie, who has picked up points in three of the past four races. Sauber as a whole has scored in six straight races and is now just one point back of Aston Martin for sixth place in the constructors' championship.
Liam Lawson was impressive again in his Racing Bulls car as he finished eighth for the second consecutive race. Lawson's power move came during the first stage of qualifying, bumping Yuki Tsunoda, who replaced him on the main Red Bull team after two races earlier this year, into the elimination zone. Tsunoda finished the race 17th, ahead of only the two Alpine cars and Haas driver Oliver Bearman, who dropped out of the race due to an undertray issue.
