Hungarian GP: Martin Brundle on Lewis Hamilton's 'painful' struggles and Lando Norris' 'critical' victory

It was an intriguing and occasionally confusing event in Budapest, with a race which initially demanded some patience from the viewer, but we were all rewarded in the end.

Through practice and the early stages of qualifying it appeared that McLaren would simply dominate over both one lap and in the race. But as the final Q3 top-10 shootout commenced, shortly after some pop-up rain had appeared, the wind direction and strength changed, and the surface temperatures dropped such that the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris lost half a second compared to their best Q2 efforts.

This opened the door for Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari to steal pole position in impressive style, with McLaren lining up just behind him and advantage Piastri in the championship battle over Norris. It was the closest top 10 on the grid in the 75-year history of Formula 1, covered by just over half a second.

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George Russell was an impressive fourth and was actually disappointed because he felt pole was possible in his Mercedes, which had reverted to an earlier rear suspension concept and looked much more competitive around this tortuous and endless string of corners.

I'll cover more about the race for victory shortly, but meanwhile, a surprise all weekend were the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, which suddenly looked near the pace and were actually sticking to the road. They would line up fifth and sixth on the grid and finish fifth and seventh. Alonso drove a particularly smart race, holding up quite a pack behind him when it suited him to save his tyres, then building a gap when he was ready for his first and only pit stop on lap 39 of 70.

The increasingly impressive Gabriel Bortoleto drove his Sauber between the two Astons into sixth place and won fans' 'driver of the day'. I suspect he's learned a lot from his co-manager Alonso, he's certainly applying it well, and is one very much to watch for the future.

'Painful to watch Hamilton struggle'

I'm not looking forward to writing this next section, it's about Lewis Hamilton, who endured what must have been one of the worst weekends of his career, in and out of the car. He struggled for ultimate pace in qualifying, and with the pack so close he would start only 12th when his team-mate Leclerc was on pole. He would then describe himself as "useless" in post-qualifying interviews and suggest the team should change the driver. That was best left unsaid, but he obviously wanted to openly punish himself.

He's clearly in a difficult place personally, and during the race he would finish in that same 12th position, never really showing signs of progress. He sat in the car in parc ferme post-race for what seemed an age, was very downbeat in interviews again, and then declined to attend a stewards' enquiry about a rather ambitious move Max Verstappen made on him during the race in the blind and fast Turn Four, in which Lewis chose to drive off the road to avoid contact. He didn't want to contest the incident and conceded via his team, but Max did attend the meeting with a rational explanation from his viewpoint, and avoided a penalty.

The summer break couldn't be more timely for Lewis to have a reset. It's painful to observe this great champion in so much strife, and we have to expect that he can weather the storm and return to form given his talent and experience, but otherwise I simply can't see him enduring two more seasons at Ferrari, or anywhere else, like this.

Leclerc in the other Ferrari was also unhappy but for very different reasons. He led superbly from pole position and had great pace in the opening stint, even pulling away from Piastri. However, his pace increasingly dropped off as the race progressed, and his angsty radio calls were all about him wanting to have handled expected car issues differently.

Here's what I believe that could be about. This Ferrari works much better closer to the ground, especially at the rear, and we often see it heavily bottoming out. This can wear the 'plank' underneath and render the car illegal, as happened in China earlier this year.

We know they sometimes lift off the throttle in high-speed corners to protect that wear when the car is heavily aero loaded. In Budapest at his pit stops they raised tyre pressures, which raises the car but gives away grip, and the team also reduced front-wing angle. This hurt his pace, and Leclerc eventually finished an angry 42 seconds behind the winner, which included a five-second penalty for unreasonably banging into the side of Russell into Turn One when he was being passed for the final step on the podium. Charles has only won once from his last 16 poles.

Verstappen wasn't having much of a day either, his Red Bull lacking pace as soon as his tyres overheated. He started eighth and finished ninth, along with the indignity of being behind his earlier in the season short-term team-mate Liam Lawson, who drove the sister Racing Bulls car into a fine eighth place. Difficult days at Red Bull.

'Peach of a stint' gives Norris 'critical' victory

This left McLaren to fight over first and second place to secure the team's 200th F1 victory, and fourth consecutive one-two. On this occasion it was Norris who won, but you'd never have imagined that at the end of the first lap when he'd dropped two places to fifth behind Russell and Alonso.

Lando had a decent getaway but after swinging across the track a couple of times and then heading to the favoured inside, he was behind his team-mate Piastri and was rather cautious on the brakes and lost out.

Ironically, that won him the race because up front McLaren had to strategise to ultimately successfully attempt to get Piastri past Leclerc, opting for a two-stop race pitting on laps 18 and 45 - including a dummy to try to force Ferrari into pitting, which worked.

Back in now fourth place with not much to lose, McLaren asked Norris if he'd like to fit hard compound tyres, convert to a one-stop, and drive to the end. He would likely finish third anyway if that didn't work. He readily agreed and they extended him to lap 31, and so pitting some 13 laps later than his team-mate and now only championship rival Piastri.

Norris, taking the lead when Piastri pitted for the second time, then drove a peach of a 39-lap stint with great pace but somehow preserving his tyres in reasonable shape. It was now clear that Piastri would catch him with a handful of laps to go, given he was on the same compound but much fresher tyres.

And so it transpired, with three laps to go Piastri sent his car up the inside of Norris into Turn One, on what appeared to be a sighter for his braking reference point. A lap later he did it for real, but Norris was already turning in by the time he got there, and the young Aussie had to lock his brakes in avoidance and somehow just avoided slamming into the back of Norris.

That 200th team victory nearly had to wait, but all was well, and it gave Norris the tiny breather he needed, and a glorious and well-earned victory was his. It was a critical moment because if Piastri had passed him it would have been a 14-point swing. As it is, just nine points separate them with all to play for, and the rest of the season after the break is perfectly poised.

Formula 1 returns after the summer break with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on August 29-31, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime

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