Team principal Andrea Stella has revealed McLaren did not think the one-stop strategy which won Lando Norris the Hungarian Grand Prix was possible before the race.

Norris held off Oscar Piastri after an intense battle to reduce his championship deficit to nine points going into Formula 1’s summer break.

The British driver started in third but fell to fourth behind George Russell and was already seven seconds behind race-leader Charles Leclerc and Piastri before they pitted for the first time.

“Our baseline strategy was a two-stop strategy,” Stella explained.

“We did not necessarily think a one-stop was possible, so we went with the two-stop for Oscar to try and pass Leclerc in the first stop. Then we tried to extend in the second stop to have a tyre delta and this worked.

“With Lando, when we extended, leaving Lando out, we did not think the one-stop would have been possible. But, credit to Lando, he put together some very strong sectors and lap times with used tyres, so we convinced ourselves the one-stop was starting to get into the game as we progressed with the first stint.

“We did not enter the race with a one or a two-stop. We thought the two-stop would be the strategy.”

Norris made the mediums last until Lap 32, nearly half of the race, which was key to his victory as the tyres avoided falling off a cliff and was still leading when he pitted for hards.

“It’s more just making them last at the pace that we were at. I made the mediums last until, like, what, lap 32 or something,” he said.

“It wasn’t a terrible thought that I can make the hards last until the end. It was more I just knew I’d have to push flat out for basically every single lap, and that’s when it gets a little bit tricky.

“The tyres get hot. It’s easy to make mistakes. The last few laps, the rubber is probably pretty low, and it’s just so easy to lock a tyre into one, into two, the chicane, things like that.

“I knew I could make the tyres get to the end quite easily, but it was more to stay ahead of the other people. It was trying to get ahead of mainly George and Charles at that point. I didn’t have a lot of hope that I’d still be in a fight with Oscar till the very end but turned out to be. So that was even better.”

Norris: I was banking on a Safety Car

Norris says his ninth career F1 win on Sunday was his first using the alternative strategy, although he referenced his maiden victory at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix when a Safety Car played into his hands when running long in the first stint.

He revealed the thinking behind his one-stop strategy in Hungary was to try and luck into a timely Safety Car or Virtual Safety Car to get back into the lead fight.

“When Will (his engineer) asked me, ‘What do you think of the one-stop?’ I think at that point, I was already, like, seven seconds behind Oscar and eight or nine behind Charles,” he said.

“Not that I thought my race was over, but it was pretty slim that I was going to be able to at least fight from there, even on a perfect two-stop strategy. So, my expectations were not high, but I was more banking on a Safety Car or a VSC or something to bring me back into the race.

“But I didn’t have any of that. In the end, I guess it didn’t matter. My confidence wasn’t the highest, but it was my best chance of trying to do something.

“It turned out to be a little bit trickier because it actually allowed me to fight until the very end for the win. Not sure it still felt like the best strategy, but I think with how difficult overtaking was, it turned out to be pretty good.”

Piastri questions strategy with hindsight

After his second pit stop, Piastri had 12 seconds to close down on Norris with 25 laps remaining. Unlike Norris at the previous race in Belgium, he continually took chunks out of his deficit without making any obvious errors and caught him with six laps to go.

He had a half look into Turn 1 with three laps remaining then threw the car into the first corner on the penultimate lap, locking up and just avoiding contact with Norris, who left room on the inside.

“I was able to close the gap again pretty quickly for the last lap. Getting to within six or seven tenths was doable, but to then get even closer than that, I think I needed brand new softs to be able to do much from that point,” said Piastri.

“It was always going to be tough when I got close. But, I mean, you never want to not take an opportunity that you think is there in case another one never comes up.

“I had to go for it and, you know, in hindsight, obviously you can say maybe I should have waited another lap, but I’m pretty convinced that even if I had waited one more lap, it wouldn’t have changed anything.”

On his strategy he added: “In the race, I got asked about it [a one-stop]. Very difficult to know from the cockpit what is going to be the best thing to do.

“When you’re the car behind, your risk-reward ratio is always much different. There’s always that. Could we have matched Lando? That’s, I guess, the question that I don’t have the answer to. So, I guess that’s the only thing.”

Equally as impressive as Piastri’s driving, Norris also did not put a foot wrong as both drivers pushed incredibly hard to finish 21 seconds clear of third-placed Russell.

Norris said: “It was tough, those last few laps were some of the toughest laps because Oscar was pushing flat out on a much nicer tyre than my one.

“I was just trying to not make a mistake and when the tyre is so at the end of a stint it was so easy to lock up.

“It just felt so easy to make a mistake so I felt like I had to drive at 100 per cent and it was too much and I drive at 98 per cent I feel I’m under the limit and not getting anything out of the car.

“So there was the 99 per cent limit that was so hard to be on but one I had to be on for as long as possible.”

Brown: As close to perfect as possible

McLaren chief executive Zak Brown has consistently said his drivers are free to race and was ecstatic that the team scored their fourth consecutive one-two of the season after the thrilling battle.

He told Sky Sports F1: “You’re never perfect in a race but I think that was as close to perfect as you can get. The drivers were awesome, pit stops amazing, strategy was great to get Lando up there, Oscar drove brilliantly. I couldn’t be prouder of this racing team.

“All under control. I had some good chats with Andrea [Stella] during the race, it was very exciting. It was a great grand prix.

“With Lando’s first lap, we weren’t planning a one-stop strategy, we didn’t know if we could but then it got to a point where let’s try. Knew it would come down to the last five laps there and good to see them race very hard, very clean and they’re both happy boys.”

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