Norris mentally outclasses Piastri in Hungary

The equal performance between the McLaren drivers in their race for the World Drivers' Championship is reflected in the nine points separating them after 14 races.

The advantages of each team throughout the season have been a product of their successes, but also their mistakes. The decisive error today was Piastri's.

While the race strategies McLaren has generated from the pits have favored Norris, the decisions discussed during the race between the team and Piastri have not been bad, but neither have they been ideal.

Norris executed his team's strategy perfectly after feigning tire deterioration on lap 17, prompting Piastri, rather than Leclerc, to take the bait, with the Australian making a premature comeback on the Monegasque, whom he had been cautiously chasing for second place from the start.

Lando remained on track for twelve more laps, setting a series of fast laps that allowed him to build up enough cushion to execute a single stop with a fresh set of hard compound tyres, instead of the two to which Piastri was condemned.

Piastri, faced with the remote possibility of making it to the end, tried to conserve his tires by staying within striking distance of Leclerc rather than overtaking him to take the lead, counting on a superior car to achieve this.

Norris kept his cool during the final 24 laps of the Hungarian Grand Prix after Piastri stopped for a second set of hard tyres on lap 46, to hold on to the lead despite the championship leader quickly closing the gap.

Piastri managed to cut the more than seven-second lead on Norris on lap 47 to less than a second with five laps to go, taking advantage of the traffic the Englishman faced to use the DRS.

Norris used the grip he had saved in his tires with more than 35 laps of wear to stay ahead of his teammate, causing Piastri to rush into the first corner with heavy braking that almost resulted in fatal contact between the two with two laps remaining.

Piastri lost all hope with the erratic maneuver, marking his tires and losing the pace with which he had caught Norris. The die was cast; the still-championship leader had made the mistake this time, losing the chance to score a seventh win of the season and pull within 23 points of Norris, instead of the five wins Norris eventually achieved, and closing the gap to within nine points of the Australian.

The result was greeted with delight by the team, marking the seventh 1-2 finish for the Papaya cars this season, bringing them closer to the famous record of ten times Woking claimed the top two positions in 1988, when Senna claimed his first of three titles, beating four-time champion Alan Prost.

The summer break is upon us, with ten races remaining in four weekends, and with it, a rethinking of strategy and attitude for both title contenders. Expert opinion is divided on who is the favorite to win the title for the first time. The exciting part will be witnessing the outcome.

McLaren's dominance in the constructors' championship is overwhelming, just as Red Bull's was for the past four years and Mercedes's for the previous seven. This year's focus is on the battle for second place, with Ferrari leading Mercedes by 24 points.

The Zandvoort circuit will host the Dutch Grand Prix from August 29-31. Norris edged out Verstappen for the win last year, and it seems impossible for Red Bull to be up to the task of repeating the duel, but being the reigning champion's home turf, there could be surprises.

Piastri will return with everything he's got to achieve the seventh victory that slipped through his fingers today. It's clear he needs to strengthen his mentality as he faces the crucial decisions his team has denied him.