Oscar Piastri He returns this weekend to the Hungarian Grand Prix, the scene of his first victory in Formula 1willing to increase on the layout of Budapest His World Cup advantage over his partner Lando Norris.
The 24 -year -old Australian, with six victories in 13 large awards played this year, has 16 points ahead of Norris, but is aware of the possible obstacles on his way to glory.
“I want to return where I achieved my first victory,” Piastri said. “It is a big city, a great circuit and a great weekend, but once we are in the cars and on track all that will be forgotten.”
Last year, he achieved his first victory helped by team orders. After having put himself as leader of the race ahead of the ‘Poleman’ Norris, Piastri looked behind his partner after the stops in boxes.
McLaren then asked Norris to return the position to Piastri, giving the Australian his first victory in a way that made the British feel mistreated.
On this occasion, Norris will try to win the race by himself to reduce the advantage of his partner.
Second in Belgium, after being surpassed by Piastri at the beginning of the Grand Prix, Norris has been less consistent this year than his ranks. He has also made rude mistakes in a season in which Piastri is minimizing failures.
A new face to face between both McLaren pilots looks like the most conducive stage for this weekend. The team has won 10 of the 13 races of the year and seeks a 200º win in Formula 1 before the summer stop.
After the flood in the Belgian Circuit Spa-Francorchamps in the middle of the forests of the Ardenas, the Hungaroring layout, 25 km north of Budapest, represents another very different challenge: a slow and winding track, nicknamed “Monaco without barriers”.
Circuit conducive to surprises
It will also offer a very different meteorology, with a very hot heat and sun, although the threat is maintained for storms, a twisted technical challenge for equipment and pilots.
This race joined the world championship in 1986, when crossing the steel curtain to enter Eastern Europe, an adventure was still considered, but the first time a great prize was held in Hungary was 50 years before, in 1936, a race played in the Budapest Nepliget Park.
The seven -time world champion Lewis Hamilton, desperate for spending a good weekend after living “one to forget” in Belgium, has records of the number of victories and poles in Hungaroring, eight and nine respectively.
The return to a layout that he knows so well seems a good occasion for the British to achieve his first podium as a driver of the Scuderia, who releases part of the pressure pursued from his debut with Ferrari.
It is not disposable, since it is a circuit with a reputation for unexpected triumphs and to serve as a stage for the first victory of a pilot.
It is above all remembered the performance of Fernando Alonso in 2003: the current veteran of the Grill and pilot of Aston Martin, had 22 when he then became the youngest to achieve Pole and victory of a Grand Prix, then behind the wheel of a Renault.
This weekend, Alonso will play his 22th Hungary Grand Prix, an entire record.
For its part, the four times world champion Max Verstappen will play its 200th race with Red Bull.
The Dutch, who won in 2022 and 2023, no longer has his insulting superiority, but keeps hunger for victory and after winning the Belgian sprint, will try to inaugurate the palmraés in large Laurent Mekies awards as the main team.
