2026-07-27 09:04:13

Lando Norris felt that he delivered some of the “best pace” of his career as he triumphed at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The F1 world champion recorded his first victory of the season in Budapest on Sunday (26.07.26) and was delighted with the speed that he was able to show in his upgraded McLaren car.

Reflecting on losing the lead to team-mate Oscar Piastri on the first lap, Norris said: “I don’t know what happened, to be honest. I just kept losing the rear. I had like three or four big snaps. It felt horrible and of course Oscar did a good job to get the cutback and get back past, so I think I was just a bit wide in the dirt – game over for the first lap.

“But man, I was pushing like hell to try and force him into a mistake or something. My pace today was probably some of the best pace I’ve ever had. The car was beautiful to drive and I felt very confident, so a great race.

“To get it back in terms of going long, which is certainly not what I was expecting, but the pace was so good I could always extend the stints, and fresh tyres then always won me the race. I’m just happy to be back and see the number one again.”

The victory helped Norris sign off for F1’s summer break in style and he is hoping to continue the momentum when the sport returns for the second half of the campaign next month.

Asked if McLaren can maintain their momentum, the British racer said: “I want to believe so. Considering how good it felt today, I certainly want to believe that we can continue it.

“There are going to be moments where we struggle more, moments that might be even better. We know this track is a good one for us – it’s one of my best-suited tracks of the year.

“This is maybe as good as it can get for now, but I certainly believe we can still win races. I knew it was coming. Like you said, the team have put so much work in to make a car that can finally win again. It’s nice to be able to do it for them.

“If we want to come back, we need a lot more of these and we need to continue putting pressure on our competition. This weekend was a perfect weekend for us but it’s going to be tough, so we’ll keep pushing and keep working hard.

“I owe the team a lot. They’ve done an amazing job to even get back to winning races at this point, so I’m proud. We need to enjoy a good break. We’re all going to enjoy a nice break and some time off, and hopefully we come back even stronger.”

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